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

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

We rounded out this calendar year and our fall in person meetings with the welcome return of our traditional potluck Christmas meeting.
The hall was festively decorated with your charming Christmas themed 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

This Charity workshop evening on Wednesday November 23rd was a huge success, both in the camaraderie and the amount of  work that was done by the 33 attendees.  It was a very active and busy hands on meeting making Christmas gift bags and placemats, and preparing materials for these and other guild Charity projects. We enjoyed meeting and talking to people we hadn’t talked to before or for a long time, including our 2 brand new members, Lucy and Nadine who were attending their first meeting.

Marilyn and her set up crew had many work stations clearly labeled and ready for us to quickly get started on various activities from cutting fabric for Christmas gift bags and placemats, sewing gift bags and placemats, attaching bindings to placemats, attaching the drawstrings to the gift bags, assembling kits to make fidget quilts, cutting batting for preemie and other Charity quilts, and ironing, ironing and more ironing in the kitchen!

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

Program
The meeting featured demonstrations of 5 different types of appliqué to help us learn new techniques, or to brush up on some we may not have used in a while. Unlike other types of workshops we have had in the past, there was no need to bring any supplies. Instead we watched the demonstrations and hopefully learned from them and were inspired to take on an appliqué project.
The excellent demonstrations were given by 5 of our talented guild member volunteers who also provided samples of their own stunning appliqué work and answered our many questions. 
​
Rennie showed us wool appliqué.

Allison showed us the starch method and wowed us with her light box.

Christine showed us the interface and turn method and her hand appliqué technique.

Joanna showed us raw edge appliqué which we could examine on her various sample pieces.

Brenda showed us the needleturn method which we could examine on her beautiful quilts.

Thank you to all of our appliqué instructors for your excellent demonstrations and for sharing your knowledge with us. Your efforts, including the preparation for the evening, were very much appreciated.

2021-2022 BOM Challenge
Our last year's 2021-2022 Block of the Month program wrapped up with a display of 6 quilts and voting for our favourite.

Emma and Gwen were the respective winners of the 1st and 2nd place gift certificates from Sew Inspired.

See the BOM Challenge Blog post for more information about this BOM program, and close up photos of all of the quilts.

Show and Tell
Show and Tell was started off with a fun and creative seasonal piece by new member Wendy! It's such a treat to be seeing our members' stunning creations and hear their stories in person again.
See the Show and Tell page for photos of all of the show and tell projects.

Block of the Month & Mystery Quilt
Mary and Emma brought along samples of the 2 October Blocks of the Month.
See the Block of the Month page for details of this year's Half Square Triangle BOM program and instructions for these and all of the blocks.
And see the Mystery Quilt page for instructions and details for this intriguing project.

Draws
The meeting finished up with draws and some happy winners!
Guess the Number of Pages in the book - Emma R
Gift Basket - Debbie C
50-50 Draw of $35 - Mary C-P
Door Prizes $20 gift certificates from Textile Traditions - Jo P and Mary deV

Refer to Paul's web site for more information about him and his works, and for access to his Facebook page.
And to our blog for a recap of Paul's previous visit in September 2016.

Our long awaited quilt show is scheduled for April 29-30 2023. Vickie updated us on the activities already undertaken by the quilt show committee, along with an invitation to join that planning group.

We also got a look at the stunning quilt that will be raffled off to a lucky winner at the show. Members were invited to pick up raffle tickets from Rennie at the meeting. All funds generated from the raffle quilt are used for future charity projects. It's a very important fund raiser for our guild and all members are encouraged to sell tickets.

We were introduced to the variety of interesting projects being offered to our members this year. All are scheduled to result in finished projects in time for our quilt show on April 29-30.  We were encouraged to participate in as many of these projects as we'd like, and there's something for every level of experience and expertise, from beginner to expert. And they are great opportunities to try something new, and to contribute to our guild's charitable endeavours. 
​
​Click/taps the links for more information about each activity.

• Charity Jelly Roll Quilt - Joyce and her talented team showed us 3 beautiful sample quilts (made by Jackie). Prepackaged kits of fabric were available at the meeting and more are available.
• Block of the Month - Emma and Mary brought along samples of the August and September blocks.  All made of half square triangles, these blocks are a great opportunity to practice our precision piecing.
• Mystery Quilt - Emma and Mary introduced this project and the first instructions were available on the web site after the meeting.
• Challenge  - Emma and Mary challenged us to make any small item from the fabric left over from the Mystery Quilt

The meeting included a fun show-and-tell.  Click/tap the link for photos of the quilts, taken by our guild photographer Emma.

Our meeting wrapped up with our draws and as usual, some happy winners!
50-50 draw:  $55 for Nancy H
Gift Basket:  Tina M
Guess the number of pages in the library book:  Julie C
Door Prizes: Georgene and Frank both went home with $20 gift certificates for Sew Inspired
​
-- Janet Brownlee,  Communications

Our second in person meeting since the looooong stretch of Covid Zoom meetings saw us back in Robert Simpson Park in Arnprior for a delightful outdoor meeting where we happily greeted each other face to face, and saw some amazing quilts. After postponing this meeting twice due to inclement weather our patience was rewarded on June 28th with a beautiful evening in the park along the shore of the Ottawa River.

This was a very casual and relaxed meeting with lots of social time to catch up with each other, and to see the lovely quilts - the challenge quilts, show and tell, and several preemie quilts and touch quilts for our Charity initiatives.

​This was our last meeting of this guild year so that meant the challenges were wrapped up with viewer's choice voting for our favourites.  

The winners of the 2 year long Covid challenge were Rennie Hickey with first place and Mary DeVries with second.

Congratulations to the winners and a big thank you to all of the participants for completing your challenge projects and sharing your beautiful and creative work with us.

For more information about these challenges and photos of all of the entries, see the 2022 Challenges in the Park Blog post.

 
A large portion of the evening was devoted to Show and Tell where we saw some of the amazing work of our guild members. Photos of all of the projects along with their makers are included in this photo gallery.
​
Click/tap on an image to see it in full.

You can see cropped and enlarged photos of the quilts on the Show and Tell page.

​The first draw of the evening was for the 2 free guild memberships for 2022-2023. Everyone who had already renewed their membership was eligible for this draw and the lucky winners were Claudette T and Elaine E. Congratulations!

And the evening wrapped up with our regular prize draws.

The 50-50 draws are a welcome return to our in person meetings and this one for $24 was won by Penny C.

The charming basket of quilting goodies was won by Jane W. Thank you to Amanda and Johanne for putting together another delightful and much sought after basket.

The door prizes, $20 gift certificates for Sew Inspired, were won by Louise V and Mary D.

And this month's Library prize was won by Liz G. Thank you to Nancy for providing the Library prizes this evening and all year long.

​-- Janet Brownlee, Communications