Arnprior & District Quilters' Guild Newsletter - January 2022
President's Message
President's Message
Hi All, happy new year!
I can't say that I have made any new year's resolutions this year. I kind of skipped this step, and decided to make every day count. I don't know if this will be easier to handle or not. I figure as long as I save a bit of time to do something that I enjoy doing (sewing, quilting, creating )each day it is a win.
As we have reached the midpoint of our quilt guild season, the executive have reviewed the chances of us meeting safely in person for March, as promised. Unfortunately at this uncertain time again, we have decided to defer this decision till May. However, looking on the bright side, we can continue to have very dynamic Canadian speakers at a cost effective (no travel expenses) means via Zoom meetings. I hope you continue to join us for these meetings. Remember not going out in the cold, not finding parking, driving in the dark snowy roads, is a real treat! I know that we all miss the social aspect of the meetings, but that will come soon enough. Should you have any Zoom issues, there is helpful information located in our September newsletter, or ask a friend to help you out. Most people have become quite proficient in Zoom technology due to Covid; be it for work, meetings or virtual family visits.
January does seem to be the month for organising quilt rooms, as I learn from many YouTube videos, quilt blogs and podcasts. I just listened to a talk from Shannon Brinkley on creativity. She mentioned that you should look at each UFO quilt project like an experiment. If it no longer brings you joy, as Marie Kondo says, send it to a better place. Give it away, swap it, or store it in your scraps to be used in a different way. Just don't let it clutter your sewing space, overwhelm you, and stop you from being creative in other projects. I think I have a few to let go...
January does seem to be the month for organising quilt rooms, as I learn from many YouTube videos, quilt blogs and podcasts. I just listened to a talk from Shannon Brinkley on creativity. She mentioned that you should look at each UFO quilt project like an experiment. If it no longer brings you joy, as Marie Kondo says, send it to a better place. Give it away, swap it, or store it in your scraps to be used in a different way. Just don't let it clutter your sewing space, overwhelm you, and stop you from being creative in other projects. I think I have a few to let go...
Vickie and her furry companions in her sewing room
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On the note of organisation, I am very excited to say that I have decided to expand my sewing room! I have definitely outgrown my current sewing room, can you imagine! My husband was very happy to hear that it doesn't mean extensive home renovations to move any walls! Just the purchase of a murphy bed and moving my sewing room to the guest room with a lakeside view! I know that I will have to share my room with guests every now and then, but if Karen Brown can do it, I am hoping that I can do it too. Here is a picture of me in my current crowded sewing room! Yes, it is also crowded with pets too!  Drunkard's Path variation
Still deciding on what to do for the President's Challenge project? Remember it is never too late to start a new project! The challenge is due at our last meeting in June! Here is a nice picture and tutorial (a variation of the Drunkards' Path block) to inspire you by We all Sew. Check it out. And a here's another video of various Drunkard's Path variations. See you at our next Zoom meeting, January 26th at 7PM Vickie MacNabb President |
January 26th Meeting
When? We hope you'll join us for our first meeting of 2022 on Wednesday January 26 at 7 PM on Zoom. Watch your email a day or two before the meeting for the link to connect to this meeting. Win! The meeting will feature draws for "door" prizes, and a prize provided by Nancy on behalf of the Library. Guests We are welcoming guests to our meetings this year for a $5 fee. Visitors can register here. Show & Tell We'd love to see what you've been working on.
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January Library Draw Prize
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Program Notes
January Speaker
Guest Krista Hennebury http://poppyprintcreates.blogspot.com
A geologist by training but quilter by choice. I live, sew, walk, bake, take photos and love life in beautiful British Columbia.
Who Gives a Flying FQ About Accuracy? In this live Powerpoint slide show, Krista presents an updated version of her webinar originally produced for the Modern Quilt Guild. In it, she discusses the why and how of cutting, piecing and pressing accuracy, then follows up with the “but when is it really important?” part. This presentation is chock full of information, myth-busting tips, many detailed photos, notion recommendations and piecing tricks. We may even get into the side vs open pressing debate!
