CQA Workshops now open for registration

Hi all! I know things are quiet around here now as most of my interaction with friends is on Instagram, but just in case a few of you are still lingering in this space, I wanted to let you know I'll be teaching at QuiltCanada in Ottawa, Ontario, June 12-15, 2019.

To see full descriptions of my workshops and to register, click here . You could try out my brand new Courthouse Colourplay workshop, or perhaps if a funky take on log cabins and accurate piecing is your jam you'd like Round Peg Square Hole? If you've always wanted to try sewing a 3-D object but zippers are a terrifying prospect, then come make a Level Two Tote with me (you'll get to meet my adorable mini-anvil, hammer rivets yourself and leave with a stylish, completed tote bag!). Finally, if you want to challenge yourself with some new techniques and gain confidence with free-cutting and improv, I invite you to come on a Speed Date with Improv with me as your guide.

Courthouse Colourplay - enjoy intuitive colourplay, free-cutting and building your quilt organically from the inside out!

Round Peg, Square Hole

 

Make yourself a stylish tote with a favourite linen/canvas print and easy clean cork, leather, vinyl or waxed canvas bottom! Leather handle and hardware kits available for class...you just bring your fabrics!

Speed Date with Improv: it's a super fun, fast-paced class with lots of support and tips for improv success. Make your own improv sampler to take you on your way to creating original work!

Registration is now open to CQA members and non-members alike! I am very excited to be back in Ottawa in June and hope to see you at the National Juried Show and accompanying conference.

Maritime Teaching Tour Part II

Thank you for the sweet comments on the first post about my recent Maritime teaching trip. Here goes for part two.

After a delicious cold salmon filet lunch prepared by my sweet billet's partner, I flew from St. Pierre back to Halifax. I retrieved my second 50 lb suitcase from airport storage, loaded my quilts into the back of a sweet Jetta rental car and headed straight to Charlottetown, PEI. I drove over the exciting Confederation Bridge! I was looking forward to spending the week at my sister's place and also see my parents who happened to be visiting at the same time.

The PEI Modern Quilt Guild *asked me to teach my Variegated Threads pattern (a fav of mine!) and Speed Date with Improv. I also gave the group a trunk show a couple of nights before the weekend workshops. The week previous, my upcoming visit got a mention on the local CBC TV news! A guild member picked up a few of the quilts and pillows I'd gifted my sister and her family over the years to use as props (since I wasn't yet on the island). That was pretty cool, and the story encouraged a few traditional quilters from around the island to attend the trunk show and find out more about modern quilting. Yay!

Some variegated thread spools in the making with lovely tone on tone prints.

Here I am with students and their lovely work.

The next day, we had a lot of fun with Speed Date with Improv, learning 7 different improv piecing techniques and building improv collage wallhangings on the design walls around the community room.

Although this was a new way to work for many guild members, Janice and Jean's smiles say it all: improv is fun!

On my days off in town, I enjoyed walking my sister's dog along the waterfront and the beach, I made it to a great yoga class, got to see my niece perform in her dance school year-end recital, checked out my sister's gorgeous new dance shop location, drank delicious coffee at Receiver and ate scrumptious food at a few local restaurants. It was a fantastic week! Here are a few pics:

Sadly, I never got to sample the fries or free hugs here, but isn't it the cutest chip shack?

Many of the red sand beaches on PEI are protected parkland and there is a comprehensive education program in place to save the fragile dune ecosystem and also protect the nesting endangered Plovers. At this time of year, before tourists arrive and the weather is warm enough to swim, the beaches are deserted and pretty wild with wind.

Charlottetown is a lovely place to explore the backstreets in search of historic buildings and signs.

How about 100 1/2 for an address?

A clever quilt block QR code sign program guides visitors around town to points of interest and attractions.

I'm sure this is one of the most photographed homes in town as it is visible along the length of the boardwalk frequented by cruise-ship visitors and locals alike.

A transport is loaded with lobster headed for market from the fishing village of Stanley Bridge.

My sister and I married boys from opposite sides of the country and settled in their hometowns to raise our families. We never know when we'll see each other again, so it is always a little bit sad when we say goodbye. I felt very lucky that my work took me to Charlottetown and that I got a great visit in while there. Thanks to the PEIMQG for that wonderful opportunity!  If you are looking for a fun project to tackle next fall/winter, check out the free modern mystery BOM program that the guild is sharing on their blog here.

