Guild Day, Tuesday, April 15, 2025

 Spring is starting to rear its head after a very snowy winter. Our snowbird members are beginning their return to our area. Welcome home Bev and Myrna, so nice to see your smiling faces and hear your winter stories.

We had sixteen members out today and continued with our guild day tasks of pin basting, laying out and joining squares and always looking for more projects to complete.

This is one of the six quilt sandwiches that was pinned. By the time we reached six we ran out of pins. We hope to get a number of quilted pieces returned next guild day so we can get the pins back and start on a new set of sandwiches!

                                           Putting together squares for a Plus Pop quilt.

                                                                   This is a Plus Pop!

Some lovely batik squares courtesy of Marg H’s stash. Her bequest to the guild has resulted in many quilts so far and many more to come.

Good pressing is very important in the construction of  a quilt. You can see how warm it was outside resulting in the open door for fresh air!

Comfort Quilts:

                        Rae’s sunflower quilt is complete and ready to be added to the donation bins.

                              This quilt was pieced by Phyl and is also ready for the donation bins.

This beautiful springy quilt was pieced by Rae and Sandra D and quilted by Heather. She used a lovely shell pattern which shows up beautifully in the white background spaces.

In the buckets we now have three Hug Me quilts, sixteen comfort quilts and one Quilt of Valour. We have 36 tops either complete or ready to join plus ten tops pieced by Marg H. We have decided that at least one quilt has to be basted and ready for quilting every month, more if possible!

Besides the QOV in the bucket, we are presenting a Quilt of Valour to Jack Larson who is the last surviving WW 2 veteran in our area. The quilt will be presented to him on Sunday at a tea for his 99th birthday.

We have decided to sew Quilts of Valour and present them to veterans in our area rather than send them to Winnipeg where they will be presented to veterans we do not know. This will also ensure that our veterans each receive a quilt.

Quilter’s Corner:

Donna spoke to us about the method of making a Double Diamond border or embellishment for pillows or table runners or whatever you may desire.

Here we see a pillow top with a double diamond border. The border can be made wide or narrow as we see  in the black and red examples. Donna has the rulers for making the Double Diamond but these are not an essential tool. She supplied us with two templates (made from X-ray film thank you to her nursing background) along with a copy of clear instructions which we can use to make our own double diamonds.

 This table runner is another example of how we can use the Double Diamond as a border. Thank you, Donna, for introducing us to a new technique!

Show and Tell:

This is a Midi bag. I’ve had the pattern and the 2 1/2” squares for some time and finally got it put together. The squares are fused to a set of prepared interfacing panels which makes the project quick and easy. The larger version of this bag is the Mondo bag using the same fusing technique.

Sandra backed her quilt with flannel which she doesn’t usually use. She has found it to be very snuggly. Heather did the quilting using Wonderfil thread.

This is a Canadian pattern called Glorious and Free, a beautiful two colour quilt, stitched by Sandra and quilted by Heather.

Lorna pieced this 100”x 120” quilt for her niece as a wedding gift. The couple chose the pattern and the colours and picked which colours would be paired in the squares. The result is this gorgeous batik quilt which was all fabric from Lorna’ stash. The pattern is a Jelly Roll Weave. Nadine supplied the backing and longarm quilted it with the Tickle pantograph.

Myrna also made a bag. This one is very similar to the one I made, but the squares are larger. This one is called a Bucket Bag.

This table runner was a bonus to a brown bag mystery. She made this in honour of her Mom whose favourite colour was purple. Beautiful, Myrna.

Lynn stitched this beautiful wall hanging for her cabin. The birds and insects are all paper pieced.  She said it involved a lot of picking out and redoing, wearing out of paper, perhaps a bit of hair pulling but the end result was well worth it. The border fabric of flowers is perfectly suited to the theme of the piece. 

Rae completed this Block of the Month project from 2013. She said that this was during the time that she was crazy about polka dots! This will be gifted to her niece’s six year old for her birthday.

Patty stepped away from her quilting to stitch up this New York City coat from fabric she had purchased some time ago. The coat fits beautifully and will be a lovely addition to her wardrobe.

                                                                        Good job, Patty!

Program:

The program for this month was presented by me. It was the Whirlwind block, a free pattern from SewCanShe. There are eight pieces in this block that measures 11 1/2” square unfinished.

                                        This is a fairly simple block that stitches up quickly.

This completed our evening. We hope to see all of you at our Spring Retreat on May 2nd and 3rd. If you wish to take in the catered meal on Friday please let Donna know by April 25.

Until then, happy quilting!

Gladys

Guild Day Tuesday, March 17, 2025

 We had another productive and interesting guild day. Fifteen members came out to take part in various tasks and spend some time visiting with friends.

Moira and Iris were working their magic on the binding of this quilt. Hand stitched binding is very nice, but I find for myself that my hands don’t like it very much, arthritis reminds you that you are getting older!

Lorna is clipping thread ends and picking up loose threads. This is a necessary job when there are a large number of white pieces as a dark thread can show through and stand out like a sore thumb, especially if you don’t spot it till after it’s been quilted. Should this happen you have to go searching for your number 13 crochet hook to try and fish it out! 

