December 2022

 Merry Christmas everyone! I hope you are having a wonderful time with family this chilly holiday season. Hopefully you did not have to fly anywhere!

This month’s guild day was spent mostly preparing for our Guild Christmas party. Members were bringing in their donations for the silent auction, one of our highlights. A big thank you to Lorna and Sandra D. for organizing and setting up the auction items. Thank you as well to members for your donations to the cause!

Lynn displayed the star blanket top she completed so that we could see how to add in the corner sections on the star and the borders. She has been doing a great job of tutorials and tips on how to complete our tops as well as what not to do. That is a very important part that saves a lot of “unsewing”!

A new feature of our party this year was a catered supper prior to the big festivities. Tammy served a delicious meal for those who were able to attend which was then followed by our meeting, show and tell, bidding on the silent auction and our fat quarter exchange for which Donna did a stellar job of writing a left, right story! Thank you, Donna, well done!

         The meal was much enjoyed by the members and guests. Thank you, Tammy!

Our show and tell once more showcased the creative efforts of our members as well as our guests. I do so look forward to what everyone has done. It inspires me and everyone else to take on more projects!

Sandra completed this beautiful, king size quilt as a Christmas gift for her sister-in-law. Lucky lady to receive such a wonderful gift!

Audrey stitched this simple but lovely quilt as a gift for her mother. Her mom rides the handi-van and the quilt will keep her warm as those vans have some cold drafts when the doors open and close.

And of course, to carry the quilt and her other belongings, a bag is needed, so, needless to say, Audrey stitched up a bag as well! I’m sure her mom will love this thoughtful gift.

Alene, one of our guests, machine pieced this lovely log cabin quilt, then did her own quilting by hand. I have to admire the hand quilters, they do terrific work. This is a skill I have not tried as yet.

Rae has completed her quilt top for her star blanket. She used a jelly roll for her star and border. It gives her that interesting scrappy look. Beautiful job of matching points and keeping the star nice and flat!

This is another of Rae’s creations. She chooses some unique patterns and and has a good eye for colour as well as doing meticulous stitching. This one was quilted by Michelle from Mami’s in Duck Lake. She put in a double layer of batting and custom quilted rather than using a pantograph. A stunning piece! Michelle featured this quilt on Mami’s Facebook page where you can see a close up of the quilting as well as the fireside backing.

Another of our guests, Melanie, shared her leaf mats and the snap-top bag she made for a friend. Projects do not have to be large to be interesting and beautiful. Thank you for sharing Melanie!

I chose a pattern for a table topper that has built-in hot mats. This is for our son and daughter-in-law.

   I added matching place mats as well as extra hot mats (3) to complete the ensemble.

My daughter-in-law admired the wallet I made at our spring retreat (thank you Lynn, for the group class) so I made one with a cross-body strap for her January birthday.

Members and guests were perusing items in the silent auction and deciding where they wanted to place their bids.

Sandra with rattle in hand was closing the bids while Lorna was accepting payment for the items. I have to admit I was making waaay too many bids!

The evening ended with the show and tell draw, won by Patty B , the fabric draw won by myself and the members only draw for the “Heading North” quilt and pillow won by Moira.

                                                

                                                           Congratulations, Moira!

We had another successful Christmas party, enjoyed by all who were able to attend. To those of our members who have already travelled to their winter homes, or soon will do so, we wish you safe travels and an enjoyable time in the warmer climes! We look forward to seeing you in spring.

To all a Merry Christmas and a happy and healthy 2023!

Gladys 

                    

November 2022

 I hope everyone is keeping warm in this cold, cold weather! Considering how long it took for me to figure out the posting for October, I may not have started early enough for November!

November 5th was the first beginner quilting lesson, very ably handled by Audrey. We have four ladies taking the lessons. They were able to choose one of two different 3 Yard Quilt patterns and we are looking forward to seeing their completed quilts.

On guild day we continued working on the assembly of comfort blocks constructed by the members. Judy and Audrey prepared our donation quilts for pick up or delivery.

