Modern Quilts: THE BOOK!

First things first: Happy New Year!

Although my copy is still in transit and I haven't actually seen the ink on the page, I am very excited to finally share with you that one of my quilts appears in this first (I say first, because I am hopeful that there will be more) hardcover volume documenting some of the best work of over 200 Modern Quilt Guild members.

Longtime modern quilt curator and MQG Director of Marketing & Programming Heather Grant, MQG founder and Executive Director Alissa Haight-Carleton and MQG Communication Manager Riane Menardi co-wrote this volume. I plan to keep it close at hand on my coffee table along with my treasured Gees Bend books so that I'm ready to show interested friends and visitors just what Modern Quilting is, what modern quilts look like and how some of my work fits in and some of it doesn't.

A regrettable lack of confidence kept me from submitting any of my quilts for consideration. Then one day I received an email from the MQG asking if they could include Chess on the Steps and I was absolutely thrilled to be involved. Creating this quilt as one of the first MQG "free pattern of the month" in 2014 really began my continued participation in the guild and the broader community outside of my local Vancouver MQG. The quilt went on to hang as part of an invitational exhibit at QuiltCon2015 and it appeared in that year's QuiltCon and Simply Moderne magazines.  After it was published, I received some wonderful teaching and trunk show invitations both at home and abroad and then the MQG asked me to design a beginner improv pattern for Simply Moderne magazine to accompany their ongoing monthly article on the modern aesthetic (resulting in my Variegated Threads quilt).  This quilt really has brought a lot of joy and excitement to my life!

What makes Chess on the Steps even more special to me, and I think a wonderful inclusion in Modern Quilts, is that it honours the traditions of quilting and a make-do style that I so respect, admire and ultimately, aspire to. The layout of a giant Courthouse Steps block was inspired by a vintage quilt I saw displayed in a museum exhibit  American Quilts: The Democratic Art in the fall of 2012. The original quilt (by an unknown maker) contrasted suiting wools in neutral tones with more colourful shirting and dressmaking fabrics. I thought about this quilt for many months and was delighted when a friend finally located a photo in Roderick Kiracofe's book Unconventional & Unexpected: American Quilts Below the Radar 1950-2000 shortly after I made my version.

Here they are side by side: contemporary inspiration and modern interpretation.

The more I considered it, the more I wanted to recreate the design using a limited colour palette of solids.  Eventually, I came to develop my Improv Under the Influence piecing technique for this quilt and many others that followed  (it became my most popular workshop over the past 3 years). I was incredibly fortunate that Oakshott Fabrics sponsored this quilt; it is made exclusively with their colourshott shot cottons. These fabrics give the quilt a luminescence that flat cottons just can't replicate. You can still purchase a kit to make your very own Chess on the Steps quilt from Oakshott Fabrics right here or purchase the pattern from my Craftsy shop here.

I cannot wait to savour this book and enjoy the work of many friends, acquaintances and quilters that I admire. There are many talented Canadians included in the book, which makes it extra sweet for me.

Thank you to the authors and the MQG (and of course my local VancouverMQG chapter) for the many opportunities made available to members to share our work with a growing audience through regular magazine articles in international publications, QuiltCon (the annual juried show), the annual QuiltCon traveling exhibit, member webinars and patterns, this gorgeous book and a new venture starting later in 2018: a traveling museum collection of quilts from Modern Quilts. Chess on the Steps will be a part of this traveling exhibit, having already made trips to Inuvik, Sweden, Alaska, Birmingham UK, Austin TX and an appearance in Canada's national juried show. It truly is the quilt that keeps on giving.....and getting around!

Chess on the Steps beside an igloo in Canada's arctic, near Inuvik, NWT.

