Fruits and Veggies

       Last night there were six intrepid quilters who braved the snow and the wind to learn about Barbara's fruit and vegetable printing. She showed us how she prints but didn't do the actual printing there, as it is too messy! The fruit and vegetables should be firm  but not too hard to get good texture. She had prints with acrylic paints on different fabrics and paper. She usually tries a paper print first before using fabric. One thing Barbara showed was that much experimentation is needed to get your vision printed.

Carrots and Parsnips

Many pears with some over printed with bronze

These are designs carved in potatoes and printed on fabric

A group of geraniums printed on paper

Cauliflower

More cauliflower; red and green

Broccoli looks like cauliflower but with more texture on the top

Delicious Red Apples

Citrus; Lemons and Clementines

Over printing

Peppers, parsnips, cauliflower and mushrooms used for printing

Apple, pears, clementine and mushrooms

Listening intently to Barbara's explanations

Thank you Barbara for a very interesting demo. She handed out a tip sheet explaining what she did so we will wait to see who has extra fruit and veggies at home and fabric to print. 

Then there was some show and tell.

Mary T shows off her "Insect" batik quilt top

Mary S had some little boxes

Rita had another quilt top ready for a baby quilt.

Our show, Quilt Expo is in less than two months so there is lots of work to do!

Look at our Facebook page:

Facebook.com/westendquilters

Dowels and Ribbons

       Here are some pictures from the last CQQ show showing how the smaller quilts were hung. There is the curtain behind on a rod, then a rod in front which would hold a large quilt or the ribbons and then the dowels to hold the smaller quilts. The ribbons are of different lengths depending on how many quilts you would hang. One can see that some dowels were painted black and others were not. The dowels are not all the same size either. It looks like the first loop is about 12 inches from the top and then every 6 inches.

The CQQ didn't worry if the dowels were not the right length! They hung some quilts from the top bar including Allison's Six Border Challenge.

It looks like the loops were about 2 inches.

So this is what we need to make. It is not very difficult just precise. 

Mary S.

FRAMING QUILTS WORKSHOP

Hi Everyone:

Well, I decided to try again.  The blogspot and I were having a little disagreement on how to handle the pictures.  Of course the blogspot won - as always!!!  I took a couple of days to pout and to question why they always have to change something that already works perfectly well!!  Anyway, it is what it is and I am back to try again.

So, Tuesday night, Allison
gave an excellent workshop
on making our own frames for
smaller, or 'art' quilts.
She gave us many ideas:
buying already made up frames
with canvas (you can get these
at the $ Store), or using stretcher
bars, using a photo frame.

She also showed us how
to make our own frames using
a few simple tools - a mitre box,
carpenter's glue, clamps and
corrugated reinforcers.  .




Allison also gave us a great
method for handling the
corners so as to cut down
on the bulk.  It was a
great workshop with a lot
 of info.

Our Show and Tell featured

                                                            Barbara with her two preemie
                                                                    quilts.  Beautiful!!








Next up - Roz.  Roz is certainly
 challenging Jae and her
productivity!!  Roz's bags -
one is large enough to carry
a large ruler and cutting mat
to workshops!!

The next two are from Jae,
of course. The bow ties are
made up of folded pieces.
Next is her baby quilt and
the luxurious, soft backing!!

These two are from
France.  Her 'strawberry"
pot holder, or trivet, and
her beautiful appliqued bag.

 Marilyn was back
visiting us again.  It was
great to see her again!!
She promises she will be
back for our show in May
and I am sure she will have
tons of stuff to display.

Marilyn is doing a lot
of 'felting' right now.  Her
work is beautiful, and
here are some samples.




















And last, but definitely not
least, is Mary's elephant
quilt for her soon-to-be
grandson.





Well, that's about it for now.  Don't forget Roz has
generously offered her place for a Saturday "sewing
day".  If you plan on going, please let Roz know.

Happy quilting everyone!!!

Sandra

HAPPY 2015

       2015 is a big year for our guild as it's the year of our Quilt Show. We haven't had one since 2011. It will be held May 2nd and 3rd, 2015 at St Ignatius of Loyola Church Hall. We have been busy quilting for four years so now is the time to show off all our work. Many of our meetings will concern the show but we will still be learning new things.

      Last night Roz showed us how to make a Take a Long mat. There was a lot of cutting, sticking and stapling and many mats were made although some people just watched.

Roz and all her stuff.

Two pieces of plywood with a pencil for a spacer. This was placed on top of batting, insult-bright and cover fabric.

Roz stapling the fabric to the board.

Linda, Charlotte and Jae hard at work.

                                                Pricilla working on her Take-A-Long

Charlotte adding her bright coloured cover.

Anna taking notes and Linda's work, all taped down.







Roz's finished work with the felt over the sandpaper which can be used to hold fabric pieces when cutting.

     We then had some show and tell. Allison showed a quilt she made with fabrics purchased in Hawaii. She double outline stitched flower patterns on the front of the quilt, which gives interesting patterns on the back. 

Mary has been doing some work. She had an elephant appliqué which is the first square of a Grandson's quilt. 

Mary is also doing a Jinny Beyer block of the month quilt. This is the first block, January all hand pieced.

Linda also showed a Jinny Beyer quilt she had made a couple of years ago. The top is all finished and now she needs to quilt it. It is made up of all 150 different Jinny Beyer's fabrics. 

 Rita brought some blocks she was working on. They were cut with a special ruler with a curve in it. Rita thought there were some not quite perfect but like most of what Rita does they looked perfect!

   
Next meeting is our famous fabric exchange so bring along any fabric you have that you don't want to use. Someone will think it's wonderful!

BUSY, BUSY, BUSY!!!!

Hi again everyone:

We've been quite busy since our Annual Meeting in Rawdon, lots of quilting, lots of learning.

 Here's France with her Halloween project.  She
is teaching us how to transfer from paper to
fabric.  Such a smart person, our France.  She
always has something new to teach us.

Here's Roz with her fabulous circle
quilt and below is her quilt for the
soon-to-benew addition.  The back
 is Roz's ingenious way of handling
that old dilemna of 'not enough fabric'.

 Baby is going to be VERY happy.

Now it's Roz's turn to teach us
'ruching'.  A wonderful new
(well, at least for most of us)
technique for making three
dimensional flowers.  Take a
look at her beautiful sample of
these flowers.

And here's us all hard at work!!!!

Thanks to France and Roz for
their excellent workshops!!












And under the heading of "better late than never"
or "late but fabulous" is Allison's
answer to Anna's challenge of last
season - Triangles.

And last, but definitely not
least is Barbara's beautiful
"missing 9 patch".  Quilting
to be decided!!








Next up is our Christmas evening at Linda's new digs.
Promises to be fun (we'll be playing Left, Right, Center)
and filling (we'll be eating lots of great food).
Don't forget, if you're coming and planning
on playing you need to bring 3 fat quarters.

See you all then.

Sandra