Friday Felicities - To Boston With Love

I saw Felicity's post just now and was inspired to write about what's making me happy this morning. I'm joining in on her Friday Felicities linky party today (that's a felicity in itself, since I haven't been blogging lately!).

Today marks six weeks since I got a call from Berene Campbell sharing her inspired idea to help the people of Boston with a little project called "To Boston With Love". Since then, the call went out to quilters around the world to make flags of peace and love to send to Amy Friend, who collected the flags and delivered them to the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston last week. The grand total of flags installed by Berene (who flew out for the installation and opening), Amy, and the museum staff was an amazing 1756! (and to think there was a point where Berene was stressing out about not having enough flags!)

I contributed one flag to the project, a Canadian flag with a heart in place of the maple leaf. I was excited to spot it in photos posted by the Museum of Fine Arts on their facebook page during installation. I described it to my aunt and cousin who live in Massachusetts, and they found it last weekend when they visited the museum!

 This picture makes me so happy! Hi, Aunt Emmy & Melissa! Love you!

My flag will fly along with its bright and inspiring companions until the exhibit ends on July 7th, 2013. If you're in the Boston area, I encourage you to check it out!

As president of the Vancouver Modern Quilt Guild, I've been working with the media to share this inspiring story. This past week has been very busy and Berene has been on TV, radio, and in the newspaper! I've been keeping track of all the press coverage on the VMQG facebook page as well as the "To Boston With Love Press" discussion thread in the Flickr group. More coming in the next couple of days, so remember to check back!

What's your felicity today?

Send Boston Some Love!

We are all connected. Events in other cities and countries affect us all, and we have the instinct to help out. After the shocking events at the Boston Marathon two weeks ago, Vancouver Modern Quilt Guild member Berene Campbell was inspired to send tangible expressions of love and peace to the people of Boston. She came up with the idea of "To Boston With Love", a collaborative effort of makers to send peace and love flags to Boston and enlisted a few of us VMQG leaders in getting the word out.

Well, the response has been amazing! So far, over thirty modern quilt guilds have signed on and dozens of individuals are sending flags to Boston so they can be added to banners that will hang in a public place in Boston for the Memorial Day weekend. You can participate too! All the info, including the Massachusetts shipping address, can be found on the VMQG blog:
To Boston With Love main post with flag tutorial
To Boston With Love tutorials and inspiration
To Boston With Love shipping info

People have started posting flags to the Flickr group and have also tagged their photos #tobostonwithlove on Instagram.

There's still time to participate but you should know that the deadline to have the flags in Boston is Tuesday, May 21st, 2013, so plan accordingly. Flags received later than the deadline will still be added to the display, but we want the initial impact to be as large as possible, so get sewing!

Another way to help:

The Boston Modern Quilt Guild is also coordinating an effort to support those affected by the bombings. They're making quilts (because that's what quilters do to show their love)! If you'd like to participate in Quilts for Boston by making a quilt block, you can find the information on the Boston Modern Quilt Guild blog.

Day 3 in Austin - bring on QuiltCon!

Today was simply spectacular and I couldn't possibly capture it in words. It started as I entered the Austin Convention Center for the first day of QuiltCon.

As soon as we entered the quilt show, we posed for a family photo at the Michael Miller photo booth. Thanks for taking this picture, Susan (West Coast Crafty)!

The first quilt we saw at the show was the QuiltCon challenge raffle quilt (pieced and quilted by Elizabeth Hartman with blocks made by MQG members)! Here is Sophia proudly pointing out the block I made.

Other highlights of the day:

- walking the show (amazeballs!)

- free Pearl Bracelet charm pack at the Andover booth

- the Awards ceremony (including TWO honorable mentions for Felicity!)

- learning hand quilting from Anna Maria Horner

- running into all sorts of quilting friends and mentors

- chatting with keeners at the MQG Leaders meet up

- getting kicked out of the atrium for stitching too loudly with a group of rowdy quilters

I can't wait for tomorrow!

Day 2 in Austin (pre-QuiltCon)

Before I head off for the first official day of QuiltCon, I wanted to write up some memories of yesterday. Wednesday was our one full family day in Austin before I go into QuiltCon mode and let Dean take care of the girls on his own, so we took advantage of it!

First, we bussed to the Austin Nature & Science Center because Dean had heard that they had a dinosaur exhibit. In addition to lots of cool raptors, a raven that Eleanor adored, and an acrobatic raccoon, they had a dino pit where junior paleontologists could try their luck. Sophia loved it!

After lunch at Chipotle's, we headed up to the Texas State Capitol Building (did you know that Austin is the capital of Texas? I didn't!). The building was truly impressive and even though our kids didn't have the patience for a tour, stepping into the grand lobby was worth the security check.

At 4:00pm, I was dying to check-in to QuiltCon, so I headed over to the convention center (I'll use American spellings here as a concession to the locals). Since our hotel is offering a discount to QuiltCon attendees, there are quilters all over and I met Maria from NYC on the way to registration. She was kind enough to take this photo of me:

When I got to the desk, who should check me in but Julie (Procrasticraft) from Australia who I'd been chatting with over twitter for over a year in anticipation of this event!

I soon met up with Leanne (She Can Quilt) and Marianne (The Quilting Edge) from Edmonton, and then Rene' (Rene' Creates) popped by and then Kristy (St. Louis Folk Victorian) was running up and introducing herself! It was like the internet had come to life and I loved every minute of it! I quickly said hello to Heather Grant (Modern Day Quilts) who has been working like crazy with her amazing team to make this event come together.