My final stop was to the Maritime MQG * of Halifax-Dartmouth area, Nova Scotia. I've spent many a summer visiting my grandparent's home in Dartmouth. I love the area and was happy to billet with Jeanette and her kind family while working with the guild on Round Peg, Square Hole and Speed Date with Improv. I held a trunk show here, as well. Happily, I sold the rest of the books I had shipped in advance of my trip, so I didn't have any extra weight to bring home - thanks gals!!

I'm grateful to Jeanette, who took a day out of her life to drive me around Halifax, shopping and browsing. No modern quilter should leave Halifax without visiting the super cute Patch Halifax shop and sewing studio. Great modern fabric selection for quilting and garment-making located in a historic old house on Robie St.  As you can see, I couldn't resist! I've already made myself an Eva dress with that lovely Anna Maria Horner "Loominous" woven shown here on the bottom of the fabric stack.

We enjoyed a coffee on the rooftop cafe of the amazing Halifax public library. The interior has incredible lines, doesn't it?

Love this funky block of shops and restaurants across from the library on Queen St.

The guild is very lucky to have weekend access to the big classrooms at the Nova Scotia Community College in Dartmouth. The building is amazing and has lovely views of the harbour....this is where the workshops were held on Saturday and Sunday.

 

 

Fabulous Round Peg, Square Hole blocks made in class (after we first confirmed our scant 1/4" seam allowances and accurate cutting and pressing process).  I'm wearing a new Ola Tunic I made with Essex crossweave just before the trip. It's another Tessuti pattern I picked up in Australia and I love it!! I've since made a second one with Nani Iro double gauze that is dreamy to wear. 

These quilters are an enthusiastic bunch and made great progress on their Speed Date collages and on Mother's Day no less. That's commitment! I love seeing these come together with different accent colours alongside the black and white. Great work, everyone (must've been the Timbits and trays of delicious cookies and squares)!

I was thrilled to learn that my IG friend Jen (and her daughter) would make the trip from New Brunswick to attend the Speed Date workshop. What a wonderful Mother's Day treat! We had chased each other around Australia just a couple of months before, so it was pretty fun to meet up in person finally in Dartmouth. I also had the pleasure of meeting Gillian, who flew down from Newfoundland for the workshops and a visit with her son.

On my final night, I enjoyed a delicious Maritime staple of seafood chowder prepared for us by Jeanette's kind husband. Maritimers really are the best - if you've never been, I highly recommend a vacation on Canada's east coast!  

Thank you so much to everyone who worked on planning the workshops and making sure everything went so smoothly for all of my tour stops. I loved meeting everyone and I look forward to returning one day soon. 

And thank YOU for following along and putting up with these iphone photos - I was unable to bring my heavy Nikon on this trip. There was simply too much to carry! 

* The links to the guild's blogs  (above) will take you to their posts about my visits, where you can see more pictures of my trunk shows, workshops and guild members' work.

Notes From the NJS Judges - Part 1

My two quilts that hung at the Canadian National Juried Show in Toronto last weekend made it home today. For the first time in 3 shows, I found that the judge's critiques are very constructive, thoughtful and well-explained. I'm actually going to keep the pages with their thoughts this time. Usually I read judge's comments and then they head straight into paper recycling either due to a misunderstanding of the intention my quilt, or comments on elements of the work that aren't that relevant to me (but are very important for traditional judges).

I thought I'd share the comments with you here as a point of interest. This is what the three CQA-certified judges wrote about Round Peg, Square Hole, which was juried into the Modern category:

Judge 1
Unique optical illusion created in overall design (mission accomplished, thank you!). Value gradation in every other block is effective. Straight-line quilting is even but stitch length seems long. The white thread colour that contrasts with the solid coloured fabrics and then blends with the background white fabric is effective.

Judge 2
Fascinating visual play is achieved in this compelling design. Excellent understanding of balance using colour is shown (yay me!! Maybe I know more about colour than I give myself credit for). Some well-blended gradation of fabrics is noted. While the quilting stitch throughout is even, it would improve the construction and visual effect if the stitch length was shorter.

Judge 3
Accurate piecing (woohoo!) suports the creative circular design concept. The gradation in colour in some of the pieced units adds design interest. The quilting stitch is even and straight but extremely long - quilt stitch length could be shorter.

