Julies Name Game - New Free Motion Quilting Design #141

This new Free Motion Quilting design was created for all those who love to do Loop de Loops and as a teaching exercise for those who don't.

The winning name was chosen by popular vote (Facebook and Instagram) on Sunday Nov 24 at 6:00 PM (Pacific).

This design is now appropriately called "Going Loopy"!

Thank you and congratulations to Nancy Carscadden Phillips of 

Nanaimo B.C. for suggesting this winning name.

Teaching Fun With Free Motion Quilting for Victoria's Quilts - Parksville Group

In Mid November I had the pleasure of once again teaching my "Fun With Free Motion Quilting" class, this time to a group of quilters from the Parksville area who are members of the local group of Victoria's Quilts (Victoria Branch) B.C.

I created this class to teach some basic Free Motion Quilting skills such as knowing when and how to adjust the machines tension for beautiful stitch quality, what needles work best with your machine, how to choose the appropriate needle for your chosen thread and /or design and of course how to stitch a variety of designs.

This wonderfully generous and talented group of ladies wanted to improve their free motion quilting skills so that they could finish their charity quilts more quickly and with a greater variety of machine quilting designs.

We had a thoroughly enjoyable day with everyone stitching new designs with great success.
Though these lovely ladies have so far been too modest to share photos of their beautiful stitching they have kindly supplied me with photos of just a few of their recently completed donation quilts.

What is Victoria’s Quilts

Victoria’s Quilts is a non-profit Canadian registered charity whose mission is to provide handmade quilts to people living with Cancer in Canada. By providing these quilts the group seeks to bring physical comfort to those undergoing treatment as well as the knowledge that they are not alone in their struggle. The community cares! You can learn more about Victoria’s Quilts Canada here.

The local group “Parksville Quilters” is an associated friends group of the Victoria (B.C.) branch part of Victoria’s Quilts, Canada wide.

Who was Victoria ?

Victoria Ann Morrison was a wife, mother, grandmother, and the best friend of Deborah Rogers, the founder of Victoria's Quilts in the United States. She was also a cancer patient. One of the comments she made about her chemotherapy was that she got cold while she was laying in the treatment facility waiting for the day’s infusion to be over.

After Victoria’s death Deborah remembered Victoria's comment about being cold and wanted to do something. Since Victoria made so many quilts in her life time, Deb thought that this would be a good place to start. Victoria took the fear out of quilting by saying, "People aren’t perfect – why do quilts have to be?" Out of this grew Victoria’s Quilts.

To learn more about Victoria's Quilts in the United States, visit their web site at Victoria's Quilts

How the local chapter came to be

When (Parksville) founding members Joan and Stephanie heard that there was only one group in Victoria who were supplying all the quilt requests for British Columbia they decided to get a group going to help with the demand. Within a few months they had gathered over 30 women who now meet once a month to help.      

  Fundraising

Victoria's Quilts rely largely on donations to raise money to buy fabric, flannel backing and batting to make the quilts.  

The Parksville group also has yard sales, bake sales, advertises in the paper for donations and works at the yearly Sandcastle competition in Parksville.

Most of the materials come from the kindness the quilters themselves who give so generously of their time and fabric!

To date the Parksville group has donated 257 quilts in this area and given over 150 to the Victoria group who mail all over British Columbia.        
Each year the requests increase as the public becomes more aware of the program. 
All local quilts are hand delivered at the members expense (Duncan to Campbell River) as the mailing costs are prohibitive.               
Between the Parksville and Victoria groups 860 people have received quilts at no cost to the requester of the quilt or the recipient.

If you wish to donate funds (you will be issued a tax receipt) or fabric to the Parksville chapter please contact;

Stephanie Szymczak, 611 Attenborough Street, Parksville, V9P 1A5.

stephanieszymczak@shaw.ca

250-248-0110 /cell 250-937-0588

All fabric for piecing must be good quality 100% cotton

Only 100% cotton flannel may be used for the backs (As per Victoria’s Quilts rules).

Simply follow the links above to donate to other branches across Canada.

Julies Name Game - New Free Motion Quilting Design #140

This new Free Motion Quilting Design would be fun stitched large for an all over design or small as a super textural background fill.
A thick variegated thread would make it the star of the show while a finer thread that matches the background fabric would allow it to be more subtle.

There were a wide variety of wonderful name suggestions and the voting was brisk though in the end the winner was chosen by popular vote (Facebook and Instagram) on Sunday Nov 17, 2019 at 6:00 PM (Pacific).

The winning name for this design is ... "Leaf it Alone".
Thank you and congratulations to Philippa Zapf of Nanaimo B.C. for suggesting this winning name.

Julies Name Game - New Free Motion Quilting Design # 139

This new Free Motion Quilting Design is a celebration of Fall.
The winning name was chosen by popular vote (Facebook and Instagram) on Sunday November 10, 2019 at 6:00 PM (Pacific).

Now called "Chinese Lanterns" I'll be stitching it in orange and green variegated thread.
Thank you and congratulations to Lori Butler of Nanaimo B.C. for suggesting this winning name.

Teaching Free Motion Quilting for the Whistler Valley Quilters

 I had a wonderful time teaching for the Whistler Valley Quilters' Guild in early November.
Though a relatively small guild of just under 50 members they are an extremely dynamic and talented group with a busy program that includes community quilts, a wide range of workshops, trunk shows, one day "mini" retreats, library and an annual retreat lasting four or five days.