Leanne and Marianne and I were chatting and checking out our swag bags when what did I see but the program with the raffle quilt and MY BLOCK on the cover!

Eventually, I decided I'd better find my family for dinner, so I left the convention center. As I was heading out, I gave directions to fabric designer Laurie Wisbrun (Scarlet Fig) who was headed to the Kaufman booth to drop off her adorable rain coat made from her laminated camper fabric. Once back at the hotel, we headed to Whole Foods and enjoyed pizza and a build your own salad before stocking up on groceries for the week.

Back at the hotel, Eleanor got into my swag bag and especially loved the sunglasses (shown here as a white blur in her hands)!

The quilt show officially opens in less than half an hour and I can't wait to see it! Thinking of all my VMQG friends who would love to be here today and wishing I could transport you all to Austin! I'll do my best to keep you updated! (happy yet, Michelle?)

I'm in Austin, Texas! (day 1, pre-QuiltCon)

After months of anticipation, last-minute frenzied packing, and hours on an airplane with a squirmy toddler (and relatively well-behaved husband and five-year-old), I'm finally in Austin for QuiltCon! We arrived on Tuesday afternoon and met up with my cousin who used to live in Austin (she now lives in London) for a tour of the city.

As soon as we arrived in Austin, the live music capital of the world, we knew there was something special about this place.

After leaving below-freezing temperatures and snow behind in Pennsylvania, warm weather and palm trees were a welcome sight!

Our hotel is very close to the Austin Convention Center and I jumped up and down with glee when I saw this sign for QuiltCon!

We headed over the Congress Bridge for dinner and stopped on the way to see the famous bats. I had read that we were out of luck since it wasn't bat season yet, but apparently some of the bats didn't get the memo. We saw hundreds of bats leaving their homes under the bridge to find their food for the night. If you're in town, you can watch them from a park on the southeast side of the bridge and the bats started their flight at 6:30pm.

Can you see the bats? I know they're blurry, but it was so cool!

Here's a video of our bat viewing. As you can see, Eleanor was impressed!

We enjoyed our first taste of TexMex at Guero's. The novelty of eating outdoors in February did not escape us!

After dinner, our intrepid ice cream lover was determined to try Amy's famous ice cream despite the cooler weather. It was indeed delicious and I hope we get a chance to go back there on one of the warmer days that should be coming soon!

QuiltCon Linky Party!

Hi there and thanks for stopping by my blog! When I saw that the Modern Quilt Guild was doing a QuiltCon linky party, I had to join in right away! I'm so excited to be going to QuiltCon in three short weeks! In case you don't know me already, I'd like to introduce myself. I'm Holly and I live in beautiful Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. I'm the founder and president of the Vancouver Modern Quilt Guild and I've been quilting for nearly twenty years. 

Holly & Dean, 1994

I started dating my husband in high school and we'll celebrate twenty years as a couple in April. I'm a stay at home mom to two awesome daughters who are nearly six and nearly two (their March birthdays are one day apart!). I occasionally work as a substitute teacher and a few of my recent placements have had me teaching high school phys ed, French Immersion kindergarten, and high school music.

The linky party assignment was to share five facts you might not know about me. Here goes!

1) My first job after graduating from university with a Bachelor of Science was as a naturalist at the Vancouver Aquarium. I got to handle boa constrictors and swim with dolphins.

2) I'm a proud Canadian, born and raised, but also have American heritage. My mom's American, hailing from Upstate New York. I have lots of family in New York, Massachusetts and Pennsylvania and will actually be visiting them before heading to QuiltCon so we can all celebrate my Grandpa's 100th birthday!

3) I love my red All Stars!

4) I'm an Island girl at heart. I grew up on Vancouver Island and have spent many, many hours on the BC Ferries.

5) I was a rower in high school and our team went to the national championships twice. I'm second from the left in this picture.

Now that you know all sorts of random facts about me, we should be able to strike up a conversation with ease when we meet at QuiltCon! See you there! I'll be taking two workshops: Every Last Stitch with Anna Maria Horner and Mini Quilts with Lizzy House. Which workshops are you taking?

Super Mario quilt block

Super Mario question mark block

I'm happy to share my completed Super Mario block today! It was due way back on Halloween and I've been feeling badly that I've fallen behind in the Fab Bee. Now I'm nearly caught up! Eryn was the queen bee for October and she chose the fun theme of Super Mario. I knew that I wanted to make a pixellated block just like the ones made for Angela of Cut to Pieces' Super Mario quilt a-long. Since I knew I definitely didn't have time for an entire Super Mario quilt at this time, this was a great way to try it out without the commitment! Thanks, Angela, for the easy-to-download layouts for the blocks! If you want to try this block, you can find the grid here.

I decided to make the question block because it was always full of happy surprises like coins, super mushrooms, and fire flowers. Good times! My kind husband took on the onerous task of playing some Super Mario Bros. and grabbing me a screenshot of a question block in action so those of you who aren't familiar with the game can see my inspiration.

Cutting the strips. I used Kona cottons in black, canary yellow and orange. Eryn supplied the blue fabric and I'm not sure exactly what colour it is (it looks similar to Lake on my Kona colour card).

                       

After the rows were pieced. 

I pressed the rows in opposite directions and nested the seams. At the end, I decided to press the seams open to reduce bulk.

The back of the finished block

After cutting and piecing 196 tiny squares, I had the effect I was hoping for. My block finished at about 16"x16". I love it and can see more pixel blocks in my future!

Now I have a few days left to work on my November block for Lysa! I've been good and haven't even let myself open the cute envelope she sent me at the start of November. Can't wait to see the fabric she chose!