Guild Day/Christmas Party December 19, 2023

 This guild day was an exciting day. Everyone had their challenge pieces handed in, ready to be voted upon, cookies or dainties were accumulating in the kitchen for the evening’s consumption and people were constantly coming and going so I have no idea how many members actually attended. 

We did accomplish a number of things. Three quilts were pin basted ready for quilting. Sandra D. brought a set of clamps and demonstrated how to use them for stretching the quilt backings so they would be very tight and make it easier to pin. Because the quilt sandwich is pinned more tightly the quilting will be more efficient with the result being a smoother backing. Every quild day we learn a new technique that will make us better quilters.

Sandra D. stitched this 3 yard quilt top and quilted and bound it ready to put on the donation list.

                      This baby quilt and the one following were also quilted and bound by Sandra D.

                                         I did the quilting and binding on this baby quilt.

                     Sandra S. completed the free motion quilting for this one and applied the binding.

          This heart quilt had been quilted by Sandra S. previously and today had the binding completed.

After lunch the silent auction items were set up ready for perusal. Thank you to the members for their donations which make the silent auction possible. There was also a fabric bundle for which we could purchase tickets for two dollars each.

                                             So many articles! Which one to chose for a bid?

A catered supper was served at 5:30 and was enjoyed by the members. Tammy W. again presented a lovely meal. Thank you Tammy.

After our meal, members and guests enjoyed Christmas punch and dainties while visiting and also checking the auction items. One has to watch the bidding very closely if there is an item you want to win!

At 7:00 pm we held a short meeting with Show and Tell and the year end report on our comfort quilts. This year we had a total of 64 quilts. This number included the raffle quilts and those donated to various organizations and individuals.

At the Community Choir Christmas concert, members provided some of their own quilts and hangings for public display. We take every opportunity that arises to make our community aware of what we do at guild. 

For Show and Tell we were given the option of showing newly completed work or bringing in some of our earlier favourite work to share.

Judy had a 3 yard quilt to share with us. She had purchased the fabric from the vendor at our fall retreat.

                              Judy also shared with us this hockey quilt she made for her grandson.

This is Sandra’s “Underground Railway” quilt. During the days of slavery in the US it was said that people used quilts as signposts. The blocks would represent directions of travel or indicate if there was safe haven available for example. Truth or fiction? I don’t know if anyone knows for sure.

                                   This quilt has machine embroidered scenes of the Nativity.

Sandra made a new Christmas quilt for herself. She used all her bits and pieces of leftover fabric and quilted it herself. Beautiful, Sandra!

And, of course, she had to stitch a bag. She used charm squares and it’s a good size to carry her quilts for Show and Tell!

Rae’s project was a quilt sewn from Tilda fabric, the Hibernation line. She used the Home Quarter pattern from Highway 10 and purchased the fabric from the vendor at our fall retreat. She says the Tilda fabric is a beautiful fabric to work with. These fabrics have a very retro look. Lovely, Rae!

Patty used her skills to make these little holders for gift cards or money for her gifts. She found the pattern in one of our library magazines. Cute!

Iris made this lovely dinosaur quilt for her new great grandson. She had Nadine do the quilting for her. He is going to love that quilt!

Susan was lucky enough to find this whimsical little wall hanging at a garage sale! Great find,Susan!

Sandra lets nothing go to waste. She created this placemat from bits and pieces leftover from other projects. Her motto is, No scrap too small!

Audrey made this wall hanging some years ago. It is an old favourite of hers and reminds her of the Neufeld side of the family.

This table centre was made from all the leftovers of placemats, table runners, tree skirts, etc. that she had made for various family members and had made nothing for herself. Fortunately there were enough pieces left for this!

Myrna constructed this weekender bag to use when she travelled south for the winter. It’s big enough to hold whatever she needs till she gets to her destination.

                        Lynn shared her first and only Christmas quilt. She sewed this one about 2008.

My Show and Tell was not physically present as it had already been mailed out in the Christmas parcel. These hangings are a gift for my daughter-in-law with the idea of making a set for each season. We’ll see how that plan works out! The hanger was made by my husband. Thank you, Glen!

I’ve saved the challenge pieces for last. They were hung so that members could study them through out the day. Names were not included so we didn’t know whose work we were looking at, then in the evening each person claimed their piece and gave some background on their inspiration, etc.

#1 belonged to Heather. She challenged herself by doing appliqué which was new for her as well as using small Dresden pieces to construct her tree. She is using the piece as a cushion cover.

             #2 belonged to Sandra D. The truck is bringing home the tree as well as a tiny hitchhiker!

                    #3 belonged to Iris. Her circle of snowmen was all appliqué with embellishments.

#4 was mine. The centre was a counted cross stitch piece which I enlarged with borders and appliqué to continue the design.

#5 belonged to Lynn. She appliquéd the ornaments, used extra batting to make them stand out and added free motion embroidery to embellish them as well as adding the tree boughs.

#6 was Patty B’s. She took her inspiration from a Christmas card she had received. She recreated the card, added some embellishments and the greeting. The whimsy of the card was what attracted her.

#7 belonged to Judy. She had completed the top and when putting on the backing decided to dress it up a bit with the red star. She decided she preferred the back to the front so echo quilted around the star and decided that was her front!

#8 belonged to Sandra S. The pattern was from Missouri Star quilting and the fabric was a gift. She made a few changes to the gift box sizes and the ribbons so they would fit the parameters of our challenge.

#9 belonged to Myrna. It was her second attempt as she was not at all pleased with her first choice of subject. She appliquéd the gnome and tree and added some embellishments. The little star on the tree top is double sided and swings freely.

