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We had a marvelous end to our first full post-Covid guild year with an action packed meeting on June 21st. The meeting was well attended by many of our guild members, the visiting members of the Quilters Guild of Renfrew and Area, and several other guests. Books! We welcomed Bert of Grantham Books as a visiting featured shop and his extensive display of quilting books. We were all invited to come early to have a good chance to browse and purchase books...and browse and purchase we did!    Trunk Show First on the official agenda of the evening was a trunk show by some of our visiting guests from the Quilters Guild of Renfrew and Area. They brought along some stunning quilts and entertained us with their very interesting stories.     And yes this is our ADQG member Chris Gordon showing some of her work! Chris is a member of both guilds. Thank you Chris for organizing most enjoyable trunk show.     Thank you to our guests from the Renfrew and Area guild for coming to our meeting and especially to those who treated us to an excellent trunk show. Social The meeting featured a lengthy break for our yummy dessert buffet, a close up look at the trunk show quilts, more book browsing and buying, and some very social time.      Show and Tell There were still more quilts to see at our regular Show and Tell. But it wasn't so "regular" after all as Brenda Davidson Payer showed us her amazing "Perfectly Imperfect" quilt freshly back from Quilt Canada, the 2023 Canadian Quilters' Association (CQA) national juried show in Halifax. Brenda was awarded first prize in the Traditional - Wall and Bed Quilt category. You can read more about it here on the CQA web site. Congratulations Brenda! Well done!   We're super excited that Brenda has volunteered to be our incoming guild Program executive so we'll be hearing lots from her over the next couple of years. And after all of our work to complete projects for our quilt show, we were treated to a pleasantly surprising array of other stunning new quilts in Show and Tell. These included the Tote-Me-Tote bags from our May workshop.  A Little Business During the short business part of the meeting, Nancy announced that we could keep out library books over the summer this year, provided that we return them in September.  L to R Joyce and Anne in December 2022 We were delighted when Anne Cruickshank and Joyce Murray stepped forward to announce that they are taking on the roles of co-presidents! Anne has previously been president (twice!) and Joyce has served in multiple executive and organizational capacities, so we are very well positioned for next year, and very grateful that they are volunteering for this crucial role. And they didn't waste any time in getting started as Anne announced a Summer 2023 Presidents' Challenge to make a bag (any pattern, any size) and bring it to the September guild meeting. And the Tote-Me-Tote bags are NOT eligible! This was also our night to thank outgoing president Vickie for her excellent leadership for the past 2 years, including leading the committee for our recent very successful quilt show. All very well done Vickie, and very much appreciated. Draws
The meeting wrapped up with our draws and some happy winners! Guess the Number of Pages in the 2 library books - Jane W Gift Basket - Joanna V 50-50 Draw of $57 - Nancy Door Prizes - Diane A, Shirley F, Tina M, Allison K Free 2023-2024 Guild Memberships - Brenda G, Shirley F Thank You! A huge thank you goes out to everyone who brought the desserts, and to Joyce T and Wendy FB for doing kitchen duty - setting out the food and cleaning up afterwards. -- Janet Brownlee We rounded out this calendar year and our fall in person meetings with the welcome return of our traditional potluck Christmas meeting. The hall was festively decorated with your charming Christmas themed quilts.  As usual the food was delicious and the dinner conversations enjoyed by all. Thank you to people with surnames beginning with A-L for bringing all of those sumptuous dishes for the potluck.   A highlight of the evening was the Christmas gift exchange game that Vickie organized. The game started with everyone choosing one of the gifts from the stage and choosing a number that determined the order of play.  A small selection of the gifts On your turn you had the option of opening the gift you selected, or to trade it, still wrapped, for a gift already opened by someone else. There was a lot of laughter and trading until we all had an opened gift.    We all posed at the end for a group photo with our gifts.  And we even captured a rare photo of Emma, our talented and dedicated photographer, when she handed her camera over to Vickie!  Our Show & Tell included several beautiful seasonal items and other lovely creations. You can see photos of all of the quilts on the Show & Tell page.  Draws The meeting wrapped up with our usual draws and some happy winners! Guess the Number of Pages in the library book - Emma Gift Basket - Jo 50-50 Draw of $29 - (I neglected to note the name. If you recall who won, please let me know!) Door Prizes Allison, Emma, Nancy, Joyce T, Jo, Rennie, Louise, Lucy, Georgene Thank You!