Happy New Year everyone!
If this group echoes the sentiments I’ve heard in other quilt groups, January has been a bit of a rough start. It’s like Covid and Mother Nature are ganging up on us to see who can outdo the other. Well, let’s teach both of them… we’re quilters, get your pretty colours out, retreat to the sewing room and forget about it by just sewing your day away!
I had decided in late December that I would start my year by getting organized … do you remember last year we had Karen Brown from Just Get It Done quilts as our speaker. She hosts a Destash every year. It goes through books, magazines, notions, fabric, batting, basically everything! I’ll admit that it’s been a bit rough. At the time of writing this, yesterday was batting day … ugh, I have a longarm and have a lot of batting scraps. I mean A LOT of them. I don’t keep anything smaller than about 5” … anything smaller is used for fill / stuffing. I have made coasters with those 5” strips but how many coasters can one make? My plan for today is to get caught up and sort though some batting. Hopefully many of the pieces are closer to 24” and can be used for Preemies.
So when I’m avoiding the stuff I should be doing, I have been keeping busy with making Preemies. These are quick, bright and fun. Filling my January with easy projects and quick finishes helps to encourage me back to longer term projects that were set aside in the fall. And using those batting scraps for preemies will be win/win.
As you have read, we are staying on Zoom until our May meeting. We are adapting our March meeting to have speakers on Zoom and will hold off on our challenges until we can safely meet in person.
A number of you noted on your surveys that you would like to help in the background. If this meant you wanted to do snacks and coffee at our next meeting, I would not hold my breath on that, it’s not looking good for that role! Here’s your chance to assist with something just as important … how about partnering with either myself or someone else to assist with our charity efforts. Even if all you do is coordinate pick up and drop off of our larger charity projects, Marilyn already takes care of the Preemies and Jane has temporarily agreed to assist with some of the efforts as well. It’s a “many hands makes light work” type of scenario. If you are really apprehensive about taking on the VP role, take my place as Program lead (the work is pretty much done for the year) and I’ll take on the VP role. I personally think that charity projects have typically been a big part of what we do as a guild, it’s a shame to not have it be active and vibrant. If we could have a few people volunteer, we could split up the work and allocate things so that everyone is doing something they are comfortable with and it’s not all one person doing everything. If none of you want to speak at the meetings, and that’s all that is stopping you, then talk to me about how we can work together. If everyone would prefer to work on their own projects and support their own charity individually, that’s ok too, we just need to know that is the direction we are taking and adjust accordingly. If we don’t have the charity portion, we still need a VP. This is the person who sits around and waits for the President to be unavailable so they can have something to do at a meeting… how’s that for a job description!! Please consider joining the executive, or joining us as a background volunteer. If you haven’t volunteered with us yet, here’s your chance to have a voice. Please contact me or Vickie if you have any questions … my email brigid94@gmail.com
If this group echoes the sentiments I’ve heard in other quilt groups, January has been a bit of a rough start. It’s like Covid and Mother Nature are ganging up on us to see who can outdo the other. Well, let’s teach both of them… we’re quilters, get your pretty colours out, retreat to the sewing room and forget about it by just sewing your day away!
I had decided in late December that I would start my year by getting organized … do you remember last year we had Karen Brown from Just Get It Done quilts as our speaker. She hosts a Destash every year. It goes through books, magazines, notions, fabric, batting, basically everything! I’ll admit that it’s been a bit rough. At the time of writing this, yesterday was batting day … ugh, I have a longarm and have a lot of batting scraps. I mean A LOT of them. I don’t keep anything smaller than about 5” … anything smaller is used for fill / stuffing. I have made coasters with those 5” strips but how many coasters can one make? My plan for today is to get caught up and sort though some batting. Hopefully many of the pieces are closer to 24” and can be used for Preemies.
