Canadian Quilters

Quilts of Valour

mbook — Thu, 13 Jun 2013 13:38:13 GMT

Hi all.

Well it has been an exciting year so far for my family. My DH retired, well he is now working just 4 hours a week. My job will be changing in September as I go from the secondary level to the elementary school libraryies and my DD just found out she is going to have a baby, they were a bit surprised but we are all thrilled. DH has started refinishing a rocking horse and of course I am looking at baby patterns.

One of the biggest things happening though is that my son will be deployed in a couple of weeks to Kabul. Needless to say when I was reading my summer issue of Quilter's Connection and they had an article on Quilts of Valour I did get a little teary. The thing I wanted to mention about the article is that I did not realize that Northcott Fabrics is a Canadian company and the head office is in my sister's backyard about 2 hours away from me. I have donated to quilts and quilt top and fabric to this wonderful cause but I want to mention that Northcott has come up with a Canadian themed fabric line and are donating a portion of the sales from their Stonehnge line to QoV.

Just as we did with our Canadian Quilt, a quilter named Bill Bartlett here in Ontario, I am going to try to contact him, is trying to do a quilt with blocks made from across Canada. Norhtcott and some quilt shops are putting together fat quarter packaging for the project. I know we have been quiet lately as a group but am wondering if you guys would like to take part in this project, do one of our own, have me lead you in one of the patterns donated to QoV, have someone else design a QoV for us to do, any or all of the above or something else you have been pondering doing and now you have an excuse to do it?

Re: Introduction

mbook — Sun, 12 May 2013 19:36:55 GMT

Sorry to be so late welcoming you Prairiemom. Hope you and everyone is having a wonderful Mother's Day. I am posting the picture of the quilt that several of us took part in. One problem has been that none of the governmental types I have spoken to have the facilities to accept the quilt. I am wondering if anyone out there knows of someone that would welcome the quilt as an effort from us across the country. It is a shame it is sitting in my closet.

Re: Introduction

Angele — Tue, 12 Mar 2013 21:01:05 GMT

Welcome Prairiemom. I live in northwest Ontario and my boys are now living a life of their own. I hope I will get to see some of your quilts. This is a great place to find support and get answers to many questions.

Introduction

Prairiemom — Sun, 03 Mar 2013 17:35:06 GMT

My name is Pam and I live in Regina SK. I am a homeschool mom of 6. 3 of the kids have graduated and moved out. I have 3 little boys 6,4 and 19 months. They are busy little guys and make it difficult to find time to quilt lol. I am mostly self taught. I finished my first quilt from choosing fabric to quilting and binding it 2 weeks ago. I have done other quilts butt they have been started by others or just panels.

Pam

Re: Governer General

mbook — Tue, 29 Jan 2013 10:28:18 GMT

Finally got them to reply, here is what they wrote. I will follow through with contacting the Canadiana Fund unless someone wants to do something else with the quilt.

Dear Ms. Book:

Again, we apologize for the delay in our response, but unfortunately technology was not on our side last week.

Our office is not in a position to directly accept artworks. We do not have our own collection or curator to care for the pieces.

If you and your colleagues are interested in investigating the possibility of donating the quilt to the official residences of Canada, which includes the residences of the Governor General in Ottawa and in Québec City, I would invite you to contact the Canadiana Fund of the National Capital Commission to submit your kind request to canadianafund@ncc-ccn.ca:

http://www.canadascapital.gc.ca/property-management/what-we-manage/canadiana-fund

Best wishes to you and your colleagues on your collaboration together.

Sincerely,

Christine MacIntyre
Executive Director, Events, Household and Visitor Services | Directrice exécutive, Événements, accueil et services aux visiteurs

Office of the Secretary to the Governor General | Bureau du Secrétaire du gouverneur général

Governer General

mbook — Fri, 28 Dec 2012 12:01:07 GMT

Hi All. Hope you had a great holiday, and will be having a Happy New Year. Just wanted to keep youup to date. I have contacted the GG's office twice online and have not received any response, not even from a flunky, just a return email saying my message was sent. After the holidays I will try phoning. I hear he lives in the Waterloo area so may try to reach him up there as I assume he has a constituent office. Just wanted to let you know I am not sitting on it, I am trying.

