Guild Day and Christmas Party, Tuesday, December 16, 2025

 Today was an exciting day for our members as it was our annual Christmas party day! People were coming and going and it was impossible to get a count of the members. One of our beginning quilters and her wee one came so mom could work on her quilt. With little ones you take the opportunity whenever it presents itself! 

We received several boxes and bags of  Quilts for Wildfire Relief. They came from Snow Lake, Cranberry Portage, The Pas, Saskatoon, and locally from Rae and Lorna.

Rather than show each quilt individually, we placed them in the Sanctuary so everyone could walk about and view them .

The thirty-three quilts that arrived today are displayed here. There are more to come from Winnipeg, Carmen and Brandon. Look for updates in the January blog.

Some of the families who have received their quilts have shared on the Quilts for Wildfire Facebook page.

                                   Today’s pin-basting crew were working on a quilt sandwich.

                                     There is always a binding that has to be hand stitched!

                                          And another binding is being machine stitched.

                                           Some little girl will love this Snow White quilt!

In the Comfort Quilt report we heard that seventy-two quilts had been distributed by our guild this year to various child and family agencies, to organizations for fund raisers and to house fire victims not part of the wildfire relief. It is very rewarding to know that we are able to make a positive difference in our communities.

Our Christmas party was held in the evening, which included a turkey supper with all the trimmings catered by Tammy. Seventeen members and guests took part in the supper followed by an abbreviated meeting, show and tell, silent auction, fabric draws and two tables of a spirited game of left, right , centre with fabric strips.

                                                            Some after supper socializing.

                       Buying tickets on fabric bundles. There is no such thing as too much fabric!

 

  Perusing the Silent Auction items takes time and thought! What do I want, how much should I bid?

Show and Tell:

Patty stitched this lovely baby quilt for her daughter’s expected little one. The centre of each of the small squares is a small woodland animal which Patty fussy cut to fit. This will be a very special gift!

I finally completed a project that was planned for some time. After winning a fabric draw at a Christmas party, then sourcing some more to match, finding a pattern, ordering black batting and actually getting        down to work, the project is complete! The pattern is called Velocity by GE Designs, the fabric is                Farmhouse flannels by Moda.                                                                                                                             

Lorna used the web -piecing technique when she stitched this quilt for wildfire relief using fabric from Marg H’s stash.                                                                                                                                          

Rae shared her wall hanging with us. This was a project initiated by Marg F. a number of years ago. The wreath was made using the technique that Lynn demonstrated at our last guild day. This is a good example of how many different layouts can be made with one block.                                                                             

  

Sandra shared this beautiful quilt which she stitched for her 2025 Christmas quilt. I love the sentiment expressed on it, “Home”. The perfect place to be for Christmas!                                                              

This is the Christmas quilt Heather stitched for her sister. Sister  loves all things Halloween so her Christmas quilt has a Halloween vibe!                                                                                                              

Lynn sewed these hot mats for the mother-in-law in Japan. They will be spending Christmas with her son in Japan and these will be a gift for his m-i-l.                                                                                                                              

This was a special surprise for Lynn. Nadine had finished the longarm quilting on her Preisident’s quilt and brought it to the party to surprise Lynn! It turned out beautifully!                                                            

Myrna made this quilted hug as an alternative to a full quilt. It allows one to wrap themselves in the hug without having to deal with the extra fabric from a full quilt. A lovely idea, Myrna.                                         

Myrna makes special Christmas stockings for her grandchildren which she presents to them when they graduate from high school. Because she has difficulty seeing the fine work required to do the stitching she used a program on her computer to work out the pattern and graph in all the stitches. This required hours and hours of work but the end result was counted cross stitch done exclusively on her sewing machine that was impossible to tell the difference from hand stitching. Remarkable work Myrna! She also stitched a          graduation card as well as all the embroidery on the bag. You do amazing work, Myrna!                               

