Joanne Cocker's latest Dashwood collection, Birdsong, is a muted and calming collection of birds, trees, mountains, and raindrops.
Birdsong is by Joanne Cocker for Dashwood Studio.
100% Cotton. 44" Wide.
Friday, June 23, 2017
Birdsong by Joanne Cocker for Dashwood Studio
Joanne Cocker's latest Dashwood collection, Birdsong, is a muted and calming collection of birds, trees, mountains, and raindrops.
Birdsong is by Joanne Cocker for Dashwood Studio.
100% Cotton. 44" Wide.
Friday, June 16, 2017
The Canadian Sampler - Meet the Designers - Elaine Theriault
We hope you're enjoying making your Canadian Sampler!
Keep sharing your blocks on facebook and instagram with #thecanadiansampler and remember to tag us!
The blocks for June are by Elaine Theriault from Crazy Quilter on a Bike and Irene Dewar from Brambleberry Cottage Quilts.
Elaine Theriault from Crazy Quilter on a Bike
Elaine began quilting in 1998 when she decided that her daughter, who was two, needed a quilt for her big girl bed. She started teaching in 2000. In addition to teaching at guilds, stores and her in-home studio she has entertained many audiences with her humorous quilt related stories.
Elaine’s Tech Tips columns (originally published in A Needle Pulling Thread magazine) are now available on-line in e-book format at QUILTSocial.com. Elaine guest blogs for QUILTSocial.com where she reviews Husqvarna Viking sewing machines. In 2015, Elaine joined Northcott and loves going to work in a warehouse full of fabric.
Follow Elaine on her blog: Crazy Quilter on a Bike and on Instagram.
Inspiration for Star Cross
I wanted to create a block with 13 prominent pieces, one each to represent the 10 provinces and 3 territories. That was a bit of a design challenge. I grew up in western Canada where star gazing was a wonderful nightly event. So my STAR has 13 pieces. The red surrounding the star was necessary to highlight the star.
Sign up for The Canadian Sampler and make this gorgeous quilt to Celebrate Canada's 150th Anniversary!
Registrations for The Canadian Sampler starting July 2017 are now open.
Keep sharing your blocks on facebook and instagram with #thecanadiansampler and remember to tag us!
The blocks for June are by Elaine Theriault from Crazy Quilter on a Bike and Irene Dewar from Brambleberry Cottage Quilts.
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| Star Cross by Elaine Theriault |
Elaine began quilting in 1998 when she decided that her daughter, who was two, needed a quilt for her big girl bed. She started teaching in 2000. In addition to teaching at guilds, stores and her in-home studio she has entertained many audiences with her humorous quilt related stories.
Elaine’s Tech Tips columns (originally published in A Needle Pulling Thread magazine) are now available on-line in e-book format at QUILTSocial.com. Elaine guest blogs for QUILTSocial.com where she reviews Husqvarna Viking sewing machines. In 2015, Elaine joined Northcott and loves going to work in a warehouse full of fabric.
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| Elaine Theriault |
Follow Elaine on her blog: Crazy Quilter on a Bike and on Instagram.
Inspiration for Star Cross
I wanted to create a block with 13 prominent pieces, one each to represent the 10 provinces and 3 territories. That was a bit of a design challenge. I grew up in western Canada where star gazing was a wonderful nightly event. So my STAR has 13 pieces. The red surrounding the star was necessary to highlight the star.
Sign up for The Canadian Sampler and make this gorgeous quilt to Celebrate Canada's 150th Anniversary!
Registrations for The Canadian Sampler starting July 2017 are now open.
Monday, June 12, 2017
The Canadian Sampler - Meet the Designers - Irene Dewar
We hope you're enjoying making your Canadian Sampler!
Keep sharing your blocks on facebook and instagram with #thecanadiansampler and remember to tag us!
The blocks for June are by Irene Dewar from Brambleberry Cottage Quilts and Elaine Theriault from Crazy Quilter on a Bike.
Sugar Maple
Irene Dewar from Brambleberry Cottage Quilts
While still a very young child Irene’s mother taught her to knit, sew, crochet and embroider. She very much enjoyed these textile arts while growing up but it was not until 1983 when she took a quilting class she realized what an exciting and diverse variety of techniques there were in quilting. Those other needlework pastimes were soon set aside and quilting became her passion. Later, Irene began teaching quilting classes at home. Little did she know that those first few classes held around her dining room table would lead to countless classes at local quilt shops, work-shops and trunk shows at Guilds across Ontario, being a featured quilter in a Studio 2 production on TVO, or classes at the CreativFestival Conferences in Toronto.
