Ripples - Prince Rupert Inspired Quilt

Sometimes I get a little obsessed with my Morning Make. As in, I am just so in to the project that what is supposed to be 15 minutes turns in to an hour. Not counting the sneaking away in the afternoon to sew more. 

That's what happened with with particular quilt. The improv curves went together so quickly that it was hard to make just a couple at a time. I wanted to make dozens at a time. Needless to say, the top came together fast. (I actually finished this a few weeks ago but have had no time to snap a pic.)

Inspired by my beautiful walks on the Prince Rupert waterfront back in April, Ripples is an homage to those calming mornings in a literal sea of blue. I watched seals and birds eat breakfast, breaking the surface of the ocean that was so calm you could have waterskied. I sat to witness the fog roll in off the ocean. I listened to the small island ferries and visiting fisherman. It was a magical weekend inside and outside the classroom and I wanted to mark it.

Alas, I live on the Prairie, so I need quilts (and photos) to bring me back to my ocean love affair. 

This is another in my landscape series. It was supposed to just be Alberta landscapes but apparently I decided along the way to include all my special places in the country. 

CMYK - First Mighty Lucky Row Done

Paper piecing 12 blocks isn't so bad if you do them half a block at a time. 

That's what I kept telling myself, and it worked. Carolyn Friedlander's patterns are easy and graphic. Each one of these blocks is made in sections so I did a section at a time. Low stress. And sure enough, they add up. Sometimes it was Morning Make, sometimes I snuck in a bit of sewing in the sweet spot between when the kids go to bed and I crash. Seam by seam it gets done.

These are the first rows of the 2018 Mighty Lucky Quilting Club. Month one was about making a colour story. Mine was inspired by the CMYK issue of Uppercase Mag. It's been different for me to work in such saturated colours and just them. I quite like it. The key, I think, has been to vary the fabrics in print and texture. That's how you get distinctions, almost like value, when working monochromatically on blocks. Sometimes the distinctions are subtle, sometimes strong. Overall it works well.

And yes, my sandals match. True fact: I nearly entirely match the quilt. I have these sandals in turquoise, yellow, and red (not pink). But now that we are mentioning it...

On to the next round  - little improv crosses.

Check it out for more info on Mighty Lucky and to sign up for the entire Year of Colour.

Shiver

Shiver

Roughly 70'' x 70''

Uh, so I finished this quilt months and months ago. It was just hard to be motivated to take a picture of it. You know, with that long Prairie winter we had it didn't really feel like the tropical waters of the quilt. And I did mention that I live in the middle of the Prairies, right?

Shiver is done though and I am happy to share it with the world!

Did you know a group of sharks is called a Shiver? Things you learn. And things that you learn when someone makes a random comment on instagram and suddenly you are making more shark blocks than you could have imagined. 

The quilting emphasizes the oceanic inspiration with its waves repeated across the quilt. I stitched in the ditch to outline the sharks and quilted the waves on my home machine. The thread colour changes as you move down the quilt, to match the gradation of the fabrics. Some were Wonderfil threads, some Aurifil, whichever colour works (especially because I find them interchangeable in my machine). We will not mention the amount of threads I had to bury to make all this happen.

This was totally one of those quilts that is just for fun. It was all about play, play, play. Sometimes it turns into something your son begs to sleep under while insisting you call him Great White Niki Shark and sometimes things get cut apart and put in the scrap bin. This time it worked and it is awesome. 

Quilts for Broncos Finish and Delivery

It seemed totally appropriate to deliver a load of donated quilts, quilt tops, and blocks for the Humboldt Broncos in a hockey bag. Confession: no great symbolism though, it's the bag I had that they all fit in. And don't worry, it has never been used for hockey gear!

I was flying out to Saskatoon over the weekend so offered to take Calgary area donations with me, so people didn't have to ship them on their own. Save the expense, after all. The wonderful folks at My Sewing Room volunteered to hold them for me too. Between those donations and the ones quilters dropped off at my house I delivered 20 finished quilts, 3 quilt tops, and a enough blocks for another quilt top to Periwinkle Quilting and Beyond in Saskatoon! 

My own top was finished in time too. With great thanks to Lee Dueck at Quilting by Lee for volunteering to quilt this on her long arm. Can you see the hockey sticks she added?

The block design was picked by Haus of Stitches, the local store in Humboldt. It was a great block to choose because it went together so quickly. So instead of people making one block, they made many. Instead of making just a quilt top, people finished their quilts. I've never seen so many finished quilts donated to a drive like this! And I've heard of many people learning to quilt because they wanted to make one of these quilts.

Me, being me, had to play around with the suggested layout though. I did not do conventional borders too. I might have skipped borders all together, but I didn't have enough good greens in the stash to simply make more blocks. The hashtag effect was unintentional though. Totally appropriate, however, considering the spread of the news and support via social media. 

The original goal was 200 quilts. Last count is about 700 and the deadline is still a few days away. 

Quilters are amazing people. The global response to this horrific tragedy is beautiful and almost overwhelming. This, simply, is what quilters do. We take our desire to create beautiful things and spread love and comfort through the quilts. It often feels like the least we can do when we aren't able to bring meals, provide shoulders to cry on, make people laugh, and look people in the eye with love. It often doesn't feel like enough, but it does help. 

In Saskatoon my friend, another synchro mom, drove me to the store. Her cousin's son was on the bus and the entire family is in awe and so appreciative of the support everyone is getting. Recovery for everyone is going to be a long, long road. These quilts will be one small thing in that journey