Lynsie crafted this beautiful  Christmas  quilt using a pattern called “ Always Together”.   The colours are so bright and cheerful . She said her seven year old son has appropriated it as his !                                    

In 2023 when her daughter was pregnant, Kareem sewed every possible thing she could think of for the baby grandson, now grandson number two is on the way so she stitched this quilt for him.  What a                  lovely gift for him!                                                                                                                                                                                            

After finishing the first quilt, Kareen discovered she had enough fabric left over to make a second quilt so now big brother will also have a quilt and not feel left out.                                                                               

Helen has not been with us for a while but is hoping to return after the new year. She loves making rag quilts and this one has a somewhat different approach.                                                                                

This quilt is one that Helen made for her daughter’s friend and baby Tristan.

What a beautiful rag quilt for Christmas! It’s easy to see why Helen loves making rag quilts.

A jelly roll rug was a new venture for Helen. She said she had some problems trying to get it to lay flat.

           Helen used chenille  on the back of  this baby quilt.       

This is a beautiful quilt for a child. Fantastic work, Helen.

I think Helen likes sewing owl quilts!

Helen’s final quilt is this lovely one in shades  of coral. She asked us to find homes for two of her quilts. Thank you, Helen, that is very kind of you!

At the conclusion of show and tell, the draw was made for the last six months of show and tell participants and the winner was Heather! Congratulations Heather, I know we will see many more of your creations.    

The draws were also made for the fabric bundle raffles. Moira was the lucky winner of the smaller bundle and Audrey’s name was drawn for the larger bundle. Congratulations, ladies, we look forward to seeing      your projects!                                                                                                                                                       

After the silent auction was complete, we gathered at two tables for the Left, Right, Centre game using fabric strips. Table one winner was Beverley, table two winner was Audrey! More projects to look forward to!                                                                                                                                                                       

After tidying the hall, gathering our things, wishing each other Christmas blessings, we turned off the        lights and headed home to our families. Another year is behind us and we hope to see everyone in the new year. Wishing all of you health and happiness for 2026.                                                                                    

Happy quilting,                                                                                                                                                   

Gladys                                                                                                                                                                

                                                               

                                                                                                                                       

                                   

                                                                                                                                               

                                                                                                                                               

                  
        

                                        

                                                   

               

Guild Day, Tuesday, November 18, 2025

 Because November is our donating month, a good part of the day was spent sorting and allocating comfort quilts to the seven organizations to whom we give quilts.

                                 The sanctuary is an excellent space to sort and organize the quilts.

Representatives from three different organizations were able to come and pick up their quilts. The other donation bundles will be delivered by some of our members. Because of the dedicated work of our members in the construction of comfort quilts, we were able to donate fifty-eight quilts to seven different organizations that help families, children and individuals in our communities.

While Audrey and Judy, with help from several others were readying the quilts, the regular tasks of pinning, stitching, hand sewing and cutting were being carried out in the hall. 

Susan and helpers were stretching and pinning completed quilts tops. In total three quilt sandwiches were readied for someone to take home and machine quilt. The pin basting is a necessary and time consuming job, but with several people working it takes only a fraction of the time that one person would have to take.

                                        Another set of comfort blocks is on standby for stitching,

                                    Moira is hand stitching the binding on another comfort quilt.

   Rae is cutting pieces for our next Quilt of Valour. She and Lorna and Sandra D. worked on making up blocks for another Quilt of Valour to be presented next year.

This year’s Quilt of Valour recipient was Stephen Baschuk. He also had the honour of laying a wreath for the veterans at this year’s Remembrance Day service.

This lovely Chandelier quilt will be the raffle quilt for the Cranberry Portage Christmas craft sale. Lynn oversaw the construction of the quilt. The sale is scheduled for Saturday, November 22.

    This quilt as well as the blue one above will be offered for sale at the Cranberry show. They were sewn by Lynn with focus fabrics donated by Nadine.

