Our May 28th meeting started off with a surprise guest! Chris Gordon of the Quilt Guild of Renfrew and Area came to introduce a challenge from their guild to our guild. Chris, a long time former member of our guild, received a very warm welcome. The challenge is to make Burrito Pillowcases, which are also described as Magic Pillowcases. These pillowcases will be delivered to a group called Comfy Cases Ottawa who will wash and label them, then distribute them to sick children and youths (up to age 18) at CHEO, Ronald McDonald House, and Roger Neilson Children’s Hospice, all in Ottawa. The pillowcases will be collected at the September guild meeting. Sue Hodgins is coordinating our guild's efforts in this challenge. Chris, an experienced quilting project instructor, came well prepared with several samples for us to see.

,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

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

​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.

We wrapped up our 2024 guild meetings with our traditional holiday potluck dinner meeting on December 11th. It was a festive evening with plenty of red, green, and bling-y attire and our members' festive Christmas quilts and other quilted items decorating the hall.

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

Joan brought along a large assortment of scrapbooks of news clippings and other visuals, and even some gifts for us - little Canada flags and pins!

The 50th anniversary of our maple leaf flag was celebrated widely in 2015.
Joan was invited to Waterloo for various 50th anniversary celebrations, including the introduction of a new song, Canadian Flag Waver written by Steve Bergen, a teacher and choir director at Smithson Public School in Waterloo. The song was sung by the school's 29-member student choir.
Read about that story here.
​
Joan played the song for us on her tablet!

And here's a short news clip about the production of the song.

Here's a short news clip about production of the song.

You can listen to the song here.

​Joan was given this quilt in Waterloo.

Joan's story was very warmly received by our guild.

Joan happily posed for selfies with us!

Thank you Joan for an amazing and entertaining story and a most enjoyable evening with us. 

This month our members were invited to bring along baby quilts to decorate the hall and they were so inspiring and delightful.

Charity co-ordinator Marilyn (pictured at right) showed us this stunning farm-themed panel quilt made by one of our guild members. It's gorgeous we would love to know who made it! This quilt will be donated to a charity recipient.

Tins were ready for our Tinners participants to exchange.

This month's Fat Quarter Club colour was RED and the 44 FQ's brought in were split amongst winning participants Tina, Lucy S, Jo and Linda N.

Our quilters' recycling table is a continuing hit!

The 28 October Feather Leaf Blocks of the Month, were gorgeous and were won by participant Elizabeth C. Thank you Jacquie for a delightful scrappy fall-themed block.

Brenda brought in samples of her Potato Chip block that will be our January Block of the Month. Since our January meeting will be via Zoom so this was our opportunity to see the blocks in person. Stay tuned for more information about making this block in January.

Show and Tell when we see the projects made by our talented guild members is always a highlight of our meetings. ​See photos of all of the projects we saw here.

As usual the meeting wrapped up with our draws and some happy winners!
Library "Guess the number of pages" prize - Sandra P
Gift Basket - Jan S
50-50 Draw - Elizabeth C took home $61
Door Prizes  - Mary D and Sandra P
And thank you to our talented photographer Emma for these great photos.
​
-- Janet Brownlee​

A great turnout on October 23rd at our 2nd meeting of this guild year, for an inspirational, educational and fun Skills Demonstration Night. 

​We lost no time in splitting into 4 groups and starting the rotation through the 4 demo stations. My group started with Gwen Pennings' demonstration of two methods of sewing on binding by machine. Gwen's presentation and demo covered measurements, joining strips, cool corners, joining ends, and sewing the second time around. A great timesaver, and like free motion quilting, it takes a little practice and some patience.

Next stop was Debbie Cauvier and her awesome scrap quilts.  Debbie shared her appreciation for scrap quilting with her "Scrap block building: Three different samples to use up those scraps!".

Our 3rd stop was hosted by Jen Swallow from Happy Wife Quilting in her pop-up shop of the month, where she presented" Jen’s 5 Favourite Tools”. ​

After the impressive demos of Jen's tools and at the break, there was time to browse and buy in Jen's pop up shop of the month. ​

Our last stop  was with with Allison Kubiseski who demonstrated making Flying Geese Blocks. Great tips for experienced and inexperienced makers of Flying Geese blocks.

The "Creative Grids Ultimate Flying Geese Tool" that Allison demonstrated is carried by Sew Inspired. See it here.

Thank you to guild members Gwen, Debbie, and Allison and to Shop of the Month's Jen Swallow for your excellent presentations. A great learning experience for all of us. And a huge Thank You to Lucy for organizing this fabulous program.

Fat Quarter Club
This meeting debuted our new Fat Quarter Club. Members who brought in a fat quarter were eligible to win draws for the fat quarters. The theme for this month was green fabric - our co-president Joyce's favourite colour. There was a great response to this new activity with 32 blocks! They were split into 2 sets of 16 blocks which were won by Emma R and Brenda K.

We welcomed Marilyn, our Charity co-ordinator back from her travels, and she had an extensive display of the ongoing Charity projects.
The completed bird blocks for our 2026 quilt show raffle quilt are gorgeous! 

Our members are so dedicated to our preemie quilts initiative - preemie quilts are pictured at left.
The Charity table also featured panel quilt kits for members to take home and make a quilt for donation to our Charity initiatives. See the Charity page for more information about our Charity initiatives.

The Block of the Month table was a busy spot for members dropping off their square-themed September blocks, and checking out Jacquie's October leaf block.
​Refer to the Block of the Month page for instructions for the October leaf block.

