Our Charity team had a large display of supplies for our charity initiatives and completed items.

Members contributed several darling preemie quilts for local newborns.

Thank you to the member volunteers who helped with the selling raffle tickets, contributing snacks, helping with setup and clean up of hall, and holding up the quilts.

We saw  beautiful and inspirational Show and Tell quilts. Photos of all of the quilts are here.
​Here are a couple of samples.

A big shout-out to our 3 new members, 7 wonderful guests, and all our members - it was fantastic to see so many friendly faces, both familiar and new. Thanks for coming out and for making our guild so vibrant and welcoming!

,The pillowcases are made for regular use and frequent washing, with no exposed seams on the inside. The magic and burrito part is the quick and easy method of making them. Chris invited volunteers to demo the "magic" part of the burrito rolled fabrics she had already stitched together. Vickie, Martha and Joyce eagerly volunteered.

They turned the roll inside out...

... and revealed the almost complete pillow cases, ready for folding and stitching the final French seams along the side and end.

The pillowcases have a main body, a wide cuff, and an optional narrow trim in between.
​Fabrics should be 100% cotton.
Instructions are available here.

Show and Tell was next. After showing our little preemie challenge quilts at our May meeting, this was our first opportunity to show our winter projects in person.

Georgene started off with an amazing custom quilt that she made for her adult granddaughter. The quilt was designed by Georgene's husband, and her granddaughter who is a lawyer and has M​étis status.

A number of the quilts were related to previous guild activities.
​
We saw 2 of the completed table runners from the Urban Runner workshop with Katrina in March.

Included in her numerous quilts, Joanna showed us this one that featured the Pick Up Sticks block that we made for Charity projects in 2021-2022.

​Mary completed her Block of the Month from last year - an applique project with a different block for each month of the year.
​
Information and instructions for that BOM program are here.

And Mary also made this colourful and creative preemie quilt

A number of Millennium Stars from the recent Star Strip Paper Piecing workshop. Well done!

Another of the Charity quilts constructed from the blocks we made at our November 2023 Sew Night meeting has been completed and handed over to Marilyn.

Photos of all of the Show and Tell quilts are posted on the Show and Tell page.

​Members enjoyed a closer inspection of the Show and Tell projects during the break.

A number of books from our guild library were offered on a free book table. The various heavy trollies that are stored under the stage, including our guild's trolley, are causing damage to the floor so we were asked to lighten ours up. So Jacquie culled a few for this free table.

​Elizabeth's April "Double Disappearing Nine Patch" Block of the Month, made a colourful display.

Allision introduced her May "Grandma Mae's Economy" block at the meeting with a lot of ideas in her sample blocks and baby quilt. Instructions are on the Block of the Month page. These blocks will be due at the June meeting.

The last item on our agenda was our mandated Annual General Meeting.
Our treasurer Sandy came equipped with all of the numbers and she gave us a reassuring summary of our financial position. Sandy oversees the guild's 2 bank accounts: an account for our Charity endeavours, and a General account for our other income and expenditures.
The Charity account is funded by the raffle quilt ticket sales at our quilt shows,  which are typically held every 2 years and sometimes due to unforeseen circumstances, every 3 years. These proceeds fund the purchasing of fabric, batting and other needs for our Charity projects.

Anne announced the volunteers for opening executive positions:

• President - Amanda Vajda
• Secretary - Pamela Friedrich
• Programs - Martha Palmer

And Carolyn Prince has volunteered to look after the Preemie quilt Charity program.
Thank you for volunteering for these key roles that will enable our guild to function for the upcoming 2025-2026 guild year which begins on July 1.

After that official business Martha had us rearrange our chairs into 6 small groups and do some brainstorming on Program ideas for next year. Martha summarized how this session would work and she was well prepared with clipboards, paper, pens, and highlighters to record all of the ideas generated in each of the groups, and then highlight the top 3. Then one spokesperson for each group reported those top 3 (and in some/many cases 4!) to all of us. The ideas were awesome and varied, and the brainstorming process was very efficient and effective. Martha is very well equipped for planning next year's programs for us.

The meeting wrapped up with the draws and some happy winners.
Purple Fat Quarters - 7 blocks each for Eleanor L and Liz G
Blocks of the Month - Elizabeth C
Books - Joanna V, Martha P
Basket - Nicole C
50-50 - Jo P
Door Prize - Elizabeth C
-- Janet Brownlee, Communications

Our guild had a wonderful day on Tuesday, May 20, as 17 eager participants gathered at the Horton Community Centre in Renfrew to take part in a Millennium Star workshop led by Helen Gunn. The workshop focused on a beautiful yet complex strip-piecing technique, and everyone was keen to learn.

The community centre was perfectly set up for us, with individual tables for each participant and plenty of space for lunch tables. We were especially grateful for the many outlets and extension cords provided—perfect for our sewing stations!

