Links

Have you found a great quilting website, visited a quilt show, discovered a wonderful quilt shop? Please share your links and experiences by sending a report to info@prairiepiecemaker.com, along with letting us know about errors and outdated links on this page.

Quilt Guilds and Associations

• An annotated listing of links to quilt guilds in Canada
• The Canadian Quilters' Association
• Saskatchewan Quilt Guilds:
• The The Moose Jaw Prairie Hearts Quilters' Guild
• The Saskatoon Quilters’ Guild
• The Humbolt Prairie Patchworker's Quilt Guild
• Quilt Guilds and Organizations in Other Provinces:
• Ottawa Valley Quilters’ Guild
• Victoria Quilters' Guild

Quilt Patterns

• Links to over one thousand sites that offer free quilt patterns.


• Marcia Hohn's Quilters' Cache offers many free quilt block patterns.


• From World Wide Quilting, quilt block patterns in alphabetical order.


• Information about and examples of quilting dedications.


• Disappearing Nine Patch
1. Lori Tourscher provided an excellent tutorial on the Disappearing 9-Patch Design at the February 2, 2010 Guild Meeting:
   
   and examples of the wide variety of patterns that can be created using different fabrics and block placement:
   

Lori provided links to more information about the Disappearing Nine Patch pattern and good examples of different applications of the Disappearing Nine Patch pattern.


2. Kathy Tanner has provided instructions for creating a Spilt Nine-Patch With a Twist. See an example of the design posted on her website.


• Recommended by Sharon Harris:
  1. Thumb Butte Quilters’ Guild of Prescott, Arizona:
     If you like to look at quilts or looking for inspiration click on the Show and Tell icon and see about five years of photos of quilts.
  2. Quiltville is a great site for those who enjoy making scrap quilts. Huge number of free patterns with great step-by-step pictures. Denise also recommends this site for ideas for using the strips of fabric collected through the Guild exchange.
  3. An on-line class for a Crazy Quilt, complete with embroidery stitch instruction.

Reports and Recommendations

The Thread Studio

Some guild members are entering their original small fabric art work in The Thread Studio special exhibit called Textile Tantrums. The exhibit opens in March at the Australian Quilt Convention in Melbourne and will travel to different venus over the coming year. The fabric art work will also be featured on The Thread Studio website in a special gallery section and featured in at least two international magazines.

Become a Quilters sleuth and solve a mystery!

Peggy Fischer recommends the challenge of a Mystery Quilt to launch the new quilting year. Following are a couple of links from Peggy to get started:

• Planet Patchwork is offering a "Wonderful One-Day New Years Mystery" event.
• The Quilt and Needle offers free original designs during its Mystery Quilt Weekends.

Here are a few more links:

• Susan Druding writes about mystery quilts and recommends links to mystery quilt sites.
• Tink's Cotton Club offers links to shops and personal web pages that have mystery quilt patterns.
• Quilting Passion has a whole section of mystery quilts.
• Quiltville offers Mystery quilts with plenty of pictures and instructions.

Mavis reports from the Ottawa Valley Quilters’ Guild Meetings

• June 2010
  "Hi to all my fellow Regina quilters. Our guest for the June meeting was Mary Pal. She is a well-known fibre artist in the Ottawa area. She gave a wonderful presentation about the SAQA ( Studio Art Quilt Associates), followed by a trunk show of artists from this group. The trunk show consisted of approx. 65 works of art which were 8"x8" and then matted by a white, black core mat approx. 2'' beyond the works. They were lovely to see first hand because of their 3D aspect and the artists had a description of their work and how their ideas originated. The trunk show has travelled the world. Do visit the trunk show and the links to Mary Pal's works. For those of you doing or interested in the fibre arts aspect of quilting they will be an inspiration and enjoyable even if you are not interested in the fibre arts. The Central Canada blog provides information about Studio Art Quilt Associates members' activities (the SAQA representative of western Canada is Anna Hergert). Enjoy. Have a wonderful summer of quilting and take care." Mavis.


• April 2010
  "Thought you might be interested in hearing about our April guest, Dena Crain who comes from the shores of Lake Baringo in the Great Rift Valley of Kenya. She was a soft-spoken, very pleasant lady who gave a presentation on her surroundings in Kenya. A typical day in her sewing room is to look out her window to see many, many monkeys swinging from the trees and hear them rushing across her roof like " a herd of Elephants"! She and her husband have lived there for 20 years. Following her presentation she related to us about the type of quilting happening in her area and there is a guild in Niarobi with approx. 300 members.She doesn't join in alot with other quilters as she is really a quilt artist and so her work is unique. She works mostly in silks. She prefers to work in solid colors and hand-dyes her own material. For more info I will direct you to her web-site which is www.denacrain.com/blog . Her work is really quite lovely and she also offers internet classes, which from all accounts are great."


