Episode 022 Canadian Quilt talk - Quilter's Connection Magazine founder Heather McArthur

Join us this week as we explore the fabulous Quilter's Connection Magazine. It's founder Heather McArthur is saavy on the quilt scene and provides the latest patterns, photographs, tips and stories for Canadian Quilters. 

Check out this episode!

Anna Hergert Workshop

I just spent 2 fantastic days with a bunch of my Fabricator friends immersed in elements of design. It was so fun, so free and my mind is just exploding with new ideas.

High praise you say? Well, that's just the way it goes when you invite Anna Hergert to town. She's smart, creative and loves to have a good time with her students. There were giggles, rolling laughter, and even a few AHA! moments.

Here's the initial layout of my little hexagon art quilt after two intensive days. You can't even imagine how I got there starting with a photo of the landscape. Have I piqued your interest? Well, you'll just have to take the class! There's still a lot to add! I'll be playing with shiva paintsticks, embroidery floss and beads.

Twisting the Landscape Workshop - ANNA HERGERT

Stay tuned as I work to finish up this little gem! I keep rediscovering it and changing things as I go, so you never know what will happen.

Tuesday Preview CQT Episode 22

Hello Everyone!

Welcome to the Tuesday Preview. Have you checked out Canada's only quilting magazine? QUILTER'S CONNECTION is a gorgeous quarterly magazine featuring Canadian content for Canadian Quilters by Canadian Quilters! 

I'm so excited to feature the magazine on the podcast this week for two reasons:

# 1. I got to interview the founder, Heather McArthur, who is the sweetest person you ever can imagine, and they're about to release their winter issue. The theme is RETREATS and what better way to have your own mini personal retreat than to grab a cup of tea and snuggle up on the couch with your favourite quilting magazine? 

# 2. Inside this issue, there's an article I wrote with the best bits from my interview with Ricky Tims including some amazing photos of his award-winning quilts! ATTENTION husbands everywhere - This is the best stocking stuffer ever! Just saying. 

Canadian Quilt Talk Episode 022 - Quilter's Connection Magazine

And now the moment you've all been waiting for... Today's prize for the weekly Quilter's Corner is brought to you by Quilter's Connection Magazine, the ONLY magazine for Canadian quilters. With beautiful projects and patterns by Canadian designers and heartwarming stories about Canadian quilters, this truly is Canada's quilting magazine. Learn more at quiltersconnection.ca

And this week's winner is . . . Tara Tkachuk. She talks about what sounds like an ultimate girlfriend retreat to Disney! And even though there was no quilting involved - they were left inspired. Congratulations Tara! You have won a 1 year subscription to Quilter's Connection Magazine!

And before I sign off today, I just have to mention this great event for one of our holiday sponsors. Flare Fabrics will be giving away a jelly roll of Christmas fabrics by Timeless Tresures on our Dec. 12th episode, but here's a great event that is starting up sooner that I don't want you to miss. 

Treat yourself this holiday and register for Flare Fabrics’ first Stuff Your Stocking event. Starting Dec 1 and running for only 7 days, Flare will unveil wonderful daily deals on exclusive notions and sewing supplies. Head over to flarefabrics.ca to sign up.

And of course, it's the last Thursday of the month, so we'll have a great question and answer on this week's segment of THE GENTLE JUDGE.

Until next time . . . dream big and work hard in the studio with CanadianQuilt Talk!

The 2 minute gift bag - SO EASY!

Hi Everyone,

Well I just handed over 100 holiday toiletry bags for the South Okanagan Women in Need. (SOWINS) This wonderful, worthwhile charity approached me last season asking if I could come up with something to put the toiletries in, so I created these simple little bags. They just loved them so now I've done it 2 years in a row. The bags are used to hold a few nice smelling spa related things that are donated by the public and our local Body Shop store. They go to women in need in the Okanagan who cannot afford nice things for themselves around the holidays.

I called my quilting neighbour, Debi (I am so lucky to have a quilting neighbour!) and she joined me for an afternoon sew along yesterday. We got 50 of them together in about 3 hours of cutting, chatting and fun but it didn't seem like that long because time flew by. We each did a bunch more on our own that evening to round out the 100 bags needed. Now, a few of my Facebook friends have asked for the pattern, so here is a fun and simple tutorial. I'm telling you they are so easy! 