It is my hope that the traveling exhibit will make it to some Canadian locations (I've suggested a few!) and if that happens I will definitely let you know.  Details of the tour locations will be posted at modernquilts.com as they become available, with the first exhibit opening April 1st, 2018 at the Dairy Barn Arts Center in Ohio. In the meantime, you can see many of the other quilts included in the book and read about their maker's stories on this extensive bloghop (details at this link).  Would you like to have this beautiful book in your quilting library or know someone who would? Purchase your own copy directly from the registered non-profit MQG right here where 100% of royalties will support guild programming and member services.

Improv Christmas Pillows

First things first: WE HAVE SNOW!!!! Happy dance.

Ok.

Over the past two + years I've been making these little improv trees with samples of Improv Under the Influence piecing from my workshops. After demonstrating the technique to students using these beautiful Oakshott fabrics (leftover from my Chess on the Steps quilt), I would then piece sections into little trees with an Essex linen background. It was a great way to show people alternate ideas for the piecing.  I'd been contemplating a modern table runner, but settled on pillows instead. I finally pieced the tops together at one of my recent day retreats.

The compositions needed a little something, so I added the tiny wonky stars, which are so much fun to make. Both pillows are totally reversible, each with a strip of improv piecing on the back. I tackled invisible zips for the first time after finally finding my special invisible zipper foot (if any of you have a newer Pfaff, you'll know that this clear plexiglass foot is itself pretty invisible in whatever container you store it in!). I typically bind my pillows, but I think I'm a convert now. It was super easy! There are plenty of tutorials online, but I like Katie's succinct one here.

The pillow tops and backs were squared to 20" and backed with fusible fleece (no fabric backing or lining in these pillows). I quilted the fronts with straight vertical lines about 1/4" inch apart using coordinating 40 wt. Aurifil thread in green and red. The backings are quilted with lines 1" apart in the Essex and 1/4" apart in the improv strips.

(I've just gotta say, taking photos in winter here is so hard. It's either light-sucking grey overcast or brilliant sunshine and shadows!)

Most of my handmade Christmas decorations in the living room are 12 or more years old and tend towards folksy designs that were popular in the shop I was working in at that time. I'm loving this modern update, although the pillows are bit incongruous with our 100 year old cottage!

I hope you are enjoying your holiday gift-making, decorating and baking. I've seriously cut back on baking the last couple of years and I must say, it is incredibly liberating. I'd much rather sew gifts. I think I have the only family that left cookie exchange bounty untouched on the kitchen counter for weeks! My mom kindly sends our Christmas dessert of plum pudding, so I'm even off the hook for that.

If I don't make it back here before the 25th, Merry Christmas and happy  holidays to all of you! Thanks for another year of hanging out with me here at Poppyprint. xoxoxox

Structural Improv Weekend openings

Anyone up for a fun weekend away with other creatives? There are a couple of spots left in my two-day Structural Improv workshop on Friday and Saturday October 21-22. The workshop is part of an annual event on beautiful Denman Island known as the Creative Threads Conspiracy. You can find all of the course information here.  There are still accommodations available on the island - check it out! It's the perfect time for a mid-autumn creative retreat.

Here is some of the work I've created using my Improv Under the Influence piecing technique. With a two-day workshop, we have time to go beyond re-creating my Temperature Check pattern (bottom two pictures in the mosaic). We'll use the improv units as structural elements in  your very own original quilt design.

Improv Under the Influcence work by Poppyprint

1. Icy Pillow by Poppyprint, 2. Variegated Threads by Poppyprint, 3. Ice Road Quilt, 4. The Five by Poppyprint, 5. Chess On the Steps by Poppyprint, 6. Improv Under the Influence by Poppyprint

Light of May, 2014 (shown at QuiltCon 2015 in the Michael Miller challenge exhibit)

If you happen to live on Vancouver Island, this is a great opportunity for a relatively inexpensive weekend away. Check it out! I hope you'll join me on Denman.

