Second Meeting of the Year

Barbara was back from her month long trip to Spain. She is not quite back into her quilting mode. Anna was there handing out a belated triangle challenge reward to Jae. We were only a few but we had a good meeting.

 We are participating in a pincushion challenge with Loose Threads. Participants have to make a funky pincushion, wrap it up with a sewing notion and bring it to the exchange December 15th. So far we have eight signed up, with more to come I'm sure.

After a discussion we decided to have our retreat in October next year, but it turned out the L'Ermitage was going to be full with a meeting of the nuns that weekend, so it will be September 11-13, 2015. Mark your calendars.

 Linda had all the quilts she was working on at the retreat plus the easy curves from the Elaine Quehl workshop.

This is one quilt for a grandson with most of a jelly roll

And this is the other one for his brother. 

 She then had some strips left over so she made a preemie quilt.

Roz made two preemie quilts with the jelly roll method, using a quarter of the roll for each.

They both have really interesting fabric for border and backing.

Roz had also made a mat with pockets to put under your sewingmachine. The pockets hang down over the front of your table and hold scissors markers, extra thread and other notions. A great item for our boutique. 

Jae had two quilts last meeting and here she is with another. She shows her great colour sense and some of these fabrics are in our raffle quilt. You can tell it is Jae because you can only see the top of her head.

And to show she has not been slacking off she also made four place mats from the left over strips.

Our Latest Retreat

We had another great retreat at L'Ermitage Sainte Croix this past weekend. Ten quilters, including Mary's two sisters worked hard all weekend and many projects were finished. Even though the weather was good we mostly stayed indoors chained to our machines. The roaring of machines filled the room until people got tired of that work and then sat, chatted and hand quilted. Some stayed up late Friday night hoping to see the aurora borealis but all they saw was a beautiful dark sky.

Linda made two quilt tops for her grandsons with jellyrolls. She sewed all the strips together in an hour, not counting ironing.

Roz joined us for the first time and she came with everything including her chair but not the kitchen sink. She worked on lots of projects and finished this baby quilt top.

Mary worked on a preemie quilt. She brought her new sewing machine and machine quilted with a walking foot for the first time. She is finishing the binding by hand and still prefers hand quilting.

Allison spent lots of time documenting all her embroidery stitches. She now has sheets with all the stitches with different lengths ready to embellish many new projects. 

Charlotte worked on a preemie quilt and here she is putting on the binding and as always smiling.

France was working on a set of place mats with lots of pieces and great colours. 

While others sandwiched and sewed the quilt tops Rita had made, she was busy cutting and sewing two new quilts for  friends and neighbours.

Mary's sister Jeannie finished a little quilted cross stitch baby announcement and knitted a tiny sock.

Mary's other sister Betsy had a few projects on the go and here she is quilting on a Greek Village. She couldn't sew on a quilt for her daughter because she forgot the thread.

Here is Charlotte's quilt with the binding almost completely finished!

Jeannie got to work on some preemie quilts while Betsy and Mary just watched!

After Linda finished the two quilt tops she still had some strips left over, so she made another preemie quilt.  This one didn't even take her an hour, including the ironing.

Time went by very quickly even with starting work at 8:30 AM. After Sunday lunch we packed up to get back to the real world. We missed Anna and Sandra this time and hope they make our next retreat.

WE'RE BACK!!!!

Hi Everyone!!

Welcome back and great to see those that came to the meeting last night and 'hope to see you soon' to those that couldn't make it.  It was a very busy meeting.

We welcomed a new member - Roz Agulnik - many of you already know Roz from Loose Threads.  We are really happy to have her!!  Welcome Roz!!!

Linda gave out the the programme that her and Barbara worked on, for the upcoming season and it is chocker block full of new stuff.  It promises to be a very busy year!!  Thanks for all your hard work ladies!

We also spent lots of time discussing our upcoming quilt show - first weekend in May - and what are all our jobs.  Some great ideas!  A couple of vendors already signed up - that's always good news.  This year again we will be trying a Silent Auction so as you go through the house getting ready for (dare I say it!) - winter, keep your eyes peeled for any treasure we might be able to sell.  No garage sale stuff now, but really nice stuff :)  Also many of us will be making things to sell at the Boutique, so put your thinking caps on for ideas.  This will be discussed again.  Of course, as usual, we will need everyone on site for this event and also the Friday is set up day and not only do we need all Guild members, but we need as many hubbies as we can get, so line 'em up now!!

Also discussed was the 'retreat' this weekend.  I unfortunately will not be able to attend, and that is really sad.  This is a great weekend with lots of quilting, chatting, sharing ideas, reading, whatever you like!  If you haven't been to one, you really should try to make a point of keeping that weekend open for next year.  You won't regret it!!