We dug through our stashes and used up every scrap of old holiday materials we could find. Some of the bags are different sizes depending on the scraps available, but generally here's the pattern…

CUT a piece of fabric 20" x 14" and sew a double 1/4" folded hem along the length of the piece. You can perfectly press this little double fold or simply eyeball it as you go. 

Once you have one long finished edge, FOLD the fabric in half right sides together with the finished edge on top and FOLD down one corner to insert the bag tie. CUT a 20" piece of ribbon, shoelace, cord or whatever your heart desires. FOLD it in half and insert the folded edge about 4" down on the bag. 

Fold the edge back up and sew the  last two sides of the bag securing the fold of the tie with a few back stitches along the way. Be sure to let the ends of the tie hang out the top of the bag so you don't sew over them when they are hiding inside the bag.

Voila! You are left with a super simple adorable little gift bag. You can make these for a local charity (but be sure they need them first!) or you can make them for your own gift giving. They are super simple and once you make a few, you'll be banging them out in under 2 minutes each. My son has received a few of these goodie filled fabric bags under the tree over the years and he now uses them to hold marbles, toy soldiers, trading cards and anything he wants to keep together in one spot.

So enjoy! Make them in any size you want to fit the gift and these little bags will solve all of your Christmas wrapping needs! 

Episode 021 Canadian Quilt Talk - Margie Davidson

Meet Margie Davidson - CQA Teacher of the year! She's fun, fresh and inspiring as we chat about her travels, her workshops and the process for making her gorgeous natural hand dyed fabric. 

Check out this episode!

FREE LIVE ONLINE WORKSHOP!

Hello everyone! 

I'm so excited to announce my very first online workshop! It's fun, it's free and you can even chat with me by typing in your questions as we go. AND you'll find out below that it's such an easy process to sign up! Here's what it's all about:

MARK YOUR CALENDAR - December 5th at 10:00 a.m. Pacific Time

FREE 1 hour live workshop includes: 

Adorable quilted tree ornament. Fussy cut a mini centre motif and surround it with a few tiny 1/4inch log cabin frames. Practice mini stippling and add a simple finished edge with ribbon. 

BONUS 15 minute wine bottle bag tutorial. 

CQA 2014 has put out the call to Canadian Quilters for banquet attendee gifts. This year's project is wine bottle bags. 
-you can make a few to send in to CQA 
-or whip some together for last minute holiday gift giving 

Techniques include; basic bag construction and some fun suggestions for piecing, surface design and embellishment. 

REGISTRATION IS LIMITED SO SIGN UP TODAY! 

Holiday Quilted Tree Ornament

BONUS Wine Bottle Bag

Here's how to register:

Click on this link HOLIDAY QUILTED TREE ORNAMENT

Once you are there, all you have to do is fill in your first name, last name and your email address. Then click on REGISTER and you're done! 

And remember this is all new for me, so there could be bumps and bobbles along the way. That's why I'm offering this fun project for free. Why not try your very first webinar now for free. 

Please join me! SIGN UP NOW

Until next time…Dream big and work hard in the studio with Canadian Quilt Talk!

Tuesday Preview - CQT Episode 21

Welcome to the Tuesday Preview. 

This week's episode of Canadian Quilt Talk features the CQA Teacher of the Year - Margie Davidson. She is a quilt artist and surface designer whose work and workshops are characterized by delightful bursts of colour through painted, sun-printed and naturally hand-dyed cloth. 

Canadian Quilt Talk Episode 021 

Margie Davidson

She is a talented award-winning quilt artist who speaks volumes through her work. Here's a piece I chat about during our interview at her home in Edmonton. I was blown away by it's beauty, so I just had to snap a photo to show you. 

And if you think that's eye candy, Margie is giving away some of her gorgeous hand dyed fabric to the weekly winner of our Quilter's Corner. 

Congratulations to Val Wilson! Val submitted a lovely story about a hand dyed piece of fabric she used for a backing that ended up begin the star of the quilt! 

And STAY TUNED this week - on the podcast I'll be announcing my first online class! I'm so excited to let you know. It will be live, fun and best of all FREE! Don't miss that announcement - secure the date for an hour of fun the morning of Dec. 5th. (or the afternoon, depending where you live!)