Variegated Threads - A Modern Spool Quilt

About 18 months ago, I was asked by the MQG if I'd agree to publish my Chess on the Steps pattern in Simply Moderne magazine (produced in France by Quiltmania).  I happily agreed! Quiltmania editors were impressed by the free pattern of the month quilts on display at QuiltCon 2015 and enquired about running a monthly feature on MQG quilts and modern quilting techniques written by MQG Communications Manager Riane Menardi.  Soon the terms changed and the folks at Simply Moderne requested new, fresh patterns in lieu of the previously published free patterns of the month. I was so pleased for the opportunity to be a pattern contributor for a piece on Improv Quilting (although, as you know, actually writing a pattern for improv is a daunting prospect and sort of counter-intuitive to the process).

Hmmm, what to do? I knew I wanted to incorporate my Improv Under the Influence technique because I think it is such a fun gateway for quilters venturing into improv from a traditional quilting background.My inspiration came in the form of Oakshott's new Colourshott range. This gorgeous, luminous fabric had served me so well with Chess on the Steps, but I wanted to use more colours...in fact all of them! Looking at a unit of improv strips sitting on my design wall from another project, it came to me that it would make a perfect thread spool. There are so many ways to make spool blocks and I've long admired vintage spool quilts. I've even made several fun spool quilts using selvages in the past.  This time, I decided to take advantage of the colour range and create variegated spools, each with four different but related colours; just like you'd see on real thread display racks.

Ultimately, the pattern is part 'planned' improv (the thread units of each spool are built using my Improv Under the Influence technique) and part traditional piecing. Once trimmed, the thread units are pieced into the spool block, then joined together to form the wall hanging. One fun element of the pattern is that two rectangular spools sewn side by side form a square block, so the quilt could be laid out with alternating two horizontal/two vertical spools. That way, the light and dark grey backgrounds would zigzag, forming a secondary pattern.  I've also created a table runner sewing 7 spools side by side. I can't wait to use it on my dining table for Stitch Group days!

I had a lot of fun quilting this piece using my collection of rainbow Aurifil 40 wt threads that I'd initially purchased to finish this quilt a couple of years ago. That custom box of Aurifil thread (purchased from my friend Carola) seemed an extraordinary extravagance at the time, but I have used all of the colours time and again, so I don't regret it for one second!  In the background areas, I used a medium grey and quilted a swirling loop to resemble pooling threads. In each variegated spool, I tried domestic ruler work for the first time (sewing the straight lines with a darning foot beside a thick ruler) so that I could go back and forth in both directions without having to turn the quilt to avoid the dreaded 'fabric drag' between the quilting lines. Each spool features a coordinating or matching thread colour. It was a great success on my Juki!

I just love this little quilt.  It is a great introduction to improv work, which of course can evolve into a much freer, creative process where the maker begins with a toolbox of techniques and an inspired idea instead of a pattern. 

Want to make your very own? The Oakshott company has prepared full kits for the front and binding of the quilt, conveniently made with charm packs of their luscious new Colourshott range of shot cottons. If you are luck enough to attend the Birmingham Festival of Quilts next month in the UK, you can see my quilt in person at the Oakshott stand as well as purchase a kit - otherwise they are available online right here.  You'll also need a copy of Simply Moderne issue #5 for the pattern, available here.

Icy Improv Pillow

Made over my weekend of teaching a year ago in Inuvik, this pillow cover has been accompanying me to trunk shows and workshops as a sample of my Improv Under the Influence piecing technique. It was the launching off project for my Ice Road quilt.  I finally completed a simple envelope backing and bound the pillow cover last week on retreat.

It is quilted with unmarked, improv straight line quilting with a walking foot. Just following the X seams in the central portion of the pillow using the presser foot edge as a spacing guide. Unlike concentric circle quilting, I began the concentric triangle from the outside (I started sewing beside the X seam) and worked my way into the middle of each pieced quadrant.

