Quilt for Nova Scotia

The Maritime Modern Quilt Guild put out a call asking for quilts after the terrible shooting in Nova Scotia in April, so I contacted a few other quilters in my town to see if they'd be willing to each contribute a few blocks so that we could send a quilt. Quilters being the amazing people they are, they said yes 😊

One of the ladies is a member of my beginner quilting class that was interrupted by the pandemic, but she has been sewing away on her own at home and sending me pictures now and then. She has definitely been bitten by the quilting bug. I told her when she finished her blocks for this quilt that she has been fully inducted as a quilter now that she has made her first charity quilt blocks 😊

To make things quick and simple, I chose the same block I asked for after the fire 3 years ago. There was a real sense of deja vu when the blocks started arriving! I'm thankful there were only 38 blocks this time, not 4,000+.

The MMQG requested the quilts be blue and white, reflecting the colours of the Nova Scotia flag, so we made our blocks with white squares in the center and blue for the edges. It's such a beautiful colour combination, isn't it?

At first I thought about quilting a loop and hearts design, but decided at the last minute to go with a loopy meander instead. A quilt full of hearts feels a little more feminine to me and I wanted to use something more gender neutral. I quilted it with Aurifil 2600. Somehow that's always the perfect colour when you need to go over lots of different fabrics 😊

I had this Island Batik pinecone fabric, which they sent in one of my ambassador boxes last year. While I like it, I was never quite sure what to do with it since the print is larger than I usually use. It was perfect to use for this backing, though, along with a grey-ish solid to make it big enough.

Another of the ladies who made blocks has an embroidery machine, so she made the label for the back. Isn't it perfect? This is so much nicer than anything I could have done. 

The Nova Scotia flag also has yellow on it, so I used this yellow Island Batik fabric for the binding. I love the pop of colour at the edge.

The quilt is now on its way to Halifax and I pray that it will bring comfort to someone who was affected by the shooting. Wouldn't it be wonderful, though, if the world never again had a reason for such a quilt drive?

I did try to get outdoor pictures before mailing it off, but the wind wasn't really cooperating...