Our classes were held in the Is Tken Hall of the wonderful
Squamish Lil'wat Cultural Centre.
This is a round room with wrap around windows, perfect lighting and a view of the stunning northerly mountain ranges and Lost Lake Woods.
I can safely say that this the most beautiful and spiritual venue that I have ever taught in.

The cultural center also contains three galleries containing historic and contemporary artifacts from the Squamish and Lil'wat Nations, guided tours, multiple venues for community and private events, a First Nations gift shop, onsite catering and the Thunderbird Cafe featuring an Indigenous inspired menu.

I was treated to lunch daily (thank you Sarah) from the cafe and the food was fabulous.

Day 1 - Fun with Free Motion Quilting

Our first day of classes was "Fun with Free Motion Quilting".

This class is for anyone who has wanted to learn how to free motion quilt or for those who have tried and want to expand their skills.  

During class we explore correct body positioning, how to set your machine tension, correct needle / thread / design combinations, layering and correct hand positioning for successful stitching. 

Students stitch a small sampler of several designs including loops, spirals, stars, flowers, stippling and hearts with emphasis on stitch length, tension and comfort with stitching in all directions. 

Drawing the design first for easy stitching

Doing some wonderful stitching on Day 1

All the participants were super enthusiastic. We had such fun!

Look at this lovely stitching. 

Jordan is doing a great job.

Free Motion Quilting really is fun!

All of the stitching samplers were beautiful !

After a very successful day one several of the ladies treated me to a lovely dinner at the Attic at 21 Steps. The company, atmosphere and the food were all fabulous. What a treat! Thank you ladies.

Day 2 - Botanical Quilting Made Easy

The morning of  day 2 in Whistler was beautifully crisp and clear.
Everyone arrived at class well rested and eager to learn.

In "Botanical Quilting Made Easy" students learn a variety of  organic free motion quilting designs inspired by nature such as fanciful leaves, vines, ferns and flowers. 

These designs look wonderful as a background fill or overall design on batiks, art quilts, children’s quilts and more.

Stitch them small with blending thread for a more traditional look or go big and playful with all your fancy threads.                                                                          

Thread choice (colour, type and weight) to enhance design are discussed as students stitch a small design sampler.

A quick demonstration of Botanical Free Motion Quilting  - wish this was my sewing room!

I"m always inspired by how quickly students can progress with just two days of class and just look at how much fun they're having!

Liking Botanical quilting

Enjoying stitching Botanical vines and leaves

This is really fun!

Great combination leaves and tendrils

Look at all the fabulous stitching!

Lovely leaves and climbing vines

Echo quilting adds detail

Having fun stitching Wisteria 

Chrysanthemums and leaves

Wonderful Wisteria

Fabulous leaves and vines

Everyone did such a wonderful job!

Doing a wonderful job

Creating the Wisteria flowers

I'm so proud of everyone!

I have to thank Sarah for doing such a great job of organizing our classes.

Another huge thank you to Sarah, Earnest and Miss Simone for their kind hospitality in welcoming me into their home and taking such wonderful care of me!

At the end of class Sarah and the group presented me with this beautiful glass candle holder

created by Michael Forbes.

It has a deep personal meaning and I will cherish it always!

Student Work

Free motion quilted by Anita Winkle

Within a few weeks of our class I received a lovely E mail from Anita which she has graciously allowed me to share.

In it she writes; 

"I attended your two day workshop in Whistler in November. I had previously only done a little free motion but only as an absolute last resort. Well, during your class I discovered that this was indeed a technique that I could do. 

Imagine my surprise! 

 So I am writing to show you the 4 panels that I bought a few years ago but never made into the pillows partly because I could not imagine how I would quilt them. 

Well here they are quilted with a meandering star pattern that I learned from you. 

I love them. I am loving FMQ. 

I do not know if I am willing to do an actual quilt but certainly these panels were a lot of fun to quilt."

You did a beautiful job Anita and rest assured, you're more than ready to use your new found skills to quilt a full sized quilt !

Julies Name Game - New Free Motion Quilting Design #138

As I predicted, you had a loads of fun naming this weeks new free motion quilting design!

In the end it came down to a tie.

The winning name, chosen on November 3, 2019 by popular vote (Facebook and Instagram) with a little help from a random name picker is....

"Going Batty"!

Thank you and congratulations to Sandy Robison Lowery of Duncan B.C.

for suggesting this winning name.

Julies Name Game - New Free Motion Quilting Design #137

Inspiration is everywhere..... nature, a moment in time, the meaning or the rhythm of a favourite song.
I was thinking about my Dad and singing a "road song" in my head while drawing and this is the result.

The winning name for this new Free Motion Quilting design was chosen by popular vote (Facebook and Instagram) on Sunday October 27 at 6:00 P.M. (Pacific).

This design is now named "Detour"!

Thank you and congratulations to Carole Thornton.

Speaking of detours her Facebook profile says that she is from
Keremeos B.C.
I don't quite know how to tell her but I'm pretty sure that she now lives in Parksville B.C. just around the corner from me :)

Oh...and the song was "On the Road Again" by Willie Nelson.