It would have been too difficult to keep the triangle lines parallel to the piecing (without marking) if I'd started in the middle of each quadrant with a tiny stitched triangle; by the time I made it out to the long seams, the lines would've been skew to the white sashing and really noticeable.  The beauty of quilting a small item like a pillow top is Pellon fusible fleece (I don't bother wasting fabric and adding a backing, I just quilt through the pillow top and fleece).  The fusible batting stays put, so you can actually quilt from the outside in, without worrying about shifting.

The white border is stitched with white thread in improv zigzags that end up looking like wonky triangles.

...and of course I love a longer stitch length for straight line quilting. I set my Pfaff and Juki to 4.0. The binding is machine sewn to the back via a stitch in the ditch along the front seam.

Processing my Ice Road Quilt

After 10 months of thinking about it, my Ice Road quilt finally happened. There was a show deadline looming, so I decided to get a move on and finally create a quilt to commemorate my amazing teaching trip to Canada's arctic town of Inuvik last March.  If you check that post, you'll see the pillow top that I created over that weekend to illustrate another design option for my Improv Under the Influence piecing technique.  That pillow top was the spark for this quilt.

Last year I purchased a FQ box of DS Modern Solids. I've been savouring that box on my shelf but decided to go ahead and create my quilt entirely from those gorgeous fabrics.  I initially thought that I would make 9 blocks similar to that X pillow top, sew them together with skinny white sashing and border the whole works with a 10" or 12" border of white.

As I created the triangle units other ideas popped into my head, so I held off on piecing them together until I could play on my design wall a bit. These are average night time cell phone photos, but you get the idea.

Working the the idea of "road", I tried a linear layout.  This wasn't dynamic enough. All of the joining seams are vertical so there's a lack of movement and interest. I wasn't happy with the lack of oomph (highly technical quilting term, aka "visual dynamics").

What about diagonal? I like the fun angles created at the mitred (45 degree) corners of these improv-pieced units. I played with this in my Light of May quilt.  Unfortunately B and I agreed this had a rocket-ship appearance that wasn't what I was going for.

I returned to the vertical layout, but starting filling in space with solid coloured triangles. Now we're getting somewhere, but for my eye, things were still a little haphazard.

I spent quite some time over a few days daydreaming about what I like and where my work tends to go. I think I can safely say that I enjoy the improv construction a great deal. I also seem to enjoy taming the wonkiness of improv and fitting pieces into structural layouts. Perhaps this comes from my scientific background, or my traditional quilting beginning? I don't really know, but I can say that I'm very pleased with the final outcome. Not to mention, happy that all of those triangles fit together without any math works! They were all cut from chunks of pieced border units using my giant 20 1/2" square ruler on point.

Getting closer!

I know some people thrive on the haphazard (and I thoroughly enjoy so many of those quilts!). Perhaps I am slowly working my way there, but in the mean time, this is my process and this is my quilt.

Ice Road, 2016

I quilted it on my new Juki 2010. Some of it was done with the walking foot, but when the noise got to be too much, I took it off and went with the regular sewing foot. I cannot really tell the difference in quilting quality - there was some pulling and puckering with both feet (spray and pin basted!). I stabilized the straight white sashings first with stitch in the ditch and I purposely did not cross the sashing with any quilting in order to maintain as straight lines as possible and avoid any pulling.  All of the quilting is unmarked, improv straight lines. I follow seams and make turns where I feel like it!

There are more close ups of the quilting, if you click on any of the photos you'll end up on my Flickr stream where you can see more.

I'll let you know if it makes it into the show!