Again if there is anything you guys would like to do as a group just let me know. I know we are all busy but I am willing to lead I just have a hard time coming up with ideas.

Re: Quilt pattern "dogs"

Birchlane3287@aol.com — Fri, 21 Dec 2012 19:30:44 GMT

I am sorry to be so late in answering your request for a pattern with dogs, I believe Quiltmaker Magazine has a pattern with Scottie dogs ...

I hope everyone enjoys thier Holiday Traditions with their families, and the very best for 2013

Grayce Lanthier sent from Mexico....where we have whitness but it is not snow...it is beautiful white sand..

Re: new quilt store

canuckquilter71 — Tue, 18 Dec 2012 15:06:45 GMT

Hi Pat. Glad to hear you are on the Island. I live in Chemainus-moved there from Calgary 8 years ago. It was a big change, but we love the smaller community. We are currently in Yuma for the sun as to my surprise, the grey skies make me depressed.

I started hand applique, but doubt that it will become a passion. I'm not giving up on it yet though. Also have cut out the blocks for the Stack and Whack and I believe I will go whacky trying to put them together. I am a perfectionist (currently working on getting over not being able to produce perfection in the quilts I make) and I believe that my Kaleidoscope must be wonky as each block seems to have at least one of the triangles out of sinc. If you stand back, the overall look is pretty. Anyway, I am glad to have the fabric cut and well on its way to becoming a quilt.

I understand about the amount of fabric and where to start as I have had to stop buying fabric until I make up some of the fabric in my sewing room. I think the quilt shops could be in financial trouble. lol

Hope you have a Merry Christmas and a great start to the New Year. Nanaimo Quilters Guild is having a Quilt Show in May and perhaps that is something we could meet at.

Leslie (in Yuma)

Quilt pattern "dogs"

kcjazz — Tue, 18 Dec 2012 14:00:52 GMT

Good morning everyone.

I am looking for a quilt patterns with dogs as the theme. It is for my grand son who is 9 so it has to be actuals dog pictures or drawing, not cartoons . He loves dogs but is allergic to them so he cannot have one. I thought he would like to snuggle with a blanket of dogs.

Thanks for your help

Rose

Ontario

Re: new quilt store

Patlynne — Tue, 18 Dec 2012 09:16:53 GMT

Hi, havent been visiting this group for a long time. Just saw your post, yes I live on Vancouver Island, actually Victoria. Where about are you on the island. It would be nice to have someone that lives close. My son used to live up near Campbell River. Your stack n' whack group sounds fun. I have so much material and have so many ideas but seem to be having a hard time settling down. I just joined the seniors centre and find that is helping lots. Hope to hear from you soon, and Merry Christmas Pat (from the Island)

Ladies.....

KimHansonQuilts — Fri, 14 Dec 2012 16:51:11 GMT

any of you need a very quick and easy, last minute Christmas gift for a sewist on your list? Maybe my Riley Blake inspired tutorial can help! You can make this little pin cushion for someone special - there's still time before Christmas! http://www.rileyblakedesigns.com/cutting-corners/2012/12/10/hearts-flutter/

You only need a few scrap fabrics and embellishments.

Kim

Re: Metallic Threads

canuckquilter71 — Sun, 25 Nov 2012 22:33:25 GMT

I too found that metallic threads would break, but as Effie said, I found that the Superior Metallics with Superior Bottomline seemed to work the best on my machine. I noticed that the thread would get tight, look stretched and then break. Sometimes, it twisted so much that it would not pull from the upright spool holder. Sometimes, it just seemed to catch in the tension disks and pull tight. Anyway, it seemed to help if I kept an eye on the twisting and tried to minimize it. Also found that having the net wrap around the spool helped a bit and as Marilyn said, having the spool upright or on it's side depending on how it is wound on the cone also helps. It still breaks and usually when in the middle of a series of decorative stitches-lol.

