More Circles! This time for Lucky Spool's Essential Guide to Modern Quiltmaking

Do you know what these are? Just some of my favourite tools in an arsenal of circle making things. Front and centre is my compass and elementary school geometry set. School supply nerds take note! You can find out about these and how I use them in the new book from Lucky Spool,

The Essential Guide to Modern Quiltmaking

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This great book is like taking a workshop from each of your dream teachers - Jacquie Gering, Denyse Schmidt, Penny Layman, Angela Walters, and more. If you can't be in the classroom with us, this might be the next best thing! Each teacher has a chapter devoted to a specific concept or technique. You get the benefit of their experience and all their Quilter to Quilter tips. And then you get a pattern that uses those techniques.

At the end of the book is a phenomenal gallery of modern quilts. Some serious eye candy there.

My quilt in the book might be a new top favourite of mine. It comes with my chapter on Circles and Curves. You could probably call it a sampler of the techniques, but it is more than that. Inspired by two favourite fabrics it takes geometric block design to a really fun place. You could make the pattern as is or you could change up the layout to suit your own preference. Or maybe make repeats of your favourite blocks for a completely different look.

I debated long and hard about the colour selection for this quilt. It needs high contrast and I really wanted to keep it to two colours. But it is me and where one fabric will do I will pick 10! You could say this is a pretty masculine colour combo with just navy and gray, but I call it calming. Despite the bold geometry of the quilt, it has a very serene quality. Keeping the background fabric to a single choice really helps with that. 

To check out the other contributors and see what they are saying about the quilt, you can follow along with them.

Kari Vojtechovsky

teaches on The Principles of Color

Alissa Haight Carlton

teaches on Working with Solids

Dan Rouse

teaches on Working with Prints

Denyse Schmidt

teaches on Improvisational Patchwork

Jacquie Gering

teaches on The Alternate Grid

Penny Layman

, of course, teaches on Paper Piecing

Heather Jones

teaches Large Scale Piecing

Angela Walters

teaches Modern Machine Quilting

Heather Grant

then takes us on a Study of Modern Quilts.

Lucky Spool

is a new publisher on the book scene for quilting. Led by Susanne Woods (formerly of Stash Books and Craftsy) they are bringing a number of exciting books to the market. Their Essential Guide for Modern Quiltmaking looks like it is going to leave its mark for quilters everywhere.

Right now you can get the book on a great discount from Taunton Press (Lucky Spool's distributor). If you buy it from them get a 20% discount between now and July 21.

Click here. Use the discount code EGMQ20

UPDATE: the correct code is EGQM20. My apologies for the typo.

It's Over?

Yes, it is a question. But my slump may be over. And I have to give all the credit to my students at the recent Quilt Canada workshops.

A few weeks ago I had the pleasure of attending Quilt Canada in St. Catherines, Ontario. This is the annual big deal in Canada, hosted by the Canadian Quilters' Association and put on by a different local organizing committee. It includes the National Juried Show (which had a modern category this year) and 4 days of workshops, on top of the fun things like banquets, merchant malls, and challenges. I had three days of classes, two days being an Improv workshop.

In our small, ridiculously hot classroom we played and played with fabric. When I teach Improv I like to teach a series of basic techniques via blocks. For an audience used to more traditional piecing I find it to be a good foray into the world of Improv. When I get multi-day workshops we then get more time to play.

And oh, did the ladies in this class play. They all embraced improv with open hearts and sharp rotary cutters. As we taped blocks to the wall, brainstormed possibilities, drew out more and more inspiration, and laughed a lot the excitement grew. I was completely caught up in the energy and inspiration. I'm not going to lie, I may have even jumped up and down a little.

At the end of it I was desperate to sew myself. But I had to rush off on a plane to be home for The Monster's 8th birthday. So I found some time in the following week to play. And when I did play I felt all the same excitement in my own little basement studio that I felt in that room. I felt grounded, I felt energized, I felt creative again.

Thank-you so much ladies, I owe you so much.

Here is what I played with. In the class we covered how to take an idea, and image, and translate it into an improv pieced block. Houses, letters, numbers, mountains, diamonds, they all came out that day. We also brainstormed other shapes and one of them happened to be a sewing machine. That idea planted itself into my head.

I think I may turn this into a full pattern as my mind is spinning with possibilities. And if it wasn't the last day of school I could tell you for sure that I would be sewing more of these every day. Yup, the slump just may be over.

High River Handicrafts Guild

Last week I had the tremendous honour to teach in High River. You may not know or remember that High River was one of the communities devastated in last year's flood. It is a small town south of Calgary. The Highwood River runs through it and during the flood that was a bit of an understatement. The Highwood River barrelled over, under and through it.

A few months back I got a call from a quilter from the High River Handicrafts Guild. Would I be interested in teaching Slabs to the Guild? How they found me is the best part.