We started the day at 9:00 a.m. as Helen walked us through the detailed steps of creating the star. ​

The quilts were stunning and it was interesting to see the different styles and colour preferences of the three sisters.

Below is Marilyn's Black and White Challenge quilt. 
The challenge: Participating guild members signed up at the September 2019 meeting and were placed in groups. They made identical 9 1/2" unfinished blocks with black and white fabric, one for each member of their group. The blocks were then distributed to their group at the December meeting and each participant went home with 10-12 black and white blocks. From these blocks and one or two other colours/fabrics of their choice they made a quilt or other item. 

Jacquie's quilts featured darker, stronger colours and lots of fun and whimsical applique. And they had to fit in her suitcase for her trip from her home in Calgary.

Thank you Jacquie, Joyce and Marilyn for sharing your amazing quilts and their stories with us.

The Block-of-the-Month table was very busy as blocks from 4 months (December - March) were collected.

• December's 13 Eight Point Star blocks won by Debbie C
• January's 11 Potato Chip blocks -> Ann H
• February's 21 Trip Around Arnprior blocks -> Brenda G
• March's 13 Coin blocks -> Lucy V

The meeting ended with the other draws:

• Yellow fat quarters won by Georgene
• 50-50 won by Nicole C
• Basket won by Allison K
• Guess the book pages won by Brenda G

-- Janet Brownlee, Communications

​We got a chance to share ideas around quilts that were being made, and some finished there.  Some particular quilts of interest were Marilyn‘s quilt, that she has had in her UFOs for a while and it’s about to be for her bed.

 Emma also completed a project she has had as a UFO for a while. ​

Gwen’s green and blue quilt was amazing. ​

Our guild charity initiatives have carried on during the winter months despite not meeting in person from January through March.
Our March guild meeting, via Zoom, was a sew night where we worked in the comfort of our own homes making little 24"x 24" "Preemie" quilts for babies in the Ottawa Hospital's neonatal Special Care Nursery.
​
In March our Charity coordinator Marilyn delivered 5 quilts (pictured below) to Interval House in Carleton Place.

​Our guest speaker at our January 22nd Zoom meeting was Cyndi McChesney of Cedar Ridge Quilting with her Panel Palooza presentation.

"In this informative and entertaining trunk show I'll show you how to take that panel you fell in love with and turn it into something truly unique. You'll experience my good, bad and AH HA moments as I learned how to work with the different styles of panels and how adding interesting block treatments and borders and filling those pesky open spaces with patchwork or applique results in a truly special quilt or unexpected project."

And show us she did! Lots of examples of how to creatively use different types of panels in all aspects of our quilts.

​Our guest speaker at our February 19th Zoom meeting was Bonnie Rankin, a CQA/ACC Certified Quilt Judge, and the National Juried Show Coordinator for this year's Quilt Canada in Toronto in June 2025.

Our last Zoom winter meeting on March 26th was a fun sew night. From the comfort of our own home sewing spaces, we worked on making little  24"x 24" "Preemie" quilts for babies in the Ottawa Hospital's neonatal Special Care Nursery. It was a relaxed, social and productive evening with casual conversation as we worked away. Show and Tell was throughout the evening as members showed their completed preemies and quilt tops.

There is a large room where we get together to sew. There are windows down 2 sides and I have seen over 30 people there and you still have lots of room to set up.  They are very accommodating with extra tables and chairs though many bring their own.   There is a snack corner where they always have coffee, tea and ice water and many of us provide extra snacks.  ​

As always the food was delicious and an excellent variety of dishes to choose from. Thank you to those members with surnames beginning with M-Z for contributing to the buffet table.

Anne's new dice-rolling gift exchange game was a lot of fun - everyone had brought along a wrapped gift of something from our quilting rooms. Everyone got a turn to roll he BIG green multi-sided dice and then carry out the direction to trade or pass gifts along according to the instructions on the top.

Our generous and talented guild members brought in Christmas-themed placemats that will be donated to local residents who receive pre-cooked meals.

And several preemie quilts were also donated.

We saw 3 delightful projects at Show and Tell.

Martha also introduced her Eight Point Star December Block of the Month. She brought along several samples  of finished blocks, and in progress blocks at various stages of construction to explain the they're assembled.  Instructions

The completed Christmas themed "Scrappy Christmas Sparkle" Blocks of the Month from November added to the festive decorations. Shirley M's name was drawn as the winner of these blocks.

There were a large number of blue fabric contributions to the Fat Quarter Club. 
The fat quarters were shared between draw winners Mary D and Shirley M.

Again thank you to those who donated food for the potluck and those who prepared the refreshments, and to Anne for her very fun gift exchange game.
And to our talented photographer Emma for these photos.
-- Janet Brownlee