So when I’m avoiding the stuff I should be doing, I have been keeping busy with making Preemies. These are quick, bright and fun. Filling my January with easy projects and quick finishes helps to encourage me back to longer term projects that were set aside in the fall. And using those batting scraps for preemies will be win/win.
As you have read, we are staying on Zoom until our May meeting. We are adapting our March meeting to have speakers on Zoom and will hold off on our challenges until we can safely meet in person.
A number of you noted on your surveys that you would like to help in the background. If this meant you wanted to do snacks and coffee at our next meeting, I would not hold my breath on that, it’s not looking good for that role! Here’s your chance to assist with something just as important … how about partnering with either myself or someone else to assist with our charity efforts. Even if all you do is coordinate pick up and drop off of our larger charity projects, Marilyn already takes care of the Preemies and Jane has temporarily agreed to assist with some of the efforts as well. It’s a “many hands makes light work” type of scenario. If you are really apprehensive about taking on the VP role, take my place as Program lead (the work is pretty much done for the year) and I’ll take on the VP role. I personally think that charity projects have typically been a big part of what we do as a guild, it’s a shame to not have it be active and vibrant. If we could have a few people volunteer, we could split up the work and allocate things so that everyone is doing something they are comfortable with and it’s not all one person doing everything. If none of you want to speak at the meetings, and that’s all that is stopping you, then talk to me about how we can work together. If everyone would prefer to work on their own projects and support their own charity individually, that’s ok too, we just need to know that is the direction we are taking and adjust accordingly. If we don’t have the charity portion, we still need a VP. This is the person who sits around and waits for the President to be unavailable so they can have something to do at a meeting… how’s that for a job description!! Please consider joining the executive, or joining us as a background volunteer. If you haven’t volunteered with us yet, here’s your chance to have a voice. Please contact me or Vickie if you have any questions … my email brigid94@gmail.com
Challenges
Block of the Month - December - Disappearing Pinwheel
January is a good month to get caught up and take stock of where we are going. Here is a picture of my 4 blocks (September to December). As mentioned previously, I am sticking to a blue colour scheme so that I can have a choice when it comes time to final assembly. Please ignore the blue check in the background… my current table cloth for my design wall is blue as well.
As you can see in the photo, I have some pinwheel blocks that I acquired that were potentially going to be used in the Mystery quilt. Since we’ve put that one to bed, I used one to make my December block. It’s smaller than the pattern, and that’s ok. I will make at least one more to have a little repetition in my quilt.
Workshops
Mini Maker Case
We will be going ahead with the March Mini Maker Case via Zoom. We hope to have a few more registered to “fill” the class.
Date: Rescheduled to Saturday, March 5, 2022 (original date was Saturday November 6, 2021)
Time: 9:00 AM - noon, with time open in the afternoon to finish
Location: via Zoom
Fee: $20 for guild members*; $25 for non-members and is based on space availability
Guild member Johanne Vajda is offering this workshop. This little case is perfect for storing and transporting your travel iron, and is very versatile for other uses. If you have taken a workshop with Johanne in the past, you won’t want to miss this one. Your travel iron will also be happy to have a nice comfy place to call home!
This case is 8” wide x 4” deep x 4.5” high
For workshop registration and payment information click/tap here.
We will be going ahead with the March Mini Maker Case via Zoom. We hope to have a few more registered to “fill” the class.
Date: Rescheduled to Saturday, March 5, 2022 (original date was Saturday November 6, 2021)
Time: 9:00 AM - noon, with time open in the afternoon to finish
Location: via Zoom
Fee: $20 for guild members*; $25 for non-members and is based on space availability
Guild member Johanne Vajda is offering this workshop. This little case is perfect for storing and transporting your travel iron, and is very versatile for other uses. If you have taken a workshop with Johanne in the past, you won’t want to miss this one. Your travel iron will also be happy to have a nice comfy place to call home!
This case is 8” wide x 4” deep x 4.5” high
For workshop registration and payment information click/tap here.
