Quilt Canada Highlights

At the CQA booth

Quilt Canada 2016 has come and gone. It was such a well organized event, and I was able to easily find my way to every class, lecture, and quilt show. A huge thank you to the many volunteers who donated their time to help make everything run smoothly.  The whole experience was amazing and even though I was there for 4 days, there were many events that I didn't even get to participate in. There were lectures and demos, and well... you just can't do it all! I will share some of my highlights in a couple of blog posts.

1) Vendors Mall:

Don't judge me when I tell you that I didn't buy any fabric. I know!  I was concerned that I might be ill! But I was so busy with classes and seeing all the quilts, and visiting with friends, that I couldn't focus on buying anything at the vendor mall. Everything looked beautiful, but I couldn't even remember what quilts I was working on and what I might need.  So I don't have any purchases to show you, but I have other exciting things to show you.

2) Book Launch: 
My friend Maggie Vanderweit had a book launch at her CQA booth. I was on the program committee of my local quilt guild with Maggie about 20 years ago so we have known each other for a long time. She has written a book called "Stone Threads" and I can't wait to read it. Maggie has been such an inspiration to me and to so many quilters, and I was thrilled to celebrate this amazing accomplishment with her. Here she is signing a copy of her book for me. My head is still spinning with all the things we talked about!



3) Jane Sassaman:

Jane was the keynote speaker and her lecture was called "Under the Influence". She talked about the development of her quilting career, and the experiences, artists, and friendships that influenced her. It was thought provoking, humourous, and inspiring to all of us.

4) The Quilt Shows:

There were several quilt shows to enjoy including the Trend Tex challenge, the Modern Quilt Guild show, the Invitational show, the Fibre Art Network show (see those quilts here), and of course the National Juried Show. I attended a NJS tour with Jackie White which was really interesting. Here is my favourite pieced quilt called "Ancient Stars" by Joan Robinson which won the award for "Excellence in workmanship in piecing". 

Just look at these incredible borders... not a single point is cut off and that is hard to do on hundreds of HST and diamond blocks! And in spite of having so many complex borders, this quilt was completely flat!



This is another amazing machine quilted winner called "My Three Boys" by Kim Mullen. The entire design is quilted on a piece of black fabric. That's it... just black fabric and thread. The detail on this was amazing! It won the "Excellence for work by a first time exhibitor".

Okay, I want to tell you all about my classes too, but my kids need the computer to watch the soccer game. I'll be back later with more highlights... from the quilt show, not the soccer game!