On Saturday June 15, seven guild members joined fellow guild member (and immediate Past President of our guild) Vickie MacNabb, for a painted barnboard workshop.
Equipped with the necessary supplies and protective clothing, the participants set up their workstations in the bright and inviting hall in ​Bethel St Andrew United Church in Fitzroy Harbour.
A very productive day!

-- Janet Brownlee

We capped off our 2023-2024 guild year with a fun social evening on June 19th. 
The meeting showcased some beautiful work of our members.
​
A number of stunning bird blocks were brought in to Marilyn our Charity co-ordinator.  Guild members were given the white backing piece and invited to make a bird block of their choice.  The blocks are amazing! These blocks will be made into a quilt that will be raffled off in conjunction with our next quilt show in spring 2026. Proceeds from the raffle will fund our  guild's Charity initiatives. 

Block of the Month coordinators Emma and Mary displayed their entire set of blocks - one for each month of the year. Thank  you Mary and Emma for an excellent BOM project. 
​Refer to the Block of the Month page for more information and patterns for these blocks.

Our members contributed little preemie quilts that will be donated to newborn babies in hospital special care nurseries. See the Charities page for information about our guild's charitable endeavours.

Co-President Anne announced her Summer President's Challenge! The challenge is to complete an unfinished project. Participants are asked to take a picture of an unfinished project and bring it and the completed project to the September 25th meeting ... something fun to keep us motivated and in touch during the summer.

Ellie showed us the quilt top she assembled from the blocks made at our November 2023 Sew Night.
This quilt will be completed and donated to our guild's Charity initiatives.

Our first ever Free Table was a great success! Many of those quilt related items that you no longer wanted found new homes.  And hopefully there weren't too many items that the donors got to take back home.

And an big thank you to our outgoing long time librarian Nancy pictured at right. At left is incoming librarian Jacquie.

We enjoyed the conversation over our yummy potluck dinner. Thank you to members with surnames beginning with the letters A-L for bringing a potluck dish to share. 

And after dinner entertainment was quilt block BINGO!  A big thank you to our president Anne for her diligent work in creating the colourful BINGO cards. I think we all became acquainted with some new blocks.

Show and Tell featured more of our guild members' beautiful creations. Here's one example.
See the Show and Tell page for photos of all of the quilts.

The meeting wrapped up with the 50-50,  basket, and door prize draws.
The grand finale was the draw for the 2 free memberships for next year and they were won by Brenda G and Carol L.  

Special thanks to our guild photographer Emma for these and other wonderful photos throughout this past year.
​--  Janet Brownlee

Our May meeting is our guild's mandatory Annual General Meeting. 

We were treated to an excellent presentation by our guild member Wendy Foster Birch. While Wendy typically wows us with her creative and stunning show and tell projects, at this meeting she was educating us about the usage of different types of threads, and giving us tips and techniques for machine quilting.  There were many examples of her beautiful machine quilting and creative designs in her accompanying trunk show.  

Wendy started off by emphasizing the importance of using high quality threads. She talked about different types of thread - cotton, polyester, silk and metallic. Then she moved on to identifying the characteristics of high quality needles. She also addressed thread tension and knowing when to change the factory tension settings and much more. She said these 3 factors are responsible for 95% of the problems people have with thread, and she gave us plenty of tips to avoid or correct thread-related problems.

Wendy's trunk show included a large variety of items including bed runners, table runners, wall hangings, clothing, quilts and even purses! They illustrated her design creativity, along with her sense of fun evidenced by her novelty and whimsical items, her use of colour, and her impressive machine quilting skills.

Joyce was manning the Charity table where members were dropping off little preemie quilts and picking up supplies for various Charity projects.

Show and Tell showcased a variety of stunning items. 
Here's just one example. See the Show and Tell page for all of the quilts we were treated to seeing.

This meeting was our mandatory Annual General Meeting. The official business went smoothly (e.g. Treasurer reports).  The terms of our executive team members Librarian Nancy Hayley and Treasurer Rennie Hickey are ending this year. Thank you both for your many years (that included the Covid-19 disrupted years) of dedicated volunteering on our leadership team.

A long time "sustainable quilter", Katrina is very disciplined and committed to minimizing waste fabric. She cuts up leftover fabric at the end of each new project into primarily 2" squares, slightly bigger squares for HSTs (half-square triangles) and 1 1/2" strips. She pieces all of the 2" squares as "leaders and enders" while she's piecing other quilts. Two patches expand to 4 patches and bigger as needed, all sewn as leaders and enders. While many people cut their scraps into 2 1/2" squares, Katrina prefers the mathematical flexibility of working in multiples of 2", and she's been doing this for a long time, before the popularity of jelly rolls. She cuts scraps with her AccuQuilt cutter using various dies and in creative ways.
All of these bits and pieces are organized and stored in plastic containers, and in little plastic mushroom containers.​

The 2" squares also make lovely sweatshirt-based jackets.

