Northern Arizona

Northern Arizona

29'' x 22''

My Northern Arizona quilt is done and shipped. This beauty will be auctioned off for the Quilts of Valor Foundation as part of America Quilts EXPO at the Iowa Events Center May 26–28 in Des Moines, Iowa. 100% of funds raised via the auction benefits Quilts of Valor Foundation.

The inspiration for this quilt came from our trip through northern Arizona last summer. I think I did a pretty good job of capturing my inspiration.

To quilt this mini I used 4 different colours of Aurifil thread. Shockingly, I had them all in my thread stash! I went from orange to a barely there cream, with coral and peach in between. Just matchstick quilting. On this little piece that still took almost 2 hours to do! Kudos to those of you who do this on large pieces. 

The binding is more of the solids in the quilt. I coordinated it, roughly, with the gradation in colour and value. A label and a hanging sleeve to finish it off.

You have to be in Des Moines, or know someone going, to bid on my quilt or any of the others up for auction. I've seen a few on Instagram in the last few weeks - amazing! Heather Jones, May Chappell, Amy Ellis, Cristy Fincher, Mark Lipinski, Latifah Safir, Alex Anderson, Victoria Findley Wolfe and so many more have donated quilts for the auction. I really wish I could see them all in person. 

All proceeds from the auction go to the Quilts of Valor Foundation. Quilts of Valor provides quilts to returning service men and women. We all know the value of the gift of a quilt. 

Improv Applique Top Done and Hand Quilting Suggestions

When you just get addicted to the process it is hard to stop, but stop I did. I totally could have continued making more and more of these. They finish quick, they are perfectly portable, and there are endless fabric combinations. Can you imagine a bed sized quilt?

Alas, I stopped at 25 blocks. It makes for a 22.5'' x 22.5'' square. A lovely mini. Shocking, I know!

Now I need to quilt it. I've got this crazy idea. Crazy, mostly because it is hand quilting. It might also be crazy because I'm not sure it would work. Instead of any outlining or a running stitch I am thinking of doing something like an embroidery seed stitch all over. On a piece this size that should be manageable, right?

Right?

Pickets, A Quilt from Uppercase Fabrics

Pickets

Many of you know Uppercase Magazine. If you know the magazine you know by now that Janine Vangool, the editor and publisher has her first line of fabric coming out this spring, with Windham Fabrics. If you don't know Janine, the magazine, or the fabric I strongly suggest you seek them out. Creativity abounds, with no shortage of inspiration!

I am lucky enough that Janine is based here in Calgary. This means I can pop into her office with my son in tow. He can play trains while Janine and I can chat all matters writing, magazines, quilting, fabric, and more. Janine is a beautiful and hardworking woman. She is tremendously inspiring to me. So when Janine asked me to create a quilt with her upcoming fabrics I was thrilled to give back.

While the entire Uppercase line is full of bold colours (and prints pulled from the magazines spine designs) I went with the lighter prints for my quilt. Janine encouraged me to make something that was me, that was my style. So, of course, I was drawn to the more low volume prints and some improv work!

That alphabet print in metallic silver is destined to become an all-time favourite print of mine. And the oranges. Such perfect oranges. So perfect that I had to add them in to the stack for good measure.

Then I did what I generally always do. Hacked apart the fabric and just started sewing. I wasn't sure what it would be and had little intention when I started. The only direction I gave myself was that the pieces of orange would be skinny bits.  That's it. The rest of the fabric was cut into my usual small, medium, and large pieces. Then I put on some good music and got to sewing. Definitely my favourite part.

After awhile I stopped to evaluate where things went. I always do this. Start sewing then stop. Up on the design wall I get an indication of direction - what do the blocks want to be? It was at this point I made the decision to only place the orange strips vertically. First layout decision done, I made more blocks. The next evaluation had me seeing that some blocks had more dark orange than others. Rather than try to balance things out, I decided to concentrate these snippets. That meant now making blocks that had few or none of the orange pieces in them. After that it was a matter of making enough blocks to get to a decent size. Then puzzling the top together. (For an idea on how that process works check out my Creative Live class: Improv Quilting Basics.) 

All over texture was the name of the game when it came to quilting. The most perfect grey thread - Aurifil 2600 - came into action. I chose to do a repeating free motion U motif in a nod to Uppercase itself. It was easy, quick, and effective. 

At this point I was still unsure about including that pink fabric in the quilt. It initially seemed at odds with the silver, turquoise, and orange. But I pushed myself to go beyond that popular combination by adding the pink. It tripped me up a few times in the process, but something in me kept in in there. Once the quilt was finished I was happy I took the risk. Makes it just a bit different and a lot more dynamic.

When I finished the quilt Janine invited me to help her out with her look book photo shoot. Kirstie Tweed from Orange Girl did the photography for her. It was a wildly busy and creative day. Janine did so much work, so much sewing herself, to showcase the potential of the fabric. All day we played and styled and shot. Heck, the shoot was so successful that Kirstie went out and bought a sewing machine within a week and taught herself how to sew! 

That's just how inspiring Janine and Uppercase are - it gets us to action, to creative delight. Check out the website for more on the Uppercase Fabric, to see the look book itself, and go behind the scenes with Janine. 

Quilts For Fort McMurray

With a heavy heart I write this post. I also write it from the comfort of my own home, surrounded by family, my quilts, our things, our lives. Sadly, for thousands that will no longer be the case.

If you are here in Canada you've no doubt heard of the wildfire ravaging the city, towns, and area around Fort McMurray, in the northern part of my Province, Alberta. If you are international you may have heard about it too. A city of over 80,000 people evacuated. Large swaths of the city burned to the ground - homes, businesses, hotels, even infrastructure. It is so damn scary.

As people do when faced with a community tragedy we come together. People drive the highway to give away water, food, and gas to evacuees stranded. Oil companies open their oilsands camps to let evacuees stay for free. Homes are open to people living on cots with nothing but their name to carry. And quilters, quilters do what we do best.

There are numerous individuals and group gathering quilts to be shipped north when the right time comes, whether that is in rebuilding or now for people in shelters. Demand will be high, especially for the people who will have nothing, absolute nothing to go home to. I wanted to share information on where you can donate quilts, time, and money. Here is Calgary we know this far too well, but we also know the joy and love that is translated in some cotton sewn together with heart.

These places in the Calgary area are collecting quilts for eventual donation:

My Sewing Room (Finished Quilts) 

Wonderfil Threads (Finished Quilts and donating time on their longarms to finish quilts.)

Erie Quilt Art (Finished Quilts) 

One of the best resources is to join the Facebook page Quilts for Fort McMurray. Under the Events page they have listings of people across the country and internationally volunteering to collect quilts and ship as a group. 

It is still the early days of the fire and it will be a while before details of distribution can be sorted. So please be patient with organizers. In the meantime, gather your friends, makes some slabs, or finish a quilt that needs a new home.

The last handful of the Just One Slab quilts have been waiting for donation and I will drop them off now as soon as I can sew labels on them. That outpouring of love from 3 years ago will still be appreciated. 

Please note that I am not relaunching Just One Slab at this time. The response was awesome and amazing and overwhelming. Finished quilts are what people need now.

It is stories like this one that make your heart break. If you've never lived through anything like this, it doesn't take a big imagination to picture the terror and heartache. But it only takes a little bit of our love to spread some comfort and joy back into people's lives.

And remember, you can always donate to the Red Cross too. Text REDCROSS to 30333 to make a donation.