The Quilt of Belonging

As promised, here is my second post of the day with more pictures of The Quilt of Belonging which I visited last Friday.

For Evalina Maria, here is the block from Poland.

For Tatyana here is Russia's block.

More blocks from the First Nations:

Lakota

Métis

Carrier

From the Orient:

China

Japan

Other blocks of interest:

Germany

Syria

Iraq

Zimbabwe

New Zealand

Hungary

Uzbekistan

I still have many more photos and will post some of the other blocks next post if you aren't growing tired of them. The textiles used and the colours are just stunning. Enjoy!!

April's WIPocalypse

April has been a rather slow month for me in terms of stitching. Life got busy for awhile and then my mojo seemed to have left me. It's only in the past week that I've picked up my needle on a regular basis. Nonetheless I'm pleased with the stitches I did get in.

Paradis Perdu resurfaced after a year's absence with the addition of Adam and Eve to the piece as well as the completion of the peacocks, numerals and the tulip motif. It looks slightly washed out in this picture but in reality is much more vivid.

My ornament for the monthly SAL was a freebie from Martine called Printemps.

Finally there is Viktor & Irina. Here's a before and after pic of my progress on this lovely piece.

This latter pic is a much better indication of the colour of the fabric.
Those smaller peach flowers don't show up all that well in my photos but I have decided to leave them as is. In the actual piece they do show up enough. I wasn't happy with the results of any of the other colours that I tried substituting for them so they shall remain as charted.

I promised more pictures of The Quilt of Belonging and I will post them for you in a second post since there are so many photos.

As the weather warms up and the sun shows its face more, you should find me out stitching in my gazebo. I made it out there two days this week and it felt so wonderful not to be confined to the house. Outdoors is still pretty cool but the sun warms up the interior of the gazebo so that I can stitch quite comfortably in it. Now I'm off to have my morning coffee and catch up with your stitching. See you soon!

April's Spring Ornament

For this month's ornament for the Ornament SAL I decided to go with another spring theme. I had a Prairie Schooler ornament all kitted up and ready to go. Then I spotted a free chart on Pinterest which led to Martine's blog, Broderie Passion and her lovely freebies. I couldn't resist this one! Sorry about the photo quality. I just couldn't seem to get enough light.

This free chart can be found here. I found several of Martine's charts that I'd like to stitch. I only started this ornament last Thursday, thinking that I had plenty of time to stitch it. It wasn't until Monday that I realized the finished ornament was to be posted on the 24th, not the 30th as I somehow seemed to think it was. Needless to say it was a mad scramble to get it completed in time for this posting. The final finishing isn't complete but I'll get to it in the near future.
Tomorrow's posting will have an update on my WIPocalypse progress so I hope you'll stop by again!

A quilt unlike any other!

Warning: Picture intensive!

Last week, the group I meet with on Wednesday afternoons decided that we would all go to Cornwall on Friday to visit The Quilt of Belonging and a local quilt show. What was The Quilt of Belonging, I enquired. It is the largest and most inclusive work of textile art made about Canada. The quilt is composed of blocks representing all the nations that make up Canada's people, including First Nations peoples. How is it that I've never heard of this? I had no idea what to expect but once there I was blown away!!

Here's a pic of the group who made the trip.

Here's the quilt in all its glory!

The quilt is 120 ft long and 10 ft high and is made up of 263 blocks. All the more interesting to me was that the quilt had its beginnings in the village of Williamstown, Ontario which is just outside of Cornwall. I lived in Cornwall for many years and worked there at the hospital for 34 yrs and had heard nothing of this quilt.
I was shocked to see just how many of the blocks of the quilt were composed of needlework. The use of textiles, artifacts and materials native to each country made each block unique. These first blocks are those belonging to my own heritage. I've included pics where I zoomed in on the images so that you can see the exquisite work on each of the blocks. Also, if you get a chance, follow the link to learn more about the quilt and how it came into being.

CANADA

ENGLAND

FRANCE

The entire centre is done in Petit Point!

SCOTLAND

Have you ever seen thistles this pretty?

IRELAND

WALES

Here's the block belonging to the US for all my American friends.

I managed to photograph 123 of the 192 countries and 71 aboriginal nations. Below are some of my favourites.

CZECH REPUBLIC

SIERRA LEONE

I love the colours in this one and the use of the cowrie shells

AUSTRALIA

Exquisite needlework!

GUATEMALA

Don't you just love the dolls!

COSTA RICA

Their national flower is a purple orchid

EASTERN CREE

I love the use of beads on this one!

PAKISTAN

NUNAVIK

Sealskin border

I was astonished at the use of all the various textiles! The blocks are exquisite and very detailed.  I particularly loved the Aboriginal blocks. More and more I wish I could visit that part of our country. My DH was fortunate enough that he spent several summers in Nunavut and has experienced the north to a certain extent already.

If you wish to see the block from your ancestor's country just leave me a comment as to which country you'd like to see. I will continue to post pictures from the quilt over the next week or so. It's too good not to share! Speaking of sharing, the quilt has toured Canada, from the east coast to the west and everything in between, including the Arctic. 

At this point I'll continue with our outing on our next post with some pictures of the lovely quilts we saw at the show. Until then, happy stitching!