The Friendship Centre Christmas Gift program was the recipient of one of the donations.

Also picked up were the donations for Kids First North Creighton and Creighton Child and Family Services.

As well, we had donations prepared for Flin Flon Families First, Flin Flon Family Services, Women’s Resource Centre and Cree Nation Child and Family Agency.

In total we donated 40 quilts to these agencies as well as 6 quilts to house fire victims, 4 quilts to a Ukrainian refugee family and 1 Hug Me quilt. We also raffled three quilts in 2022 in order to raise funds to enable us to continue our work. Thank you to all who purchased tickets on these quilts.

Patty Bloxom was the winner of our summer quilt raffle, Rhonda Boyd won the quilt at the Women’s Resource Centre craft show in Creighton and Weston Wollman won the quilt at the Cranberry Christmas sale. Again, a big thank you to all ticket purchasers and to all the members who helped sell tickets. We couldn’t continue our work without you!

Members have been working hard on their own projects as seen in our show and tell.

Lorna stitched this “Home Quarter” kit from fabrics she had in her stash. The purples are stunning!

Sandra used some of her orange fabric pieces to frame a handkerchief that belonged to her mother, a lovely way to preserve family memorabilia.

Sandra has completed her star blanket quilt. She also used fabric from her stash and did all the quilting herself. Very striking! The binding is a faux piping one incorporating colours from the star.

Peg made up this table runner using the mini quick curve ruler. If anyone wishes to make a similar piece, we have this ruler in our library.

We’ve seen Donna working on her Christmas quilt at several UFO days. She started with the snowman panel and just kept adding borders till she declared it to be finished! Donna also did all her own quilting. Beautiful work Donna!

Phyl did her own quilting as well. She has an embroidery machine and “hooped” the quilt. Lovely!

At the meeting we finalized plans for our quild Christmas party which will be the evening of December 20th. Something new for this year will be a catered supper. Looking forward to a great evening!

Gladys

October 2022

 Hello everyone! With Sheri’s help I think I’m ready to take over the blog, so here we go!

The October meeting was when Myrna and I turned over the presidency to Lynn and Phyl. These ladies have some great ideas to continue with our mission of serving our communities.

Lynn’s quilt-along group is working on a star blanket quilt top. The star is constructed without using y-seams. By spring we should be able to see how they turned out. Sandra has already finished hers. You’ll see it in the show and tell for November.

Doing a blog involves a learning curve for me so please be patient with me if I make mistakes!

Summer Catch-Up

Time for a little summer catch up before winter really sets in. The show and tell pictures have been sent to me in drips and drabs as I have been away most of the meetings. I'm happy to pass the reigns to Gladys as she will take over blog duties for this executive term. 

~Sheri 

Culture Days

 Our guild took part in Culture Days celebrations in September by featuring quilts at a tea in the United Church. Many of the quilts are our donation quilts that we work on throughout the year and typically give away at Christmas. This display was well received. I think they glitter like jewels in the parish. 

Quilt Challenge

 This blog is indeed still alive and kicking … I haven’t been present at many meetings this past summer and there seem to be pictures on many different cameras - we’ll get it back on track again. 

We just wrapped up our 2 day fall retreat which was a blast. It was so good to get together again - in person, eating together, having a few laughs and lots of sewing. 

We showcased a quilt challenge and voted on 2 winners. This challenge has been 3 years in the making as Covid shut downs cancelled our quilt shows. We each had to use an orange fat quarter which was provided. You could use as much or little as you liked. Some of us (like me) lost the orange, scrambled to finish last minute, or say no thanks. I just love, love, love 💕 the work and creativity these ladies put into their 24” masterpiece. 

Eileen 

Rae - our winner! 

Marg 

Lorna

Gladys

Sandra S

Myrna

Lynne

Sandra D

Pattie - 2nd place

I can’t wait until we do this again! 

~ Sheri

May Meeting Highlights

 Only a month late! 

I just received the pictures from the May meeting. I have been MIA from the last few meetings and thank the members that have been taking pictures in my absence.