Almost There on this Epic Quilt

Years ago - I don’t even remember when - I started marking the places I’ve travelled to for quilting. They started as samples for my Improv Lettering class, and have continued to be so. Folks, I am so close to finishing the Canadian place names. Just one more left to do: Carseland. After that, it’s the challenge of puzzling them all together for a quilt top.

Not too long ago I put them all up on the design wall, just to see what they looked like. As a single quilt it would be massive. Bigger than king sized. And frankly, I don’t want a bed quilt of the places I’ve travelled to for quilting. Not the bedroom vibes I am going for. That being said, if I split up the Canadian places and the international places I will have a generous quilt top, and a smaller one that I can add to for a backing. A double sided quilt!

While I only need one more Canadian location, I need at least a half dozen on the international side. Just a little bit more sewing to do.

When a Professional Hockey Player Makes a Quilt

It all started with a simple text. My nephew had asked for a quilt to gift to a teammate. We’d done this a few times before, so it wasn’t odd. Then, one day, I was playing with scraps in preparation for the Quilters’ Playcation Adventure Sewalong and sent him a pic of the slab in progress, with a little tease. Instead of just handing over a quilt he should come and help me sew it.

So one day, a few months back, he showed up at the studio and sat down to sew. His mom, my sister in law, is also a quilter. Along the way she’d already taught him how to use the sewing machine. Phew! I pulled out the scraps, did a quick reminder, and he went to town on his very first slab. We chatted and sewed. It was an absolutely wonderful break in the day for both of us.

To be perfectly honest, I thought that would be it. He made one slab, about 16” big or so. His job done I assumed I would make the rest of the quilt.

How wrong I was!

In between games and training and road trips and rest and visits with a new girlfriend he showed up to the studio and kept sewing. Very quickly he realized that the time with fabric and our time together was an excellent stress reliever. We were having fun, and as I’ve said to anyone who will listen (and many who won’t) learning a new hobby is a great way to have the rest of the world melt away.

In our second session together he added to the first slab and made an excellent design decision. I promise, it was all his own idea. He thought to break up the slab by adding in a band of a colour. We auditioned a few choices and he went with the orange. A perfect choice. After that we made more slabs and assembled the whole top. By that point he was keen to be involved in every step of the process.

Except the quilting. He said he wasn’t ready for that yet.

We were getting close to our deadline (baby being born and the end of the season) so he missed out on basting the quilt. Honestly? I think he was a little sad, but they were on a road trip and I needed to get going on the quilting. After I basted it I settled in for some time with my free motion. He went home one night with a collection of my machine quilting books and picked pebbles as the doodle of choice. It ended up being a nice contrast to the angular nature of all the piecing. For thread I used my go to colour choice on a multicoloured quilt - Aurifil 2882, Light Fern. Olive Green, Aurifil 5016 is pretty good too. Whichever one is handy, really.

It was down to the final minute when it came time to bind. He really liked the idea of using the same fabric as the orange band for the binding. Unfortunately, we used all I had for the band and no local stores had it in stock. It’s not actually a solid, but a textural print from Libs Elliott. Thankfully she confirmed the colour for us and I found it in a Canadian store. Did Canada Post cooperate though? Not so much. But Lucas showed up to the studio for a chat and the hope that it was here and boom! It arrived 15 minutes later. We got the binding cut, pressed and attached that day. Then it was time for a hand stitching lesson. He wanted to finish it with some big stitches, instead of invisible and I had the perfectly matching Valdani thread. I tried, folks, but he would not go for a contrasting thread. With a little sewing kit I put together he went home and finished it.

Don’t worry, it’s labelled too. He actually signed the back before I quilted it so the label was already on.

He finished and gifted it in the knick of time. All throughout the process he let me take pictures of him because he was sure his friend wouldn’t believe it - that he actually made it.

Folks, I was totally impressed by this kid. I can say kid because he is my nephew, but he is in twenties and towers over me. He dove in, taking a real interest in the design process, enjoying creating something from nothing. He now looks at my quilts and even colour a bit differently. Ho notices potential in the real world. Will he make another quilt? Who knows?! We don’t know where he is playing yet next year. If back in Calgary I am sure I will have him in the studio again, if he wants. And he’s told his mother he would like to quilt with her too.

Mary - Uncovering an Old Block Design for a New Baby

Mary

48” x 48”

The matriarch of a close but spread out family. Cousins looking out for each other, uncles closer to brothers, babies of all ages. She did not live to see it all, but she knew what she set in motion. She created a life, a space, a family, that welcomed everyone. Her small frame held a big heart.

On eof my husband’s cousins had her third baby last summer. I knew I would be gifting a quilt so was exploring my options of already made or at least pieced projects in the stash. But when the little guy arrived none of them felt quite right. With his name starting with the letter T, I decided to lean in to that and pulled a quilt block and book from the archives.

Back when Modern Quilting became something we capitalized, I contributed to a book called Modern Blocks: 99 Quilt Blocks from Your Favourite Designers. The block was called To a T, because it was essentially a giant capital T. But put together gave you some cool secondary designs. I made up a big quilt, that, after some snuggles at home, sent it off to a kid’s cancer camp. It was a lot of fun to play with it again.

I dug into my fabric - both scraps and stash - to make an eclectic but soft version of it. I’ve got some fabrics in there that must be at least 15 years old, and some much more recent. I love mixing it up and pairing things in unexpected ways. Like classic large florals with modern geometrics. Keeps it interesting and not flat. I finished it with a simple loopy quilting in cream. Nothing fancy, but enough to give it great texture for snuggling.

The binding? Well, she’s a bit extra. Mary did love some statement jewelry at times. Instead of just simple big stitch finishing I opted for Xs, but alternated colours. It’s a lot easier to do than you might think and really doesn’t take much longer than normal hand finishing. I used Valdani 8W for the stitching. The solid fabric for the binding it out of my norm, but it was what I had in the stash that worked well.

The baby in question - Taz - was born in July and it wasn’t until winter started that I got myself organized to make the quilt. Then I moved pretty quickly to finish it. After that I procrastinated for months on sending it to them. I just really hate going to the post office. These pictures were taken in January! Finally, Taz’s Mama sent me a kind text asking if I would make a quilt for Taz, as I had for their other two. Wasn’t she in luck? I washed the quilt, wrapped it safely, and sent it out a few days later. Who am I to turn down a sweet request for something I had already done?!?!

Oh, and the namesake for the quilt? Baby Taz’s great grandmother, Mary Ross.