I love our Canadian symbol of the maple leaf. It’s magnificent!
There is a song called “The Maple Leaf Forever”, and we really don’t hear it much. Sometime in my past I must have heard it, but the only part I remember was the title line at the end of the chorus. So I did what anybody would do these days: I googled it!
You can google it too if you want more info, but this is the chorus of the original version of the song (which was never our National Anthem, but was often played as if it was):
The Maple Leaf, our emblem dear,
The Maple Leaf forever!
God save our Queen and heaven bless
The Maple Leaf forever!
And here is the chorus of the more recent version, which was actually sung by Michael Bublé at the 2010 Olympic Closing Ceremonies:
Long may it wave, and grace our own,
Blue skies and stormy weather,
Within my heart, above my home,
The Maple Leaf forever!
Anyway . . . about ten years ago I made a quilted Maple Leaf wall hanging at a little quilting class in town.
I didn’t do too badly here in my first attempt at quilting anything, but don’t look too closely!
It’s thirteen squares across and down. I love the non-traditional flag colours.
It was easily quilted to look like veins in the leaf.
I even found little maple leaf buttons for the corners.
Long may it wave, and grace our own,
Blue skies and stormy weather,
Within my heart, above my home,
The Maple Leaf forever!
So if we do the math, today is Canada’s 144th Birthday!!!
One thing I admire about our neighbours to the south is how patriotic they are. They LOVE the Fourth of July and go all out in decorating and partying to celebrate their Independence Day. I don’t think we do half as much celebrating as they do.
I have a few Canadian decorations like this garden stake that sits in the garden all summer.
And I have this wooden flag on my porch. The other side of the board is a little house with the words Simple Life on it. I usually have that side showing all summer and then rotate it to the flag side for the holidays.
My porch animals keep moving – they’re alive!!!
But one of my favourite sights on Canada Day is this . . .
. . . our Flag!
The youth in each ward in town have an annual fundraiser. We pay $40 and they will put a flag up in our yard for every holiday from Victoria Day in May to Thanksgiving in October.
I love to see all the flags flying around the neighbourhood on all the holidays, but they look especially grand today, on Canada’s Birthday.
I home-school my kids from Kindergarten to Grade 3. So, I like to have educational things around, but I don’t want my house to look like a classroom (unless it’s the actual “school room” like we had in one house). But most of our learning seems to happen right on the couch so the old teacher can be comfortable!!! So, a Map of Canada Pillow seems like the perfect addition to our home school – comfort and education in one!!!
Somewhere in blogworld, I’ve seen two maps of the USA. They were both wall hangings – one was fabric and one was paper. (Sorry, this was before Pinterest so they were only “pinned” in my mind and I have no link to send you to!). But they were my inspiration to make a map of Canada. Let me just say that 10 provinces and 3 territories is just a wee bit easier than 50 states!!!
The first step is to find a map you like. I found a ton on Google and any regular person could just print a map out. I’m not a regular person and decided to make this project take a little longer by tracing a map off my daughters school agenda.
(Actually, I don’t have a printer right now!)
Now, listen carefully: I used Heat and Bond (my second favourite thing after Mod Podge!), and the image you trace on the Heat and Bond needs to be backwards. So, I traced my map with a marker that went through the paper, so I had the reverse image on the back of the paper. And then I copied it, but you don’t need to do that.
You trace your reversed image onto the paper side of the Heat and Bond and then roughly cut it out.
I initialed the provinces because when they’re backwards its easy to get mixed up. These are all pressed now onto the wrong side of the fabric (follow the instructions on your Heat and Bond!)
Now you cut them out properly.
Place them in their proper spots. I kept the little Prince Edward Island to the last because I didn’t want to lose it. I’d love to visit PEI someday (yes, I’m a big Anne fan!)
Once everything was placed in its proper spot, I peeled the paper backing off the fabric and put the piece back in its place.
I double checked the exact locations of those east coast provinces with my map. Gotta teach my kids correct geography! When everything was exactly right, I ironed it all on – again, be sure to follow the instructions on your package. It’s probably only for a few seconds and if you over iron, it won’t stick.
My family likes to throw around pillows – crazy I know and they most certainly don’t get that from me! So I knew that I had to do some reinforcements to my pillow before it goes flying around the room.
I slowly stitched around a lot of the edges – not every edge, that would have driven me insane!!!
Each piece has enough stitching on it to securely hold it in place. I even changed to blue thread to stitch around the Great Lakes!
Hey, that could be a new puzzle: where did mom start sewing with the green thread, and how did she do it in one continuous line?
I sewed my blue piece to a green piece and sewed all that onto . . . a drop cloth!!! Drop clothes are pretty amazing and can be used for a ton of things – like curtains and chair covers, or, even to throw on the ground to protect your floor while you paint!!! Sorry, got distracted by drop clothes. Back to the pillow – I clipped the green and blue edges and sprayed them with water to rough them up – a rag look.
Looking good, but still a little wet! The edges did curl up nicely.
Here’s another distraction – a cute distraction, but still a distraction!!!
She has to be right in on all the action . . .
. . . and have the best view of everything!!!
Yeah, nap time is definitely craft time. And now I’m often crafting on my bed because she can’t climb up there yet!
The clipped and frayed edges.
To sew the pillow cover, I just did an envelope style. I even used the finished edges of the drop cloth so I wouldn’t need to finish any edges. So easy!
And there is the finished back view!
And the finished front!!!
And yes, we’ve already had a geography lesson and I sewed everything in the proper place!!!
Every year, at least a month before Christmas, we start our Wish List. It’s one piece of paper divided into sections – one section for each person. There they write what they wish for (one piece of paper makes it easy for me to grab and take shopping).
Back in 2006, I wrote “World Peace” in my section of my wish list. I must have just watched Miss Congeniality or something! And truthfully, I really wasn’t expecting to get “World Peace” for Christmas! So, imagine my surprise when I actually got “World Peace” from my imaginative oldest daughter for Christmas!!!
This is what she wrote on the back . . .And now . . . are you ready to see what “World Peace” looks like?
I didn’t do too badly here in my first attempt at quilting anything, but don’t look too closely!
It’s thirteen squares across and down. I love the non-traditional flag colours.
It was easily quilted to look like veins in the leaf.
I even found little maple leaf buttons for the corners.
Long may it wave, and grace our own,
