Guild Day, Tuesday, February 18, 2025

   Welcome back for another edition of our blog. We had as many as 15 members at various times of day, pin basting, hand stitching, cutting, joining squares and whatever else needed doing. Two tops for Quilts of Valour were sewn together, two quilt sandwiches were pin basted and one quilt had the binding partially stitched. Moira has taken it home to complete for next month.

The cutting table was kept busy with the ladies working on the pieces for our fall quilt raffle. These will be packaged and ready for members to sew up after next month’s demonstration of the block.

Hand stitching a binding and enjoying a morning coffee. The Ott lights we purchased make hand work so much easier.

Assembling squares for the Quilts of Valour, one person sewing, the other removing pins, making sure the blocks are in order and snipping threads as needed. Putting together a quilt top is a team effort.

Rae is pressing the seams between the blocks as well as checking that the other seams in the block have been properly pressed.

             This is how the blocks are laid out ready to be pinned together, then sewn and pressed.

Taadaa! The top is put together. Oh oh, that last row looks a bit wonky! Even a whole team can make a mistake! Time to break out the stitch ripper and rotate that block! At end of day the oops was repaired, both tops were completed and they were on their way to the longarmer for backing, batting and quilting. Once complete they will be sent out for distribution to our Canadian veterans.

Susan and her group are stretching the backing for a quilt they are going to pin baste. The PVC pipes on the table legs raise the table to a level that prevents the basting group ending up with sore backs.

After the backing is stretched, the batting is laid over it and smoothed down, followed by the quilt top. It is necessary to arrange the top so that horizontal and vertical blocks and lines are straight. Once everything is satisfactory the sandwich is pinned with curved safety pins. The curve in the pins make it easier to push the pins through the fabric without moving anything out of place.

Rae and Sandra have a new stripology book with patterns that can be cut with this specialty ruler. This is just one example of a stripology pattern. And bonus! We found a fabric that will make a great backing as well as the binding. (I see that I have not mastered the art of getting my fingers out of the way of my camera lens!)

Comfort Quilts:

This quilt top was pieced by Lynn using fabric left over from some of our previous raffle quilts as well as some extra fabric to finish it.

                                                 Audrey quilted this lovely little quilt.

This pretty toddler quilt was pieced by Rae then quilted by Sandra. Rae then applied a flange binding. Sandra will be tutoring us on flange binding in tonight’s Quilter’s Corner.

Not sure who pieced this one, but the free motion quilting was done by Sandra S. The technique she used was echoing the shapes on the fabric. On the polar bear blocks she stitched around the polar bears, around the moons and stars on others, around the trees on the tree blocks , then stitched meanders on the plain blocks. This is a simple way to quilt and looks stunning when viewed on the backing especially if the bobbin thread contrasts with a plain backing. This method can be used as well if the backing fabric has an interesting pattern and you echo around it doing your quilting on the back of the quilt rather than the front.

Back in early 2024 I demonstrated the squiggle block asking for bright colours. The members answered the call and we were able to arrange the blocks in a rainbow pattern. Because I did the demonstrating I felt it was only logical that I do the block joining, borders, quilting and binding.

The panel for this quilt was one of several in the stash of Marg H. We sent it to the longarmer for batting, backing and quilting and our hand stitchers applied the binding. This quilt is being donated to a family who lost their home in a house fire.

This quilt top was another gem in Marg H’s stash. It was also completed by the longarmer and hand stitchers to be included in the donation to the house fire victims.

Show and Tell:

First up tonight was Lorna. This is her presidents’ quilt from her term as co-president with Sandra D. Her choice of block was the friendship star for which she supplied the yellow centre with instructions to make it look like a flower. She then added the little leaf blocks and “soil” pieces. She ran into a snag when it came time to add the yellow border. It was supposed to be the same as the flower centres but when she went to find the fabric, it was gone! She searched through her stash and every place she could think of to no avail. What to do? She ended up purchasing new fabric, not a perfect match, but doable. She had the border all sewn on when one day picked up a bag of some hand work she wanted to continue and lo and behold! There was the missing fabric! Of course the substitute border was removed and the right one put on. The end result is a beautiful, bright and cheerful quilt she has titled “Friendship Garden”. It is all hand quilted by the group of quilters (of which Lorna is a member) called Threads of Friendship.

Zoey is one of our new members having joined the guild by taking our learn to quilt classes. This is her first quilt, likely the first of many. She did a beautiful job. Congratulations, Zoey!

                         Cindy shows her love of vibrant colours in this table runner she put together.

Patty started this throw at one of our retreats. The basic pattern is Pat Sloan’s “Oh My Stars” with her own twist in the smaller stars. She made this from the scraps left from an earlier quilt and did the quilting herself, a beautiful pattern of concentric circles.

Sandra made this bag for her youngest daughter. The fabric is pretty unique with skulls and all associated figures. This was not Sandra’s choice of fabric! This bag would be a perfect size for an airline carry on.

The plus signs in this quilt along with the polka dotted background are formed from just one block. It’s amazing the patterns one can form just by placing a single block in different orientations.