Intro to Walking Foot Design
Following our recent workshop with Melissa Marginet, people have expressed an interest in having her books. As you can see from her poster, if we do a bulk purchase, we can get free shipping. Please email Brigid before Friday, January 28th to be included in this bulk purchase. If you are one of our members who live outside of the immediate area and you would like to be included, send me an email… we’ll get the books to you.
Following our recent workshop with Melissa Marginet, people have expressed an interest in having her books. As you can see from her poster, if we do a bulk purchase, we can get free shipping. Please email Brigid before Friday, January 28th to be included in this bulk purchase. If you are one of our members who live outside of the immediate area and you would like to be included, send me an email… we’ll get the books to you.
Happy participants after an excellent workshop
-- Brigid Whitnall, Programs
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Charity
Walker bag
We have reached out to the Arnprior Regional Health community and they have told us that they are in need of more Palliative quilts, Couch surfing quilts, and fidget quilts. Through reaching out to these workers we have also found a new charity project for the guild that is widely needed - wheelchair and walker bags!
We are looking into putting some kits together to distribute chopstick blocks (to sew quilt tops), fidget quilt kits, and a way to distribute these and some material to make the new bags. We could really use your help as a volunteer with Charity. Please reach out to Vickie MacNabb to discuss.
Your Charity Team
Jane Wickware - Outreach (temporarily helping out)
Tina Matte - assistant
Marilyn Erskine - Preemie Quilts
Vickie MacNabb
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Library News
Cross Stitch Blocks
A new year brings new ideas and projects; lots of quilting and sewing swirling around in my head! But first comes…yes…a tidy and clean up job! Christmas gift-sewing left a mess all over my sewing room, so that was my first task. Next came those UFO’s that I’d put aside in the mad dash to Christmas; I’ve finished a small Christmas banner (next year’s gift!) and then made some long needed pillow covers to go with my new bed quilt. I’m rewarding myself now and playing with some Kaffe Fassett scraps to make the cross stitch blocks from the pattern that a Kanata Guild speaker, Brigitte Heitland, gave us. It’s lots of fun, takes very little fabric and will make a very nice pillow for my couch!
Thanks to all of you who have given me magazines that you’ve are finished with and I have been given some patterns, too! This month’s Library prize has a “Today’s Quilter” magazine, a nine-patch pattern book and a quilt pattern – “The Curved 4 Patch Flip Flop Block”. Maybe we’ll see a quilt from this pattern from our winner!
We may still be meeting by Zoom, but we do get to see each other and keep in touch and it’s wonderful to see so many great projects in our “Show and Tell”! Keep sending your pictures in (to arnpriorquilters@gmail.com) – don’t be shy!!
-- Nancy
January Library Draw Prize
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Membership
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Our current plan to remain virtual for the meetings means our membership remains steady and at least we can all look forward to seeing each other on Zoom! Once again, all are reminded to join us for these wonderful speakers, sharing our quilting journeys, and for the prizes too! We are hoping that our meetings will be able to move to in person before the end of this year and we will keep you posted on these developments. Online and printable registration for next year will be available in the spring. -- Martha Palmer, Membership |
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Gwen's Notebook Covers
At the December guild meeting there was a lot of interest in Gwen's journals with their colourful and creative covers that she made as Christmas gifts.
Gwen's December Show & Tell
Here's the link to the pattern Gwen used https://amerooniedesigns.com/fabric-covered-notebooks/
The pattern is flexible for any size of notebook.
More from Gwen:
The pattern is flexible for any size of notebook.
More from Gwen:
- I didn't put the elastic band on. I don't think it is necessary.
- If I picked a snug envelope, I could mail one with 3 stamps. They were a nice surprise to friends over the holiday.
- I made a total of 23.
More of Gwen's journals
Amazing work Gwen! Thank you for sharing this with us.