Irene was an avid participant in the now disbanded Quilt Project for Breast Cancer Support, participating in a group that annually made and donated a quilt. It was while designing the group’s 2004 donation quilt that she developed what would become her first commercial quilt pattern. With the encouragement of friends and co-workers, she began to self-publish under the name Brambleberry Cottage Quilts. Since then, her collection of published patterns has grown and expanded. She currently designs for Northcott Collections, Row by Row, Contemporary Sewing Materials as well as independently. In addition, she teaches in her home studio in Pickering, Ontario.
Irene can be reached through her website Brambleberry Cottage Quilts
Inspiration for Sugar Maple
When I think of symbols of Canada, the Maple leaf is the first to come to mind. What could be more iconic than the Maple Leaf? It is literally the central image of our national flag.
Just as the snow starts to melt the maple gives us another icon of the Canadian experience, maple syrup. Sugaring-off is celebrated as the first harbinger of spring and a promise of warmer weather to come. It’s sticky sweetness is an excuse to come out of hibernation and begin enjoying the great outdoors again. In the summer, maples give us shade and in the fall a brilliant display of colour. Who amongst us has not made bouquets of brilliant fall leaves?
The maple seems to be a theme in my quilting. The shape of the leaf gives this pieced block. One of my first patterns, Ottawa Valley Serenade, features a Maple Leaf Block paired with a Log Cabin Block. A few years later Maple Ridge became another of my patterns. Place mat Duet – Canadian Maple, designed for Canada 150, features a maple leaf appliqué for place mats, runner and table topper.
Registrations for The Canadian Sampler starting July 2017 are now open.
Keep sharing your blocks on facebook and instagram with #thecanadiansampler and remember to tag us!
The blocks for June are by Irene Dewar from Brambleberry Cottage Quilts and Elaine Theriault from Crazy Quilter on a Bike.
Sugar Maple
Irene Dewar from Brambleberry Cottage Quilts
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| Sugar Maple by Irene Dewar |
While still a very young child Irene’s mother taught her to knit, sew, crochet and embroider. She very much enjoyed these textile arts while growing up but it was not until 1983 when she took a quilting class she realized what an exciting and diverse variety of techniques there were in quilting. Those other needlework pastimes were soon set aside and quilting became her passion. Later, Irene began teaching quilting classes at home. Little did she know that those first few classes held around her dining room table would lead to countless classes at local quilt shops, work-shops and trunk shows at Guilds across Ontario, being a featured quilter in a Studio 2 production on TVO, or classes at the CreativFestival Conferences in Toronto.
 |
| Irene Dewar |
Irene was an avid participant in the now disbanded Quilt Project for Breast Cancer Support, participating in a group that annually made and donated a quilt. It was while designing the group’s 2004 donation quilt that she developed what would become her first commercial quilt pattern. With the encouragement of friends and co-workers, she began to self-publish under the name Brambleberry Cottage Quilts. Since then, her collection of published patterns has grown and expanded. She currently designs for Northcott Collections, Row by Row, Contemporary Sewing Materials as well as independently. In addition, she teaches in her home studio in Pickering, Ontario.
Irene can be reached through her website Brambleberry Cottage Quilts
Inspiration for Sugar Maple
When I think of symbols of Canada, the Maple leaf is the first to come to mind. What could be more iconic than the Maple Leaf? It is literally the central image of our national flag.
Just as the snow starts to melt the maple gives us another icon of the Canadian experience, maple syrup. Sugaring-off is celebrated as the first harbinger of spring and a promise of warmer weather to come. It’s sticky sweetness is an excuse to come out of hibernation and begin enjoying the great outdoors again. In the summer, maples give us shade and in the fall a brilliant display of colour. Who amongst us has not made bouquets of brilliant fall leaves?
 |
| The Colors of Autumn reflected in the water at my Cottage |
The maple seems to be a theme in my quilting. The shape of the leaf gives this pieced block. One of my first patterns, Ottawa Valley Serenade, features a Maple Leaf Block paired with a Log Cabin Block. A few years later Maple Ridge became another of my patterns. Place mat Duet – Canadian Maple, designed for Canada 150, features a maple leaf appliqué for place mats, runner and table topper.
 |
| Brambleberry Cottage Quilts |
Sign up for The Canadian Sampler and make this gorgeous quilt to Celebrate Canada's 150th Anniversary!
Registrations for The Canadian Sampler starting July 2017 are now open.
Thursday, May 18, 2017
Mark Your Calendar! Sale on Clearance Fabric on May 22!
