Guild Day, Tuesday, September 19, 2023

 With a turnout of 13 to 17 members at any given time during the day, we had a very productive work bee this guild day. Three quilt tops were completed and are ready to be taken to be long arm quilted as well as two baby rag quilts. The rag quilts were courtesy of Eileen who was purging her stash and made a very generous donation of flannels and batting to the guild. Thank you, Eileen, we will certainly put everything to good use!

We now have enough blocks to make up two quilts of valour, one with a red centre log cabin block and the other with a yellow centre. Thank you Sheri for working on this project.

We are looking for the return of any quilt kits that may be out to members as November is our donation month and it is rapidly approaching.

This Paddington Bear quilt was stitched and quilted by Myrna. This is the one I missed on last month’s blog. Thank you, Myrna.

Myrna, with help from Bev H. was able to put together two rag quilts from Eileen’s donation. Eileen had cut the squares on the Go-Cutter and sandwiched the blocks so they were ready to assemble.

Rae was stitching the sashing to some more batik blocks. These blocks make a very attractive quilt.

Susan was pinning the sashing to the blocks so that Rae could stitch them. This is the method that allows us to complete tops more quickly. Each person has a part of the job to do and that makes it much faster to complete.

Patty’s part of the process was pressing. Good pressing makes it much easier to match seams and makes for more accurate stitching.

The team I was working with were able to complete the top for one of our Christmas quilts. Lynn and Phyl had the blocks all sewn so we were able to join them all. Now for the final pressing!

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

Sheri and honorary member, Darby, had this quilt to show. It was made from a Jelly Bar, which is a layer cake that is halved. She didn’t have a pattern, just made one up!

                        The Patchwork Hearts quilt was made by Sheri for her Dean’s retirement gift.

This lovely baby quilt was made by Rae from a free pattern from the Fat Quarter Shop. She reminded us that it was important to consider the binding you use. She chose a soft print that had all the colours from her blocks. The name of the pattern was Daisy Baby.

Evelyn shared her “four year project” ! This beautiful quilt was stitched for her grandson’s graduation which was four years ago. This will make a great addition to his home. 

Myrna has been busy with her embroidery machine. The barn with the barn quilt was stitched on her machine and makes a beautiful addition to this bag.

This beautiful wall hanging is another example of what her machine is capable of doing. The embroidery and appliqué is stunning. Fantastic work, Myrna!

Marg always has a craft project for her grand-daughters when they come to visit. This time it was bag making. She started with the leg of a pair of jeans, boxed the bottom (knee) part, hemmed the top, used a thrift store belt for the handle and closure, added some iron on “bling” and voila! A great project, Marg.

This double bargello is one Marg put together with “scraps from around the house”. She said she just kept adding things till it was the size she wanted. Marg is a very talented lady!

   Marg used the Mahjong pattern to put together this quilt from fabric she bought when in Arizona.

                               This quilt is made with fish fabric so Marg quilted fish in the border.

When Marg was operating her store, she made up some quilt kits using the Thimbleberry fabric. This lovely quilt was one of the kits that didn’t sell so she stitched it up. 

Sandra S. Was not able to attend but she emailed her show and tell so she could share with us. This is her square foot entry for NORVA. 

                                   The back of her work allows us to see the detail in her quilting.

The month of October will be a busy time for the quild. On October 13 and 14 we are having our fall retreat. We will have a fabric vendor to share her wares with us, there will be a catered meal on Friday for any member who wishes to attend, even if you weren’t out to sew. If you wish to come to the supper contact Lynn by October 6. There will also be an open house for members of the public to attend on Saturday from 1-3:30. Members will be displaying some of their personal work and the guild will display some of our donation pieces. Also, we will be making the draw for our fall raffle, the Lone Star quilt. Make sure you have a ticket, available from any member!

Beginner quilt classes will begin in November. Anyone interested in taking the class can call Audrey at 204-687-0078 or sign up at our open house! If you have a friend interested in quilting, share the information with them and invite them to the open house.

