Checking in

Just a quick note to check in and see how everyone is doing?

52 Blocks 52 Weeks Challenge

Want to have some fun this year?
The Canadian Quilters' Association is hosting a free, no sign up required block along. For 52 weeks starting today, you get one free 6 1/2" block to create. All the details to play along are found here.

Guess who had the thrill of making all the blocks and writing all the patterns for each one? Yes, me!
It has been a huge labour, but one of love!  So many people are on board with this. There are quilters from all over the world participating. Many have joined a facebook group created just for this challenge.  Many others are just downloading the pattern from the website and doing it with friends, their guild or all on their own. It is the 2019 in thing to do!

Here is the week one block. I did it in both solids and prints, and I don't know which one I like best!

Why don't you quilt along with us as we have some fun in 2019 with quilters across the world?

Jackie White Quilts

After much deliberation, I finally created my very own website called Jackie White Quilts!

Here I have galleries of my quilts, my patterns for sale and of course Meet Maud! Please go and take a look around,  I would love to hear what you think.

I had a logo designed that emulates Maud, the very first wall hanging I did of her. It is perfect, as it is Maud, pink and has polka dots!

My goal is to start teaching again and selling my patterns. I will continue to check in here as well.

A tip for you today. 
Are you on Instagram?  If not, I would encourage you to try it out. The plethora of inspiration from other quilters is magnificent! And by using hashtags (#), you can have all these wonderful search engines right at your fingertips!

Instagram Stories - Social Media for Quilters

Social media for quilters... is there anything better than staying connected through social media, when you can't be with your gang of quilters?

We spent some talking about Instagram here and now we are going to touch on Instagram Stories.
I like them as they are fast, engaging and last 24 hours on the platform. The best part is they are easy to do. Go to your account and hit the home button and see all the Instagram stories on the top of your screen! This is where you go to add your story! See your profile pic? That can be your story!

You can create a live video, add text to a picture or simply just type in text to a background. You can also save your stories. Each story lasts a max of 15 seconds.  (An instagram post can have a video from 3-60 seconds in length.)

It is another way to engage with viewers. If you are a business, it is an ideal way to show off a new pattern or new shipment of fabric! Remember quilters love eye candy.

Why Create a Story?
1. Great way to market yourself or your product.
2. Use hashtags in your story as another means for people to find you, an excellent search engine.
3. Another way to use a social media platform to get noticed.
4. It really is fun and addicting!

It is so simple to create a story. I pulled off the instructions right from the Instagram website, and go ahead and give it a try! Here is a short story I created and all I did was take an image from my photo gallery on my phone and added some text to it.

How do I share a photo or video to my Instagram story? (from the Instagram website)

To share a photo or video to your story using the Instagram app:

1. Tap  in the top left of your screen or swipe right from anywhere in feed.
2. Tap  at the bottom of the screen to take a photo, or tap and hold to record a video. To choose a photo from your phone's library or gallery, swipe up anywhere on the screen.
3. Tap ,  or  to draw, add text or a sticker to your photo or video. To remove text or a sticker, drag and drop it on  at the bottom of the screen.
4. When you're ready to share, tap Your Story in the bottom left.

Note: Stories disappear from profile and feed after 24 hours, unless you add them to your profile as highlights.

Go ahead and try creating an Instagram story!

Quilters Meet & Greet

Imagine the fun email asking if I want to be part of a Quilters Meet and Greet with a big giveaway at the end? How could I say no?
Be sure to check out the other quilters participating in the Meet & Greet too!

A little about me. 

I love to quilt, really love it. Maybe except the pinning before the quilting, that is something I am not a huge fan of:) I have been quilting for about 20 years and it was a great past time when I stayed home to raise my kids. I belong to a guild and have served on the board for Canada's national quilt association. 

When I am not quilting, I enjoy perusing social media looking for inspiration in the quilting world. You can find me on facebook and Instagram under 'Jackie's Art Quilts. Here I show my latest creations.

I have tried many of the different genres of quilting and currently am enjoying creating modern quilts and thread sketching. 

This quilt is one of my recent finishes and is currently in Paducah waiting to be judged and then hanging in the AQS show there. I love circles and many of my quilts will have some type of circular component to them. 

I also have been doing threadsketching lately and have started a series about a lighthearted fun loving girl named Maud. You can see the series here. 

Don't forget to check out the other quilters and get in on the Grand Prize!

Trish & Birdie Blog Tour

It was a pretty fun email that came unexpectedly inviting me on a blog tour to introduce a new fabric line !

What happened after that was receiving a fat quarter bundle of this delicious fabric, we were asked to make something with it.
This is the collection called 'Trish and Birdie' by Deane Beesley at Sweet Bee Designs
.
It is a delightful collection of all things sweet, flowery and full of sunshine.