A huge thank you goes out to Joyce T and Tina M for doing kitchen duty - setting out the food and cleaning up afterwards. And to Vickie for organizing the evening and for the fun gift exchange game! -- Janet Brownlee, Communications This Charity workshop evening on Wednesday November 23rd was a huge success, both in the camaraderie and the amount of work that was done by the 33 attendees. It was a very active and busy hands on meeting making Christmas gift bags and placemats, and preparing materials for these and other guild Charity projects. We enjoyed meeting and talking to people we hadn’t talked to before or for a long time, including our 2 brand new members, Lucy and Nadine who were attending their first meeting. Marilyn and her set up crew had many work stations clearly labeled and ready for us to quickly get started on various activities from cutting fabric for Christmas gift bags and placemats, sewing gift bags and placemats, attaching bindings to placemats, attaching the drawstrings to the gift bags, assembling kits to make fidget quilts, cutting batting for preemie and other Charity quilts, and ironing, ironing and more ironing in the kitchen!                 A number of completed Charity items were brought to the meeting.  Fidget quilt  Fidget quilt  Preemie quilts  Drawstring gift bags  Placemats Thanks to all who participated in this big work evening. And an extra thank you to those who took home works-in-progress to finish off for our Christmas donations. Show and Tell We took a break for Show and Tell. Photos here  New! Rulers in the Library Gwen introduced an initiative to add rulers to our Library collection - all donations are welcome. Workshop And Gwen also started registration for a tote bag workshop in May that she has kindly volunteered to organize. Details here.  Draws
The meeting wrapped up with draws and some happy winners! Guess the Number of Pages in the book - Lucy Gift Basket - Allison 50-50 Draw of $35 - Debbie Door Prizes $20 gift certificates from Textile Traditions - Vickie and Allison It was great to get together on October 26th for our second in person guild meeting of this guild season. The meeting was attended by 33 guild members and one guest. Program The meeting featured demonstrations of 5 different types of appliqué to help us learn new techniques, or to brush up on some we may not have used in a while. Unlike other types of workshops we have had in the past, there was no need to bring any supplies. Instead we watched the demonstrations and hopefully learned from them and were inspired to take on an appliqué project. The excellent demonstrations were given by 5 of our talented guild member volunteers who also provided samples of their own stunning appliqué work and answered our many questions. Rennie showed us wool appliqué.   Allison showed us the starch method and wowed us with her light box.   Christine showed us the interface and turn method and her hand appliqué technique.  Joanna showed us raw edge appliqué which we could examine on her various sample pieces.   Brenda showed us the needleturn method which we could examine on her beautiful quilts. Thank you to all of our appliqué instructors for your excellent demonstrations and for sharing your knowledge with us. Your efforts, including the preparation for the evening, were very much appreciated. 2021-2022 BOM Challenge Our last year's 2021-2022 Block of the Month program wrapped up with a display of 6 quilts and voting for our favourite.   Emma and Gwen were the respective winners of the 1st and 2nd place gift certificates from Sew Inspired.  1st Emma  2nd Gwen See the BOM Challenge Blog post for more information about this BOM program, and close up photos of all of the quilts. Show and Tell Show and Tell was started off with a fun and creative seasonal piece by new member Wendy! It's such a treat to be seeing our members' stunning creations and hear their stories in person again. See the Show and Tell page for photos of all of the show and tell projects.  Charity Donations  Preemie quilts  Drawstring gift bags Block of the Month & Mystery Quilt Mary and Emma brought along samples of the 2 October Blocks of the Month. See the Block of the Month page for details of this year's Half Square Triangle BOM program and instructions for these and all of the blocks. And see the Mystery Quilt page for instructions and details for this intriguing project. Sew Day Vickie announced an upcoming Sew Day for Thursday November 17 and sign up sheets were provided for the 15 available spaces. Details are here Draws