Get to Know Your Guild Member - Susan Wimperis
We hope you are enjoying this feature to help us better connect with each other, especially while we are not meeting in person.
In this month's Get to Know Your Guild Member feature, we're hearing from Susan Wimperis. Susan has been sharing her quilts with us as a regular participant in our Show & Tell and here's our chance to learn more about her.
Susan Wimperis
Susan: "Here’s a photo of me repairing my very first quilt. After 6 years of daily use and numerous washings, one of the fabrics in the quilt disintegrated. Unfortunately, I used a lot of it. So, I am now replacing about 250 of the 1,280 2” HSTs by appliquéing a new HST on top of the old one and redoing the hand quilting. Now that I am more than half way completed, I realize that it would have been easier to make a new one. But there are so many memories in some of those fabrics – my son’s first pair of pants, his new shirt for Kindergarten, etc.
And yes, I have a fireplace in my sewing room – I am so spoiled."
And yes, I have a fireplace in my sewing room – I am so spoiled."
Q: How long have you been making quilts? Would you describe your learning process?
A: I’ve been quilting since 2013, a few months after I retired. I bought a McCall’s quilting magazine, found a really nice queen size quilt pattern using scraps, read the instructions and started in. At first, I didn’t even have a quilting ruler. For 3 months, I marked where to cut on the fabric and cut with a rotary blade. I cut 1,280 squares diagonally to make the HSTs. Since the instructions were precise, cut at 2 7/8”, those triangles were not always perfect. Then I joined the Almonte Quilters Guild and found out about rulers and how to make perfect HSTs, a little late, but a learning process. I learned so much from the lovely ladies in the guild and from their guest speakers. At the time, there was no course available to teach newbies, and I honestly thought that my dressmaking skills would apply to quilting – not so! Here’s a photo of my 1st quilt, all hand quilted. Before you ask, no, not all points are perfect!
Q: Were there special people or circumstances that encouraged you to begin to quilt?
A: My great aunt made quilts for us as children, using our clothes and anything else she could find. We loved those quilts. When I started working and making my own clothes and clothes for my boys, I saved all the cottons in the hope that I would someday, make a quilt. That was to be my first project on retirement, make a quilt for each of my sons and that would be it. Obviously, I got bitten by the quilt bug and now I just can’t stop quilting.
Q: What are your feelings about quilt making compared with other household activities?
A: Seriously?? There exists a household activity better than quilting? If I could afford it, I’d get a housekeeper to do all those tasks that suck time and patience around the house – like dishes, gardening, cleaning, dusting ….
A: Seriously?? There exists a household activity better than quilting? If I could afford it, I’d get a housekeeper to do all those tasks that suck time and patience around the house – like dishes, gardening, cleaning, dusting ….
Q: How do you decide on the colors and fabrics that go into your quilts? Do you ever use the colors recommended on patterns that you buy or see in books?
A: I make no decisions on colours of fabrics – I leave that entirely up to the people who sell me the fabric. I am hopeless when I comes to colour. If I know that I will not get much assistance in a shop, then I resort to the colours on the pattern. In fact, that’s how I usually pick a pattern, based on the colours. Sometimes I shop with a buddy who gets me out of my comfort zone and helps me pick a pattern and change the colour scheme. So far, they have been very good at helping me out and not once have I made a quilt that I don’t like.
Q: Would you rather create your own pattern and color combinations or have a pattern to go by?
A: Same as with colour, I cannot visualize a pattern. I have been very successful in seeing a quilt online and developing a pattern for it using Excel. It needs to be rather simple, not terribly complex – no way could I reproduce an Elizabeth Hartman or Judy Niemeyer. I make a lot of scrappy quilts for charity which eases the colour choices.
Q: What part of the quilting process do you like the best? For example, piecing, appliquéing, hand quilting, machine quilting, etc.
Q: What part of the quilting process do you like the best? For example, piecing, appliquéing, hand quilting, machine quilting, etc.