A reminder to members, our Christmas challenge will be shown and voted on in December at our Christmas party, a 24 x 24 piece, completely done by yourself, Christmas or winter theme.

Hope to see all of you at our retreat and open house!

Gladys

 

Guild Day August 15, 2023

 It seems that I always start the same way- today was a busy day! Yes, it was a busy day, we had 16 members out and had five sewing machines on the go! Four quilt tops (also known as “flimsies” ) were put together, three quilts were pin basted ready for someone to take home and quilt and one quilt was almost finished hand sewing the binding.

Audrey spent the greater part of the day hand stitching binding on an ice cream cone quilt. Hand stitching is a labour intensive job but is a very nice way to do binding.

Donna is working on sashing with corner stones for a batik quilt. We stitched the blocks some time ago and had many to work with. I believe this is the third quilt top to be put together from these blocks.

Rae is preparing borders for a little house quilt. This one is very attractive with trees and other features added.

Phyl is busy pressing the sashing seams on the batik quilt. Good pressing is a very important part of piecing, corners and points fit well and accuracy in stitching is much easier.

Sandra is in the “zone” working on free motion quilting on the heart quilt she started last guild day. The new machine with its large table makes the job easier.

Lorna was quilting as well. She was using a walking foot to do straight line quilting. A walking foot is much easier to use for straight lines than free motion and gives you good stitch control.

Marg F had taken several kits (fabrics that go together) that had been put together. This one included a panel so Marg showed her creativity and stitched a lovely quilt. Some young girl will surely love this!

                                This is another kit completed by Marg. We’ve named it Bunny Love.

                The back of the Bunny Love quilt shows off the complexity of the quilting that Marg did.

The kit Judy took home worked well for this three yard quilt. She also did the quilting as well as the piecing.

We could tell that every one was busy doing summery things and quilting was put on the back burner for a time as Show and Tell had fewer pieces this time.

Sheri and Darby had this quilt to show.  The pattern had four patches surrounded by borders. This pattern is another one that works well with jelly rolls, simple, but very appealing.

This is the third quilt Heather has completed. You’ll remember that Heather was one of our beginning quilters. The pattern she chose was Star Pop and she says this project was a learning experience in pressing, quilting and batting choice. She loves denser quilting and the batting she chose required some extra work.

You can see that her straight line quilting has the lines about 1/2 inch apart. The effect is quite stunning but did require extra care and some redoing!

                Heather’s next quilt was one she made from jelly rolls. This one was quilted by Sheri.

Rae took home a kit that had the black cats on pink, added some of her own fabric, used a three yard pattern, made it bigger,  and came up with this quilt! What creativity! This will be used as a comfort quilt.

Sandra used the Yellow Brick Road pattern to stitch this charming little baby quilt with little elephants on some of the fabric. Beautiful!

This fun bag was her second piece. The bottom of the bag is cork with gold highlights, while the handles are covered with grosgrain ribbon she found at Walmart to give it that extra little pizazz!

This completed our Show and Tell. As you see we had fewer pieces to showcase this time around, but I’m sure we will have more as cooler weather approaches.

September 9th will be our first fall UFO day. This is actually the second Saturday since the first one fell on the long weekend. Be sure to come out and use the day to work on those special projects. Hope to see you then!

Gladys

July 18, 2023 Guild Day

 Here we are in the middle of summer! I hope everyone is enjoying our nice weather and doing lots of outdoorsy things.

We had twelve ladies out to our work day, some staying the day, some only a partial day, everyone was helping!

Our hand stitchers are making good use of the new Ott lights. It’s so much easier to work with good lighting.

Sandra is using the new Juki machine for free motion quilting. The larger throat space along with the large quilting table make the task easier. This machine has a different approach to free motion than most other machines, the quilter works from the end of the machine rather than the side.

