April 2024 Guild Meeting

After our winter Zoom meetings we happily returned to in person meetings on April 24th with a large enthusiastic turnout of 51 guild members and 6 guests.

Presentation
Our feature presentation was by Katrina Kahn, a founding member,  and past president of our guild, and the Quilter of Distinction at our 2019 Quilt Show. 

​The promotion for Katrina's Trunk Show presentation, Something from Nothing. Leaders and Enders - Quilts From 2” Squares,  
​
​"showcasing her quilts made in a "leaders and enders" style, using 2" squares, all made while piecing other quilts! You won't believe the beautiful scrappy quilts that result from this time saving and scrap busting technique! It will leave you feeling inspired to turn your left-over bits into beautiful, and painless, scrap quilts!"

​fully met our expectations and more.

---

A long time "sustainable quilter", Katrina is very disciplined and committed to minimizing waste fabric. She cuts up leftover fabric at the end of each new project into primarily 2" squares, slightly bigger squares for HSTs (half-square triangles) and 1 1/2" strips. She pieces all of the 2" squares as "leaders and enders" while she's piecing other quilts. Two patches expand to 4 patches and bigger as needed, all sewn as leaders and enders. While many people cut their scraps into 2 1/2" squares, Katrina prefers the mathematical flexibility of working in multiples of 2", and she's been doing this for a long time, before the popularity of jelly rolls. She cuts scraps with her AccuQuilt cutter using various dies and in creative ways.
All of these bits and pieces are organized and stored in plastic containers, and in little plastic mushroom containers.​

​Katrina started her trunk show with this stunning Christmas quilt. The centre is all 2" squares (1 1/2" finished) and the border is made from her 1 1/2" strip scraps. These projects take a while to complete (years!) but are well worth waiting for.

The 2" squares also make lovely sweatshirt-based jackets.

The scraps can be used in an infinite variety of creative designs.

Tina confirms that Katrina's QR code quilt, constructed a long time ago, still works and takes you to her web site blog Sunshower Quilts.

Katrina's designs often evolve as she goes and in this quilt, the white edges inside the pieced border, needed some unplanned adjustments.

Katrina uses a variety of neutral colors in her quilts, including chartreuse, red, grey, beige, brown, some golds and silvers, in addition to white. This is an example of a red neutral, Kona Paprika.

Katrina suggested making preemie quilts with alternating 16 patch scrap blocks and 6 1/2" squares of child-themed fabrics.
The 16 patch blocks can also be alternated with pinwheel blocks.

More photos of Katrina's quilts are in the gallery below.   Click/tap on an image to see it in full

Thank you Katrina for an excellent and most enjoyable and educational presentation.
You can see more of Katrina's work and link to her social media accounts, on her extensive web site blog Sunshower Quilts, 

Taking a closer look at Katrina's quilts

Charity
The Charity table welcomed bird blocks made by our members for the quilt that will be made and raffled off at our 2025 quilt show. The deadline for these blocks is June. They are stunning!

Many delightful preemie quilts were brought in. Thank you!

And we saw a nearly complete quilt made from the blocks produced at our November 2023 sew night challenge.

Block of the Month
Mary and Emma brought in their sample Blocks of the Month. Mary has completed all 12 of hers and she's put them together into 4 seasonal wall hangings.

Mary and her Blocks of the Month

Emma introduced this month's Hummingbird block (bottom right in the photo below) at the meeting.
Photos and templates for making the blocks are on the Block of the Month page.  The final 2 blocks will be introduced at the May and June meetings.

Retreats
Sue had sign up sheets for the fall 2024 and winter 2025 retreats. Refer to the Retreats page for more information and online registration.

Draws
The meeting wrapped up with our draws and some happy winners!
Library prize - Brenda G
Gift Bag - Marilyn E
50-50 Draw - Anne C
Door Prizes  - $20 gift certificates from Sew Inspired - Shirley F and Katrina

Many thanks to those who brought the tasty snacks (surnames starting with L and M) and prepared the coffee and tea.
And thanks to the volunteers who held up the quilts: Wendy and Sandy for Katrina's quilts,  and Rennie and Sue H for Show and Tell.   Show and Tell photos
And thank you Emma, our guild photographer for these awesome photos. 

-- Janet Brownlee