Outside the Lines

About a week ago we marked 108 years since the Battle of Vimy Ridge in France during WWI (April 9 - 12, 1917) and it reminded me of a wonderful road trip that the Official Cookie Tester and I took to Ottawa last fall, just after Remembrance Day. We met up with friends for a special exhibit at The Canadian War Museum entitled Outside the Lines. This photo was taken in the Royal Canadian Legion Hall of Honour rotunda.

In addition to showcasing a spectacular maquette of our national war memorial that sits steps from Parliament Hill, it included this amazing hand embroidered quilt seen hanging to its left in the photo above.

I wasn't smart enough to snap a photo of the exhibit explanation, but it appears to be a quilt commemorating the four companies under the command of Colonel Kingsmill of the 123rd Overseas Battalion, 10th Royal Grenadiers. 

The names of every man in Companies A, B, C and D, and their commanding officers are meticulously stitched in red while the British bulldog waves the Union Jack. I cannot begin to conceive of how this was planned so that the maker fit everyone in.

Outside the Lines shone a light on two centuries of women’s art about war, beginning in the 1800s and finishing in 2024, and it was impressive. It included 70 diverse works. Only one was a quilt, which I will share, but I thought I'd also give you a glimpse of a few of my favourite pieces.

This painting was of women working in a munitions factory in Montreal and it was so very captivating. I didn't come close to capturing the incredible light in it, it was incredibly soft and warm. We spent a lot of time examining it.

I loved this painting but again, wasn't smart enough to capture any details about it.

And the same goes for this one. I will let them speak for themselves.

This painting spoke to the return of part of a family to Japan and the ultimate return of a few of the family members several decades later.

And here's the quilt that I mentioned. It recognizes one of the first black companies in the Canadian military, though I couldn't help but notice that their commander was white (top row) ...

It's interesting how the artist used camo fabric for the sashing to pull all of those photo transfers together.

Back to The Battle of Vimy Ridge. The Canadian National Vimy Memorial sits on a 250-acre portion of the former battleground in France, dedicated to the memory of Canadian Expeditionary Force members killed during the First World War. It also serves as the place of commemoration for 11,285 Canadian soldiers of the First World War killed or presumed dead in France who have no known grave. 

The War Museum is home to the maquettes of the 20 figures scattered throughout the memorial so we got to get an up close look at them during our visit as well. 

These plaster casts of the original sculpted clay statues were used as a reference tool for the Italian carvers who worked on the memorial and they are impressive.

The figures represent themes such as strength, sorrow, and peace. If you look closely at the maquette you can see where the figures are placed atop the columns and throughout the monument as a whole, giving you a sense of its incredible size. A visit here is on my bucket list....M

 

Passionate Handcrafters

There's a masterpiece in the making at Upper Canada Village near Morrisburg, and it's been in the works since 2019. Their talented interpreters have been working tirelessly, stitching a quilt that captures the essence of the site to celebrate their 60th anniversary. 

Founded in 1961, Upper Canada Village is one of the largest living history sites in Canada. They endeavor to depict life in a rural English Canadian setting during the year 1866. Over 40 historical buildings, many moved there prior to flooding of The Lost Villages during the building of the St. Lawrence Seaway, include homes, functioning mills and trades workshops.

This stunning quilt showcases the wonderful heritage homes and buildings throughout the Village, along with some familiar faces and beloved animals. 

Amazingly intricate details, vibrant colours, and heartwarming stories are stitched into every block. (The woman in blue has a crinoline!) Currently they are focused on quilting a scallop border and intricate cross hatching.

It is a testament to the passion, creativity and dedication of their interpreters who are taking it slow and steady to ensure that every stitch is perfect. 

Apparently this block depicts the woman who designed the quilt. How clever to include her too!

And take a closer look at the quilting frame. Holes are drilled at intervals and the frames kept in place with a large wooden stake as the quilt is rolled. Both beautiful and brilliant, and much easier than fiddling with clamps. Not sure what purpose the two sets of three stakes on either end of the quilt serve but I suspect that they are helping keep it stretched.

The Village is celebrating their fall fair this weekend; it would be the perfect time to see this incredible work of art up close and personal at the Ross Farm....M

Photos: Upper Canada Village

Hexie Heaven

Why baste just one quilt when you can do two? After Sandy had finished basting what I am calling Under the Sea she wasted no time moving along and putting Hexie Heaven on the basting table, another colourful beauty. Look at all of those hexies; a girl after my own heart.

During the last year, when she wasn't stitching little fish she's been busy turning her Kaffe jelly rolls into hexies - so colourful! She scored a terrific deal on three of them a while back and managed to find the last one, called Parakeet, online, so that made her really happy.

This project went with her to the lovely island of Male in the Maldives for a dive trip. All of that time in the air resulted in lots of progress. 

