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On Saturday Dec 3rd, 13 keen ladies took a workshop at Island View Suites taught by Bridget O'Flaherty from Perth. The ladies had selected either the chickadee or cardinal as their pattern for the day, and Bridget taught them how to do Easy Peasy Thread painting by Numbers. The finished projects were about 8 inches square. -- Chris Gordon   The Big Bag workshop was held on Saturday November 10th. Seven quilters arrived at Glad Tidings Pentecostal Church, where Johanne Vajda instructed us on how to construct a "Big Bag". This bag is excellent to bring small or large quilts to "Show and Tell" or a large amount of stuff to a workshop or retreat. Pockets for either side of the bag were constructed prior to the workshop. Whether you use orphan blocks or make one specifically for the pocket it is interesting to see the workmanship and dedication in the finished product. By the time everyone left, the bags were virtually complete. A good time was had by all and they left feeling accomplished. Johanne provided handles and bottoms for those of us that required them. The variety of fabrics, colours and textures was very wide. Interesting how a bag can look so different depending on the fabric chosen. They all turned out beautifully. Hopefully members will be able to inspect them at our next Show and Tell. -- Johanne Vajda      Taught by Michelle Gagne, this workshop was held Tuesday, October 30th at the Glad Tidings Pentecostal Church. This workshop featured how to sew with precision featuring 4 different blocks, which could be made into a 24" square or a runner. Michelle Gagne had lots of techniques and tricks to share with the participants. I was really pleased to learn that my second try at this class involved an improved level of accuracy!! - Chris Gordon      On Tuesday March 6th 10 eager quilters arrived at Glad Tidings Pentecostal Church, where Johanne Vajda instructed us on how to construct a "Big Bag". This bag will be excellent to convey large quilts to "Show and Tell", or a large amount of stuff to a workshop or retreat. Pockets for either side of the bag were constructed prior to Tuesday. By the time most of us left our bags were virtually complete. That is MY kind of workshop. Johanne provided handles and bottoms for those of us that required them. The variety of fabrics, colours and textures was very wide. Hopefully members will be able to inspect them at our next Show and Tell. -- Chris Gordon        Click/tap an image in the gallery below to see it in full. On Saturday February 10th 11 keen quilters met with Mary DeVries to learn different ways to paper piece. We produced trees by the traditional paper method, sew-through-the-paper-on-the-line. Then we stepped up to more complex 8 part stars. Eventually we tried a freezer paper method which allows a pattern to be reused and we made strips of Flying Geese. Lots of detailed work, great fellowship at the Glad Tidings Pentecostal Church, where there are no stairs to have to lug machines up or down. Thanks Mary for a job well done with endless patience. -- Chris Gordon        Click or tap on an image in the gallery below to see it in full.  On Thursday January 18th, twelve eager quilters gathered at Island View Suites retirement residence in Arnprior for our second Sew Day to make blocks for the quilt we'll be raffling off at our 2019 quilt show. Mary deVries and Rennie Hickey are the genii behind this project and its stunning paper pieced wedge shaped blocks. 12 wedges will be joined to make a circle of buildings in the "community" this quilt represents. The quilt will be a real eye-catcher. While working in the activity room our group of quilters were visited by residents interested to see our work. We enjoyed pizza from Mama Rosa's for lunch. Thanks to Island View for inviting us to meet without charge. We appreciate the generosity shown to our Guild.   New Blocks!    Click/tap on a photo in the gallery below to see it in full. Fifteen keen sewers met at Island View Suites retirement residence in Arnprior for a Sew Day on Thursday Nov 16th. We worked at paper piecing wedge shaped blocks for the quilt we will be raffling in 2019. Mary DeVries and Rennie Hickey are the genii behind this project. 12 wedges will be joined to make a circle of buildings in the "community" this quilt represents. I worked on a school, church and house with a double window. The quilt will be a real eye-catcher. While working in the activity room our group of quilters were visited by many residents interested to see our work. We enjoyed pizza and salad from Mama Rosa's. Thanks to Island View for inviting us to meet without charge. We appreciate the generosity shown to our Guild. -- Chris Gordon    Click/tap on a photo in the gallery below to see it in full. On Saturday, May 6th, we drove to our class through the heavy downpour of rain. It was a perfect day to be inside doing a workshop. Our teacher, Katrina Kahn, was very energetic and knowledgeable about free motion quilting. We heard words like: shoulders down, breathe, practise, practise, practise repeated many times as we made our wavy lines, our e's and l's, pebbles (2 different ways), 1, 2, 3 teardrops, figure 8s, and ribbon candy. We were able to see how free motion quilting left the quilts and tablerunners soft and flexible. The workshop had us eager to try out samples and to come home to practise. Katrina's samples are pictured below. -- Gwen Pennings     Anna Cornel recently taught this Caryl Bryer Fallert pattern to 10 ladies. Our bright background fabrics varied so we were anxious to see how the colours would play across the backgrounds. We came with most of our cutting done, so we were able to start our sewing almost right away. This is always a great workshop when one can do that! The second last step is to turn the tucks so one get to see the results, and only one student was able to do this before going home but it was very encouraging for all of the rest of us to see her results! We are looking forward to our April guild meeting and the quilt show to see the class' "show and tell." -- Gwen Pennings, Programme Quilt Show Update Eight awesome completed High Tech Tucks projects are at the quilt show!
 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. |
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