Throughout the afternoon and evening the membership cast their votes for what they considered the best. I was honoured to have my piece chosen by the members. Thank you all for your votes. My prize was a mini stripology ruler. I’m sure I’ll be using it often!

The last event of the evening was a Right, Left, Centre game using three 2 1/2 inch strips each. We had two large tables of players. Sandra S. was the winner at one of the tables, Cindy at the other. Cindy was also the winner of the fabric bundle from our raffle. Congratulations, ladies!

This concluded the evening and also our year. We will meet again on January 6, 2024 for our first UFO day of the New Year.

I hope everyone has a very Merry Christmas and may the New Year bring you good health and happiness.

Gladys

Guild Day, November 21, 2023

 We accomplished a good number of things today with the help of the sixteen members present throughout the day. Five quilts were pin basted in preparation for quilting, two quilt tops were completed and one completed quilt for emergency services was handed in.

Moira and Iris were hand stitching binding on a quilt while Sandra S. was doing some straight line quilting using the guide on the new Juki machine.

Lorna was collecting silent auction items for the Christmas party and also hanging the next two wall hangings in the church hall.

Bev was the lucky winner of the raffle quilt at the Women’s Resource Centre Christmas Show. Congratulations, Bev!

A number of completed comfort quilts were brought in by members. Judy and Audrey busily catalogued them and then prepared all the quilts for donation. This year we had 58 quilts donated to seven different organizations: Flin Flon Friendship Centre Christmas Hampers, Flin Flon Families First, Flin Flon Family Services, Women’s Resource Centre, Cree Nation Child and Family Caring Agency, Creighton Child and Family Services and Kids First North Creighton.

                                   These were the comfort quilts turned in today.

                                                      Baby quilt stitched by Patty B.

                                        Sorry, I don’t remember who to credit for this one!

                                 This batik quilt was completed by members at previous quild days.

This was assembled from the Twist and Turn block that had been demonstrated by Sandra D. and Rae.

Audrey demonstrated the stash buster block for this quilt which was completed by Dallas for emergency services. 

Susan and Myrna were working on a flannel baby quilt. Again thank you, Eileen, for your generous donation of flannels.

Rae and Sandra worked on a top assembled from comfort blocks we had stored in the cupboard. There are a number that that still need to be assembled.

Donna stitched this top from a kit that had been put out for members to work on. In her words the fabric “spoke” to her. She answered the challenge very ably. Someone will be very happy to receive this quilt when completed.

Our evening meeting was attended by 21 members. We were reminded to complete our Challenge piece, a Christmas or Winter theme, to be handed in to Lynn on December 19, preferably in the morning. Also a reminder to bring three 2 1/2 inch wof strips for our game and if bringing a guest, 3 strips for them as well. A catered meal will be served at 5:30, check with Lynn for details. Don’t forget your dozen dainties and a mug for Christmas punch.

A list was passed around for ticket sellers at the Cranberry Portage Christmas sale, and because I have been so slow in getting this blog published, I can announce that the lucky winner of our raffle quilt was Agnes Mills! Congratulations, Agnes!

                          We had a number of lovely pieces for our Show and Tell.

Rae had her Fat Quarter Shop quilt at Mami’s for quilting. There’s a lot of sewing in this beautiful quilt.

Myrna was working on this jelly roll rug at our retreat. My thought is that it’s too pretty to walk on!

She also has been busy making bags. As she said, she is the “bag lady”! I will post her bag photos without further comment!

                                               Number one! Did I say I wouldn’t comment?

                                                                     Number two.

                                                               Number three.

                Number four, a train case with several zippers and compartments for different items.

And number five! She likes making bags and all are lovely. This one is a retreat bag that works beautifully as a cosmetic bag for travelling. I just couldn’t refrain from commenting! Beautiful work, Myrna!

Heather created this half square triangle quilt for her sister. The fabric is Halloween themed and some of it glows in the dark! We turned off the lights to check and yes it does! Just a little spooky!

                          This quilt is called Ghost Party and Heather stitched it for her niece, Sarah. 

Sandra is another lady who likes making bags. This one is a cross body bag with a rather unique shape.

This is a quilt from about twenty years ago. Sandra said it was a class she was taking and some of the techniques were quite different. The time had come to finish it when she discovered it among her things!

Sandra stitched this star quilt for her nephew and his wife. The low volume background makes the navy stars pop!

                  This Christmas themed table runner in shades of blue is for Sandra’s sister Shelley. 

Patty found this table runner pattern in a book that had been donated to us. She particularly liked the pie!

                                                     And the table runner is reversible! 

Sandra discovered this baby quilt, I believe she said in a thrift shop. The squares are dome in liquid embroidery.

There was a second liquid embroidery one as well. My mother used to do liquid embroidery, it was quite popular years ago.

                         Coincidentally the bag she carried the quilts in was a bag created by Myrna!

I started working on this little fellow on the last UFO day. When our younger son was just a little fellow I found the pattern for this toy and made a little dog for him. He ended up wearing out two little dogs before he outgrew them. I decided to make a little dog for our great grandson (our son’s grandson) so he could enjoy it as much as his granddad had done. It took some deep digging to find the fifty year old pattern, but thankfully I still had it. I can’t remember if I bought the pattern or was given it by my mother. When new the Simplicity pattern sold for 35 cents.

Since both our sons are barbecuers, both they and their wives along with both grandsons and their wives, are getting these potholders in their gift packages this Christmas.

The evening was closed out by the demonstration of the Berry Bushel comfort block by Myrna.

                             This block will make a very attractive quilt. Thank you, Myrna.

And that’s a wrap for this month! Our next UFO day is December 2nd, see you then.

Gladys