2015 - Taking Temperature Check to the People

The past year has been both my busiest and accomplished quilting year to date and I've really loved every day of it. My book, Make It, Take It published in January, my Blackbird Fly quilt won a completely unexpected 1st place ribbon at QuiltCon, my Chess on the Steps quilt hung at QuiltCon in the Pattern of the Month special exhibit and appeared in both the QuiltCon and Simply Moderne magazines, The Light of May hung at QuiltCon in the Michael Miller Challenge exhibit and my quilt Cutting Garden featured in Australian Homespun magazine. I attended my first QuiltCon and my first Quilt Market (spring, in Minneapolis) where I presented a Schoolhouse session for the book to a packed room and had fun at two book-signing sessions.  I also visited about 10 local quilt guilds in the Vancouver area to present on Modern Quilting and share my quilts plus projects from the book, I did an all-day book signing at a local car show/quilt show and finally, Pat Sloan invited me as a guest on her radio show -- twice!  Luckily, I managed to squeeze in a few workshops myself; I learned improv techniques from SherriLynn Wood and my quilting hero Gwen Marston, colour theory from Bill Kerr and did some screen printing with Celina Mancurti this year!  Almost everything I've just mentioned has been blogged at one point or another over the year.

All of that was awesome, and it really would have been plenty. But what I want to celebrate most about 2015 is the fun and excitement I experienced through teaching over the past 12 months.  I've been teaching locally for about 12 years, but things really switched into high gear this year! I adopted a "just say yes" attitude and decided with my two kids pretty well grown-up and a very supportive husband, I would accept all teaching offers that came my way and let the family fend for themselves (everyone survived, yay!).

Temperature Check, 2013

It is difficult to accurately pinpoint the catalyst for all of the amazing gigs I got this year.  About 80% of the workshops I taught were for the little Temperature Check quilt, above (or the improv piecing technique I call Improv Under the Influence). Published photos of Chess on the Steps (simply a size large version of Temperature Check), word of mouth, my guild presentations, blog readers inviting me to teach for their guilds, referrals from other quilting instructors and connections via the Modern Quilt Guild all lead to great opportunities.  What I'd like to share with you are photographs of the workshops themselves, featuring amazing quilters that I had the pleasure of meeting and teaching over the past year, as well as their inspiring work.  For many students, this was their first ever foray into modern quilting or working exclusively with solids or trying their hand at improvisational work.  As always with teaching, there are many opportunities for me to learn just as much from participants in the workshops...I will share some of that learning amongst the photos below.

Seattle, WA

The Seattle MQG is super friendly!! This workshop took place at the incomparable Drygoods Design on historic Pioneer Square.

Victoria, B.C.

I think orange is the spirit colour of the Modern Quilt Guild of Victoria

Inuvik, NWT

Small, isolated quilting communities are very open to trying new things and trusting people they've never met before (at least Inuvik is). I didn't even mind that a couple of students ducked out of class to watch the annual migration of the domestic reindeer herd because they gave up most of the Muskrat Jamboree weekend for quilting!

Stitch at Sea, Alaska cruise

Oakshott colourshotts make gorgeous kits for this workshop! I curated 4 different Alaska themed bundles: Glacier, Midnight Sun, Fireweed and Northern Lights.

Teaching  the workshop over 2 days allows students the freedom to learn the piecing technique,then use a design wall to come up with their own exciting layouts. This one is by Dianne Ritter and it is even more impressive now that it is quilted!

Sweden

More often than not, quilters work with the same colours as their wardrobe! Here you can see Louise is doing just that.

Juneau, AK

I enjoy spending time with elder quilters.  This isn't something I learned this year, but it was humbling that so many elder women signed up to learn something new from me! Two of the women in this workshop had the cutest argument over which one was older (they are both 78). Best line of the debate " Oh ____, you always want to be the oldest, but you know my birthday is 3 months before yours and we have to do this every time we take a workshop together!" They totally cracked me up.

Whistler, B.C.

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Sometimes a charm pack of Denyse Schmidt modern solids will do! Carolyn with her super fun and colourful little Temperature Check quilt.

Another wardrobe-inspired original layout by Sabrina. The Whistler gals made full use of their design walls over two long days with fabulous results!

I also taught for the Sunshine Coast Quilter's Guild and the Boundary Bay Quilter's Guild, both relatively local for me.

