Prairie Crossroads and Heritage Park

Prairie Crossroads was my contribution to the Calgary Longarm Quilters group submission at Heritage Park this past May. 

The pattern we used was Crossroads, by Allison Spence.  This is the third time I've made this pattern, the first two can be seen Purple Crossroads and Grandma's Crossroads.

The block looks like this

and if you looked at my other two quilts, you might notice that the placement of the values can change the look of the quilt.  This will also be evident when I show the pictures of the other quilts at Heritage Park.

First, the unquilted 'flimsy'

 I quilted it using Kim Stotsenberg's Heavy Metal Quilting method again.  I just love the Heavy Metal Quilting.  It's so named because it can look like wrought iron.

 Naming quilts can be tricky....last years Heritage Park quilt I called Picnic in the Rockies, and this years quilt the pattern was Crossroads, and I wanted something that kind of went with last years quilt too, so this became Prairie Crossroads, a bit of an Alberta Theme going on.

I wanted to emphasize the chain of dark squares

 and, of course, it looks fabulous from the back....you can see shapes on the back that are hidden in the print on the front

and here are some pictures from Heritage Park and the other Crossroads quilts. 

 The quilts were hung in slightly different places on the two days of the show.

I've added these photos large, so I hope you can click on them to see more details if you want.

Allison Spence Crossroads

Chris Tessier's Crossroads

Nancy Basserman's Crossroads

Nancy Basserman Crossroads

Bernice Lycklama's Crossroads

Charmaine Walker's Crossroads

Lorraine Appleby's Crossroads

Colleen Hunter's Crossroads

what do you get...

when you take some lovely batiks

and some really fun threads

and some creativity....

Colleen and I took on a commission to make 3 stoles for new ministers in the United Church, as gifts.   The request was for red, which is the color of ordination, and for Pentecost.  So, I used some Pentecost symbols in the quilting. 

Our goal, with the piecing and with the quilting, was to make these stoles the same, but different. 

They all got the same  cross....but different.  The structure of the cross was stitched twice with Glitter

The fun thing about making 3 of something is that I got to try it stitching the cross 3 different ways

I also added some doves and a Trinity symbol, swirls for the spirit, flames, and flora. 

I deliberately put the main motifs at different heights on the stoles, so if they got slightly askew in the wearing, it wouldn't be immediately obvious.

There's an abundance of photos following...

 I really like the effect of this overstitched Trinity symbol.  I'll definitely overstitch like this again. 

 Stole 1

 Stole 2

 Stole 3

 and we found a nice orange/red backing, to make it two sided, and useable for parts of the church year for which orange is the color

again, I know I took more photos of these stoles, but I cannot find them, so I decided I'd quit waiting for them to appear and post what I had.

Lonestar

Marilyn, Colleen and I made this Lonestar quilt for a friend.

The pattern is Jellied Lone Star from Moda Bake shop, except that Colleen added the pieced border and an extra border on top and bottom to make it rectangular instead of square.  I really liked the effect of the pieced border.  I was also very glad that Marilyn and Colleen did all the piecing ;)

 I used Sue Heinz's sashing in the round for the medallions.

 and a 1/2 round in the setting triangles

a nice cuddle backing

and  I feel like I'm missing photos, because I thought I'd have a photo of the whole top, but cannot find one 

edited to add a photo of the finished quilt--Colleen had one

Bento Box

This quilt is one I pieced and quilted, as a recognition gift for the youth minister at Symons Valley United Church who is moving on with his life.   

 

I pulled all the fabrics from our stash, most of them were bought at the Red Deer Quilt show in 2014, some came from MQX West in 2011.  They had aged long enough :)

 

 The backing I bought at Rumpled Quilt Skins (I just love their name) in Okotoks.