There were 2 different September blocks that members were invited to make, with separate draws for each block design.

Rennie H won the "Square in a Square" on point blocks, and Liz G the "Block in a Block" blocks. There were approximately 16 blocks of each. 

This month introduced a new theme-based display of quilts. October featured fall colour/themed quilts which  displayed around the hall. What a wonderful addition of these creations of our guild members for us all to see.

Some terrific items were offered at the "free" table.

Draws
The meeting wrapped up with our draws and some happy winners!
Library "Guess the number of pages" prize - Lesa W
Gift Basket- Brenda G
50-50 Draw - Vickie took home $48
Door Prizes  - Allison K and Lucy S

Thank you!
Many thanks to those who brought the tasty snacks and prepared the coffee and tea.
And thank you Emma, our guild photographer, for these awesome photos. 
​-- Janet Brownlee

Tinners
Co-president Anne gave a great description of our Tinners program.
​Participating members choose a theme for a project, some fabric and put that in a tin (or plastic or any type of container) which will be passed around to other participants - a different person each month, who will each make a block for that tin's project.  In June each participant is given back their tin full of blocks. 
During Show and Tell Louise showed us her wall hanging and table runner that she made during the summer from her Tinners music themed blocks from last year.

​Retreat co-ordinator Sue updated us on the fall (October 28 - November 1) and winter (January 27-31) guild retreats at Spruceholme Inn in Fort Coulonge, Quebec.
Participants can attend for 2-4 nights. Registration is now open for both retreats.  
​More retreat info

Block of the Month
Past President Vickie kicked off our optional Block of the Month (BOM) program with 2 "square in square" blocks that members can make to try out something new and fun. Blocks can be brought to the October meeting to contribute to a draw that all participants have a chance of winning.  One draw entry per completed block; you can make as many blocks as you'd like.

Instructions for these 2 BOM blocks can be found here.
Members were also given the opportunity to lead a Block of the Month. This means choosing or designing a block, providing the instructions (which can be a link to any online pattern), and make the block samples for that month's guild meeting. Response to this invitation was excellent and we have a volunteer for each month's meeting!

English Paper Piecing Workshop
An English Paper Piecing workshop is planned for this fall. Course teacher and guild member Brenda D told us about the workshop and brought along a sample of her own talented work. Programs team rep Brenda K was also on hand with her attractive fall-themed table decorations and candies!
​See the Workshops page for more information.

Welcome New Members
Membership co-ordinator Martha invited each of our 7 new members to introduce themselves by telling us something about their quilting experience and interests. Welcome to our guild!

Favourite Gadget Show and Tell
While our Programs executive Lucy was unable to attend the meeting, she was ever present with this great start to our various guild programs, and in particular the program she planned for this meeting, a Favourite Gadget Show and Tell.
​Lucy wrote in the September newsletter: 
"There are so many different quilting gadgets and notions available on the market that it can be hard to figure out which works the best. This September, we are asking you to help a fellow quilter make informed decisions by bringing your favourite quilting gadget to the meeting.  Tell us what it is, why you like it, how you use it and why we should consider investing in one. This could be anything in your quilt room: a particular ruler, a needle minder, a marking utensil, your favourite pully-pokey-pushy thingy or a Dollar Store hack! Whatever makes your quilting so much easier and makes you wonder how you ever got along without it.
​My husband recently made me a ruler organizer out of a piece of 2X6 inch wood which he had laying around the garage. It holds all my rulers and fits on my cutting table perfectly… and best of all, it was free!"

Seated in a big circle, we got a close look at the tools as we heard each one's "pitch".

We saw a large variety of favourite gadgets and tools including:

• pill box for sewing machine feet
• magnetic seam guide for 1/4 "
• external bobbin sidewinder, will do 2 bobbins at a time
• blue light for white on white material
• foam board covered with flannel and added binding, for block planning
• spool holder for the large thread spool
• empty Aurifil or Gutterman thread spool is good for fitting into the larger spools, prevent them from wobbling 
• thread picker, picks up loose thread
• seam guide for checking seams
• peep hole - use in reverse to see if material matches. $3.99 at hardware store 
• razor blade tool for cutting chain piecing threads (e.g. Gypsy Quilter Chain-Piece Cutting Gizmo)
• Alaska Ruler for measuring 45 and 60 degree
• take pictures of pieces before you start piecing together, also can use the black and white image 
• back side of a plastic tablecloth for a 
• Command brand hook, stick to sewing machine for hanging snips
• Easy Press Pen with starch 
• Ott lite 
• Striplology ruler, cuts up to 6 layers at a time
• AccuQuilt Go Cutter with dies for different shapes
• 5 lb weight to hold down material
• cutter with roller  
• needle threader

A number of these tools and gadgets are pictured in the photo gallery below.
​Click/tap on an image in the gallery to see it in full, and then click to scroll through the photos.

Show and Tell
Following the break we were treated to Show and Tell of some beautiful work.
We saw some now finished items from the summer Presidents' Challenge to complete an unfinished project,  and some pieces made from last year's Block of the Month, and other stunning items.
Here are a few of the items we saw.   See photos of all projects on the Show and Tell page.

And Rennie showed us her stunning wall hanging that was accepted into the Canadian Quilters' Association's National Juried Show at Quilt Canada in Edmonton in June 2024. Congratulations Rennie!

Check out the Show and Tell page for photos of all of the items we saw.

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