Quilt Canada

So, for the first time ever, I attended the international quilt show for Canada, Quilt Canada. Quilty friend A invited me. She and C attended when it was in London, Ontario last year (about two hours away) and this year it was my luck that it was in the neighbouring town (where A lives!) so it was super close.

I wasn't sure what to expect, honestly, but I figured it would be fun even if I just saw some cool quilts and hung out with A.

I really don't generally like quilts of this kind, with the multiple pictures and all the applique, but this Canadian one appealed to me, especially the totem on the far left. I didn't think ahead to get the information, though. Oops. Not like I see applique anytime in my future!

This was pretty nice.

Here is A. She loves #QuiltCanada. :)

This quilt is called Sew Many Scraps and was made by Nina Stahlschmidt without any chain piecing. Those are also all vintage feedsacks, not modern fabric anywhere. Those squares finish at 3/4" which is small!! It was for sale for $1800.

I liked this use of small squares but I didn't take a photo of who made it. Obviously I need to pay closer attention next time.

This is Ile aux Coudres by Brigette Villeneuve. Holy. Crap. This is TINY little bits sewn on to make this picture. See below for a close up!

Amazing to have that kind of vision!

I loved this one, Lazy M Sweat Lodge by Patti Morris.

This one is pretty darn cool. It is made of all clothing labels!

It is called From the World to Canada by Anita Payne. She collected clothing labels for 10 years!

Sisters by Ilene Atkins was another landscape one that was just amazing in the detail.

Thread painting at the finest level. Incredible.

Swoop by Terry Aske was really striking from a distance. I was drawn to it for sure.

Not Now, Maybe Never was definitely my favourite of the "traditional" quilts. Joan Dorsay made this for her daughter who requested a red background and no batiks (the no batiks thing had me laughing...I, too, HATE batiks). After finishing it she decided her daughter's cat might ruin the applique and decided to keep it. Good for you, Joan!

How are people this talented?

This close up shows how the effect is created. It is called Eyes of Innocence by Carol Cote.

Though this quilt, Friends of Baltimore by Kerry Burke, was not to my taste, I was in AWE of the skills needed to create it. Just wow.

Walking around all these amazing, award winning quilts can be very humbling for a somewhat new quilter like myself. I took a picture of one part of one of the quilts because her points don't match. Hah! That made me feel better. It was a stunning quilt, and did it matter that it wasn't perfect? No! I feel vindicated as a "good enough" quilter.

Breathe by Leanne Chahley was one of my favourites.

I loved the quilting on Leanne Chahley's Spin quilt as well. It was inspirting to see all the variation without having any of the more traditional feathers or swirls.

I totally want to make a quilt like this one, Cotton and Steel Trees by Jennifer Johnston. I love the scrappy low volume texty background with the bright pops of colour.

Stunning from a distance? Yes but...

Even more stunning close up! It is called Blue Heron for Mom by Patti Morris.

There was a separate area for the Toronto Modern Quilt Guild that had some cool quilts. Like George Michael here:

Every Little Hungry Schoolgirl's Pride and Joy by Rebecca Burnett

Kaleido by Jeannie Jenkins.

Hundreds and Thousands by Berene Campbell and the Fab Bee

Overall I enjoyed the show, and I did buy a bit of fabric including a metre of my FAVOURITE Tula Pink from Salt Water (original blue octopi) for only $13. I would say, though, that it was not as elaborate as I quite expected for a national show, and I would not travel all the far to get to one again. It was worth the experience!

Successful Sewtogether

As the year was wrapping up (the school year, that is) I wanted to make a gift for the grade two teacher I had been supporting all year (I am an Instructional Coach) to thank her for being such an amazing collaborator (and now friend!).

She is an incredible dresser, gorgeous and classy, and I wanted to make something that would fit her aesthetic. I thought immediately of the Sew Together Bag, which, if you have been living under a rock, is one of THE patterns that everyone with a blog or Instagram who sews has made or wants to make. I bought the pattern ages and ages ago but this was my push to actually MAKE one. And the timelines were tight.

I picked fabrics from my stash, starting with the outer lining as the inspiration fabric because it seemed so...her. (Honeymoon by C+S)

I then used this super delicious mint Pearl Bracelet fabric for the main lining.

Here are some in progress shots:

Adding all those inner zippers was a bit scary. But carefully following the instructions really, really helped. Plus my zipper foot.

After sewing it together it looked so cool from the bottom.

This is when it started to take shape. I squealed in delight. The linings are all from Cotton+Steel's Macrame line.