One of their members received a donated quilt after the flood. She loved it so much she started researching it. And it contained slabs! But the story goes further back than that. The quilt was made by someone else that I taught slabs too in one of the other local area guilds. She turned her slabs into a quilt, then donated it. Shirley, in High River, received the quilt. Shirley told me that the quilt has become her 'blankie'. Providing all the comfort that the word implies and then some. 

On top of that, I know the original quilt maker outside of quilting because her grandkids and my kids are friends, we live in the same neighbourhood and they go to school together!

It was crazy!

Not nearly as crazy as the flood and the fact that the community is still dealing with the aftermath. The centre where the class took place is a block from the river. The houses and apartments surrounding it are either still empty or you see the evidence of recovery in the form of new windows. Crews were moving earth and rocks outside to fortify the shoreline as we head towards spring run off. All morning phones were going off with alerts as they were doing emergency services testing in the community. 

Then were the quilters telling me about living in hotels for 6 months or more, the stress on disabled family. How they were just getting carpet installed that day. How they couldn't go home. What the wall of water was like. And about the generosity of other guilds in donated fabric and machines to replace all that was lost. How they themselves decided to give back as a first project once they could sew again.

The entire morning was humbling. There were tears and a lot of laughter. And so much sewing. 

Thank you to the High River Handicrafts Guild for having me.

And I can tell you this for sure, I am super motivated to get the last of the Just One Slab quilts done. There are about a dozen in various states of completion at my house. The rest have or are being finished and donated. All will be in by the flood anniversary.

Inuvik Part 2

When I left for Inuvik I had to temper my expectations. I've read far too much Farley Mowat, Pierre Burton, and anthropology texts about the Arctic. I had romantic expectations, for sure. The North was going to change me, that I knew for sure. But I told myself to calm down, that I was setting myself up for something that was likely not going to happen. I was, after all, only going up there to teach quilting. It's not like I was on some dog sled through the cold Arctic adventure. Or paddling the MacKenzie. Or hunting a seal. I was flying on a plane to sew. Let's be realistic.

But it did change me. The class itself inspired me as a teacher. The community infected me with a spirit I've never seen before in a community. The cold did not feel all that cold, well, except for one day. The sun shone in a way I've never experienced. And I heard snow unlike the crunch or swish I'm used to. Seriously, that hollow sound of the snow in that one spot in Tuktoyaktuk will haunt me. It's all a part of me me now. I'm not a different person, but I am a changed person.

It's subtle. I feel a quiet. I look for a quiet. At the same time I find the laughter, even when it doesn't seem to be evident. I seek friendship and the joy of people because they do make life brighter. Oh, and I will never look at a river the same way again. And do you realize just how many shades of white there really are in the world?

This greenhouse allows residents to have a normal growing season for everything from herbs to berries to veggies. It's converted from the old hockey rink. Yarn bombing awesomeness too.

Nothing slows down Inuvik residents. The paddling team at the rec centre, prepping for some summer races and endurance events. (Including my host, Shona.)

So many buildings in Inuvik are painted bright colours. These are known as the Smartie houses. But the day care, the arena, and many other public buildings are in so many colours. In a landscape of white, with few trees, these are a welcome respite for the eyes.

Ice Road Adventures! Seriously, a road plowed on a frozen river. Then, eventually, the frozen ocean. Absolutely wild when you think about it. Then again, it might be better not to think about it. 

Pingos. Hills made of permafrost thrust upwards by underground water. In the winter they looked like random bumps on the otherwise barren landscape.

The end of the Trans Canada Trail. There is a marker at the tip of the hamlet of Tuktoyaktuk. It is weathered and looks about four times as old as it is. My husband's grandparents once bought sections of the trail for the whole family, so this was rather special to see.

That's me, standing on the edge of the Arctic Ocean. In the past year I've now been to all three coasts of Canada. That kind of blew my mind. And all for quilting too.

One of the more unique experiences I ever had. At the bottom of that hole and frozen ladder is a community freezer. Residents of Tuk dug it out back in the 50s. Before the electric deep freeze this is where the community would keep it's haul of fish, seal, whale, and caribou hunted to keep the families and dogs fed throughout the winter.

Ever seen Ice Road Truckers? This was the only transport truck we saw on our 5 hours on the Ice Road.

Sunset, back below the tree line. Our trip up and down the Ice Road was surely an adventure as the truck nearly lost a wheel to cracks in the road. So being back where the trees were was a relief, for sure. That was a welcome beer that night as we finished watching the sunset.

The northernmost mosque in the world. This makes me love Canada so much.

During the trip I kept thinking about my friends around the world. Those who would have had their breath taken away by the cold. Those who might have been uncomfortable with the amount of fur people wear. Those who would do anything for a trip to this part of the world. I'm sharing these pics with you. I never thought I'd get this far north in my lifetime, so live vicariously through me, if you like. And from this point I will too, in case I never get back there again.

Again, thank-you to the Inuvik Quilt Guild and the NWT Arts Council for this opportunity.