A big thank you to the Flin Flon Credit Union for granting us $2000.00 through the Credit Union Community Enrichment Program which enabled us to purchase the lights and the machine. This will help us immensely in our efforts to give back to our communities of Flin Flon, Creighton, Denare Beach, Cranberry Portage and lake subdivisions.

We worked on several projects today. Here, Lorna and June are preparing a quilt backing. Two backings were made up as well as one quilt being pin basted ready for quilting.

The second little house quilt is now at the border stage and the blocks for the gray and yellow friendship stars are being joined. Once we get the rest of the blocks from the members we can complete that top.  If anyone has a kit out for those blocks and doesn’t have the time to complete it, please bring it in at our August guild day and someone will finish it up.

We had three guests at our meeting, Susan came out in the afternoon and then came to the meeting and joined our guild. Welcome, Susan, we’re happy to have you with us! Also present was Randi, Dallas’s daughter-in-law. Randi is not a quilter but does a lot of sewing of clothing and accessories. She does the sewing to showcase fabrics for various fabric companies. Our third quest was  honourary member, Darby, who accompanied her mother. Always nice to have you here, Darby! 

Rae gave us an update on the Ukrainian refugee families for whom we stitched and donated quilts. There are two families who now each have their own homes and are working in their community. They are very thankful to our guild for the quilts we gifted them. We are happy to hear that they are doing well. They plan on staying in Canada.

Rae stitched this flannel quilt for the guild and Sheri did the quilting. We are focusing on children’s size quilts this time around as there always seems to be a need for these.

                                     This one was completed today by our hand stitchers.

My apologies to Myrna, she stitched and quilted a lovely baby quilt and I neglected to get a photo. I will get one next month!

This little elephant quilt is the second one we’ve completed. Lorna did the quilting on this one and again, the hand stitchers did the binding.

This is one of two ice cream cone quilts we put together. The ice cream cones are paper pieced and were a good opportunity to practice that skill. Rae brought a number of cones in for us to use that she had left over from her projects. Thank you, Rae.

This is another of Rae’s creations for the quild. This is a three yard quilt pattern. These patterns are fairly easy to put together and as the name implies, only take three yards of fabric to complete a top.

Rae is one busy lady! During Show and Tell she shared this quilt with us. It’s a free pattern called Cute as a Button. It takes two charm packs and some background fabric to complete. We will likely be making some of these for our childrens’ quilts!

Sandra is another busy lady! She and some of her lady friends are going on a trip to Scotland so she was busy making bags for herself and her friends.

                                                A better look at the bags. Very attractive, Sandra!

                    You can’t travel without luggage tags so of course she made some of those as well!

                   This is a quilt Sandra made for the friend who helped her when she had her surgery.

This is a unique way of making the dragonflies. It uses a technique we employed when making the cathedral window block.

And the grand finale is her Salem Witches Quilt Guild piece! This is one she worked on while escaping winter in Flin Flon. The witches panels are drawn out, traced onto fabric, coloured (with crayons), and then embroidered. A true labour of love!  Beautifully done, Sandra!

Phyl has completed her Sugar Bear quilt and had it longarmed by Lori Suss. Beautiful work, Phyl! The quilting pattern sets off the piecing very well. We’ve now seen several of these quilts from our quilt-along and every one of them is unique. It’s amazing how differing colour ways can change a pattern.

Randi shared one of her projects with us. Her bag is one she sewed with some of the fabric she showcases. The colours are very vibrant and are excellent for a cheery summer, backpack type of purse.

Sheri and Darby showed off their special Halloween wall hanging. This was a quilt-along from the Fat Quarter Shop. It’s called Haunted Halloween Mystery.

Closing out our evening were Sandra and Rae with our next comfort block. It’s called Twists and Turns and is really quite simple to make.

You need four 2 1/2 inch brightly coloured strips and one light beige or white 8 1/2 inch square. When completed the block will make a half square triangle and can be joined in numerous ways. We look forward to seeing what we can create!

Another busy day has come to an end! When we come in the morning we never know what we will be able to accomplish. Every guild day is an adventure!

Gladys