Look for our email bright and early on Monday, May 22 and get 20% Off Clearance Fabric!
Here are some things to remember when you're shopping the sale.
- The Sale is ONLINE ONLY. The store is closed on Monday, May 22, 2017 for Victoria Day.
- Flat Rate Shipping will apply - $9.99 within Canada and $12.99 to the US.
- If you live in Toronto and would like to pick your order up please mention this is the comments box. Shipping charges will be removed at the time of billing. We will email you when your order is ready for pick up.
- Discount is only valid on Clearance Fabric including Last Chance Fabric. Discount does NOT apply to regular priced fabric, pre-cuts, kits, fat quarter bundles, mini-bolts, interfacing etc.
- Orders are processed on a first-come, first-served basis. Please select alternate fabrics in case yours sells out - things go really quickly during a sale. Please be sure to provide specific instructions in the box titled : If we do not have the full quantity of an item on your order. For example you might say: " If you do not have the full 6 metres of the blue fabric please cancel that item but send the rest"; or "If you do not have the full 6 metres of the blue fabric cancel the whole order"; or "If you do not have the full 6 metres of the blue fabric please send a similar fabric of the same price."
- Please note that we will send what we have if you do not add specific instructions on your order.
Thank you and enjoy the sale!
Click here to go to our website: Sew Sisters
Tuesday, May 2, 2017
The Canadian Sampler - Meet the Designers - Brenda Miller
How is your Canadian Sampler coming along?
Keep sharing your blocks on facebook and instagram with #thecanadiansampler and remember to tag us!
The blocks for May are by Brenda Miller from Among Brenda's Quilts and Bags and Leanne from She Can Quilt.
The Compass Rose/ La Rose de vents
Brenda Miller from Among Brenda's Quilts and Bags
I love history. Who doesn’t love a good story, right? One of the most interesting things about Canada was how it changed hands from being a French colony to a British one with lots of battles and skirmishes in-between, there was even some action between ourselves and our southern neighbours. One of the stories I recall related how a 14 year old boy unearthed a medieval astrolabe while pulling stumps beside Buttermilk Creek near Cobden. This happened back in 1867.
You’ll of course recall that’s the year Canada became Canada. If you don’t know, an astrolabe is a mariner’s device used for navigation and it looks somewhat like a compass. Nobody really knows who dropped the astrolabe in Buttermilk Creek, but it’s been attributed to French explorer and founding father Samuel de Champlain who did travel in the area while searching for what he thought was the northern sea, but what was probably Hudson’s Bay. There is also some thought that it was dropped by Jesuit priests on their travels. Really, nobody knows who lost the astrolabe but it rests comfortably in the Canadian Museum of Civilization in Hull, Quebec for all to enjoy and I have celebrated it in my block. Enjoy!
Sign up for The Canadian Sampler and make this gorgeous quilt to Celebrate Canada's 150th Anniversary!
Registrations for The Canadian Sampler starting July 2017 are now open.
Keep sharing your blocks on facebook and instagram with #thecanadiansampler and remember to tag us!
The blocks for May are by Brenda Miller from Among Brenda's Quilts and Bags and Leanne from She Can Quilt.
The Compass Rose/ La Rose de vents
Brenda Miller from Among Brenda's Quilts and Bags
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| The Compass Rose/La Rose de vents by Brenda Miller |
Brenda is a first generation Canadian quilter who taught herself to sew at an early age on her mom's converted treadle sewing machine.
Brenda has been severely and irreversibly bitten by the quilting bug and loves to inspire others through her work, her classes and her trunk show.
She designs her own bag and quilting patterns and travels with her two trunk shows and lectures
entitled “Developing the Designer in You” and “Introducing Quilting to China”.
Brenda lives with her husband Rob and cat Harry in Strathroy, Ontario.
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| Brenda Miller |
You’ll of course recall that’s the year Canada became Canada. If you don’t know, an astrolabe is a mariner’s device used for navigation and it looks somewhat like a compass. Nobody really knows who dropped the astrolabe in Buttermilk Creek, but it’s been attributed to French explorer and founding father Samuel de Champlain who did travel in the area while searching for what he thought was the northern sea, but what was probably Hudson’s Bay. There is also some thought that it was dropped by Jesuit priests on their travels. Really, nobody knows who lost the astrolabe but it rests comfortably in the Canadian Museum of Civilization in Hull, Quebec for all to enjoy and I have celebrated it in my block. Enjoy!
Sign up for The Canadian Sampler and make this gorgeous quilt to Celebrate Canada's 150th Anniversary!
Registrations for The Canadian Sampler starting July 2017 are now open.
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