There is much for me to celebrate here. This quilt is my very own design and I chose the colours carefully (thanks to RJR Fabrics for supplying all of the fabric for the front of this quilt during their What Shade RU blog hop). The design compliments really make me proud!

I've always liked a long quilting stitch length and typically when walking foot quilting I increase the stitch to 4.0. I'm hearing loud and clear that quilting judges (at least at CQA) prefer a shorter stitch length...even on a wallhanging. I will keep this in mind when making a quilt that I'd consider entering in a show.

Would you like to try creating your own version of this fun log-cabin variation? The .pdf downloadable pattern is available in my Craftsy shop (link up there at the top of my right sidebar).

Tomorrow I'll let you know what they had to say about the last Speed Date with Improv sample I made and entered in the Abstract Design category.

New Work for Workshops

This weekend I'll be teaching in Nanaimo, B.C. for the brand new Nanaimo Modern Quilt Guild ! On Saturday (Feb.25), we're going to have some fun with Speed Date with Improv and on Sunday (Feb.26) it'll be time to play with my Quarter Round block and create some fun secondary patterning. There are still a few spots available in both workshops if you are on Vancouver Island and fancy a day in Nanaimo hanging out with modern quilting enthusiasts learning new skills playing with colour, shape and pattern. Contact & workshop info is on their blog.

Here are my latest creations using the versatile Quarter Round block. In the green pillow, I really changed things up by substituting electric lime green and green for the 'background' strips and ombre grey in the main strips. It turned out a little different from the the digital drawing I initially posted here due to mixing up my greens during cutting.  You can see that half square triangles are used instead of a solid corner square and I rotated the blocks so each half square triangle is in the centre, creating a pinwheel. This gives the composition a concentric square effect with the green background strips meeting along the central vertical and horizontal seams.

I used up my strippy scraps to make an improv backing for this pillow and quilted both the front and back with parallel lime green lines using Aurifil 40 wt. thread.

I installed an invisible zip along one edge of the pillow. You can see that even though this was a 20 1/2" block sewn together with a 3/8" seam allowance, a 20" commercial pillow form isn't quite enough to puff out the entire pillow cover. Before gifting this, I'll stuff a handful of polyfil into each corner of the pillow.

And this is my attempt at an abstract rose. Yes, this is the same block! In my Round Peg, Square Hole pattern (link to my Craftsy shop at the top of my right sidebar), this is referred to as the "Basic ombre Block". In this 20" mini quilt, I constructed 4 identical blocks, however 2 have reversed ombre strips. In this one, you can see that the blocks are rotated so that each corner square of "background" white fabric is on an outside corner of the quilt top and all of the widest strips meet along the central vertical and horizontal seams.

I taught this workshop for the first time last weekend for my traditional guild and it is so fun to see how people work with colours and prints in this pattern. I can't wait to see some quilts come together!

Another Quarter Round Variation

A dude friend recently dropped a hint that his new grey couch needed some colour and perhaps that colour was green. I did up this variation on the Quarter Round block and I think this will become his new pillow!  I'm teaching this block (or the whole Round Peg, Square Hole quilt) at a few workshops in the coming months, but my quilt is currently en route to QuiltCon, so I need some more samples anyway. Win-win!

I'm replacing the starting square with a half square triangle to form the centre pinwheel.

You can design your own variation using the colouring sheet in my pattern - visit my Craftsy pattern store (link in upper right side bar) for your instant .pdf download!

Colourplay with Round Peg, Square Hole

The response to my pattern shop launch on Craftsy has been wonderful! For those of you that have picked up a copy of Round Peg, Square Hole  (THANK YOU!!) I will share different layout options here periodically. I hope that these ideas inspire you to try your own colour play for secondary patterning. Use the colouring sheet included in the pattern to audition your ideas!

I love the central star variation with this colour placement:

There is just no way that I could make all of the options I've discovered with this pattern. I'll leave that up to you and I hope that you share the results using #quarterroundquilt or #roundpegsquareholequilt on IG!

By way of clarification, the pattern includes full colour instructions for the block, which is a log cabin variation. There are fabric requirements to make the Quarter Round mini quilt version (20" square) which requires four blocks. You'll also find instructions for making the ombre blocks for Round Peg, Square Hole (40" square); that quilt requires 16 blocks.

HAVE FUN!