Did you notice anything in particular about all of these photos? Quilters are pretty much the same no matter where you travel, aren't they? We all love to play with fabric and create in the company of like-minded people.  Most of my workshops were with traditional quilters and I could not be happier that so many are curious about "this modern quilting thing" and willing to give new ideas a try.  People wrote me the loveliest emails after workshops, telling me that they'd never had so much fun quilting, or that they were excited to play with this technique some more on their own and that they picked up so many tips from my classes they never thought they needed to know.

I feel extraordinarily lucky.

Bring it on, 2016!

Happy New Year, Friends!

P.S. I think it is very evident from this post, but if you would like me to visit your guild or shop and teach a workshop, just say the word.  I'm there.

Where Pat and I Chat about Sweden & Retreats

I was so excited when Pat Sloan asked if I would like to be a guest on Pat Sloan Radio again so that we could talk in more detail about retreats and the Retreat Host Manual e-book that I'm working on. Pat found out that I'd just been to Sweden, so she wanted to talk about my teaching abroad experience as well. You can listen to our chat here.

I'm just now going through my photos from Sweden and hope to get a couple of posts together before I leave on my annual Loon Lake retreat on Saturday. Wish me luck - I still have to sort out what I'm going to work on for 5 days...so many unfinished projects and new ideas.

Here are some of the lovely quilters I met at the Rikstacket meeting in Upplands Vasby (just outside Stockholm) and their in-progress Temperature Check quilts!

This is the sweet group of women that took my workshop

 in the northern town of Pitea (pronouced Pit-ay-o) on the 65th parallel. My friend Stina (far left) worked so hard to organize my visit....wait until you see the quilt that she, Marica and Louise made for me!

More coming soon!

Checking the Temperature at home and around the Globe

2015 is proving to be the busiest year I've had in a long time. Kicking off with the release of Make It, Take It closely followed by my amazing trip to Austin, TX for QuiltCon2015 (and the amazing ribbon win!) where I invested in my own learning and creative growth, I returned home full of excitement and energy for quilting. Soon after, I participated in my first Quilt Market (and met some incredibly supportive friends and inspiring mentors).  I also had a fun couple of days right here in Vancouver at the wholesale show put on by N.Jefferson in July, teaching from my book and meeting shop owners, fellow teachers and visiting reps. In between and all around those industry/guild events I've been teaching my Temperature Check quilt using my Improv Under the Influence piecing technique.

Temperature Check, shown at Canada's national juried show, 2014

When I first made this quilt a couple of years ago, I felt a little tingle of excitement, thinking that it could possibly be a door opener for me to start teaching my own technique and pattern, instead of teaching patterns designed by others (which I've been doing for 12 years).  I could NEVER have predicted how far that little quilt would take me...and in the space of of the 12 months of 2015, I'll have visited and taught for all of these groups in some amazing places:

•  Modern Quilt Guild of Victoria, Victoria, B.C. Canada
• Inuvik Quilters Guild, Inuvik, Northwest Territories, Canada
• Drygoods Design, Seattle, WA, USA
• Celebrity Infinity Alaska Cruise, Vancouver - Alaska - Vancouver

And still to come, all before the end of November (gasp!)

• Rikstacket Annual Meeting, Stockholm, Sweden - flying out tomorrow night!!!
• Private friends quilting group, Pitea, Sweden
• Changing Tides Quilt Shop, Juneau, Alaska
• Whistler Quilter's Guild, Whistler, B.C.
• Seymour Quilter's Guild, North Vancouver, B.C.
• Sunshine Coast Quilter's Guild, Sechelt, B.C.
• Boundary Bay Quilter's Guild, Ladner, B.C.

Plus, I'm still working hard to promote my book locally and have done 6 trunk shows this month, with a couple more scheduled in November.  It has been wonderful having the support of all of the local traditional guilds, as well as my pals at the VMQG.