The scraps can be used in an infinite variety of creative designs.

Tina confirms that Katrina's QR code quilt, constructed a long time ago, still works and takes you to her web site blog Sunshower Quilts.

Katrina's designs often evolve as she goes and in this quilt, the white edges inside the pieced border, needed some unplanned adjustments.

Katrina uses a variety of neutral colors in her quilts, including chartreuse, red, grey, beige, brown, some golds and silvers, in addition to white. This is an example of a red neutral, Kona Paprika.

Katrina suggested making preemie quilts with alternating 16 patch scrap blocks and 6 1/2" squares of child-themed fabrics.
The 16 patch blocks can also be alternated with pinwheel blocks.

More photos of Katrina's quilts are in the gallery below.   Click/tap on an image to see it in full

Thank you Katrina for an excellent and most enjoyable and educational presentation.
You can see more of Katrina's work and link to her social media accounts, on her extensive web site blog Sunshower Quilts, 

Charity
The Charity table welcomed bird blocks made by our members for the quilt that will be made and raffled off at our 2025 quilt show. The deadline for these blocks is June. They are stunning!

Many delightful preemie quilts were brought in. Thank you!

And we saw a nearly complete quilt made from the blocks produced at our November 2023 sew night challenge.

Block of the Month
Mary and Emma brought in their sample Blocks of the Month. Mary has completed all 12 of hers and she's put them together into 4 seasonal wall hangings.

Emma introduced this month's Hummingbird block (bottom right in the photo below) at the meeting.
Photos and templates for making the blocks are on the Block of the Month page.  The final 2 blocks will be introduced at the May and June meetings.

Retreats
Sue had sign up sheets for the fall 2024 and winter 2025 retreats. Refer to the Retreats page for more information and online registration.

Draws
The meeting wrapped up with our draws and some happy winners!
Library prize - Brenda G
Gift Bag - Marilyn E
50-50 Draw - Anne C
Door Prizes  - $20 gift certificates from Sew Inspired - Shirley F and Katrina

Many thanks to those who brought the tasty snacks (surnames starting with L and M) and prepared the coffee and tea.
And thanks to the volunteers who held up the quilts: Wendy and Sandy for Katrina's quilts,  and Rennie and Sue H for Show and Tell.   Show and Tell photos
And thank you Emma, our guild photographer for these awesome photos. 

-- Janet Brownlee

Our January meeting featured Bridget O’Flaherty, "The Sustainable Quilter" on "How to Make Our Passion for Quilting and Textiles More Sustainable".
Through captivating storytelling and visual examples of her own work, Bridget demonstrated how sustainability and artistic expression can harmoniously coexist. From repurposing fabrics to exploring innovative techniques, she showcased the incredible possibilities that emerge when creativity and sustainability intersect.  

There's lots of interesting information about Bridget on her Website ​

Our speaker, Joanna Dermenjian, explored the valuable role quilters of all ages in Canadian communities, large and small, supported the war effort, particularly in the Second World War. Sharing information about this little documented area of quilting was of high interest to all attending. 
Joanna's extensive Suture and Selvedge Website provides access to her extensive research. ​

​Our March presentation was by Sandra Mollon, an award-winning quilter living in Northern California. In heer "Adapting an Image for an Art Quilt" lecture, she described in great detail the process for adapting an image or photograph into an Art Quilt.    Sandra's Web Site

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

This was a very active meeting! On November 22 we had a Charity project sew night combined with a challenge. The hall was set up with several sewing stations fitted with sewing machines and other equipment and tools that the members brought.
We were placed in teams of 2-4 people and our challenge was to make 12 blocks from the small paper bag containing instructions for a simple block, and strips of coloured and white fabrics. Tasks included cutting, pinning, sewing and (optionally) pressing. Each 12 1/2" block was assembled from 2 of the colourful individual units. The blocks were to be assembled in an alternating horizontal/vertical 3x4 configuration.

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

Our October 25th guild meeting was attended by 42 guild members and 5 guests.

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. 

We kicked off our 2023-2024 guild season with a well attended, information packed meeting on September 27.

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!

We had a marvelous end to our first full post-Covid guild year with an action packed meeting on June 21st. The meeting was well attended by many of our guild members, the visiting members of the Quilters Guild of Renfrew and Area, and several other guests.
Books!
We welcomed Bert of Grantham Books as a visiting featured shop and his extensive display of quilting books.  We were all invited to come early to have a good chance to browse and purchase books...and browse and purchase we did!

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