Happy Thanksgiving!

This is Thanksgiving weekend in Canada. We celebrated with a wonderful turkey dinner at my parent’s house yesterday. Although Saturday is not technically Thanksgiving Day, we celebrate during the weekend on the day that best fits everyone’s schedule.

In Canada Thanksgiving is celebrated on the second Monday in October. Unlike the American tradition of remembering Pilgrims and settling in the New World, Canadians give thanks for a successful harvest. The harvest season falls earlier in Canada compared to the United States due to the simple fact that Canada is further north.

The history of Thanksgiving in Canada goes back to an English explorer, Martin Frobisher, who had been trying to find a northern passage to the Orient. He did not succeed but he did establish a settlement in Northern America. In the year 1578, he held a formal ceremony, in what is now called Newfoundland, to give thanks for surviving the long journey. This is considered the first Canadian Thanksgiving. Other settlers arrived and continued these ceremonies. He was later knighted and had an inlet of the Atlantic Ocean in northern Canada named after him – Frobisher Bay.

At the same time, French settlers, having crossed the ocean and arrived in Canada with explorer Samuel de Champlain, also held huge feasts of thanks. They even formed ‘The Order of Good Cheer’ and gladly shared their food with their Indian neighbors. After the Seven Year War ended in 1763, the citizens of Halifax held a special day of Thanksgiving. During the American Revolution, Americans who remained loyal to England moved to Canada where they brought the customs and practices of the American Thanksgiving to Canada.

Eventually in 1879, Parliament declared November 6th a day of Thanksgiving and a national holiday. Over the years many dates were used for Thanksgiving, the most popular was the 3rd Monday in October.

After World War I, both Armistice Day and Thanksgiving were celebrated on the Monday of the week in which November 11th occurred. Ten years later, in 1931, the two days became separate holidays and Armistice Day was renamed Remembrance Day. Finally, on January 31st, 1957, Parliament proclaimed…”A Day of General Thanksgiving to Almighty God for the bountiful harvest with which Canada has been blessed … to be observed on the 2nd Monday in October.

From the hexagon and octagon table toppers leftovers, I made this table runner yesterday. This has yet to be quilted–only finished to the flimsy stage at this point.

The pattern was free on the internet and can be found at: http://www.hoffmanfabrics.com/quilts/holiday.html

Caution: The pattern says that this piece will finish 17″ wide by 59 1/2″ long. My flimsy currently measures 19″ wide by 66″ long. This is not that complicated a pattern. I followed the directions as they were printed so I believe the pattern has a misprint. I am now faced with three options because it will not fit the buffet/hutch that I made it for.

1. Finish it as is and use it under the table that our TV sits on.

2. Take it apart and cut it down so that it will fit the buffet / hutch.

3. Finish it as is and find it a new home. Mom, will it fit your dining room table? Are you interested?

This is the second Halloween Table Quilt I have made. This one has 8 sides. These are so quick to make, taking only a couple of hours from cutting the strips to the finished flimsy stage. The angle for this 8-sided quilt is 45 degrees.Getting the pieces cut for this quilt was a little harder than cutting the 60 degree angle for the Hexagon quilt. I don’t have a proper 45 degree ruler so I had to improvise. I do have a 45 degree diamond shaped ruler that I used to line up my long ruler. The edges on my diamond ruler are not clean and this resulted in a variation in the width of the finished cut pieces.
I would definitely recommend purchasing a proper 45 degree ruler if you plan on making one of these 8-sided quilts.

This is a picture of the Halloween Hexagon Table Quilt. It is now finished. It rested on my dining room table only a short time……… ………the quilt has already been adopted and has a new home. Yes, you guessed it, my Mother is now the proud owner of the Halloween Hexagon Table Quilt!
The second picture is of the quilt on my mother’s kitchen table.

You notice in my title that I have referred to this as Quilt #1. I will be working on a second version of this quilt for myself tonight.

I have been quilting during the last week–but not for myself. I have been busy finishing customer quilts. In between customer quilts I managed to sneak in the finishing of this small project. The reward for working on all those customer quilts is working on a fun project for myself. Linda J and I have been using a combination of rewards and encouraging each other to get through the projects on our list that need to happen–those things that we sometimes need a gentle push to get through.

I took this table topper to my Tuesday night Quilt Group and the girls loved it. In fact, they want a “class” on how to make this table topper so they can make their own Christmas versions. It looks like that class will be the evening of November 7 – weather permitting. November is a month where we can be surprised with ice and/or snow. If that happens, we will reschedule.

By the way, the glass pumpkin in the first picture is my newest purchase–filled will candy and ready for Halloween. I wonder if the candy will still be there on October 31st? *VBS*

Thanks to Doodlebug Gail of Quite Quilted fame I was inspired to make this Halloween Hexagon Table Quilt.

Thank you to Evelyn aka Starfishy of Scrappy Happy Quilts fame for the tutorial on “How to Make Octagon Flowers. This was a useful reference in making this quilt top.

This was my reward today for working on a particularly challenging customer quilt. Sometimes when we are feeling challenged by a project or we are working outside of our comfort zone we need a little incentive to keep pushing forward. Today as I worked on the customer quilt I alternated between it and working on this long anticipated Halloween project. This project was quick, fun, and served as my reward.

It is complete to the flimsy stage and will hopefully be sandwiched and quilted tomrorow. It will be quilted simply so that it can grace the dining room table well in advance of Halloween.