Monday 24 April 2023

April 18, 2023. Guild Day and meeting.

 We were happy to welcome back a lot of our snowbird members today. So happy to see their smiling tanned faces! Of course we put them right to work! Labels were sewn onto 5 quilts, one large and one smaller quilt were pin basted, and two baby quilts had binding stitched onto them.

Sandra S. free motion quilted a baby quilt so it is ready for binding and another quilt top had borders added so it will be ready for pin basting at the next quild day.

More quilt kits were put together for members to take home and stitch. Donna and Patty continued with the inventory. Today they were going through the fabric bins. A lot of pieces were counted! We will be able to make many scrappy quilt tops!

Lynn and Phyl were busy making up kits for a small project that members will be able to take part in at our retreat on May 5th and 6th. We will be celebrating the quilts 25th anniversary with a celebratory cake on Saturday at 2:00 PM!


Evelyn is binding a quilt while Dallas is sorting fabric for the inventory. Patty, in the background, is also sorting and inventorying fabric.



Rae and Sandra are preparing a quilt for pin basting. It looks like the batting will need to be pieced in order to be large enough. Piecing the batting is an excellent way to use up fall offs from larger quilts.



We have a stack of quilts ready to be machine quilted as well as a number of kits to be taken home and pieced.



Dallas quilted this ice cream cone baby quilt. She echoed the ice cream cones in each of the coloured squares. Beautiful job, Dallas!



This quilt was sewn and donated by Dallas. It will be very much appreciated by some lucky recipient. Thank you, Dallas!



This quilt was hand tied and then the border was machine quilted to stabilize it. The fabrics were left overs from a pyjama project a number of years ago. No fabric ever goes to waste! Another to add to the donation bin.


Heather machine quilted this baby quilt and attached the binding so next month the binding fairies will have some work to do!


                                         Another child’s quilt for the binders to work on.


And one more to bind! My apologies that I don’t have the names of those who completed these last two quilts. We thank you for your work.

We now have 26 completed quilts in the donation bins with 4 more to be finished. We are on track for our usual number of donations.



And now for Show and Tell! Donna completed her Lone Star cushion. She has another to do as well. Sewing the cushions convinced her that she did not want to attempt a full size Lone Star quilt. Very attractive, Donna!


Myrna had an unexpected Show and Tell! She completed this bag and took it to the Uptown Emporium to sell. Much to her surprise it was purchased by one of the members so she was able to show it here this evening!


                                               This was Bev’s Arizona Christmas project.


   This quilt was a kit Bev purchased at 440 in Saskatoon. She completed it and had Sheri quilt it for her. 



Patty B. sewed this special quilt for a friend’s baby. She was fortunate enough to have fabrics left over from a previous project.


Patty E. stitched this beautiful flannel quilt to use as a snuggle quilt at the cabin. Her words, “Flannel is not my friend!” The flannel gave her issues she was not happy with.


To ensure that she did not have to make another flannel quilt, she used all that was left to make the backing! Difficulties aside, it turned out beautifully!



When Phyl left for her winter break she took several quilt tops along so she could challenge herself with machine quilting. This particular top was made with the Five and Dime ruler which we have in our quilters library. She demonstrated how the ruler worked and it’s pretty nifty! You use a Layer Cake pack (which is 10” square) and a Charm pack ( which is 5” square) and you can make a quilt top. The process is simple and sews up fairly quickly. Thank you Phyl, I’m sure we’ll see several Five and Dime quilts before long.

Lynn purchased some fabrics while she was away. We decided she would get the long distance prize as her winter vacation was a trip to Japan! She shared some awesome photos taken at the Tokyo quilt show. The workmanship was unbelievable and beautiful.

Once again we had a very successful quild day. There is never a shortage of work to be done. Thank you to all the members who come out and lend their help and expertise. I find it amazing how many times I’ve picked up hints and tips from fellow members while we are working on the comfort quilts. Come out and join us!
Gladys

Monday 3 April 2023

March 21, 2023 Guild Day

 As usual our guild day was a busy one! We had ten ladies present during the day working on comfort quilts. Donna and her helpers were busy doing an inventory of guild equipment ie. irons, ironing boards, cutting mats, rulers, scissors, tapes, power bars, electrical cords, to name only a few items. Needless to say, there was more to inventory than we had anticipated. This needed to be done for insurance purposes.

