Canada 150+
Canada was in a fever in 2017 - 150 years as a country. Our sesquicentennial. Everything was red and white, maple-leafed, or 150 - special coins, bedding plants and cool T-shirts. Excitedly, I purchased a special commemorative Canada 150 quilt pattern from the Sew Sisters, The Canadian Sampler. I received Canada-themed block patterns in the mail every month throughout the year. Yet, as the year progressed, I still hadn’t stitched a single block.
An Olympic declaration
In February and March 2018, I decided to combine my love of the Olympics and the stitching of the quilt. I endeavoured to match the block I was stitching to what was happening in PyeongChang, South Korea. A block a day through the Olympic games, then the Paralympic games.
Pattern blocks stitched
There are 20 blocks in the Canadian Sampler pattern. I made 18 of them, aligning them to stories of the athletes and their endeavours. Click on any of the blocks to see my Instagram story about the experience.
Patterns I added - from other sources
As I stitched, I wanted to add blocks to the quilt, to make it a 5 x 5 (25-block total) quilt. Plus, I was investigating different stories about Canada’s history, all part of researching the Olympians, Canada and the quilt. These blocks are ones I added. Click on them to see the stories I wrote about the blocks and their tie to the Olympics or Paralympic games.
Where did I get the patterns?
First, the new logo for the sesquicentennial anniversary. This logo came with a little controversy (many didn’t like it) but I think it’s pretty. I converted the Amanpour & District Quilt Guild’s pattern into a red and white version.
A telephone! We Canadians are pretty proud to call the telephone our invention. This telephone - Call Me Maybe - pattern by Lara Buccella for Sew Mama Sew was the perfect version for the quilt.
Curling is a sport I’ve never tried, yet it is a quintessential activity for a Canadian in the winter. When it was first introduced to the Olympics as a demonstration sport, we were on a pretty impressive winning streak. This curling block quilt block table runner by Sarah Venderburgh is so simple, yet so cool. The perfect block for my quilt.
Finally, I adore, adore, adore this bear pattern by Quietplay. I’ve never actually made it the size she’d intended. I’ve enlarged it by 200% for a baby quilt and I’ve shrunk it by 50% for this quilt. A Canadian quilt certainly needed a bear.
A little creativity of my own
Finally, I created my own pattern blocks, to round out the developing quilt. It just had to have a Mountie, a loon, something inspired by our Aboriginal forefathers, the CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation), gloves (to go with the toque), hockey sticks and Superman, right? Only some of these blocks have an Instagram story related to the Olympics.
On to a quilter…
I was excited to take the quilt to Love Shack Quilts for her freehand, custom long arm quilting. During our consultation, we landed on having Canadian words stitched into the borders of the quilt. The blocks would have either cross hatching, or a maple leaf background, depending on the placement in the quilt.
Plan in place, I couldn’t wait to get the quilt back from Sharon.
Thirty blocks in total. 25 for the front; 5 for the back. I’d admit, I’m pretty proud how the whole thing came together.
So. I cannot get a decent image of the quilt - it hangs funny. I am not sure if this is my hanging sleeve, the binding or what. But this image (above) seems to be the best version of the quilt.
The quilting is fun. I’ve included a script overlay, so you can see what the 40 words/phrases are in the borders:
All of the provincial/territory names: British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, NFLD/Labrador, Yukon, NW Territories, Nunavut (13)
The words to the Canadian National Anthem: Native Land, True Patriot Love, All of Us Command (Oh no! It has Sons’ Command - our anthem is updated!), Glowing Hearts, See the Rise, True North, Strong & Free, From Far & Wide, Stand on Guard, Keep our Land (10)
Uniquely Canadian: RCMP (the Royal Canadian Mounted Police), Made in Canada, Double Double (an order at Tim Hortons coffee shop, where you want two shots of cream and two shots of sugar…double, double), Loonies & Toonies (our one dollars coin has a Loon on it and was nicknamed a Loonie, when the two dollar coin was issued, it was called a Toonie), Canada Eh? (Bob and Doug MacKenzie made this phrase popular in the movie Strange Brew), Clearly Canadian (water company), Canada 150 (7)
Geography with a Canadian connection: Northern Lights, Prairies, Sea to Sea to Sea, Rocky Mountains, Flanders Fields (5)
Maybe Canadian?? Peaceful, Toboggan, Maple Leaf, Diversity, Inuksuk (5)
And let’s talk about the back. I learned something valuable from the quilting experience. Always (!) label the back - which way you want it to go. I was disappointed to see the blocks going cross ways. While some of them have no real direction, the heart and the Superman blocks are sideways to me. I never want to show people the back of the quilt. A bummer.
Reflection on the journey…
This experience - trying to match a quilt block with the unpredictable story of the Olympics - was fun, yet tiring. The stories I anticipated would get a rewrite with a bad throw of the proverbial curling rock. On more than one occasion, I was stitching a new block at midnight for the next day because Canada was expected to get a medal and then did not!
I did have a set of hockey sticks - that block waited and waited until the Paralympic games. The losses the Canadian hockey teams sustained didn’t seem celebratory to say the least. In fact, the women’s hockey team were flat out crying as they accepted their silver medals. It wasn’t worth celebrating that loss.
I learned a lot through this, especially how to stage my images, how to have a plan B for content and I learned more about Instagram, which was great for me.
Most importantly, I finished the Canada 150+ quilt.