The meeting finished up with draws and some happy winners! Guess the Number of Pages in the book - Emma R Gift Basket - Debbie C 50-50 Draw of $35 - Mary C-P Door Prizes $20 gift certificates from Textile Traditions - Jo P and Mary deV We kicked off our guild year with an exciting in person meeting! It was wonderful to see so many familiar faces, some brand new ones, and some we were meeting in person for the first time (not just on Zoom.) Paul Léger Trunk Show Our meeting started with an informative and entertaining trunk show by our guest Paul Léger. He focused on the last six years, the period since his previous visit to our guild in September 2016.  Paul started by showing us his first ever quilt while he shared his story summarized by his promotional bio: "Paul lives in Ottawa, where he retired after working for the federal government for over 16 years after spending 21 years in the Canadian Armed Forces. He began quilting in May 1990. His mother, a quilter and dressmaker, had encouraged him to buy a sewing machine “for sewing emergencies”. One day, he remembered in the "old days" people would use clothing to make bed quilts. 31 years later and over 250 quilts to his credit, Paul has never looked back. In retirement life, Paul’s quilting has taken on another life. He doesn’t quilt any more or any less but now he also teaches, make presentations as well as contribute to magazines and blogs." This quilt was made from his work shirts.  The themes of learning new techniques, and challenging himself beyond his comfort zone, as well as his amazing creativity were evident throughout Paul's presentation. Great lessons for all of us!                Refer to Paul's web site for more information about him and his works, and for access to his Facebook page. And to our blog for a recap of Paul's previous visit in September 2016. Our Quilt Show Our long awaited quilt show is scheduled for April 29-30 2023. Vickie updated us on the activities already undertaken by the quilt show committee, along with an invitation to join that planning group. We also got a look at the stunning quilt that will be raffled off to a lucky winner at the show. Members were invited to pick up raffle tickets from Rennie at the meeting. All funds generated from the raffle quilt are used for future charity projects. It's a very important fund raiser for our guild and all members are encouraged to sell tickets.  The blocks were made in the fall of 2019 for our "Blue Block Party Challenge", and displayed at our January 2020 meeting. For this challenge we were provided with a kit of the white and 2 blue fabrics, to which we could optionally add other fabrics and make a 12 1/2" block. The quilt top was assembled in 2020 by former Programs chair Joyce and her team. There are many more blocks for another quilt or quilts.  Raffle Quilt Activities We were introduced to the variety of interesting projects being offered to our members this year. All are scheduled to result in finished projects in time for our quilt show on April 29-30. We were encouraged to participate in as many of these projects as we'd like, and there's something for every level of experience and expertise, from beginner to expert. And they are great opportunities to try something new, and to contribute to our guild's charitable endeavours. Click/taps the links for more information about each activity.
 Jelly Roll Quilt The meeting included a fun show-and-tell. Click/tap the link for photos of the quilts, taken by our guild photographer Emma.
Our meeting wrapped up with our draws and as usual, some happy winners! 50-50 draw: $55 for Nancy H Gift Basket: Tina M Guess the number of pages in the library book: Julie C Door Prizes: Georgene and Frank both went home with $20 gift certificates for Sew Inspired -- Janet Brownlee, Communications Our second in person meeting since the looooong stretch of Covid Zoom meetings saw us back in Robert Simpson Park in Arnprior for a delightful outdoor meeting where we happily greeted each other face to face, and saw some amazing quilts. After postponing this meeting twice due to inclement weather our patience was rewarded on June 28th with a beautiful evening in the park along the shore of the Ottawa River. This was a very casual and relaxed meeting with lots of social time to catch up with each other, and to see the lovely quilts - the challenge quilts, show and tell, and several preemie quilts and touch quilts for our Charity initiatives.  Viewing the President's Challenge entries  Preemie quilts  Touch quilts Challenges This was our last meeting of this guild year so that meant the challenges were wrapped up with viewer's choice voting for our favourites. The winners of the 2 year long Covid challenge were Rennie Hickey with first place and Mary DeVries with second.  1st Rennie Hickey  2nd Mary DeVries And the winners of this year's President's Drunkard's Path challenge were Allison Kubiseski with first place and Emma Russell with second.  1st Allison Kubiseski  2nd Emma Russell Congratulations to the winners and a big thank you to all of the participants for completing your challenge projects and sharing your beautiful and creative work with us. For more information about these challenges and photos of all of the entries, see the 2022 Challenges in the Park Blog post. Show and Tell A large portion of the evening was devoted to Show and Tell where we saw some of the amazing work of our guild members. Photos of all of the projects along with their makers are included in this photo gallery. Click/tap on an image to see it in full. You can see cropped and enlarged photos of the quilts on the Show and Tell page. Draws! The first draw of the evening was for the 2 free guild memberships for 2022-2023. Everyone who had already renewed their membership was eligible for this draw and the lucky winners were Claudette T and Elaine E. Congratulations! And the evening wrapped up with our regular prize draws.
