Our 3 "challenges" for this year wrapped up at our April 2023 guild meeting, with these projects all completed in time for our end of April Quilt Show. There was an amazing display of quilts and other items and we voted on our favourites with the winners awarded prizes.

This year we were given the opportunity to make the following guild-sponsored projects: 

• A Block of the Month quilt
• A Mystery Quilt
• A challenge to making something, anything, from the leftover fabric from the Mystery Quilt.

All 3 projects were suitable for all skill levels.
Thank you and congratulations to everyone who took on these projects and a big shout out to the makers of the prize winning pieces.
Volunteers Emma Russell and Mary deVries did an awesome job of leading and coordinating these activities. Thank you both!

This year's Block of the Month (BOM) featured 12 blocks, each finishing at 12", and each block was made from sixteen 3½” Half Square Triangles (HSTs). We made two blocks each month, with instructions for the first two being posted in August and the last two in January.
Emma and Mary brought their sample blocks to the fall in-person guild meetings. While they both used a single colour scheme - Mary's were blue, and Emma's were fall orange shades, we were encouraged to choose our own colours and use a single colour scheme like they did, or to vary our colours from block to block.
Participants assembled the blocks into the design of their choice along with borders, additional blocks, or background fabric.
​Photos of the blocks and the instructions are available here. 
​
The winners were:
1st  Allison Kubiseski
2nd  Brenda Davidson-Payer
3rd  Mary Moss

Here are the prize winning quilts.

The instructions for the blocks were made available in 3 parts from September through November 2022 and in December the mystery was revealed in the assembly instructions. This was a lovely pattern that made up at 36" square.
​
The winners were:
1st  Debbie Cauvier
2nd  Joanna Vlaming
3rd  Elizabeth Couture

​Here are the prize winning quilts.

We wrapped up our 2021-2022 Block of the Month / Challenge at our October 2022 in person meeting.

This Block of the Month (BOM) was a celebration of our guild's 20th anniversary and consisted of blocks from the past years' blocks of the month. Each month our BOM coordinators Johanne and Amanda spun a wheel on our Zoom screens to select a block for that month from a large selection of past blocks. And then they reached into the pile of blocks they had made, and showed us that month's winning block. This BOM evolved into a challenge to see how creative our guild members could be to make these random blocks, of differing sizes, and incorporate them into a quilt. There were no restrictions on the fabric used in these quilts.
The results were amazing!

The prizes (gift certificates to Sew Inspired) were awarded based on viewers' choice voting and the winners were:
1st Emma Russell
2nd Gwen Pennings
The voting resulted in a tie for second place and Emma was asked to choose the piece of paper with the tie-breaking quilt number.
Once again our guild members inspired and impressed us with their creativity in fabric and colour selections, placement of the blocks, and their impressive piecing and finishing skills. 
​Well done!

Here are the winning quilts.

Finally we were able to submit, and see some challenge quilts again! The last time was in September 2020 and now, almost 2 Covid years later, we were back in the park in Arnprior for our June meeting which included the wrap up of the Covid Challenge and the President's Challenge.

Challenges are projects with a particular theme where guild members can showcase their creativity and imagination. Typically issued in September at the beginning of each guild year, challenges are open to all members.  Prizes are awarded based on "viewer's choice" voting results.

The Covid challenge was issued by then Programs lead Joyce in September 2020 and with no opportunity to physically get together in our 2020-2021 guild year, the challenge was extended for another year by this year's Program lead Brigid.

The challenge was to:

"Make something completely from scraps.  No shopping allowed.  It doesn`t actually have to be scraps, as long as you used up material you had on hand."

Guild president Vickie's challenge this year was to: 

Create a quilt using the Drunkard's Path units. The Drunkard's Path is a traditional block that features curved piecing. And for fun, add a bit of emerald green to commemorate our guild’s 20th anniversary.

1. All entries must include multiple Drunkard's Path units.
2. Must use some of the color emerald green. The color is to be easily identified on the front face of the quilt. Use as much or as little as you like.
3. All entries are to measure more than 24" square.
4. No clothing, bags, or accessories. Quilt is to be completed, quilted, and bound. Quilt must have a top, batting, back, quilting and completed binding.

 
​The History of the Drunkard's Path Block

Quilt Show Challenge - Modern Quilt
This is the project for our April 2019 quilt show. It can be any project that exhibits modern quilting style - a quilt, wall hanging, runner, table topper, pillow, bag, etc.

​Refer to this description of a modern quilt on The Modern Quilt Guild web site.
More characteristics of a modern quilt:

• Negative space included
• exaggerated patterns, simplistic in design
• strong colours
• asymmetrical designs
• straight line, echo, and graphic quilting

Refer also to the meeting highlights of our May 2017 meeting where our guest Laura Piggott spoke on Modern Quilting.