Things I Can't Live Without-Member Challenge

Join the fun with our current challenge! All you have to do is show us that special thing you can’t live without. Your entry will get published either on our blog or in 'The Canadian Quilter' magazine. Take a couple of hours and create a quilt, any shape, any size based on the theme ‘Things I Can’t Live Without”. You can use any embellishments you want.  Deadline to send a photo of your entry is December 5, 2013. Full challenge details here. 

Of course there are great prizes too!

Three great fabric prizes sponsored by Sew Sisters Quilt Shop.

Visit their website  and their blog  and follow them on Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest.

Or visit the store in person 3961 Chesswood Drive, Toronto, ON.

This is what the 1st prize winner will receive.

2nd Prize

3rd Prize

If you want a bit of inspiration, take a look at the entries from our last challenge.     Get those creative juices flowing and enter our fun challenge.

Clearing Up and Cleaning Up

Do you ever get so involved in something you love that you sometimes forget that those around you might need a little explanation of what exactly you are doing?

The Board of Directors at CQA/ACC, meaning Judy, Gayle, Laine, Lynn, Lauren and Jackie are sometimes  at fault for that.   We love what we do and try to do our best at it for CQA/ACC, but occasionally we need to take a breather and tell you what it is we are doing!

This blog post will clear up a few things and bring you up to speed on what we are up to.

First is the new wearables category for the Trend-Tex Challenge.   A few of you have asked some really good questions.  For example, how will it be measured?  Is a lining considered similar to the back of a quilt?   Is a purse a wearable?   

We introduced this new category to give another option to those  participating in the challenge for the past 26 years and who wanted to try something new.   We left things open on purpose as well.  We want to challenge you, in a fun and creative way.   But we realize that we need to help you a bit as well.

The perimeter of a wearable will be measured the same way as  an odd shaped quilt, by going around the outside and taking that measurement.  A lining is considered to be the equivalent of the back of a quilt.  What do we mean by wearable?   It is anything that you would wear.   

Next up, is  at the last National Juried Show, one of our Board members had two quilts hanging in the show.   What you didn't know is that a motion had been passed in 2012 allowing Board members to enter the National Juried Show, but they are not eligible to win Viewers' Choice.

They must disclose to the Board when they make the decision to enter,and remove themselves from all Board matters dealing with the NJS.  This motion was passed because we have found that recruiting members to the Board can sometimes be difficult, and one game breaker was the ability to enter the NJS should they wish.

Next is finding your way around registering for a Quilt Canada conference.  If you are a new member and want to attend, it may be a little daunting trying to figure things out.   Rest assured, if you get a little overwhelmed, you can email our amazing Administrative Assistant Jackie Philpott to help you.   

Here is how things work for the Quilt Canada 2014 conference. 

If you are going to be a Full Delegate or Full Delegate Plus which means you are there for the full conference, taking three or four days of workshops and staying on site, you can register now.

If you just want to take one or two workshops or attend one lecture, you are considered a Day Student and you register on January 15th, 2014.   If you are a non-member and want to take a workshop or lecture, the January 15th date applies to you as well.

One more thing, CQA/ACC has a Quilt Judge Certification Programme (QJCP) which is described as:

The program was created to ensure that those wishing to judge quilt competitions are qualified to do so. Successful completion of this programme leads to a professional designation, CQA/ACC Certified Quilt Judge.

This is a three part program that takes place over a maximum of five years.  The next opening for Part I will be  June 2015.   What is important to mention is that CQA/ACC has a list of certified and apprentice judges on our website that our guilds can contact for your next quilt show.

While we may not have cleared up all your questions, we hope this helps!  And we are always available via email and love hearing from our members.

These Boots Are Made For Walking Challenge

This was a fun challenge organized by our Director at Large, Laine Canivet.   The theme was “These Boots are Made for Walking” to help get us to Brock University in St. Catharines ON where the next big Quilt Canada 2014 conference will be held. 

 Twelve CQA/ACC members used their creativity and produced some wonderful quilts for our viewing pleasure.   The three prize winners will be published in the winter edition of ‘The Canadian Quilter’.  

A special thank you goes out to Fridays Off Fabric Shop for sponsoring this challenge.

The quilts were judged by Beverley Chorney an apprentice judge in our Quilt Judge Certification Programme (QJCP).

By Shirley Tracy which received an Honourable Mention

This is a photo of my interpretation of one of Van Gogh's paintings of shoes.  I drew it on fabric, then thread painted it with Glide thread and painted it with Fantastik paint sticks.