People keep asking me if I'm exhausted and I can truthfully say, no!  It is all so exciting and because teaching fulfils me in so many ways, every workshop just gives me more energy for the next. I may spend the month of December (fully clear calendar) in a coma cuddled under a quilt on my couch, but for now it's go, go, GO.  The best part truly, is meeting and spending time with so many wonderful, like-minded people. I love making new friends as much as I love travelling.

Speaking of which, if you live in the Lower Mainland area and haven't yet had a chance to take my Temperature Check class to learn a super fun improv piecing technique, you are invited to join me at the Seymour Quilter's Guild on Wednesday, October 14th from 9:30 - 3:30 on the North Shore. The cost is only $45 for non-guild members and there are a few spaces still available. I'll be fresh home from Sweden with stories to share about the Scandinavian quilting scene. Let me know in the comments if you are interested and I'll put you in touch with the workshop liaison (make sure you leave your email addy for me)

Some fabulous student work from the Vancouver Modern Quilt Guild's Temperature Check workshop last year. 

Watch my Instagram for travel pictures from Sweden, or come back here in a couple of weeks for a photo essay of my trip. Because if you hang here, you know I like the travel pics ; )

Thanks friends.

Arctic Quilting - a Northern Photo Essay

It's a thing!  Really!

Last fall I received the kindest invitation from the Inuvik Quilting Guild to come visit them for a lecture and two day workshop. This was a major thrill for me as I love the north, but haven't had a chance to visit the Yukon or Northwest Territories since I worked there as a geologist in the late 80's and early 90's.  I didn't hesitate to accept the invitation for a March visit.  After seeing Cheryl's blogposts from her trip last year, I knew it was an incredible opportunity that I didn't want to miss!  Plus we were completely ripped off winter-weather-wise in Vancouver this year and I was anxious to feel the cold in my lungs. The lure of seeing northern lights was pretty strong, too (I'll tell you right now that it was just my luck the BEST lights of the past 10 years appeared the week before I got up north and it was cloudy at night during my visit, so no dice on the northern lights this time).

The mighty Yukon River in Whitehorse, YT.

The S.S.Klondike paddlewheeler museum vessel, Whitehorse, YT.

As luck would have it, my journey required an overnight stay in Whitehorse, YT.  I loved that town in the 80's and it hasn't changed that much (at least the downtown). I enjoyed Main St. shopping and meeting the lovely Viv, who I've known online for several years through blogging. She was teaching a course that night at the impressive Bear's Paw Quilt Shop and invited me to stop in and meet her students. I just love the shop tag line: Compassionate care for the quilt addicted.

Here's some reference material for you. Previously, Norman Wells was the furthest  north I'd been for some permafrost slope stability research in '90 and '91.

The next morning, I caught an Air North flight that would take me to Inuvik, via Dawson City and Old Crow. The twin prop Hawker Siddeley airplane refueled at each stop, so passengers have to get off, walk across the runway and wait in the little airports for about 20 minutes before taking off again. The air hostess wears a jumpsuit and parka on this flight!  It was a gorgeous day for flying, with clear blue skies and exceptional views.

The snow-covered airstrip at Dawson City, YT.

My very first field job in '88 was out this way near Dawson City...these are the tailings piles of huge dredging machines that dug up the Kondike River bed searching for gold. They look much prettier covered in snow!

 

Next stop, Old Crow, where the luggage is literally man-handled and your taxi is more than likely a snowmobile.

I arrived in Inuvik by mid-day to a very busy airport and town. It was the first day of the annual Muskrat Jamboree! This is a celebration held in many northern communities. In Inuvik it marks the migration of the domestic reindeer herd to their summer grounds (in the '50's, the Canadian government was worried the northern people were going to run out of caribou, so they imported a reindeer herd from Scandinavia that is still going strong).  Other events over the weekend included snowmobile racing, dog sled races, dancing, tea-brewing (contestants have to light a fire and boil water with no more than 10 matches), needle and thread (teams of 1 man and 1 woman run to meet each other and thread a needle), hammer and nail, log sawing and yes, muskrat skinning.  All of the activities took place either on the frozen Mackenzie River ice road or at the beautiful new school gymnasium.  Thanks to my generous host Shona, I was able to catch several activities during our workshop lunch break and in the evenings.