This quilt is Wintery with the colours of a winter sky. This quilt as well as the plus sign quilt were quilted by Heather.

Heather started her strawberry quilt at our October retreat. She used AGF flannel on the back and the lanterns panto to quilt it. When putting on the binding she had difficulty keeping everything in place so glue basted her binding. It worked beautifully. AGF is art gallery fabric.

Audrey recently attended a retreat at which the time was spent exploring and trying new ways of working with fabrics. Fabric weaving was one of the projects and this basket was the end product.

Another technique resulted in this little mat which will fit in the box used as a bed by her daughter’s cat!

Cathedral windows was another project. You’ll notice that the binding she is going to use is a flange binding.

The fourth project was another type of fabric weaving. These small projects gives one a chance to try new techniques and then enable a person to make a more informed decision as to whether you really want to use this for a larger project.

The final project was quilt as you go. These pieces will be used to make a pouch that will join the pieces with French seams so there will be no raw edges.

Quilter’s Corner:

Sandra D demonstrated how to make a flange binding. This binding is made with two strips of fabric which when folded in half give you your main colour binding with a small matching or contrasting edge that will show as a two colour binding when attached. This type of binding is sewn to the back of the quilt, then folded around to the front and machine stitched down. You can see the result when checking the photos where I have mentioned flange bindings.

Comfort Blocks:

Sandra D and Rae demonstrated two comfort blocks for us tonight. The first is the Plus block which we saw in one of Sandra’s quilts.

Kits of precut fabric were handed out for members to assemble. The blocks will result in a Plus quilt.

Rae had another simple scrap buster block for us to try out.

The pieces are small so can incorporate a lot of those smaller bits and bites left over from other projects. The illustration shows the order in which the pieces should be sewn together to make a 9 1/2” square.

This is a top Rae stitched to show us how the block works. The result is a very scrappy top which you can make completely random or more structured if you so wish.

We concluded our evening with many more ideas churning through our minds! Don’t be afraid to try something new and different!

Happy quilting,

Gladys

Guild Day, January 21, 2025

 The first guild day of the new year was also one of the warmer days after the bitter cold spell we had. Fourteen of our members took the opportunity to break out of the house and spend a day with friends working on projects for our next donation day. 

Three quilts were pin basted and six flimsies were completed and ready for pinning next month. Moira was busy handstitching a binding. 

The executive members were laying plans for our upcoming raffle quilts, one for the fall which will be our major fundraiser with tickets available for several months, and two for the Christmas craft shows which have tickets for sale for just one day. It seems like a long time to go before the quilts are needed , but when only working on them one day a month time runs out quickly! Patterns must be chosen, fabric needs to be sourced, cutting, piecing, allowing the longarmer enough time to get the quilting done, printing tickets, booking days at various markets for ticket sales, purchasing the license to sell tickets, all these things take time and requires the co-operation of the membership to achieve the final goal. And while all this is going on the regular work of preparing donation quilts is still going forward!

Comfort quilts:

                        Susan stitched this happy little quilt which is just the perfect size for a toddler.

This quilt was another one stitched by Susan. The blues are very attractive. Thank you to the people who donated so many flannels to us which allowed for the construction of these childrens’ quilts. We haven’t needed to purchase flannel fabric for over a year!

The strawberry block was a favourite one. This is the final quilt which was a shared effort by a number of members, assembly by Marg F. and longarm quilting by Heather.

Show and Tell:

Sandra showed us the quilt she sewed for her daughter Melanie. This pattern is “Pushing up Daisies” and the panto used in the quilting quite appropriately has daisies on it!

Sandra’s second piece is a quilt that became a table centrepiece with baskets and cherries. This is now a completed UFO.

Project number three is a quilt that used curved rulers to complete each block. Curved pieces require careful piecing and can be quite challenging. Beautifully done Sandra! The pieced border corners add a great pop of colour!

Sandra’s Sweater Weather sampler quilt is complete! The fabric is AGF and the colours are beautiful! Each of the blocks was created by a different designer and each one is quite unique. This looks like it was a fun project.

Sandra chose the sunflower block from her sampler quilt to make this cushion! All blocks do not have to become a quilt!

                                Rae used her remaining Kansas Troubles fabric to create this quilt.

Rae dove into her black and white stash to put together this quilt. Michelle from Mami’s quilted it using black thread which gave  a beautiful finish to the white centres of each block.

Heather crafted this table runner from a kit she purchased from The Empty Bobbin quilt shop when they were here for our retreat. She used the orange peel panto to do the quilting. 

Sandra sewed these table runners in her favourite colours. The shorter one will be gifted to a friend.

Program:

Audrey presented this month’s program, a comfort block named Bedford Blocks. It appears complicated but in reality is very simple. The block can be arranged many different ways.

Kits of fabric were made up to make the two blocks which will then be laid out in her choice of design.

                                                 This one will be an interesting project.

Lynn has chosen the block she wants for her President’s quilt. Make sure you pick up a copy of the block pattern at the next guild day.

Congratulations, Moira, on winning the membership draw for this month.

Looking forward to the longer days we are now experiencing and hoping for fewer frigid days!

Happy quilting!

Gladys