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by Gwen Pennings Thank you for all the wonderful quilted placemats you made this past fall which I was very honoured to deliver just before Christmas. 15 placemats to the Arnprior Meals on Wheels program to be given with the Christmas meal. 10 placemats to be given with freezer meals to seniors in the Fitzroy Harbour and Constance Bay areas by the West Carleton Community Service Centres in affiliation with the Western Ottawa Community Resource Centre (WOCRC). It took everyone’s individual work to make such a big impact on our community. I want to share this note that I received: Gwen, I wanted to send an email to express my thanks on behalf of Western Ottawa Community Resource Centre and some lucky seniors in our community for the beautiful placemats made by your quilting group. The last week before Christmas I had the opportunity to deliver meals and soup and your beautiful placemats to many seniors in our community. The placemats added such a warm and personal touch, the seniors who received them were surprised and genuinely pleased someone had gone to so much work to make such a pretty gift for them. I am sure that as those folks sat down to eat their meals over the holidays they were able to look down at those placemats only to be reminded we are a caring community and their day would have been brighter for it. Heidi Wieler Service Coordinator-West Carleton Western Ottawa Community Resource Centre  Heidi Wieler, left with guild's Gwen Pennings  Placemats and food for Arnprior Meals on Wheels clients by Gwen Pennings Thank you for the 16 wonderful quilted wheelchair lap quilts you made this past fall which I was very honoured to deliver for the residents of The Grove Nursing Home in Arnprior just before Christmas.  Wheelchair lap quilts at our December guild meeting    Our guild was recently enlisted to make a quilt to assist the Arnprior Tim Hortons outlets in raising funds for their Send a Kid to Camp programme. They provided a number of Tim Hortons themed t-shirts, and guild member Marilyn Erskine got to work in piecing them into a quilt top. Brigid Whitnall, guild president, then quilted it and adding binding to produce a stunning and fun 60" x 70" quilt! The quilt was presented to Tim Hortons employees Anne Marie St. Michael and Lori McGrath by Marilyn and Brigid on May 25th, It was offered in a silent auction where it sold for an amazing $500 with all proceeds going towards sending kids to camp. Wednesday May 31, 2017 is Tim Hortons Camp Day when 100% of the proceeds from coffee sales will "brighten a kid's future".  From left: Anne Marie St. Michael, Marilyn Erskine, Brigid Whitnall, Lori McGrath  May guild meeting show-and-tell What a fun night this was! We all pitched in to construct quilt tops for the Canadian Quilters' Association (CQA) Big Quilt Bee. Our guild is joining guilds from across Canada to make quilts for Ronald McDonald House Charities, in celebration of Canada's 150th birthday. Our guild members have been busy constructing these 12 1/2 inch blocks which incorporate at least one piece of a special Canada fabric. Approximately 135 blocks were constructed at our very successful "slab block" workshop in early February, and many more were brought in by guild members. After an exciting evening of sorting the blocks, designing the layouts, pinning blocks, the whirring of several sewing machines, and activity at various ironing stations, our guild members assembled the blocks into 13 quilt tops! Way to go quilters! Refer to the CQA web site for more information, including instructions for the blocks using the “slab block pattern” compliments of Cheryl Arkison, and sample blocks. See the teams at work, and the final results in these photos.              The February 4th "slab block" workshop was a resounding success! In a few hours, 12 guild members produced 134 blocks for quilts destined for Ronald McDonald Houses across Canada as part of the Canadian Quilters' Association's Big Quilt Bee in celebration of Canada's 150th birthday. Quilt guilds from across Canada will be making and donating 12 1/2 inch blocks incorporating at least one piece of a special Canada fabric. Our guild is delighted to participate in this exciting project.
 Brigid Brigid reports, "We had lots of fun and laughs .... although the room would also get very quiet at times when everyone was hard at work. We had lots of the residents drop by to see what we were doing and they all enjoyed having us there as well. It was a great day of socializing and teamwork... not to mention how productive we were. I had no idea how many blocks we would have." And from Beth, a guild member and resident of Island View, "I enjoyed the day and I also learned a few more things about quilting. Several staff have said they would like the quilters back. They were impressed with the idea of helping people with the quilts."  That makes a total of 187 slab blocks which we'll begin piecing together at our February 22nd guild meeting, "hands on" charity night. Refer to the Canadian Quilters' Association (CQA) web site for more information and instructions for the blocks using the “slab block" pattern” compliments of Cheryl Arkison. Our guild recently donated a quilt to The Grove Nursing Home in Arnprior for their palliative care room. Guild members made the multi-colour blocks, which we originally used for a game of "Quilt Bingo". These bingo blocks were then subsequently included in the "Bingo quilt" along with the pinwheel blocks. Anne Cruickshank, on behalf of the Arnprior & District Quilters' Guild is pictured at left presenting the quilt to Wendy Barkley, of Arnprior Regional Health, which oversees The Grove Nursing Home, the Arnprior & District Memorial Hospital and other local health partners.  Our talented and generous guild members again provided holiday placemats for the Arnprior and Renfrew Meals on Wheels programs for delivery at Christmas. These placemats have Christmas themed fabric on one side and another fabric on the other so they can be used throughout the year. Our guild vice president, Chris Gordon (center) is pictured with Mary Bourk, co-ordinator of the social and volunteer programs for the Arnprior-Braeside-McNab Seniors at Home program, and Dennis Harrington, executive director, with a selection of the placemats that were presented to them in December.    During the summer we received an email message about a little 3 year boy who had received a preemie quilt as a newborn from the Rich Little Special Care nursery at the Ottawa Hospital. The boy is still very attached to his little quilt, so much that he had chewed off all 4 of the corners! The label on the little quilt led the boy's foster mother (and about to adoptive mother), to our guild. Would it be possible, the lady asked, for her to buy a replacement quilt for him? And could it be as similar to the chewed up quilt as possible? We were very touched by this story and resolved to give him a replacement. First quest was to see if we could obtain more of the original fabric. Our guild president, Brigid, identified the quilt as one that her mother had made. So off her mom went to the shop in Cornwall where she had purchased the fabric. Sadly, but not surprisingly, that fabric was not available. Nor could it be found on a web site for purchase. We did find a similar blue background print in an Ottawa shop. Chris, our guild vice president, who is also responsible for our charity projects, had some orange flannel in her stash for the backing, and she quickly produced a brand new quilt. Off it went in the mail. We soon heard back that the little fellow was thrilled with his new quilt. "He adores it. He walks around with both and always shows everyone his “new” blankie!!!! You ladies rock." We were delighted to hear that one little quilt was loved and appreciated so much and equally delighted to provide a replacement that may or may not get chewed! Here are photos of the top and back of the new quilt, and below, more photos of the original quilt. |
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