Because November is our donating month, a good part of the day was spent sorting and allocating comfort quilts to the seven organizations to whom we give quilts.
Representatives from three different organizations were able to come and pick up their quilts. The other donation bundles will be delivered by some of our members. Because of the dedicated work of our members in the construction of comfort quilts, we were able to donate fifty-eight quilts to seven different organizations that help families, children and individuals in our communities.
While Audrey and Judy, with help from several others were readying the quilts, the regular tasks of pinning, stitching, hand sewing and cutting were being carried out in the hall.
Susan and helpers were stretching and pinning completed quilts tops. In total three quilt sandwiches were readied for someone to take home and machine quilt. The pin basting is a necessary and time consuming job, but with several people working it takes only a fraction of the time that one person would have to take.
Another set of comfort blocks is on standby for stitching,
Moira is hand stitching the binding on another comfort quilt.
Rae is cutting pieces for our next Quilt of Valour. She and Lorna and Sandra D. worked on making up blocks for another Quilt of Valour to be presented next year.
This year’s Quilt of Valour recipient was Stephen Baschuk. He also had the honour of laying a wreath for the veterans at this year’s Remembrance Day service.
This lovely Chandelier quilt will be the raffle quilt for the Cranberry Portage Christmas craft sale. Lynn oversaw the construction of the quilt. The sale is scheduled for Saturday, November 22.
This quilt as well as the blue one above will be offered for sale at the Cranberry show. They were sewn by Lynn with focus fabrics donated by Nadine.
Wildfire Quilts:
So far we have delivered forty-two quilts to the Denare Beach Village Office to be distributed to residents who have lost their homes. We continue to receive more quilts from caring people both near and far and also stitch more quilts in our comfort quilt program. This will be an ongoing task as it takes time to complete these quilts and over two hundred are needed.
We received a number of quilts from the Swan River area.
This one came from Thunder Bay, Ontario.
What a lovely label!
Sandra donated this lovely quilt which she says was a twenty-five year project. When she started it she said it was a challenge and she packed it away. Recently she pulled it out and said now was the time to finish it. A beautiful job, Sandra!
Quilter’s Corner:
Lorna demonstrated a method of joining pieces or blocks called web piecing. By arranging the blocks in a certain order, they can be sewn together without cutting any threads. This keeps them in the proper order and makes for quicker and easier assembly as well as saving on the amount of thread that is used. Thank you for the demonstration, Lorna.
Show and Tell:
Rae completed this lovely nativity quilt which will be gifted to her sister Betty. There are lots of tiny pieces that had to be dealt with but the end result is beautiful.
Rae and Sandra stitched these two quilts which have blocks based on the Underground Railroad which is what the network was called that was used by slaves in the southern US when they were escaping to the north. Each block has a different meaning when used in a quilt. Even though these two quilts follow the same pattern, you can see what a difference that colour choices make.
Heather had to leave early so mom Sandra stood in for her and showed Heather’s quilts. The only problem is, Sandra didn’t know all the background stories! This is obviously a new Christmas quilt. I’m guessing a lot of appliqué was used.
Sandra figures that Heather likely made this quilt for someone but again is unaware of the background story. I believe whoever receives it will be very pleased.
Zoey picked the fabrics for this cheerful owls and leaves pattern from The Empty Bobbin Quilt Shop when they were the vendor at our fall retreat. After she had the owls and leaves pieced, she decided to make the quilt larger and fortunately had enough of the fabric left to make the piano key border. Beautiful work, Zoey!
No, I didn’t make a mistake by showing the same quilt twice! Lynn made this pair of twin size quilts for her son who lives in Japan. The name of the pattern is Valley Song. That was a big job, Lynn, they are lovely!
She said she preferred the back more than the front!
Comfort Block:
Lynn demonstrated the comfort block this evening.
The block is called Fault Line and is made from a large half square triangle. After the triangles are made, they are cut into four strips then sewn together to form the descending line of peaks.
She had kits prepared for us to take home and assemble. The two peaked blocks can be assembled several ways to form different patterns.
Rae also had some kits made up for us. These can be put together into a block she had demonstrated several months ago, and when completed will be stitched into more service quilts.
This is an excellent block to use up bits and pieces of fabric .
Our next guild day is December 16 and is also our Christmas party. Tammy will once again be catering a full turkey supper and trimmings, we will have our usual silent auction and fabric draws. Supper will be at 5:00 pm. Please bring three 2 1/2” WOF strips for our left, right, centre game and if you are bringing a friend please bring three strips for them as well so they can join our game.
The winner of our raffle quilt at the Women’s Resource craft sale was Clara Smith. Congratulations, Clara!
Today’s membership draw winner was Moira.
Happy quilting everyone!
Gladys