Four baby quilts were pin basted so members could take them home to quilt. As well, borders were cut for a large quilt so they could be completed and attached next month. Sandra S. machine quilted the purple 3 yard quilt that had waited patiently for several months for someone to complete it.


We were fortunate to have a donation of fabrics that included some panels suitable for baby quilts so they were being pin basted.


Sandra is showing the concentration that is needed for free motion quilting. If you glance away or even think of something not related to the task at hand, your stitching goes wonky!



          That cupboard has more items in it than one could imagine and they have to be inventoried.


                  This little treasure hasn’t seen any use for some time! We didn’t realize it was in there,

Nineteen bags for kids were completed and handed in. These will be donated to Child and Family Services to be used when children are taken in and have nothing in which to carry their personal possessions.

Sheri gave a presentation on Quilts of Valour along with a pattern and red and yellow squares for making log cabin blocks. Once we have enough blocks handed in, we’ll be able to stitch up the quilt tops and prepare them for presentation to wounded veterans.


This is one of the comfort quilts that was completed. My apologies for the poor quality of this photo, I didn’t check it carefully enough!



This one was completed  and donated by a member. Unfortunately I didn’t make a note of who completed it. I had better take more care or I’ll lose my job as a blogger!



This was a donated panel that was quilted by a member after it was pin basted. Someone will certainly enjoy receiving this one.



Peg completed a 3 yard quilt top which we will now be able to pin baste, quilt and bind in our next guild days.


Jill also completed a 3 yard quilt top. Thanks to these ladies we will be adding to our comfort quilt donations.

We had a fair number of show and tell items.


Sandra made an extraordinary find with this piece. A person she knew who was moving, opted to leave this behind. Sandra has a love for all things Christmas so claimed it for herself. Upon closer inspection she discovered the work was signed. It was a piece created by Jan Hall from Thompson.


This little mat in colours of Ukraine was the result of the leaders and enders she used while working on her pineapple blocks.


Sandra is honing her free motion skills as witnessed by this piece. The dahlia is a large panel she ordered and made up as a wall hanging. Each petal of the flower has a different free motion pattern. The result is stunning. She put hanger pockets on every corner so she can hang it four different ways.


                                                      A closer look at some of the quilting.



Sheri used a star pattern that we had used to make a comfort quilt. Rather than using a full 16 patch, she replaced the centre 4 patch with a square of the background colour, a very attractive variation.


This study in pinks shows how a log cabin block can look very different just by putting the blocks together in a different configuration.


                This charming animal quilt is one she made up from a panel. Who doesn’t love animals!


                         What a lovely heart quilt. Sheri has been very busy, and she’s not done yet!


                                        This is Sheri’s version of the Meadowlands block.


                     
                       Her final creation was another panel that became a beautiful quilt for a little girl.

She very generously donated all these quilts to the quild for our comfort quilt donations. Thank you very much, Sheri, lovely work from a busy lady!


My daughter-in-law requested a “snuggle blanket” she could use at the cabin, so I put together this one that has a flannel top and flannel backing. The pattern is Oh My Stars, a free pattern by Pat Sloan, available online.


Melanie stitched up some placemats using a stack and whack pattern using four fat quarters. These go together quite quickly and are very attractive.


Jill finally has that thread collector box she wanted. These little containers are very handy to have beside your machine to collect all those bits and pieces that happen when you’re sewing.


Dallas put together this lovely quilt, but as often happens, after several rows she decided she didn’t like the colour she was using for the sashing, so she took it all apart, changed the sashing, and this was the end result. You made a wise choice, Dallas!


Audrey stitched up “The Jolly Snowflake”, a Fat Quarter Shop pattern. This is a lovely winter themed quilt for her to enjoy.


And this is Audrey’s Presidents quilt! The members stitched 16 patches in bright colours, she threw in some 4 patches she had as well as the whites and voila! A beautiful quilt was born! She is taking this to her daughter where it will grace the bed Audrey uses when visiting there.

Whew! This took a long time to put together, but that’s what happens when you have a busy day. If someone will pass me the information on the member’s names that I missed I will edit the blog to give credit where credit is due! Thank you, see you next month.
Gladys