Judge Beverley gave this entry an ‘honourable mention’. She felt the variations in the mottled fabric were used very effectively to represent the different parts of each boot and the machine quilting enhanced each part.

Made by Laura McEachern

The focus of this little quilt is the boot, complete with leather lacing, with a silk high heeled shoe appliquéd to the side of the boot. Hence, walking in comfort but not without high style. The addition of some thread-painted grass, cobblestone quilting and a “paved” highway are suggestions of the many types of ground this boot will have to travel to “Walk to Brock”.

By Karen Menzies

If I were bananas enough to walk to QC 2014 in St. Catharines, I would do it in style (and pain), wearing my stilettos.”  This is original work, inspired by my guru, Pamela Allen of Kingston ON.

By Gail Fearon

When I first read about this little project I wondered how I could enter…I really don’t have that many boots to depict and then I remembered my old winter boots-the ugly green ones that I use in the winter , of course, to walk around the property with my two Shelties. The boots are old and as you can see downright ugly but they are comfortable and they keep out the snow…what more could you ask for.  So. I took a picture, drew them on parchment paper and hand appliquéd  them (my favourite technique is backstitch appliqué and that is what I used here). I won’t tell you how many years I’ve owned these boot but I will tell you they have done a lot of walking.

By Nancy Sachro ‘Blue Suede Shoes’

Fabrics, cottons, velvet, upholstery. Techniques- raw edge appliqué, fusing, hand embellished, machine sewn and quilted. Elvis head from copyright free internet site.

By Nancy MacIntosh

My Theme is 'Walk Softly on this Earth' so I have chosen bare feet.  The feet are digitized embroidery with outline and cross hatch quilting.  Embellishments are embroidery or beads.  The foot designs are based on free clip art.  Drawing and creation are mine.  

By Susan Scott

This is Herk - he is ready to hit the trail!

By Betty Johnson

I'm a new member of the CQA/ACC, this is my first challenge.  I live in Langley, BC so I would not be able to WALK to Brock; I would have to fly.  My interpretation of the theme is an eagle flying across the Canadian skies, carrying my boots, dangling from a string, in his beak. I designed the paper-pieced Eagle in EQ7 and created boots that I could appliqué  onto my sky fabric.  Once I had finished the eagle, I couched the trim (rope) onto my sky fabric before appliquéing  the boots.  The piece measures 12"x12" and is machine and hand quilted.

By Jaynie Himsl, ‘Before Michael Jackson’

Surely these are the most famous boots ever. No other single step has ever been so significant. Method -fused applique, thread sketching and Inktense pencil shading.

                     

By Jackie White

This quilt was made by using my hand dyed fabric to imitate the look of sand.   Dye was thickened and painted onto my son’s shoe and then stamped onto the fabric.   Free motion quilting was done throughout.

Our next member challenge is ‘Things I Can't Live Without’.  Get creative and send us an interpretation of your “essential something’.   Details are here.

Walk To Brock - Month 1

WOW! There must have been a lot of pent-up quilters showing a full summer’s worth of quilts at their September meetings. You sent in an amazing number of inches for our first month!  Take a look at the map to see how far we went.

I really didn’t think we would get this far in the first month but here we are in beautiful Prince George, BC. This place has totem poles, dinosaurs and a drive-in movie. 

Get out the root beer and the popcorn and let's go to the Park Drive In - the number one tourist attraction. And while we are here, let’s send warm greetings to our member guild, the Prince George Quilters’ Guild.

Here is a cute story sent to me from the Cornwall Quilters Guild, Cornwall, Ontario.  They have collected 7,316 inches for the month of September. Their goal is 98,425 inches—the length of their bike path along the St. Lawrence River.  How fun that this guild is participating in our challenge but also has a challenge among their own members.  Way to go Cornwall QG!

I look forward to receiving even more inches from you next month.  Let's keep on walking!

Laine Canivet

Director at Large

It Is Time...

To send off your cheques to get your fun fabric for the Trend-Tex Challenge!
Thanks to the awesome folks at Trend-Tex Fabrics for sponsoring this fantastic challenge for CQA/ACC.

There are almost 300 kits of this delicious fabric waiting to be mailed out to be turned into a quilt or a quilted wearable.

You can find the kit application and guidelines here.  And the entry form here.

This is the scrumptious fabric you get to work with.   Don't delay because you don't want to miss out on this fun opportunity to have your quilts auctioned off at Quilt Canada 2014 to support our wonderful association.

Jackie W.