Quilt Canada 2017

Report from Marilyn:

In June I went to Quilt Canada 2017 in Toronto.  It was a four day conference put on by the Canadian Quilter’s Association and I decided to go because I had a quilt accepted into the National Juried Show (NJS).  There were about 350 entries for the National Juried Show and 127 were chosen to be shown in Toronto.  Of those 127 there were 44 who were first time entrants.  I feel honoured to have my quilt chosen.  Here are a few pictures of the NJS.

I bought a pass for all four days.  I took a one-day workshop on thread painting with Coreen Zerr where I learned more about thread and now hope to use more thread for embellishment.  I went to the evening lecture with Hollis Chatelain on her quilting journey and her views on social comment in quilts, and, a morning lecture with Elaine Theriault on quilt challenges where she showed many of her completed challenges.

There were other shows all with lovely quilts to peruse.  Quilts from a few of the shows are on the CQA website.  Just now their shows are listed on the Home page and you can also roll over the Galleries menu item and choose one of the shows.

• Guild Rosette Show – CQA has a program where they give out rosettes at local guild quilt shows across the country.  They asked the winners of those rosettes if they would like to display their quilts.  They were beautiful.
• Cantik Batik’s Youth Challenge – there were local guides who had quilts in the challenge available to talk to viewers.
• A local Modern Quilt Guild
• A few of the Quilts of Valour
• FAN (Fibre Art Network) – They had the botanical quilt show they had at Van Dusen this Spring except that some of those quilts had been sold so there were additional hangings.
• Canada’s Centennial – There were a couple of quilts that were made in 1967 to commemorate Canada’s centennial.
• Newfoundland – There were quilts from a group in Newfoundland who showed quilts that were made to commemorate Newfoundlands military losses in World War I.
• In a separate room there was The Trend Tex Challenge – Stitching a Canadian Memory which is also on the CQA website.  There were bids on all the quilts by the end of the four days.  It is fun to participate in this challenge and the funds raised in the silent auction helps CQA.
  
  

  

  

  

The Quilt Bee continued and by the end of the conference there were over 2000 finished quilts.  The final count is 2614 quilts to be given to Ronald McDonald Houses across Canada!!

Then there was a very large merchant mall.  Aurofil had jigsaw puzzles races to win a spool of thread. The Northcott booth asked people to sign in for their newsletter then they could spin the wheel to win and even the consolation prize was a pack of charm squares.  Quilts of Valour hosted a booth and sold blocks which could be returned to them to be made into quilts.  There were a lot of sewing machine, and medium and long arm machines booths.  These are only a few examples of what there was to see.

It was interesting and fun to meet people from all across the country, to see us as part of a large quilting community, and to see that it is vibrant and has appeal to so many people of all ages.  Mark your calendars for CQA Quilt Canada 2018 which will be here in Vancouver on May 31-June 2, 2018.  See you there!