Admittedly this was a push for my skills. I think that is a really good thing. I don't think I would have been as successful had it not been for two things:

1. Quilty Friend C. She has made five of these (if not more) so I would text her with questions. She was awesome. Thanks C!

2. The sew-along steps from The Quilt Barn. Honestly, these step by step pictures helped me IMMENSELY. Especially when I got to the VERY tricky outside zipper.

Thank goodness for my Clover Clips because this bag business is a bit tricky!

C warned me that the really bulky seams in places might be tricky, so I was very careful. Really, though, my Janome 6600 was a dream. It didn't hesitate on all those thick spots (and I made sure to use a new needle so it was super sharp!)

Here is the finished product!

Ta da! This print from Honeymoon by C+S is so perfect.

The inside...

The linings in each pocket.

I LOVE LOVE LOVE it. It was hard to give away, I'm not going to lie. But she also LOVED it and I think it was to her taste so that made me feel great. I'm already plotting my next four bags. Ha! Time to buy some more zippers!

Thank You Stephanie: A Finished Quilt

My elder daughter has finished her grade two school year, and as has been tradition since she started Junior Kindergarten, I made her teacher a quilt. To be honest, the way I decided on this particular colour scheme and pattern was my overflowing "cool" scraps bin. I chopped up 3.5" squares from every blue scrap that seemed appropriate (not so much with the sharks, for example). I then went through my white scraps and found a big stack of white-on-white 3.5" squares from I don't even know what project. Meant to be! They formed the middle white squares of these nine patches. The only stash (instead of scrap) I needed to use for the quilt top was some Kona White for the sashing.

I love how all the light-to-dark blues results in so much movement in the quilt.

I did a free motion meandering stipple, despite my recent FMQ practice, because I needed it to be FAST.

 To be honest, if I was redoing this quilt I would do straight line quilting to be more in line with the boxy nature of the nine patches. I used a very light blue Aurafil and it worked out pretty well (good thing, since I was out of white) but the quilting is my least favourite part of the quilt.

Despite not being pieced so well, this particular block has my favourite combination of scraps. I kind want a whole quilt in navy now!

The backing involved this slightly minty print that I've had for ages but couldn't figure out when I would ever use it (or why I bought it!), some leftover Architectures by Carolyn Friedlander from the back of my Tranquility quilt, and some other blue that I had in my scraps.

That mint print is an odd one. What was I thinking? But it worked well for this quilt!

My daughter made the label for the quilt, just as she did last year. 

The teacher absolutely LOVED the quilt. Apparently she kept calling people over to open it up and show it to them. My daughter assures me that this was because she was so excited about the quilt. She sent a lovely thank you note home. As a teacher I know that gifts are always appreciated but not always fitting for the recipient (The flying dove sculpture I received from a student one year still stands out in my mind). I hope that her teacher really does love this gift. 

Linking up with Crazy Mom Quilts' Finish it Up Friday!

#100daysofFMQ

Oh dear. More than a month has passed without a blog post, thanks in part to the busy time of year and also because I am both wrapping up my current job and getting ready for my next one coming this September. I am so excited to be opening a new high school!

One of my work colleagues/friends encouraged me to join the #100daychallenge. I did some research and decided to jump right in with #100daysofFMQ. I had that Angela Walters Craftsy class that was just sitting there and I really do need to expand my free motion quilting repertoire. I made a stack of quilt sandwiches and tried each day to experiment with a different design.

I didn't make it all 100 days. Life got in the way. But I think I made it 47 days which is pretty darn great! Check me out on Instagram if you want to see all the successes and failures @lynnfilliter.

Below are some hits and misses from the challenge! (Have mercy on me, especially since I purposely used dark thread on light fabric to highlight the quilting!)

Loops.

Circle are hard!

I liked the varied size of circles (thanks Angela Walters!)

Not so much.

Free hand free motion stars on an actual quilt. Um. Cute?

More Angela Walters. This is a variation on Ribbon Candy.

Feathers are harder than circles! Yikes!

This was my ABSOLUTE FAVOURITE from all the ones I tried. I followed a free tutorial AND IT TOTALLY WORKED.

Angela again.

More Angela.

I'm not sure what I think of this one.

Another free tutorial. I count this one as a success!

Kind of cool, right?

Not so much.

I think my quilting skills have improved a bit and if nothing else I feel braver to tackle different quilting on my next project. The problem is that straight line quilting and wandering meander stipple FMQ is just so darn easy to resort to when it is what you know best!

Which of my above experiments do you like?