Coast to Coast

     It's been a while since my last post, but I'm still here, or rather back here as this has been a summer of lots of travel. In June I went to BC to  present a trunk show to the quilters of Parksville and Qualicum Beach. The weather was beautiful and the scenery spectacular; the quilters were warm and friendly and I had a good time. From a car boot sale I purchased a bag of small pieces of brightly-coloured striped fabrics. The challenge was to put them together in a quilt. So far just the quilt top is done. The finishing will come later. Here's the result.

Razzle-Dazzle Quilt Top 

     In July I had a visit from Travelling Jane. The brain-child and creation of quilter-writer-blogger Heather Pearson
 (see: www.heatherpearson.com), she was actually a little quilt showing the profile of the famous writer Jane Austen. She accompanied me around Edmonton and later to St. John`s, Newfoundland. You can read more about Jane`s adventures with me in the Winter Issue of The Canadian Quilter.

Travelling Jane 

    While in NL, my quilter friend Stephanie, gave me the patterns for a Newfoundland Quilt and I purchased enough NL tartan fabric to use for the sashings. A Newfoundland quilt features blocks depicting familiar Newfoundland wildlife  e.g. moose, beaver, fish and seagulls, and many things which any Newfoundlander would instantly recognize, such as Purity Hard Bread (used for the NL dish fish and brewis), a flat bottomed camping kettle and a wash board and tub. There are also blocks showing the flag and a map of Newfoundland. The blocks are bordered with the NL tartan. I decided to make each block into a little picture and so far have three almost completed. There remains some top stitching to do before they will be ready to  put together. Here's one example:


 So you see although I travelled from coast to coast I was never far from quilting.

Canada Day Celebrations

Two days ago (July 1) I celebrated Canada Day by cutting out the pieces for my contribution of  8 blocks to Quilts of Valour - Canada (see  www.QuiltsOfValour.ca ). These quilts are given to Canadian Armed Forces personnel who have been injured in the line of duty as a way of thanking them for their service and providing comfort and moral support.

It seemed an appropriate thing to do as I recalled that Newfoundland has, since the first world war, remembered the sacrifice of hundreds of soldiers of the NL regiment who gave their lives at the battle of Beaumont Hamel in France on July 1st. As a girl, I was one of the crowd of people who gathered at the War Memorial in St. John's to pay tribute to that momentous event in Newfoundland's history. It was always very moving to hear the Last Post being played by the solitary bugler and watch wreath after wreath being laid in deepest respect for the sacrifice of so many of Newfoundland's young men.

My blocks will join other blocks donated from across Canada and be sewn together into quilts for the Quilts of Valour - Canada project "quilted hugs from across the nation."

 

The fabrics in these blocks are from Northcott's  Stonehenge line. Linda  Ludovico  created the fabric collection  OH CANADA in support of Quilts of Valour - Canada. Northcott is sponsoring QOV through the sales of this line.
My blocks are very simple, but go the QOV website using the link above and you will see the amazing variety of blocks and quilts that have been donated so far to this great cause.
Happy Quilting!

Quilts for the little Boys

May has whipped by without a post and this one will have to do for June as well. There have been other priorities; specifically, the arrival of my little 19th-month old granddaughter and her parents from Singapore. They have been with us for three weeks with a few more days to go. And as all grandmothers will understand, every moment spent together is precious. Even quilting has to take a back seat. But I did manage to finish three quilts for  my Edmonton grandsons before the Singapore family arrived.  The bunk-bed size Spiderman quilt is for seven-year old Evan.

 

His little brothers, five-year-olds Aidan and Iain each get a quilt called Traffic Jam ( the name of the focus fabric in each quilt). These are also twin-bed size. As you can see, I have designed them both the same, but with a variation in the placement of the orange and green fabrics, so each little boy's quilt is just a little different from his brother's. The striped fabric and the orange and green complement the focus fabric and make (what I think, anyway) are two bright and cheerful quilts. These quilts were  hand-quilted around the motifs and machine quilted in-the-ditch elsewhere. The circles in the centre panel were cut from a complementary print, fused then stitched in place as were the letters in the names.

