{"id":3214,"date":"2015-06-06T18:36:09","date_gmt":"2015-06-07T01:36:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.road2cablog.com\/?p=3214"},"modified":"2015-06-06T18:36:09","modified_gmt":"2015-06-07T01:36:09","slug":"young-canadian-quilters-with-heart","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/road2ca.com\/blog\/2015\/06\/06\/young-canadian-quilters-with-heart\/","title":{"rendered":"Young Canadian Quilters With Heart"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\t\t\t\t<![CDATA[\n\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">Road to California 2015 was quite the adventure for Alexus Jekill, age 11, and Charlotte Upitis, age 9. Both girls are from Calgary, Canada and both girls had their first ever quilts displayed in the special exhibit, <a title=\"2015 Special Exhibit: The Next Generation of Quilters\" href=\"https:\/\/road2ca.com\/blog\/special-quilt-exhibits\/2015-special-exhibit-the-next-generation-of-quilters\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">The Next Generation<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n\n[caption id=\"attachment_3204\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"593\"]<a href=\"https:\/\/road2ca.com\/blog\/road-to-california\/2015-special-exhibit-the-next-generation-of-quilters-2\/attachment\/_i4c7964\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-3204\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-3204\" src=\"https:\/\/road2ca.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/I4C7964.jpg\" alt=\"Photo by Gregory Case Photography\" width=\"593\" height=\"496\" \/><\/a> Photo by Gregory Case Photography[\/caption]\n\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">Alexus and Charlotte are not new to sewing. Charlotte has been sewing since she was four years old when she got her first sewing machine. Alexus has been sewing for the past two years.\u00a0Both girls sew on <a href=\"http:\/\/www.bernina.com\/en-US\/Home-United-States\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Bernina <\/a>sewing machines. Charlotte has the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.bernina.com\/en-US\/Products-US\/BERNINA-products\/Sewing-Quilting-and-Embroidery\/BERNINA-3-Series\/BERNINA-350-Special-Edition\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">limited edition machine with peacock feathers<\/a> and loves to sew clothing, purses, and accessories. Alexus has the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.bernina.com\/en-US\/Products-US\/BERNINA-products\/Sewing-Quilting-and-Embroidery\/BERNINA-3-Series\/BERNINA-350-Special-Edition\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">limited edition with butterflies<\/a> that she uses to sew pajamas. She also takes art classes at the <a href=\"http:\/\/calgaryschoolofart.ca\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Calgary School of Art<\/a> where she has begun using fabric as one of her mediums.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">Sewing for charities is a passion for both girls. They have sewn and donated clothing for Hats for Hearts, a Canadian fundraiser that raises awareness for stroke victims. Charlotte\u2019s grandfather passed away from a stroke when Charlotte was 1 years old. She then had small hemorrhagic strokes in her cerebellum herself due to a sudden medical illness when she was two years old, requiring Charlotte to have to learn how to sit and walk again herself.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">It was Charlotte\u2019s mom, Kathryn Upitis, who found out about Road to California and the special exhibit. An article on Road\u2019s blog about<a href=\"https:\/\/road2ca.com\/blog\/road-2014\/how-to-keep-the-kids-entertained-this-summer-part-ii\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">\u00a0triplet girls who sewed<\/a> attending Road 2014 first caught Kathryn\u2019s interest because Alexus has a twin sister. Then, when she heard about The Next Generation special exhibit, she knew Alexus and Charlotte would want to enter.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">The quilts Alexus and Charlotte entered in The Next Generation were the first quilts either girl had made. Both girls dedicated their quilts to a family friend, Toni Kohn Woodward, who had passed away last September from a heart embolism. At the time, Toni was in her 20\u2019s and pregnant. The star on Charlotte&#8217;s quilts was added before the quilt show as a way everyone could remember Toni.<\/span><\/p>\n\n[caption id=\"attachment_3206\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"591\"]<a href=\"https:\/\/road2ca.com\/blog\/road-to-california\/2015-special-exhibit-the-next-generation-of-quilters-2\/attachment\/img_8579\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-3206\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-3206\" src=\"https:\/\/road2ca.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/IMG_8579.jpg\" alt=\"Photo by Gregory Case Photography\" width=\"591\" height=\"408\" \/><\/a> Photo by Gregory Case Photography[\/caption]\n\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">Road to California was the first quilt show Charlotte and Alexus had ever been to. What did the girls think about seeing their quilts in person at the exhibit? Charlotte said, \u201cI was so excited to see it. It made me happy.\u201d Alexus added, \u201cI thought it was crazy!\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">Alexus and Charlotte are already planning for their next sewing projects: phone cases and backpacks.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n]]>\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\t\t\t\t<![CDATA[]]>\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3204,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[32,36],"tags":[154,204,210,1292,1417],"class_list":["post-3214","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-road-to-california","category-special-quilt-exhibits","tag-bernina","tag-calgary-school-of-art","tag-canada","tag-the-next-generation","tag-young-quilters"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/road2ca.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/I4C7964.jpg","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/road2ca.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3214","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/road2ca.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/road2ca.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/road2ca.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/road2ca.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3214"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/road2ca.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3214\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/road2ca.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3204"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/road2ca.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3214"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/road2ca.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3214"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/road2ca.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3214"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}