Wildfire Quilts:

So far we have delivered forty-two quilts to the Denare Beach Village Office to be distributed to residents who have lost their homes. We continue to receive more quilts from caring people both near and far and also stitch more quilts in our comfort quilt program. This will be an ongoing task as it takes time to complete these quilts and over two hundred are needed.

We received a number of quilts from the Swan River area.

                                             This one came from Thunder Bay, Ontario.

                                                                 What a lovely label!

Sandra donated this lovely quilt which she says was a twenty-five year project. When she started it she said it was a challenge and she packed it away. Recently she pulled it out and said now was the time to finish it. A beautiful job, Sandra!

Bev delivered a quilt to Patty B’s son who lost his home at Denare Beach. We hope this gives you and your family comfort.

Quilter’s Corner:

Lorna demonstrated a method of joining pieces or blocks called web piecing. By arranging the blocks in a certain order, they can be sewn together without cutting any threads. This keeps them in the proper order and makes for quicker and easier assembly as well as saving on the amount of thread that is used. Thank you for the demonstration, Lorna.

Show and Tell:

Rae completed this lovely nativity quilt which will be gifted to her sister Betty. There are lots of tiny pieces that had to be dealt with but the end result is beautiful.

Rae and Sandra stitched these two quilts which have blocks based on the Underground Railroad which is what the network was called that was  used by slaves in the southern US when they were escaping to the north. Each block has a different meaning when used in a quilt. Even though these two quilts follow the same pattern, you can see what a difference that colour choices make.

Lorna sewed a new ironing board cover for one of the guild ironing boards. With all the use that our ironing boards are subjected to, it doesn’t take a long time for the covers to wear out!

Heather had to leave early so mom Sandra stood in for her and showed Heather’s quilts. The only problem is, Sandra didn’t know all the background stories! This is obviously a new Christmas quilt. I’m guessing a lot of appliqué was used.

Sandra figures that Heather likely made this quilt for someone but again is unaware of the background story. I believe whoever receives it will be very pleased.

Zoey picked the fabrics for this cheerful owls and leaves pattern from The Empty Bobbin Quilt Shop when they were the vendor at our fall retreat. After she had the owls and leaves pieced, she decided to make the quilt larger and fortunately had enough of the fabric left to make the piano key border. Beautiful work, Zoey!

No, I didn’t make a mistake by showing the same quilt twice! Lynn made this pair of twin size quilts for her son who lives in Japan. The name of the pattern is Valley Song. That was a big job, Lynn, they are lovely!

Audrey made up this little project bag with zippers and compartments. The clear vinyl makes it easy to find whatever you are looking for without having to search every pocket.

Sandra bought the kit for this quilt at one of our Christmas party silent auctions. The pattern is called Window Box. She was not ecstatic about the pattern and fabrics when she was working on it.

                                         She said she preferred the back more than the front! 

Comfort Block:

Lynn demonstrated the comfort block this evening.

The block is called Fault Line and is made from a large half square triangle. After the triangles are made, they are cut into four strips then sewn together to form the descending line of peaks.

She had kits prepared for us to take home and assemble. The two peaked blocks can be assembled several ways to form different patterns.

Rae also had some kits made up for us. These can be put together into a block she had demonstrated several months ago, and when completed will be stitched into more service quilts.

                                  This is an excellent block to use up bits and pieces of fabric .

Our next guild day is December 16 and is also our Christmas party. Tammy will once again be catering a full turkey supper and trimmings, we will have our usual silent auction and fabric draws. Supper will be at 5:00 pm. Please bring three 2 1/2” WOF strips for our left, right, centre game and if you are bringing a friend please bring three strips for them as well so they can join our game.

The winner of our raffle quilt at the Women’s Resource craft sale was Clara Smith. Congratulations, Clara!

Today’s membership draw winner was Moira.

Happy quilting everyone!

Gladys