Inuvik's main street

The famous Catholic Igloo Church

I was fortunate to see the amazing Inuvialuit Drum Dancing group perform (performers range in age from 3 to 92!). There is a video in my Instagram feed you can watch.

The start line of the women's open snowmobile race

This was where the action took place on the edge of the ice road:

 food tents and some of the competitions

The ladies were very serious about the hammering contest. You have to completely drive a nail with your left AND right hand. The woman in the black jacket won!

Here I am trying an "Eskimo donut". Shona made me.

So now you've got a bit of an idea of what was going on all around while I was in town. Now to the quilting!  It was a busy weekend for family activities, so I was very happy that 8 members of the guild were keen to spend Friday night, Saturday and Sunday learning about modern quilting, improv piecing and improv straight line quilting. On Friday I gave a brief lecture and trunk show of some of my work and projects from Make It, Take It. Then we had a look at fabrics and finalized selections so that people could get cutting so they'd be ready to go the next morning. Everyone worked on their own versions of my Temperature Check quilt. This workshop is so much fun to teach  - I just love to see how different student's colour choices play out as the quilt is constructed.

This is a pillow cover I put together over the weekend to illustrate a different option/design for piecing the wonky borders together.

Megan brought very similar colours to class. We all loved her curving checkerboard!

Linda, Sara, Joanne, Bev, Arlene, Jody, Shona and Megan show off their work. Bev decided to make a tablerunner and placemats! Shona used her hand dyed fabric which was beautiful. 

The ladies also shared some stunning traditional beadwork on slippers, mukluks and a scissor keeper (that included moose hair tufting).

Beadwork on moosehide with beaver fur accent.

 (mukluks made by Judy Lafferty from Ft. Good Hope, NWT)

moosehide scissor keeper featuring Caribou hair tufted flowers.

 Made by Lillian Wright from Inuvik, NWT.

The guild gifted me this stunning beaded moosehide brooch that I will cherish! It smells like campfire from the natural tanning process and I absolutely love it.

The beading is exquisite (also by Judy Lafferty).

The entire weekend was incredible and I'm so thankful for the opportunity - I made some new friends and had many new experiences (on Saturday night we played bingo by television. You call in when you win!). My trip was made possible by a Northern Arts Council Grant, for which I'm very appreciative.  I'll leave you with a few more photos....

The municipal office where I picked up my Arctic Traveller Certificate.

All of the water pipes have to run above ground from building to building due to permafrost. This affects the roads in town (see the stairs & bridge over the conduit?), so sometimes you have to drive an extra block before you cross into the next street.

Taken for all my quilting librarian friends. The head librarian, Bev, was in my class!

It was a perfect -18 C

I went in an igloo! For reals! No one is actually using this igloo, it was built for the Sunrise Festival welcoming back the sun on January 7th after a month of total darkness.

A sled team truck.

Traffic jam on the ice road as people come back to town after the ski-doo races in time for bingo! It was a $20,000 jackpot, after all.

Two things you don't see often: a transport truck driving on a frozen river ice road and a Coast Guard ship high and dry on the shore.

I hope you enjoyed this glimpse into Canada's far north! The main thing you need to know is that quilting is alive and well a few degrees above the Arctic Circle; there are about 50 members of the guild (Inuvik has a population around 3300).  Everyone was so warm-hearted and welcoming. Every person I passed on the street smiled or said a greeting. I love northern community.

Inuvik is a completely government-planned town which was surveyed and established in the 1950's after repeated annual flooding and erosion of the traditional settlement of Iklavik in the delta. You can read more about the town and the Gwich'in and Inuvialuit first peoples of the Beaufort-Mackenzie Delta here.