The 50-50 draws are a welcome return to our in person meetings and this one for $24 was won by Penny C. The charming basket of quilting goodies was won by Jane W. Thank you to Amanda and Johanne for putting together another delightful and much sought after basket. The door prizes, $20 gift certificates for Sew Inspired, were won by Louise V and Mary D. And this month's Library prize was won by Liz G. Thank you to Nancy for providing the Library prizes this evening and all year long. -- Janet Brownlee, Communications After many, many virtual guild meetings via Zoom, we finally got back together in person for our May 25th guild meeting. What a treat it was to see so many familiar faces and to meet newer members in person. It's been well over 2 years since we had a regular indoor meeting, and it's so fortunate that we were able to hold a fun meeting in the park in September 2020 between the early Covid-19 waves. Photos from September 2020 Our special, first "back together" program featured a big yard sale of our quilt related stuff, a short business update since this was our Annual General Meeting (AGM), updates from several of our executives, and even more. Our Membership chair Martha greeted us and handled our "no touch" sign in.  There was a lot to see! The Charity table, hosted by Sue and Joyce, was a busy spot where they had a sample walker/wheelchair bag on display, and pre-packaged kits ready to go out to volunteers.  They were also gratefully accepting many of our members' donations of their fine work.  Little preemie quilts There were two completed Pick Up Sticks quilts.   Perhaps inspired by our March meeting Charity night, a colourful completed twin sized quilt, and a quilt top were also donated.  Nine-patch scrap quilt  Completed quilt top There were well stocked garage sale tables with a variety of fabrics and other items!   Nancy, our librarian, happily welcomed back library books, and offered some magazines and other items for sale.  The raffle and 50-50 ticket sale table was, as always, a popular spot.  The formal meeting began with an introduction of the members of our executive team in attendance.  L to R: Vickie, Rennie, Janet, Martha, Nancy, Betty A discussion of our upcoming quilt show in spring 2023 started with a look at the quilt that will be raffled off at the show. This raffle is an important part of our quilt show as its proceeds will fund future guild Charity projects. This beautiful raffle quilt top was assembled in 2020 by former Programs chair Joyce and her team, from blocks made by guild members for the 2019-2020 Blue Block Party Challenge.  Joyce with the raffle quilt top This was the challenge presented to us.
There were many more blocks donated for the challenge and those remaining blocks will be used in future guild Charity projects. You can see photos of all of the completed challenge blocks in the January 2020 Meeting Highlights. The formal meeting included updates from the executive chairs, the AGM formalities, and Show and Tell. There are larger, cropped photos of these quilts on the Show and Tell page.    The remaining 2 Blocks of the Month were drawn - for May and June, since we'll be meeting in the park in June. More info
The resumption of the full slate of prize draws was a welcome return.