I thought and thought of what to make. I didn't want to make something that would end up in my closet as the fabric was just too cute! Placemats, tablerunners, wall hangings all ran through my mind. 

As many of you know, I have a bit of an addiction to circles, modern quilting and the drunkards path block.   I decided that the best way to create with this fabric was to combine all of that together. 

Using a template that gave me a 5 1/2" block of drunkards path, I started. 

I pulled out 5 different fat quarters from the bundle and coupled that with some dark grey solid fabric. From there, with no exact plan I began cutting the 2 different parts of the block out using the print fabric.  The solid grey fabric I just used for the 'L' shape piece of the block. 

When it came time to sewing, I simply mixed and matched the pieces together. One tip  I have when sewing drunkards path blocks is start in the middle and stitch out in one direction and then go back to middle and stitch out in other direction. 

When you finish a block, press and trim. 

Then I just started laying them out on my design wall and rearranging until I found something I liked.  

I filled in the spaces with more grey fabric and sewed up the top.

As I was wanting to show off the print fabric and keep it traditionally modern if that is even a phrase, I went with straight line stitching! 

I do love the straight line stitching!

Please be sure to check out the other amazing items made on this tour by such talented quilters!  

@jinabarney

@be_so_crafty

@abrightcorner

@allisonsews

@thelittlegreenbean

@lilyshinecreates

@pipersgirls

@poweredbyquilting

@stephjacobsondesigns

@lovinglylissa

@jackiesartquilts

Thank you so much for the invite Deane!  It sure was fun!

Modern Quilt Contest Winners Announced!

Congratulations to the winners of the first ever Modern Quilt contest hosted here!

First a huge shout out to Amanda Herring Designs and Troll Brother Quilt Designs for sponsoring such great prizes!

I asked a certified quilt judge to judge the quilts and was lucky enough to get one of the Canadian Quilt Judge instructors to judge the contest.   

In Canada through the Canadian Quilters' Association, we have a Quilt Judge Certification Program that is 3-5 years in length.  Joyce Brown and Judy Villett are the 2 instructors that teach this program in Modules. There are 5 modules to the program. 

Module 1 can be a benefit to anyone and consists of:

• A one-day class designed to give an introduction to judging
• Designed for anyone thinking about becoming a Judge, Scribe, Juror, or Aide
• Also for those interested in organizing a judged show, entering a judged show or broadening knowledge.

The instructors will also travel to teach Module 1, if you or your guild are interested in something like that. They also offer it at the Quilt Canada conference in Ottawa this coming June. 

Joyce was kind enough to judge the contest. So without further ado, here are the comments from our esteemed judge:

1st place is # 11 Bluebird Sunset. 

From the Judge: 'Subtle, but effective illusion of a bluebird. The quilting lines bring emphasis to the branch and bird as is the sun is setting directly behind it.'

The winner will receive a $75 gift certificate from the awesome Troll Brother Quilt Designs!

2nd place is #14 Linda S. 

From the Judge: 'The contrast between the quilted circles the straight lines add movement and depth. The lighter strips of green make the vertical stripe appear to be floating up.'

The winner receives a $50 prize sponsored by the talented Amanda Herring Designs!

Judge’s Choice - 'which I’d love to hang in my home is #9 Spira Mirabillis. The colours and how it looks like cells from an acrylic pour bring movement and life to this piece.'

Joyce also had this to say about all the entries, 'This was fun. You had some great entries with very different pieces.'

Thank you to all who entered and to our incredible sponsors and Judge!

Summer Quilt Challenge for the Modern Soul

Want to spice up your summer? Heat things up with a modern twist? Read on, as this is an opportunity for you to have a summer blast!

 Here is your chance to try modern quilting and have some fun at the same time! 

If you have never done modern quilting, or not sure where to start, try a small quilt like this fun contest! 

It is fabulous for those modern quilters that want to have a chance to play with a modern quilt on a smaller scale! Come and join in this summer!

The Scoop:

Create a 12” x 12” modern quilt complete with your choice of binding.

Think modern when designing your quilt, ie. minimalism, negative space, and use of colour, to name a few design concepts.

Must be completed by August 15^th. All participants will be able to upload their project from July 15th until August 15^th at Jackie’s Art Quilts blog (here).

Judging will take place and winners will be announced August 20th. Open to anyone. 

Prizes:

Thank you super awesome sponsors!!!

1st place  $75 gift certificate sponsored by Troll Brothers Quilt Designs

2^nd place $50 prize sponsored by Amanda HerringDesigns

If you are showing your work on social media, please use #ModernSummerQuilt so we can all see what you are up to!

