A Plaid Quilt

Quilters are known for their generosity and the guilds that I have been a part of have made quilts for a variety of causes: premature babies, abused women, homeless people, victims of natural disasters and kids of all kinds to name a few. For me, it's a chance to let total strangers know that they have value as a person and the best way I know to show love is to make a quilt.

This quilt was sent to Cambridge Bay, Nunavut, Canada. Take a minute to look it up on your map. Look up, way up and you can find it on Victoria Island. Wikipedia says: "Cambridge Bay is a hamlet located on Victoria Island in the Kitikmeot Region of Nunavut, Canada. It is named for Prince Adolphus, Duke of Cambridge, while the traditional Inuinnaqtun name for the area is Ikaluktuutiak or Iqaluktuttiaq meaning "good fishing place"

The Canadian north has many communities that have vast challenges with a number of issues: lingering issues from the residential school systems, food insecurity, substance abuse and overcrowded housing. With that is an almost invisible group of homeless people.

Homelessness in the far north looks a lot different than it does in any city in the south. Lack of resources and overcrowded housing conditions mean that available housing goes to family units and elderly. Single adults generally live with family members with housing and when those relationships run into difficulty, these people end up couch surfing without a place of their own. 

Omingmak Centre in Cambridge Bay was opened in 2017 to house some of these people to give them a place of their own. I love that it's a community centred organization and that it's not someone coming in from somewhere else and imposing a solution that may not work for their community. 

This is the CBC article that I first read about the shelter.  https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north/nunavut-cambridge-bay-homeless-shelter-1.4093690

These are the two quilts I have sent there in the past year and I hope to send at least 2 more in the coming months. And if you want to help me support this small shelter in the middle of the Canadian north, message me at magpiequilts(at)gmail(dot)com.

Thanks!

--Ann

Quilting with Grandkids

Pattern is California Dreamin' by Fons and Porter (available here)

Fabrics - assorted from my closet

California Dreamin'

This summer I had the pleasure of having my 10-year old granddaughter come and spend a few days with me. We decided to make a quilt during the time we had together and I didn't really expect to get a lot done past picking a pattern and fabric and a bit of sewing.

Laying out the quilt blocks

From the magazines I had, she looked and found this pattern from the Easy Quilts Spring 2014 from Fons and Porter. We then photocopied the pattern and went to the fabric closet to pick out fabrics. The 3-D effect of this quilt is from the clever use of warm and cool colours and soon there was a stack of warm coloured fabrics and a stack of cool.

More blocks

 After a quick introduction to the basics of sewing, we were off and sewing. Between the two of us, we finished sewing and trimming all the blocks needed for a quilt top in the two days she was visiting.

Lookin' good!

Each step of the process was well within her skill set and the paper piecing resulted in precise blocks that were easy to sew together. Because we were both sewing, the pieces went together quickly and having a design wall to see how the blocks looked together was a great motivator for keeping going.

After she went home, I sewed the blocks together into a quilt top and now it is ready for her next visit when we can go to my long-arm quilter's and chose a quilting pattern to finish this quilt. 

I look forward to showing you the finished product soon!

--Ann

Little quilts from little pieces

Small quilts are some of my favourite quilts to make. They take very little fabric, allow me to try out different techniques and colour schemes.

Straight furrows mini quilt - FOR SALE HERE

 This quilt began as a collection of 2.5" squares from a quilt guild retreat. In quilter lingo, these are called mini charm squares and this particular collection is very charming!

Mini charm squares

 I paired them with an off-white tone on tone fabric and sewed them into half square triangles. And the off-white seemed just a little too plain and I used one of the pre-programmed decorative stitches to accent the lines in the quilt.

Decorative stitching

 Because I didn't get these fabrics from my own stash, I needed to find a border that would coordinate with the charm squares and I first found a lilac for an inner border and then found a brown fabric for the binding that isn't an exact match, but it does work with the overall colour scheme.

Adding borders

 The quilting is in-the-ditch along the lines formed by the off-white fabric so it emphasizes the diagonal lines and the decorative stitching.

Adding binding

and the final product! This little quilt works just as well both portrait and landscape, and is perfect for any quilt collector!

Straight furrows mini quilt - FOR SALE HERE

Do you like to see these little mini quilts? Are you a quilter and would like more detailed instructions on how to make your own? Let me know here in the comments.

Thanks,
--Ann