Sandra is perusing the layout of the Jewel Box squares to see if anything has to be switched to another spot.

This Quilt of Valour has been quilted and is now waiting for its binding which is being cut , stitched together and pressed by Rae and Sandra D.

This red maple leaf fabric will make a very appropriate binding for the three Quilts of Valour we have in progress.

By end of day, the Jewel Box top had been stitched together, the Quilt of Valour had the binding attached and two more bindings prepared for the other two QOV, as well as backings being found for some of our finished tops, some kits made up for members to take home and work on, and another top from squares made by Rae and Sandra was laid out for joining.

Comfort Quilts:

                    This lovely pastel quilt was pieced, quilted and bound by Sandra, Rae and Heather.

                                Phyl pieced this beautiful quilt and Judy did the machine quilting.

                               Rae pieced, quilted and bound this colourful quilt. Thank you Rae!

Rae set out to piece this Yellow Brick Road quilt, but found that somewhere along the way she had made a mistake that she couldn’t figure out, so rather than abandon the project she chose to use it as a backing.

And this is the front of the quilt! This panel with its heavy equipment borders and a flange binding match the yellow backing perfectly, a reversible quilt! Great job, Rae!

This beauty was pieced by Rae and Sandra with Heather doing the longarm quilting. The turquoise border goes so well with the shades of gray.

The minky backing is from Sheri and really shows off the quilting. Heather did a beautiful job of the quilting as minky can be tricky on a longarm because it is very stretchy.

This is the Twinkling Stars quilt made from the block demonstration several months ago. As the blocks came in and were laid out, it was decided to make more to increase the size of the quilt, then borders were added and the binding which is the same fabric as the backing.

The backing makes one think of the night sky where all those stars are twinkling. The quilting was done by Nadine. This quilt will likely be set aside as a hug me quilt.

Here is the completed Quilt of Valour. This is the one that had the oops in it last month! Nadine did the quilting with a beautiful red backing, very Canadian! The black and red maple leaves in the binding are perfect!

Rae pieced the top for this Plus Pop quilt. She has been trying to reduce her stash and we are the lucky recipients of her efforts. 

Rae pieced this top and when she laid it on her bed, decided she did not like it. She asked her husband’s opinion and he concurred, he didn’t like it either, so guess what, we now have another hug me quilt! Heather did the quilting. Thank you Rae!

This lovely little polar bear quilt was in our blog last month. It was pieced by Phyl, thank you for letting us know! It was chosen to be donated to the Library Coffee House to be used for their fundraiser.

And speaking of Phyl, we received a note from her (she is now in Osoyoos) along with this lovely quilt top which she pieced. The fabric for the border and sashing was donated by Yvonne H. Thank you ladies, this is a lovely pattern.

Quilter’s Corner:

Rae and Evelyn demonstrated how to measure our quilt tops for borders with tips on attaching them so that the end result would be a squared up quilt. They also talked about sashing and using cornerstones to keep the sashing straight when attaching the rows. Phyl’s quilt top was a perfect example of sashing and cornerstones and an excellent visual for some of our newer quilters.

Heather shared information on threads with us. She showed us examples of thread, Wonderfil brand from a Canadian company. It comes in many colours and a number of different weights and spool or cone sizes as well as prewound bobbins. On a personal note, I like their prewound bobbins which I get at Mami’s in Duck Lake. They are bottom weight and last for a long time before the bobbin runs out! 

Show and Tell:

Today is Lynn’s birthday so she was first up with this lovely table topper she made for her cabin. Happy birthday, Lynn!

This is Sandra’s Bunny quilt. She took great care to make sure the bunnies in the border were all upright. Heather did the quilting.

                                      This oversize bear paw quilt was all fabric from Sandra’s stash.

                                          The backing shows off the quilting very nicely!

Rae purchased the kit for this beautiful winter quilt from The Empty Bobbin quilt shop from Swan River when they were here for our retreat. She had Michelle from Mamis do the longarm quilting.

Heather stitched this very large quilt for her husband. He is tall, therefore the size of the quilt, as well he is a gamer which accounts for the panels and symbols. This is a very intricate and interesting quilt. She, of course, did the longarm quilting. A beautiful piece, Heather!

The pattern for this quilt is a Zig Zag Fan. It was written by a black designer so Heather used all African fabrics. The backing is called super wax which is a somewhat different type of fabric than the regular quilting cotton.

Audrey completed her Lone Star quilt and shared it with us. The fabric she used was a collection so the colours works super well with each other. Beautifully done, Audrey!

Our demonstration this evening was done by Audrey. This is the square for the Butter Tarts quilt which will be our fall raffle quilt. The fabrics are almost exclusively from Marg H’s stash so this project will be a lovely tribute to her as well. The pattern is from Highway 10 Designs.

Audrey was also the lucky winner of our membership draw!

Our Spring Retreat will be on May 2nd and 3rd. There will be a catered supper on Friday evening and a sign up sheet will be at April’s guild day. 

Happy quilting,

Gladys