Our winter 2024 retreat was held at Spruceholme Inn, Fort-Coulonge, in Quebec, from January 29 to February 2nd, thanks to the efforts of Sue Hodgins, the organizer. Sue sent us a list of everything we needed to bring and also snacks and treats. 22 sewers attended, 16 from our guild and 6 others that quickly became our friends too!  

There was something each day to bring everyone together from walking around to check in on each others’ progress to a bit of clothes shopping at Jane Toller’s store in town. We shared tips and tricks throughout the time together, including: how to square up with the stripology ruler,  shown some neat borders, and easy patterns to use scraps up.

We had different activities each day: Show and Tell, strip dice game, and a trivia game, organized by Lucy. One of the most enjoyable aspects of coming together as a community was the communal eating time. We were told to each bring a placemat, which would be moved around by the staff as they set the tables. This enabled us to chat with new people at each meal, getting to connect with pretty much all the people at the retreat. It was a wonderful experience and we are grateful to Sue for organizing it. Looking forward to the next one in the fall!
 
-- Martha Palmer

Away we went and the hall was filled with quiet chatter, laughter and heads down workers!
This first photo shows some of the blocks coming together.

Challenge Winners!
Congratulations to Brenda G and Debbie C who were the first, and only team to complete the challenge at the meeting!

Charity Project Kits
The challenge wasn't the only activity going on.
Some members chose to work on preparing and assembling kits for Charity quilts, placemats, and fidget quilts. The kits are available to any guild members who would like to make a quilt top (or an entire quilt) for one of our Charity initiatives, or a smaller item.

There was even time for Show and Tell.  Show and Tell Photos

Marilyn, our Charity coordinator, showed a very creatively designed Charity quilt top that a member made incorporating a donated panel fabric.

Draws
The meeting wrapped up with our draws and some happy winners!
Guess the Number of Pages - Jo P
Gift Basket - Barb H
50-50 Draw - Carolyn P
Door Prizes  - Jo P and Joyce M

Many thanks to those who brought the tasty snacks and prepared the coffee and tea.
And a very big thanks to Joyce Murray who organized the challenge including preparing the bags of fabric and instructions. Well done Joyce!
And special thanks to the meeting attendees who so happily worked together on our Charity sew night.
​
-- Janet Brownlee

Trunk Show
We were treated to an amazing trunk show by very creative and talented quilting sisters Cathy Price and Carol Darou. They make the most stunning quilts, each with its own interesting, and well told story. Carol and Cathy are very active and long time members of the Lanark County Quilters Guild and some of the quilts we saw were displayed at their quilt show in Smiths Falls in July.  And congratulations to Carol who placed 1st in the 'Books and Patterns' category at Quilt Canada in June. 
Carol and Cathy's colour preferences and quilting styles are often quite different and that was particularly evident in their different interpretations of various guild challenges.  Their trunk show featured about 40 of their creations and Carol and Cathy have generously allowed us to post a few photos of their work.

Thank you Carol and Cathy for a most fun and information evening.

Programs
The Tinners program kicked off with 12 participants.

And the 2nd Block of the Month (BOM) was revealed.  

Charity
Marilyn introduced the plan for our raffle quilt for our next "QUILTING IN THE VALLEY" quilt show in April 2025. Each participant will be given a 10" square of background material and we're to use our scraps to create a colourful bird block - pieced, appliqued, paper pieced or embroidered. The blocks are to be handed in at the April 2024 meeting, (early bird...) so there's time to finish and quilt another successful, beautiful Raffle quilt. 

The 20 1/2" strips of fabric that we were asked to bring to the meeting were the focus of a dice game where a player from each table went home with their winnings of a stack of fabric strips.

MORE
Our break provided an opportunity to get a close look at the church panels. visit the Library, indulge in a little shopping at Madonna's pop-up Paisleys shop, check out the BOM sample block, and grab a drink and a snack.
There was a very inspiring Show-and-Tell - photos.
The meeting wrapped up with the door prize and 50-50 draws, and the draw for the Library "guess the number of pages" book.
What a wonderful start to our new guild year!

Trunk Show
​First on the official agenda of the evening was a trunk show by some of our visiting guests from the Quilters Guild of Renfrew and Area. They brought along some stunning quilts and entertained us with their very interesting stories.

And yes this is our ADQG member Chris Gordon showing some of her work! Chris is a member of both guilds. Thank you Chris for organizing most enjoyable trunk show.

Thank you to our guests from the Renfrew and Area guild for coming to our meeting and especially to those who treated us to an excellent trunk show.