The 2 door prize gift certificates were won by Tina M and Barb H, and Emma won $31.50 in the 50-50 draw. There were also lucky winners of the gift basket, and Library prize draws. After the meeting formalities there was plenty of time to visit the garage sale and Charity tables, and for informal socializing. It was great to see our guild photographer Emma back in action - thank you Emma for these awesome photos, and for splitting your time between your garage sale table and capturing these photos at the meeting. -- Janet Brownlee, Communications Note to readers: I had to leave the meeting early and I've been unable to determine who won the gift basket and library draws. If you won or recall who did please email me and I'll add that to this post. The program for our March guild Zoom meeting was very unique as we welcomed multiple guest presenters who represented several of the charities that our guild supports with donations of our crafts. This was an extraordinarily touching and very informative evening as we heard first hand stories of how our donations are valued by their recipients, and by the people who work or volunteer at the charities. Our guests included: Josee Laplante, RN, BScN, Clinical Manager of The Ottawa Hospital, Special Care Nursery recipients of many of our little preemie quilts  Nancy Peck of Arnprior-Braeside-McNab Seniors at Home, recipients of the placemats that we donate at Christmas time, which are delivered along with the Christmas meal to the Meals on Wheels clients  Pat Tait, volunteer team lead at the Arnprior & District Food Bank Inc. who fill and distribute the fabric drawstring bags that we donate.  Carole Beattie, Palliative Care Coordinator at the Arnprior and District Memorial Hospital, who have received several quilts from our guild for patients receiving palliative care.  Carole Beattie of ADMH Cathie McOrmond, Resource Development, at Lanark County Interval House and Community Support in Carleton Place who have been recipients of twin bed quilts Nancy Arbogast, Regional Representative in Ottawa for Quilts of Valour, Ottawa. Our guild members have donated quilts of comfort for injured Canadian Armed Forces members past and present. Gwen Pennings, Vice-President for the Pakenham group of Victoria’s Quilts who make and donate quilts to people living with cancer in Canada. Gwen is one of several of our guild members who are members of this Pakenham group. We were in awe of the huge impact that our donations can have, and resolved to increase our efforts to support these charities.
Another month and another great information and picture-packed guild meeting!  Guest Speaker Cheryl Arkison Cheryl Arkison joined us from her home in Calgary to inform and inspire us to incorporate play into our quilting. In Cheryl's words: "Far too often we focus on the results, the product, the finish line in lieu of the process. A huge part of the process is simply playing. In quilting it is about matching the pattern and perfecting our points but where is the release, the relaxation, the revelation in that? Play is an important part of a child’s development but I don’t think it should stop when we become adults. This presentation is all about adding a spirit of play back in to our creative pursuits." http://www.cherylarkison.com  Cheryl's presentation was excellent. She began by emphasizing the importance of play in our lives: how it makes us human, builds our skills and contributes to learning, and relieves stress by providing an escape and thus enables us to cope better with stress. Through photos and stories of her own quilts and her experiences creating them, Cheryl very effectively showed us how to introduce play into our own quilt making. Cheryl embraces Improv as a key technique for play with her quilts. She often gives herself a little direction for a project, for example low volume fabrics, and then proceeds to make the components. Cheryl does a lot of experimenting when designing and making her quilts to "Let's see what happens". She typically makes all of the components before figuring out how she'll put them together. We saw photos of several of the quilts with some interesting and intriguing names including Smooch, U, Making Waves, Lilla, March On, Kawasaki's Theorum, Samsquanch, Antonio's Quilt, There is Peace in Pattern, Sewing Machine Quilt, Shiver (a group of whales is called a shiver). Photos of many of these quilts and many more are featured on Cheryl's web site Gallery page. Tip: Click on a photo to enlarge it, and hover (mouse) over it to see the name and description. Cheryl's tip for easing into improv is to make a quilt of half square triangles using fabrics from a coordinating fabric bundle plus one neutral fabric, and then improvise with their layout. Her Network quilt is an example of a half square triangle quit. Those of us who made the slab blocks for the quilt tops for the Canadian Quilters' Association's 2017 Big Quilt Bee were using Cheryl's design for the blocks. These quilts were donated to Ronald McDonald Houses in Canada as a Canada 150 project, See photos here. The leftover blocks were used to construct 4 quilts for Quilts of Valour. Cheryl's own bio sums up a lot of what she expanded on in her presentation. "Back when I started quilting it was practically unheard of for a 23 year old to do so, but there I was. Now, over 20 years later I haven’t stopped. In addition to my own creative work, I love to teach, write books, spread the gospel of improv, and design quilts. Every now and then I make a garment, my Grade 8 Home Ec Teacher would be proud. When it comes to making I am happy to make what inspires. I am well known for my use of bold colour and the quiet whispers of low volume fabrics but I will use anything in between as well. Use what you love, make what makes you happy. Just get your butt in the seat and sew. In the past decade I’ve published three books: Sunday Morning Quilts (coauthored with Amanda Jean Nyberg, A Month of Sunday, and You Inspire Me to Quilt. I’ve also travelled the world to teach quilting. In between I am raising 3 active kids and running a business with my husband. Sometimes, I sleep." Keep up with Cheryl via her web site: www.cherylarkison.com and on Instagram and Twitter: @Cheryl_Arkison Thank you Cheryl for a very informative and motivating evening. Summer Scrap Challenge Brigid gave her presentation of the Summer Scrap Challenge projects including the 3 prize winning quilts. The challenge participants saw this presentation during the challenge wrap up Zoom call in early September.    A Stitch in Time by Elizabeth C The evening wrapped up with the prize draws.