While on a stopover in Abu Dhabi she noticed that there was no shortage of hexie inspiration. Just look at that ceiling!

It's a mosaic tile structure; just look at all of the tiny pieces!

The backing is a Kaffe as well, this gorgeous Millefiore print in rich blues, the perfect foil for all those lovely hexies on the front. Luv.

Here's a better shot of the entire top.

She is hand quilting this one, wanting to keep the pattern simple and also maintain the outline of the flowers. There's still some thinking to be done regarding how to quilt the border. She seems to remember seeing a hexie quilt where they’d somehow managed to quilt it looking like lattice work, which sounds lovely, so I suspect that there will be a deep dive into Pinterest one of these days to see if she can find that again. In the meantime, she's enjoying all of those lovely hexie flowers....M

Speed Binding For The Quilt Show

In addition to hosting our annual Holly Bazaar, the gals at the church decided that it might be fun to hold a quilt show and afternoon tea this past weekend and I was happy to be able to provide both quilts and baking towards the effort. The church setting was exceptionally beautiful and our visitors thoroughly enjoyed not only it, but the show and the tea.

It was something to behold, with quilts draped over two pews to make it easier for our guests to get a good look at them.

Approximately half of the church was filled with the collection from one man - Mennonite quilts that he has collected over the years. Apparently this is only a portion of his collection.

And his wife shared an expansive collection of her hand-hooked rugs, some of which were her own design. Amazingly, she was fine with folks walking on them.

This is a section from one that really appealed to me; apparently it takes her about 400 hours to make a rug.

This delicate cross stitch quilt looked like an heirloom.

I pulled together eight quilts to share...

and it was fun to see them mixed in with the rest of the show.

I had some last-minute binding to do to get Wintersweet ready for the show. It's been waiting to be bound for a couple of months now and of course I'd left it to the last minute, but I made it! (I'll share more about it next time.)

I baked pecan tassies for the tea...

and in the hall you could tell that they had lots of fun decorating, including these tea-themed centrepieces. The quartet playing throughout the tea was a nice touch.

This was the first time we've undertaken a show like this but from the comments I've received, folks would love to see it done again. 

With friends offering up their quilts to show, I would hope that there would be enough interest in a repeat. It was a wonderful way to spend an otherwise dreary autumn afternoon...M

We Are Responsible For Our Dreams

Is this not one of the most intriguing quilt photos? It is a  21' x 21' tessellated blanket fort in an almost magical woodland setting and it was made by Kevin Clancy for a month-long slumber party tour called We Are Responsible For Our Dreams, a nomadic platform for collective dreaming and shared experience. Besides the image pulling me in, that title resonated with me and all of the quilts that I dream of making.

It's story is one of many reasons that I have been spellbound by Quilted. The book is Volume Q in the UPPERCASE Encyclopedia of Inspiration, an ongoing series released in whimsical order on all manner of creative topics (UPPERCASE  is a quarterly magazine for the creative and the curious published by Janine Vangool in Calgary, AB. She started the magazine in 2009 as a creative challenge, to push herself beyond what client projects could do and to fill a void in the magazine space.)

Every time I pick up Quilted I find something new to pull me in, in large part because there are so many wonderful ideas for using those leftover bits to make fabric and then integrate it into traditional patterns.

From improv...

to very, very structured.

So many ways to expand your horizons! For years, I have wanted to try framing quilt blocks on stretched canvas but I totally love the idea of an improv creation rather than just a single block.

Most amazing to me is that despite piecing together this fantastic collection of quilters from professional connections and friendships that Janine has made over her years of publishing and designing three fabric collections for Windham Fabrics, she is not a quilter! 

I have been selfishly hoarding Jane's copy for the better part of a year now so I finally broke down and purchased my own. It looks like it is sold out on the UPPERCASE website but Janine lists several shops that carry her books and magazines and I was able to find one at Soul Paper. Guess Jane might get her copy back after all!....M

A Little Light Reading

Are you familiar with Quiltfolk magazine? Last year I became a subscriber and have thoroughly enjoyed travelling throughout the States with each new issue. 

Recently they offered free shipping on a bundle of back issues to their Canadian subscribers so I jumped at the opportunity. 

Five new issues have arrived so I'm getting ready for a personal mini-retreat to pour over each one of them. I'm headed to Tennessee, Eastern Massachusetts, Michigan, Utah and Vermont, not necessarily in that order.

Each issue explores makers and their stories from an individual state, from traditional to modern and everything in between. It is ad-free and filled with great photography, making it a visual treat totally focused on the craft.

As is the way with quilts, the back stories add layers of interest to what the eye beholds - a rich source of inspiration that gets the creative juices flowing.

The magazines are too good not to share so they go into a rotation with my quilty friends who are equally enthralled. I'm off to make a pot of tea....M