Leslie on Vancouver Island

Re: Metallic Threads

EffieFaubert — Sun, 25 Nov 2012 06:36:11 GMT

have you tried Superior Threads metallics? You may have much better luck with them. Also, using the Superior Bottom Line thread in the bobbin should help. There's information and videos on the Superior Threads website which are very helpful.

Effie

Re: new quilt store

canuckquilter71 — Sun, 18 Nov 2012 19:28:44 GMT

I haven't been to visit this group for a long time. I'm having a little problem with figuring out how to post and how to read others posts.

Pat, I live on Vancouver Island. Are you an Islander too? It would be fun to find someone who is close by.

I've just posted most of the quilting projects I completed in 2012 on my Facebook site and found that I have made 13 (mostly lap quilts, but also a couple of seasonal wall hangings) so far. That's not including the donation pillowcases or the 7 donation casserole holders made for a local service club craft sale. There is another fairly large lap quilt that just needs a couple more blocks to complete and then I can add the sashing and borders and quilt it. It's a BOM quilt and I haven't received Nov or Dec blocks yet or it would be done now. I'm trying to finish the year without any UFO's and I will make it if I can just get the last couple of blocks from the BOM.

Marilyn, I would love to participate in a group project and will put my thinking cap on for a suggestion. Right now, nothing is circulating in my brain. We are going to be Snowbirds for the first time and so our home is in a bit of a tizzy as we prepare to head out later this month. I'm taking a machine or maybe two and plan to join a hand applique group and a stack n' whack group at the Park we will be staying in.

More palaver than I intended.

Leslie on Vancouver Island

Re: new quilt store

pattcan1 — Fri, 02 Nov 2012 03:16:51 GMT

Hi Joan,

I was born in London but now we live in BC.

I am very new to quilting. Soooo much to learn. I have made some lap quilts but have not done a larger one yet. I have been reading a lot about crazy quilting, and that sounds really easy. I do have a embroidering machine also.

Pat

Re: new quilt store

Joan Maddox — Fri, 19 Oct 2012 12:48:37 GMT

Thanks for the info -- I live in London but Norwich is just a nice day trip from here about 45 minutes. Will have to take a ride on a sunny day. Thanks

Joan

Re: Canada Quilt

mbook — Tue, 16 Oct 2012 10:52:00 GMT

Thank you Ladymax. We all enjoyed working on it. We are looking for something else to do now as a group so if anyone has anything they would like to see us do please let me know and I will try to arrange it.

Re: Canadian Quilt

mbook — Tue, 16 Oct 2012 10:49:31 GMT

Thank you Sheila. We all worked hard on it but it was a lot of fun.

Re: Metallic Threads

mbook — Tue, 16 Oct 2012 10:47:43 GMT

[quote user="Quilter 222"]

The Sulky metallic thread keeps breaking. Metallic speciality needles too. I've adjusted (lowered my upper tension). Tried a lightweight bobbin thread but the bobbin color comes through to the upper fabrics. So I used the metallic in the bobbin also.

I'm stitching a a lower regular speed as suggested on EHow web page. Any other recommendations other than throw all my metallic threads out?

[/quote]

Hi. I have had trouble with metallic thread as well. The only suggestions I have is to use an embroidery needle which has a bigger eye and to make sure you have it spooling off in the right direction. Basically that means if the thread is wound on the spool straight you need to have the spool standing up vertical and if it is wound on the spool in a cross fashion, not sure how to describe it but it should be horizontal to unspool correctly. Hope that makes sense, if not let me know and I will try to describe it better. Either way I have always found that it breaks so keep an eye on it and when it starts to gather at the needle I just cut it and rethread and continue from there. Hopefully someone else has better ideas and we can both learn.

Metallic Threads

MarnieHouston — Tue, 16 Oct 2012 05:13:27 GMT

I'm not sure how to do a search on a topic within the Canadian Group discussion. So I'll start fresh.

Just doing a small Christmas wall hanging for a gift and using a metallic thread to do some free motion quilting.

I'm stitching a a lower regular speed as suggested on EHow web page. Any other recommendations other than throw all my metallic threads out?

ps. I have a Husqvarna Topaz 30 (not sure if the machine is the problem).

Thanks