Today is the day! The official kick off of the first ever Canadian Summer Quilt Along! I asked 11 Canadian block designers to join me in designing 12 inch quilt blocks on the theme of “something we love about Canada.”
Today’s block is designed by Jenn McMillan of Fabric, Ink. Jenn has also developed a product for hand sewing called Sew Fine Thread Gloss that you may find helpful when making this block.
Jenn’s block is a horse shoe block which she chose as her block theme because she has fond memories of her family’s horse shoe tournaments at their family reunions in the summer.
I too have fond memories of playing horse shoes with family. My Grandfather used to book a cabin for us every spring and fall at his friend’s cabin in Jasper, Alberta. There are horse shoe pits at the cabin so a spontaneous game would inevitably start up every year. If you haven’t heard of playing horse shoes there are metal spikes set in sand pits opposite each other at a certain distance apart. You toss horse shoes and try to ring the spikes with them.
Jenn’s block was designed as a needle turned applique block so you have an opportunity for some slow stitching outside in the nice summer weather if you wish. I encourage you to give it a try. I tried needle turned applique for the first time on this block and I am still working on that.
Another option for this block is fusible web applique which I ended up using to create the block that went into my quilt top. If you choose to do a fusible block you can still have a chance to hand sew if you want to hand sew your blanket stitches. Or you can use a sewing machine to secure your edges with zig zag, satin or blanket stitches. I created a short little YouTube tutorial video to show how to hand sew blanket stitches on applique.
Jenn has tutorial links and her free pattern download on her blog so please visit her there. If you enjoy her post please consider following her blog. She is offering a giveaway too so make sure to enter that while you’re there. You can also follow Jenn on Instagram @jennmcmillan.
Daydreams of Quilts is offering a giveaway this week too! Post your horse shoe blocks publicly on Instagram and use the hashtag #canadiansummerqal before next week’s block comes out on June 18th for a chance to win one of my Seam Ripper enamel pins and a Daydreams of Quilts enamel logo pin too! (If you are not on Instagram email me a photo of your block to daydreamsofquilts (at) gmail (dot) com and I will post it on your behalf.)
Visit the main Canadian Summer Quilt Along post here at Daydreams of Quilts to see the schedule of upcoming blocks, sponsors and list of prizes for the grand prize at the end. Thank you for sewing along with us!