 

 That's it for now.

Happy Quilting!

 

 

 

April News

April has been a productive month so far, with two quilts completed, (see photos below), one more just about finished and two more tops completed and waiting to be basted together and quilted.

This baby quilt is for my grand-niece Laura, who is expecting a baby boy at the end of May.  Most of the motifs in this quilt are from a pattern originally published in the 1930s called the Brother Quilt. They were used in a quilt made for her grandfather (my brother) by my namesake Ada Parks. I used some of them in a quilt for my son and then in a baby quilt for Laura, who still has her own much-loved baby-quilt. Now the fourth generation baby will have some of the same patterns in his quilt. But he has his own special and original block as well. Laura and her husband live in Nunavut, in the far north of Canada, so I designed a block with a nanuq (polar bear) in it just for him.

This quilt was made for a friend who wanted a pink and green quilt. The pattern, called Christmas Cactus, was designed by Carol Dawson and published as part of The Quiltmaker  Pattern Collection in 2005. I've had this pattern for a few years and was happy to have a reason to finally make the quilt.

Check in next month for a report on the other three works in progress.

I'm back!

It's been a long, long time since my last post. Since then we have shared Christmas with the family and then travelled to Mesa, AZ for a month and from there to California for three more weeks. One of the highlights of my time in the USA was the opportunity to visit the Tucson Quilters 35th Quilt Show, called Quilt Fiesta!

As all quilt shows do, this one inspired me with several new ideas for quilts of my own. Unfortunately, I always have more ideas that I want to try than time to do them. And I came home with fabric for four quilts for family which take priority. I've started on the first one called "Christmas Cactus" - look for more info and pictures on my next blog. In the meantime, here are some photos of quilts which I took at the Tucson show. Perhaps they'll inspire you too.

 The first quilt on the left is called "Bouilliabasse" by Pamela Ashbaugh.


Below is "Lollypop Trees" by Nancy Arsenault and lastly, Tami Graeber's award-winning "Grand Finale"

 

Cold Weather and Warm Quilts

It has been an unusually early winter with lots of snow and many cold days. Ideal for quilting and in spite of Christmas preparations, I managed to find time to make two small quilts for the great-grandsons of a neighbour.

 

Erick's quilt was a challenge as he has been blind from birth, so I used simple shapes and many different materials - cotton, silk, brocade, embossed, linen, leather, vinyl and some unknown fibres with fuzzy surfaces, to make his quilt as tactile as possible. Each shape is stitched around with a zig-zag stitch which, I hope, will enable him to "see" the shape with his fingers.  The borders and backing are a flannel with Superman motifs.

 

Parker is Eric's little brother and the colourful blocks repeat the colours in the patterned flannel used as alternate blocks and borders. The flannel motifs are various kinds of trucks and machines. Parker is fond of Batman, so I was happy to find a fleece with large Batman motifs and used it for the backing.  So both boys will have warm,cosy quilts for Christmas.

 

 

To all my blog and quilting friends, I wish you a Christmas warm with love and happiness and many blessings of the quilting kind in the New Year.

 

 

Mission Possible Sale

In October my energies were largely spent preparing for our bi-annual Mission Possible Arts, Crafts and Bake Sale at the Salvation Army. Proceeds from this sale go towards needs in under-developed countries. Projects such as providing clean water, education for children, medical assistance, and micro-credit are all part of The Salvation Army`s work. So I was happy to be able to do my part to help.
People who wanted to participate in the sale could either rent a table or a make a donation in kind. In addition to the rental cost, vendors had the option of donating part of their profits as well. Several of us who are avid quilters had our own little corners. We also had a artist and other crafters selling their wares. Gordon donated some of his books and four wooden breadboards which he makes.

I had fun making a variety of smaller items in addition to a number of large quilts. The response was good, so now my storage area has lots of room for future projects. One I will be working on is a tactile quilt for a little blind boy. More about that in the future.
The attached photos show my corner of the sale room.