So, on to Show and Tell:

First up, Jae!  Once again
a busy little bee.  What is that
saying? - 'more done by 9 am...'

Mary and her preemie quilt.

You might remember, that
was our community project
started last year - quilts for
the preemies at the Royal
Vic.

This is France's work from the Elaine Quehl
workshop we had last year.  I think we have
seen it before, but in true France style, she
thought it was too boring - REALLY?!!!?
Anyway, she has a new machine and so
was ready to experiment by embroidering
red flowers down the middle. Hard to see
here, but really stunning!

Sandra wasn't able to do much
 work for a month this summer
 as her "sewing foot" was
out-of-order, so spent her
time doing preemie quilts -
5 of them.



This is Allison's version of our
Triangle Challenge from last year.
Beautiful, but we expect nothing
less from Allison.  Hopefully
some time this upcoming year
she will teach us the
technique. Too bad you can't
see the quilting!!!



Linda's interpretation of
Elaine Quehl's class.
Beautiful!

Mary took a class from
Debbie Kimball and this
is the result.  The picture
doesn't do it justice.  It's
really stunning!!

And last, but by no means
least, is our new member
Roz and her baby quilt.
Baby is due shortly and
won't Mommy be
delighted with this prize!!

Beautiful, Roz!!


Well, you're up-to-date.  People have obviously been working hard over the summer, making quilts, working for the guild and we're all sure happy about that!!!

Happy quilting everyone!!!

Sandra

FRANCE'S PLACEMATS

Good Morning Quilters:

Tuesday evening was France's night to teach us how to make quick and easy placemats.

Not many of us brought our machines, but those that did are hard at work!!!!

None were available for viewing, but I'm sure we'll see the results next meeting!!

Now on to Show and Tell:

This is our amazing raffle quilt.  All that's left is to put on the binding.  This quilt will be raffled off at our next quilt show which will be in May 2015.  Everyone will just have to hold on until then!!!  The piecing was all done by WEQ members, and the amazing quilting was done by  Karen Desparois (www.kdesparois.com).         What a fabulous job she did!!!

These beauties, started in the workshop by Elaine Quehl were done by Anna!

And France's interpretation.

  She decided not to use her

 curved piecing, not

as a background, but to 

continue it until table-runner 

length.Quite dramatic!!

Allison's challenge from another guild.

The colour was chosen from a paint

chip and then had to be embellished.

What a great job, as usual!!!

Great to have Audrey back at our meetings!!  The top

one is a painting and the bottom is a watercolour quilt.

Both beautiful!! Audrey is multi-talented!

 Jae finally figured out the
"Disappearing Pinwheel" and
has started on something new.
FINALLY, got a picture of
her with her work!!!

Next meeting, Julia will be back with some lessons on Dear Jane and backstitching.  Will be good to see Julia again!!  See you all then - don't forget your supplies - see Linda's email of April 22. 

Sandra

ELAINE QUEHL'S WORKSHOPS

Hi Everyone:

So, Sunday at Loblaw's with Elaine Quehl!  What could be better!!  A whole day of quilting, no interruptions, (except for lunch), no phones and NO COMPUTERS!!!  What fun!!!  Elaine is a really good teacher, very patient, fun and undemanding.  You should really visit her web site at www.equarelle.ca and look at her amazing work.  The morning class was "Free-Form Curves" (check out the backgrounds on most of the upcoming photoes of our work) and the afternoon was "Liberated Applique".  The venue is pretty good too - Loblaws at Cavendish.  Great light, plenty of plugs, a fridge, coffee and lunch right downstairs!!

And we're off.........




Here's some of us hard at work, - well some
are hard at work :)

France and Barbara

 Allison (background), Marijke (Loose Threads) and
Audrey coming up the center.  Really good to see
Audrey!!!

And Anna, always working hard!

A break to take a look at some of Elaine's work!

Even better in real life!!  Check out the attention to detail.

On to the afternoon's class, most of us using the background made in the morning's class.  Some absolutely beautiful results!!

 Anna (left),


Barbara (right)

 Marijke (left)


France (right)

 Linda (left),


Allison (right)








Audrey's work,















                                                                                          Sandra's work.

Mary

I think I speak for everyone when I say it was a GREAT DAY!!!!  There's always something to learn!!

Don't forget tonight is France's workshop on Easy, Crazy Placemats.  Check back to her email sent on April 4th for her supply list.  Promises to be another fun evening!!!  See you all tonight.

Sandra