• March 2010
  "Once again we had a delightful guest, Kathy K. Wylie. I am not entirely sure where she is from, although I believe it is Ottawa. Her quilts have been getting recognition locally, nationaly and internationally. She uses a technique called paper applique. She uses this for borders,sashing, in the block design itself, absolutely anywhere you can be creative enough to think of. This paper applique technique is creating a design in the same method ( fold, draw and cut) as when we made a string of paper dolls when we were little girls. So, you would end up with a string of paper dolls, snowflakes, trees, anything that you would like to have a repeat pattern for. Often, in her quilts she would make a quilt block and then place a wreath appliqued on top of the block with the wreath being designed from paper applique. For example, her block may be bear's paw and her added small wreath might be teddy bears for a baby quilt or a black bear wreath for and adult quilt. In order to make the wreath design she,of course can not merely fold the paper accordian style or she would end up with a string of her design. So, instead she must fold the SQUARE paper piece in thirds, cut off the two pointy areas at the top, draw her design and cut out, unfold. Now you have a quarter of a wreath,. Continue until you have a complete wreath. The neat part was that it was something that anyone could design by just getting ideas from nature, objects, pictures,etc. and implement into your own quilts. She does have quilt book named "Snowflakes" for anyone interested in not designing your own or to make this "clearer than mud" if I have not explained well enough. Her web site has a gallery of her quilts. Look carefully for the repeats. My favorite is Bridal Tea as I love the wee teacups!!I believe she is going to be at the National Quilt Show in Calgary and is well worth the time to look her up if you are there.
  
  Now, the charity group that I am taking part in is making a HUGE quilt. It has a large medallion in the centre and then it will be surrounded by log cabin blocks-all made out of like material and all donated. The quilt if for palliative care and is large enough to cover two double size beds. It is to be utilized when loved ones stay over with the patient and enables them to put the two beds together. We have only the small blocks made-people unable to attend the charity group in the afternoon also took part as kits for the blocks were available to take home."



• February 2010
  "Our evening began with 4 long tables of potluck finger foods. It was nice to have a festive feeling in the middle of winter. Enough about food. The guest of the evening was Diane MacLeod Shink from Montreal. She is a quilt historian, certified AQS appraiser and co-author of the book "Canadian Heritage Quilting". Her presentation was on techniques used by our grandmothers and still used today.She brought with her approx. 50 quilts from the 1800's and early to mid 1900"s (part of her personal collection). Many of these quilts she was in the process of refurbishing. It was so nice to see all the original fabrics and how they had survived the elements. Alot of them she aquired as she has travelled through the Laurentians. She also gave tips on caring for and preserving our quilts.She apparently has an apron collection which she did not bring with her. I think they would have been wonderful to see.She is doing a workshop or presentation at the Canada Quilt Show in Calgary in April .So, some of you may see her there. She may have some of her collection there. Anyone interested in the historical aspect of quilting would enjoy her. I must say, I surely look forward to the meeting- always so interesting!"



• December 2009
  Mavis Wood writes "Helen Fujiki from Toronto was the guest for the evening and she had a trunk show featuring approximately 125 small quilt projects, wall hangings and her quilted interpretations of manhole covers she saw while visiting Asia. Apparently, Asian countries (in particular, Japan) are much more creative in designing their manhole covers and actually have contests for designs representing their economy, culture."
  
  Mavis continues, "Helen Fujiki did a series of approximately 50 of these interpreted by quilting. She combined broderie perse, machine and applique, with the use of panels to accomplish her wall quilts. She also had 2 video presentations of her trips to Japan and showed works of and info on the 5 original quilt masters of Japan. I loved every single moment of the evening."
  
  Mavis notes that some Guild members may be familiar with Helen Fujiki's work as she had some pieces at the mini Canadian Quilt Show in Saskatoon last spring. Mavis highly recommends visiting Helen Fujiki's website and encourages you to click on all tabs, especially the underground of Japan.


• November 2009
  Mavis Wood recently moved to Ottawa and has joined the Ottawa Valley Quilters’ Guild. Pippa Moore, a fabric artist from Comox, B.C. made a presentation at the November Guild meeting. Mavis recommends visiting her website, particularly take a look at the “Kitambaa” designs!