The Library prize was her "You Inspire Me to Quilt" book donated by Cheryl Arkision (co-author) and it was won by Emma. The $10 door prize gift certificates for Auntie Em's Scrapbooking & Quilting in Cornwall are going to lucky winners Tina, Joyce M, and Brenda G. -- Janet Brownlee, Communications We kicked off our new guild year on Wednesday September 22 with an exciting, information packed meeting full of inspirational ideas, and guild news. What a wonderful welcome back to returning guild members and a welcome for several new members! Guest Speaker Lise Bélanger  Our guest speaker, Lise Bélanger, wowed us with her beautiful custom art quilts and her stories about their design and creation. Lise certainly delivered on her promotion of her presentation: 'Everyone is creative; you just have to listen to your creativity. This lecture introduces you to my competition quilts, my creative process, and the techniques I use to create them. What is most important to me is to show you how it is possible to relax into the creative process, what I call making space, getting inspired and trusting yourself. You will see that I don't have all the answers when I start a project, and that's often best."  Lise's quilting journey began as a child (her grandmother had a fabric store), then she moved on to sewing costumes, designing a line of children's clothing, and then to learning the techniques to make textile art paintings. Two years later she won first prize in the CQA Trend-Tex Challenge. From there she has never looked back with many more awards, including the 2012 and 2013 Trend-Tex Challenges, and some truly beautiful works of art. She included photos of many or her works, and some very interesting details of her creative process in designing and constructing them in her presentation to us. Her two key principles are that she always thinks she can do a project and that she can easily let go and wait for inspiration when she doesn't know what to do next. Interesting tidbits:
Lise is a very engaging, funny, encouraging, and inspirational speaker, and a tremendously talented artist who has created some beautiful and unique pieces of fabric art. There is much more information from Lise and an extensive photo gallery of her creations for you to check out on her web site. http://en.libexpression.com Lise kindly brought along 2 packages of her art cards, which are going to lucky draw winners Annet and Betty. 20th Anniversary To kick off the 20th anniversary year of our guild, current guild member Katrina Kahn shared her memories of the enthusiasm and excitement of that first ever guild meeting on September 26, 2001. What lovely stories about the tight knit group of quilters who got this guild started. Thank you Katrina! Programs Brigid and her Program team kicked off a number of programs for us. Two workshops are planned (via Zoom):
This year's Block-of-the-Month will feature a revisiting of some blocks from the past 20 years. BOM co-ordinator Amanda chose several blocks and spun the wheel to choose the September block! It landed on the "Slice of Life" block from 2014-2015. Members are encouraged to make all of the blocks in the fabrics and colours of their choice and either keep them or hand them in at the end of the year for future guild Charity projects. Refer to the Block-of-the-Month page for instructions and a photo of the September block. Brigid also mentioned that the Summer Scrap Quilt Challenge projects will be on display at Sew Inspired in the near future. Charity Tina delivered 111 placemats to the new Grove Nursing Home in Arnprior the earlier in the day of the meeting. What an amazing contribution from our guild. Tina also described the charity projects we'll be undertaking this year. President's Challenge Vickie provided more details on her "Drunkard's Path" President's Challenge which you can read about on the web site Challenges page. Thank you to all of the members who shared their latest projects with us - pictures are on the Show-and-Tell page.
Our meeting wrapped up with the prize draws. The Library prize was won by new member Shirley Coleman, and the $10 door prize gift certificates for Watergirl Quilt Co in Prescott were won by Rennie, Vickie and Katrina. -- Janet Brownlee, Communications |
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