BIG LAKE—Eight-year-old Alice McIntosh is all smiles these days after winning a Rosette from the Canadian Quilters’ Association this summer. Her quilt, “What I Love,” was displayed in Vancouver at the Quilt Canada Conference at the end of June along with other entrants in the 2022 JN Harper Youth Challenge. Votes were collected online prior to the event, as well as in-person during the event. Alice’s quilt was selected as the viewer’s choice winner in the age 5-9 category.
The assigned theme of the quilt was ‘Real Fun,’ and Alice was required to use black and bright multi-coloured fabric. The rest of the design was completely up to her. Alice was eager to try the many techniques she has seen her mom, Melissa McIntosh and the quilt members used in the past.
“Using yarn couching is ‘real fun!’ said Alice. “I wanted my friends and family to know how special they are to me. It was also real fun to use different techniques, like hand quilting, paper piercing and longarm quilting.”
Mom Melissa McIntosh said, “this is Alice’s first quilt she has made from start to finish. She has been helping me make quilts as gifts since she was three, starting with quilted throw pillows for her grandfather’s birthday.”
“She has been playing underneath quilts stretched out on frames at traditional hand-quilting bees since she was a toddler as quilts were made by volunteers to give to victims of house-fires,” explained Ms. McIntosh. She noted Alice’s, “first hands-on experience was sitting underneath the kitchen table to operate the foot pedal for my sewing machine.”
“Alice attended her first Island Quilters’ Guild meeting when she was three months old and has been attending and helping with their charity program ever since,” said Ms. McIntosh.
Along with the Rosette, Alice won a Janome Horizon Memory Craft 82OOSE, which she is eager to put to use on her entry for the Providence Bay Fair ‘block challenge,’ which is a full sized wolf-themed quilt, currently in the planning stage.