And DON'T FORGET - It's the last Thursday of the month next week on the 28th so send us a question for our segment of the Gentle Judge! 

Until next time . . . dream big and work hard in the studio with CanadianQuilt Talk!

Episode 020 Canadian Quilt Talk - Charity Quilts

Donating Quilts in your community can be a fun and rewarding volunteer experience. Learn how to get started and do it right this week with Brandy's 8 tips on getting involved in quilting for charity. 

Check out this episode!

Tuesday Preview - CQT Episode 20!

CQT Episode 20 - Charity Quilts

I can't believe it's EPISODE 20! We've come a long way baby! I was all set on an idea to air for this episode when I heard about the Typhoon Haiyan disaster on Nov. 8th in the Philippines. There was so much destruction and tragedy that I set my ideas aside and ran in another direction to bring you my first of many episodes on Quilting for Charity. 

On this episode I'll talk about my inspiration to send quilts to the Philippines and what I learned along the way about what they really need instead. Then we'll focus back on Canada and how you can make a difference with charity quilting in your local community. 

And now for the winner of our weekly Quilter's Corner! Today's Prize is brought to you by Brandy Lynn Designs. I don't have my own holiday pattern in print yet so I chose this adorable Snowman Wall Quilt designed by Rachel's of Greenfield. It is an entire kit including all the fabric required that you can easily pull together just in time to add to your holiday decor.  

And the winner is . . . Congratulations to Jenny Faasavalu! Thank you for sending in your story. I think I found your blog Jenny, but it seemed like podcast notes…but with no bio or author attached, so if that's you, then I encourage everyone to look for the Off Kilter Quilt online and check it out. If not, well, then I'm just advertising for some random person! LOL - Congrats Jenny! 

AND NOW I'm heading back into my email abyss and the fog of Facebook to search out whether I missed anyone's Quilter's Corner stories because I AM COMPLETELY OUT! Don't you have a story? Send me an email to info at explore fibre dot com with your story and you could win. And if you have sent a story and haven't won a prize, contact me right away to let me know. Email is best because Facebook messages sometimes disappear. There are magazines, holiday patterns and more coming up, so you don't want to miss out.

Until next time . . . dream big and work hard in the studio with CanadianQuilt Talk!

Episode 019 Canadian Quilt Talk - The Community Quilter

Are you looking for ways to spread the buzz about quilting? This week's episode tackles 8 great ways to teach kids in the community and help make quilting a heralded tradition for decades to come.

Check out this episode!

Tuesday Preview - CQT Episode 19

CQT Episode 19 - The Community Quilter

This week's episode continues with a topic I touched on in Episode 12 that is so near and dear to my heart - Quilting with a Younger Generation. If you liked that topic, watch for my article in the next CQA newsletter called 8 Tips for Quilting with a Youthful Generation.

I made a promise - so here it is! On this week's podcast I'll dive deeper into that topic. I am so passionate about sharing quilting with a younger generation that it is written right into the core values of my business. So be sure to listen this week when I take that topic further than just teaching family and friends and talk about ways to share quilting with a younger generation of quilters in your COMMUNITY!

This photo is of a tiny landscape quilt that my young student Sophia made. It is all hand stitched.  She was the only child in a class of 15 that included her mom and grandmother. It was so heartwarming to have 3 generations in my class together. Fast forward a few weeks and you can imagine my pleasant surprise to see her fibre art piece proudly shown in the Summerland Fall Fair with her first place ribbon.

So beyond inspiring a new generation of quilting in your circle of family and friends - there are a ton of ways you can get out in to the community and spread the word that quilting is here to stay. And for me the # 1 way is to teach a child or to teach a quilter to teach a child.

And now the moment you've all been waiting for... Today's prize for the weekly Quilter's Corner is brought to you by Quilter's Connection Magazine, the ONLY magazine for Canadian quilters. With beautiful projects and patterns by Canadian designers and heartwarming stories about Canadian quilters, this truly is Canada's quilting magazine. Learn more at quiltersconnection.ca

And the winner is . . . Congratulations to Chris Reid! Chris tells the heartwarming story of a quilt challenge that really brought a smile to one boy's little face.

Until next time . . . dream big and work hard in the studio with CanadianQuilt Talk!