A: I love hand quilting. When I made my first two quilts for my sons, I hand quilted them. Both were queen size and very heavy. I had read the book “That Perfect Stitch” by Roxanne McElroy and struggled with the “rocker” stitch. Since the motif that I had chosen crossed the intersection of four HSTs, the stitching became nearly impossible. In her book, she talked about the “stab stitch” and how it didn’t produce an even stitch. Well, I proved her wrong. It has worked marvelously for me and I make no apologies to long time hand quilters who do wonders using the established rocker stitch.
I belong to the Almonte Crazy Quilters who are a group of ladies who mostly do hand quilting. I have learned so much from these lovely ladies. They have accepted that I cannot do the “rocker stitch” and some of them are even considering using the “stab stitch” so that they can create more intricate motifs on their quilts. It’s also easier on arthritic hands! In addition to this group, I meet weekly (when not in lockdown) with a small group of friends to do hand work. This group has been such a help in working out the “what do I do now?” and “how do I fix this?” issues.
Q: Do you put quilt labels on all of your quilts?
A: I absolutely put labels on my quilts! I want everyone to know I made that. I also include the name of the person getting the quilt, the pattern, the designer, and the year I finally finished it. I do not include the amount of wine, chocolate, and bandaids used in the creation of this beautiful work of art.
Q: Do you keep all your quilts? If so, how do you use quilts in your home?
A: I have now created three quilts just for us, one on our bed and the other two in the living room. I have created a couple of wall hangings for my sewing room – they change with the seasons. All of my previous quilts were given to my sons, my Mom, nieces, nephews, in-laws and countless quilts, placemats, and pillows for charity. I am starting to create some quilts for each of my three sisters – they will be hand quilted so this will take some time. I just don’t feel that I need a bunch in my house, but who knows what will happen when I run out of people to make quilts for.
New Facebook Initiative
We are expanding our (currently meagre) Facebook presence with the addition of a private Facebook group - for our guild members only.
This group will be the exciting, current, and ‘go to’ place for our membership to meet and have some fun - ask and answer questions, get inspired, show off your quilts, give and get new ideas, share or learn a new trick or tip. Have fun and enjoy the company of your fellow guild members, maybe you’ll make a new friend or two.
Tina Matte has enthusiastically volunteered to administer and moderate this group and she has some exciting ideas for it. The executive members have been testing out the group for the last few days while Tina has been putting the finishing touches on it, and we're already having a lot of fun there!
Our Facebook group will be launched to our members at the January meeting so be sure to attend the meeting to hear more about it.
The objectives of this group are the same as our guild's:
- To foster interest, awareness, and education in the area of quilt making
- To encourage performance in the craft by providing a forum for fellowship and the exchange of experience, information, and ideas
- To be involved in charity projects that benefit our communities
We look forward to having you join us after the guild meeting in our new Facebook group.
-- Janet Brownlee, Communications
Contacting Guild Members
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If you would like to get in contact with any fellow guild members - perhaps to ask about a pattern of a Show-and-Tell quilt, or follow up on something you hear at a guild meeting, or read in a newsletter, please send along an email message to the guild and we'll ask that guild member to contact you by email. You can reach us at the guild email address arnpriorquilters@gmail.com or with the Contact Form |
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Advertisers
Thank you to our 2021-2022 advertisers! Your support funds our Communications budget which includes the hosting of this web site. We are very grateful for this financial support.
To our guild members, please support our advertisers. You can click/tap on any of the advertisements in this newsletter to access the vendor's web site. These vendors are also listed on the Links page.
-- Janet Brownlee, Communications & Newsletter Editor
THANK YOU to Susan for participating in "Get to Know Your Guild Member", to Gwen for sharing her pattern and photos with us, and to Brigid, Nancy, Martha, and Vickie for their guild updates and other news this month.
-- Janet Brownlee, Communications & Newsletter Editor
-- Janet Brownlee, Communications & Newsletter Editor
We hope to see you at the guild meeting on January 26th