The First Festival Fanfare - a Countdown Quilt

A fanfare heralds the dawn of new beginnings... 

Join us in the excitement of a bold new quilt, composed for us by Calgary's own Susan Madu of Modern Blended Quilts.

Quick Facts:

• The prelude/beginning will debut on June 6th, 2026  

• The finale will drop on May 29th, 2027 at the first ever Calgary Quilt Festival

• Several suggestions for block layouts will be provided 

• The patterns will be suitable for quilters of all skill levels  

• Patterns will be available for download until June 30th of 2027, so you can join and catch up at any time

• Sign up to receive tips and tricks, and encouragement!  The signup form is here!

Prizes:

• Sign up for our First Festival Fanfare, and you will also be entered to win 1 of 8 fat quarter bundles donated by Northcott Fabrics - Colorworks Solids in our Festival colours, or in Colorworks Solids in shades of blue to celebrate Calgary as the Blue Sky City!

• Fat quarter prize draw will be held the first week of July - sign up before then to win!  

• More prizes may be announced later.

We will update this page every Saturday from June 6th, 2026 to May 29th, 2027.  The two links below will lead you to the current week's block, and past week's blocks.  You can join any time and catch up!  The first weekly pattern contains all sorts of basic information about fabric requirements and choices.  Use the suggestions, or mix your own palette.  

These blocks are great for learning, for honing your skills, and for having fun!  Let's make a quilt...

First Festival Fanfare 

Block Patterns

Please note that these patterns are shared with you from Dropbox.  You do not need to have a Dropbox account to access them - you can access them from any browser.  If you are on a mobile device it will ask if you wish to "open in app" or "open in browser" - choose the browser!!

NOTE: The Calgary Quilt Festival holds a limited license for this quilt pattern which allows us to provide them to you at no charge until July of 2027.  After that date, the links will be taken offline, so please make sure to download the steps to your own device before they expire.

For more tips and tricks, and other updates, please sign up for our First Festival Fanfare group HERE.  We will send out occasional notes and information about prize draws as well :-)

Thank you for joining us, and special thanks to Susan Madu of Modern Blended Quilts for composing this original design for all of us to enjoy!  Thank you also to Northcott Fabrics for sponsoring this project by providing solids and background fabrics for our sample quilts, with a little bit left over for prize bundles.