Social
The meeting featured a lengthy break for our yummy dessert buffet, a close up look at the trunk show quilts, more book browsing and buying, and some very social time.

Show and Tell
​There were still more quilts to see at our regular Show and Tell.
But it wasn't so "regular" after all as Brenda Davidson Payer showed us her amazing "Perfectly Imperfect" quilt freshly back from Quilt Canada, the 2023 Canadian Quilters' Association (CQA) national juried show in Halifax. Brenda was awarded first prize in the Traditional - Wall and Bed Quilt category. You can read more about it here on the CQA web site.
Congratulations Brenda!  Well done!

We're super excited that Brenda has volunteered to be our incoming guild Program executive so we'll be hearing lots from her over the next couple of years.
And after all of our work to complete projects for our quilt show, we were treated to a pleasantly surprising array of other stunning new quilts in Show and Tell.  These included the Tote-Me-Tote bags from our May workshop.

We were delighted when Anne Cruickshank and Joyce Murray stepped forward to announce that they are taking on the roles of co-presidents! Anne has previously been president (twice!) and Joyce has served in multiple executive and organizational capacities, so we are very well positioned for next year, and very grateful that they are volunteering for this crucial role.
And they didn't waste any time in getting started as Anne announced a Summer 2023 Presidents' Challenge to make a bag (any pattern, any size) and bring it to the September guild meeting. And the Tote-Me-Tote bags are NOT eligible!

This was also our night to thank outgoing president Vickie for her excellent leadership for the past 2 years, including leading the committee for our recent very successful quilt show. All very well done Vickie, and very much appreciated.

Draws
The meeting wrapped up with our draws and some happy winners!
Guess the Number of Pages in the 2 library books - Jane W
Gift Basket - Joanna V
50-50 Draw of $57 - Nancy
Door Prizes  - Diane A, Shirley F, Tina M, Allison K
Free 2023-2024 Guild Memberships - Brenda G, Shirley F
​
Thank You!
​A huge thank you goes out to everyone who brought the desserts, and to Joyce T and Wendy FB for doing kitchen duty - setting out the food and cleaning up afterwards.

​-- Janet Brownlee

This year's Block of the Month (BOM) featured 12 blocks, each finishing at 12", and each block was made from sixteen 3½” Half Square Triangles (HSTs). We made two blocks each month, with instructions for the first two being posted in August and the last two in January.
Emma and Mary brought their sample blocks to the fall in-person guild meetings. While they both used a single colour scheme - Mary's were blue, and Emma's were fall orange shades, we were encouraged to choose our own colours and use a single colour scheme like they did, or to vary our colours from block to block.
Participants assembled the blocks into the design of their choice along with borders, additional blocks, or background fabric.
​Photos of the blocks and the instructions are available here. 
​
The winners were:
1st  Allison Kubiseski
2nd  Brenda Davidson-Payer
3rd  Mary Moss

Here are the prize winning quilts.

The instructions for the blocks were made available in 3 parts from September through November 2022 and in December the mystery was revealed in the assembly instructions. This was a lovely pattern that made up at 36" square.
​
The winners were:
1st  Debbie Cauvier
2nd  Joanna Vlaming
3rd  Elizabeth Couture

​Here are the prize winning quilts.

A highlight of the evening was the Christmas gift exchange game that Vickie organized.  The game started with everyone choosing one of the gifts from the stage and choosing a number that determined the order of play. ​

On your turn you had the option of opening the gift you selected, or to trade it, still wrapped, for a gift already opened by someone else. There was a lot of laughter and trading until we all had an opened gift. 

And we even captured a rare photo of Emma, our talented and dedicated photographer, when she handed her camera over to Vickie!

Our Show & Tell included several beautiful seasonal items and other lovely creations.
You can see photos of all of the quilts on the Show & Tell page.

Thank You!
​A huge thank you goes out to Joyce T and Tina M for doing kitchen duty -  setting out the food and cleaning up afterwards. And to Vickie for organizing the evening and for the fun gift exchange game!
​
-- Janet Brownlee, Communications

A number of completed Charity items were brought to the meeting.

Thanks to all who participated in this big work evening. And an extra thank you to those who took home works-in-progress to finish off for our Christmas donations.

​Show and Tell
We  took a break for Show and Tell. Photos here

A big thank you to Nancy for arranging for our free use of the church hall, to Vickie for organizing the Sew Day, and to Gwen for teaching her popular notebook cover project.