Let's have some fun this summer and make some great modern quilts!

Below my name is the Inlinkz Link up, click that and that will take you to the page where you can upload your challenge piece!

An InLinkz Link-up

Facebook Groups - A Group for Every Quilter

Social media is a love of mine. One of the best reasons is because I get to be a part of so many different groups that let me express my passion and see what other quilters are doing too!

Groups are the best way to share, interact and communicate with other quilters who like the same style of quilting you do.

Facebook groups can vary in many different ways. But they all have one thing in common, you get to post to a group of like minded people in whatever subject interests you.  Take a look at the different groups.

Open facebook groups
Open groups are public, meaning members can see the group and who else is in it, and can see the posts.

Closed facebook groups 
The name of the group, its members and description can be seen by the public but not the posts.

Secret facebook groups
Nothing can be seen by the public.

Here is an excellent description of the 3 different kinds of groups. 


How do You Find a Facebook Group for You

It is pretty easy actually.
1. You can simply type in a word in the search bar on facebook and see what comes up. Scroll down until you find groups and see what is there. I typed in 'quilting' in the example below.

2. Here is a second way to search for groups.
On the left side bar is a tab called Groups.

Click on Groups and that opens up a page that shows the groups you have requested to join, groups you moderate and groups you belong to. 

Here is where you can create a group as well. Look at the green tab on the right hand side that says Create Group. 

On the  top left hand side is a tab called Discover. When you click on that a whole new world of groups opens up! It shows you suggested groups based on your profile, what groups your friends belong to, local groups and recent interest.  Look at the top tab and scroll through to find even more groups based on different categories!   

Why Create a Group?

As I mentioned, groups give quilters a chance to show their own work, ask questions, listen and see what others are doing. Groups can also be fun to use when doing a quilt along or launching a pattern or getting ready for an event. They can be long term or short term. Groups are also great for a guild to get information or share rather than waiting for a once a month meeting, it promotes continuous communication and fosters growth and new friends! 

Groups can be deleted when they are no longer useful by the owner of the group. 

My favourite groups

I have so many different loves in quilting that I am guilty of belonging to several different groups.  And I love them all!  I learn so much from them and I do enjoy sharing my quilt work within the groups as well. 

I have to say this one as I created it=)  Modern Quilters of Canada, it is a closed group so you need to ask permission to join. 

Quilting in Canada is a larger group that shares so much in terms of different quilting genres. 

Art Quilts is a group with talent that boggles my mind. 

The Improv Handbook for Modern Quilters is also so unique.

What is your favourite group? 

How to Use Social Media Graphics For Quilters

I think we know that for a quilter, a picture is worth a thousand words!
As a quilter on social media, we want our pictures to convey what we are doing, what we want the post to say and most of all, we want it to engage our viewer.

But not all the time do we have a picture in our gallery or repetoire of photos to use. But we do have a message we want to get out there to our readers. What can you as a quilter do?

Use some great tools to find free images and other tools to design a graphic that will work for you!

When sourcing out images, I stick to the free ones that are copyright free, so I don't have to worry about anything.

Here are some good places I go to get images for my social media at no cost:


Pexels allows for the images to be used for commercial and non commercial use. They have a good search tool and an extensive gallery.

Unsplash is one I have just started using and am impressed with it. It has collections you can look through or use their search tool to find something specific. It also allows for use for commercial and non commercial use for free and no credit has to be given back.

Enhance

Enhance app logo

Enhance is super for several reasons, not only does it have a great search engine, but it is an app I have on my phone so I can do posts on the go. It is free and you just download it from the app store. 

Excellent search engine for copyright free images on Enhance.

The key components of Enhance are:

1. Searching  is excellent and fast.
2. I can edit with borders, filters, and text quickly and easily.
3. As each social media platform works with different sizes for their images, Enhance let's you choose which platform you are working with and helps you crop that image to fit that platform!
4. Sharing, when your image is done with your edits, you can share it right to facebook, twitter, Instagram or schedule it for hootsuite right within the app. Or simply save your image for later.

Editing Images

Once you have your image, it is sometimes not quite what you want. You may want to edit it by cropping a part out, enlarge it, put it on a background or add text to it. The two sources I go to are Enhance and Canva.   I will be honest, I seem to be spending most of my time either on Enhance or Canva. Both are free.

I like Canva because it also has images to draw from but has backgrounds, text, shapes and alot of flexibility. Canva, like Enhance also lets me pick what type of post I am creating so the image fits the social media platform.

A sample of what you can create on Canva.

When I am on my phone, it is simpler for me to use Enhance to get my image done quickly and efficiently.

What is your favourite tool for creating graphics?