Blogger's Quilt Festival

Thank you Amy for creating the Blogger's Quilt Festival.   This is the first time I've attempted
to link this blog onto the Festival so there may be some bumps along the way.

The quilt that is pictured below is the quilt I created for  Manitoba's  100th Anniversary "Manitoba Quilt Competition" in 2010.

This quilt was a great learning experience.    Sweat and tears and finally delight when I talked with Coreen Zerr from Nanaimo and learned that she and her Sister were designing a quilt for the Competition.  Once I knew that Coreen was creating a quilt for this competition,  I stopped worrying about my quilt as I knew the Coreen would win.    Coreen is an amazing Canadian Quilter.... and yes she and Phyllis did win the Competition.  Their quilt was displayed at Manitoba House during the Vancouver Olympics.  How awesome!

Some of the things I learned about this experience...
1.  Enjoy what you are creating!    The left side of the quilt represents our great farming industry.   The green Flying Geese represents our forests.   The blue Economy quilt blocks represent the Hudson's ay.   The Bear's Paws represents our rich First Nation heritage.  The Lone Star represents our willingness to sacrifice our lives for others.     The centre of the quilt is the outline of the Province of Manitoba.   The two men in the circles are Louis Riel  and Lord Strathcona... Fathers of our Province.    
2.  I made this quilt to reflect our Province's  rich heritage and history.... 

and did a lot of thread painting.    Because I am not clever at all when it comes to drawing, I
used heavy upholstery thread in the bobbin and created the scenes (such as this grouping of Crocus -  MB's provincial flower) by putting a drawing on paper and then sewing along the drawing lines from
the back of the quilt.  

3.  Use Tradition.  In the four corners of a Traditional Lone Star Ojibwa Give-Away Quilt pattern,  are four Manitoban Soldiers.     Sgt Tommy Prince,  Lt Allan McLeod,  PO Andrew Mynarski, Cpl Leo Clarke.  These men were amazing men in providing us with our freedom and peace today.   The Lone Star is created using the traditional Ojibw colours... white represents heaven, spirituality, and Elders...  yellow represents children,  red represents youth,  and black represents adults.

Throughout this quilt are metal bars sewn with words of inspiration of what it means to live and work in Manitoba.  

This was an awesome quilt to make.... and it was a blessing to meet the other quilters in this 2010 competition.  All of their quilts were simply amazing! 

Link here to view the other quilts in Amy's  Blogger's Quilt Festival: 
http://amyscreativeside.com/2012/05/18/bloggers-quilt-festival-spring-2012/