Guild Night

Wednesday, March 18 was our monthly guild meeting. Our guest speakers were some of our members who presented their pieces that they have created together as a group as they have worked together through some art quilting books.

Later, a couple of the members disclosed during show and tell that sometimes they incorporate some unusual elements into their quilted pieces--in this case it was Guinness beer cans. They have discovered that after being heated with a torch a Guinness can turns into a bronze/gold coloured medallion shape. Interesting for sure!

The highlight of the evening was after show and tell when all the We Care quilts that had been handed in that night were held up for display. We had 32 quilts turned in at this meeting and once we had them all held up, they circled the hall.

You will recognize some of the quilts from the workshop we had earlier this month.

Annual Guild We Care Workshop

Last Saturday (March 7), our quilt guild hosted their annual We Care Workshop. Every year our guild rents a hall and members bring their sewing machines, irons, and other supplies for a day of fun sewing together with the objective of making as many charity quilts for our We Care Program as possible.

This year's quilt was inspired by Julie Higgins' Square Deal quilt pattern which appeared in the October / November 2008 issue of Quick Quilts magazine. The We Care Committee modified the size and number of the blocks to suit our needs.
You can see the sample quilt in the background of this picture.

As always, the committee had kits all prepared for the workshop participants. All the pieces we needed to start sewing our quilt tops were pre-cut and labeled for us in zip lock bags. The efficiency and organization of our committee members enables us to be more productive, finishing our quilt tops before the end of the day.

I took pictures of the members working on their quilts.

This was one of the first finished flimsies of the day. I missed getting pictures of the rest of the quilt tops.

I finished putting the last stitches in the binding on my quilt early this morning. This is my DD playing the role of quilt hanger so I can snap this picture of my finished quilt. I will be able to turn my quilt in at the next guild meeting on Wednesday night.

Busy Times

I haven't posted in two weeks, but I have been busy working on quilting projects.

After working on my first Convergence quilt with the FABs on March 8th, I decided to make a second Convergence quilt the following day. This is my Sunflower Convergence.

I love the formula of using a large floral print fat quarter and three contrasting fabrics drawn from the colours of the print fabric to make this quilt pattern. I use up what extra floral fabric I have left from the fat quarter on the border and then pull one of the solid fabrics from the center to finish off the border. This is the second Convergence using this method of fabric selection and I just love how it turned out!

I ended up quilting this piece 2 1/2 times. I had it half quilted and I didn't like the thread so I picked it out, then I fully quilted it and didn't like the quilting design so I picked it out, then I quilted it for the last time which is the design you see now with the "sun's ray's" coming from the upper right hand corner.

Friday, March 14th was my Mother's birthday. This is the Spring/Easter table center that I finished for her using the Spiral quilt pattern I have shown before.

And this is the Birthday Girl posing with her cake.

Saturday, March 15th was National Quilting Day. Did you know that the third Saturday in March is officially designated as National Quilting Day? Quilters love a celebration - especially when fabric is involved - so over the years, observance of National Quilting Day has unofficially been expanded to the whole month of March! To read more about National Quilting Day, follow this link: http://www.nqaquilts.org/NatQuiltDay.html

I celebrated National Quilting Day by working on my We Care quilt --started during our guild workshop on March 1st. (see earlier post)

This is me with my We Care quilt. My daughter took the picture just before I left for my guild's monthly meeting on Wednesday night. Look who decided to get in on the picture taking -- peeking out from behind the quilt!

I loved the fabric on the back of this quilt--dragonflies!

Quilting With Friends

On March 1st, A total of 29 quilters came together to make donation quilts for our guild's We Care program.

We quilted from 9:30 to 3:30. The We Care Committee was extremely organized--as always. When we arrived, tables and chairs were already set up for us. Once we picked our spot, we proceeded to the front of the room where there was a table with our names already printed out on tags. We picked up our name tag and our hostess checked us in on her list. We were able to choose one of two quilt patterns ahead of time and then the committee put together the corresponding number of kits.

I have to show you what the kits looked like. A zip lock back contained everything but the batting and label to make the quilt. Pre-cut batting and labels were available for each of us at the end of the day. Double click on the picture below to see the detailed labels that were on the pre-cut pieces in the kits. This was quilting for dummies--how could you go wrong--the borders, fabric A, fabric B, etc were all labeled with small pieces of paper pinned to the strips. The large dragon fly fabric was my backing.

There were two "model" quilts on display to help us visualize what our finished quilts would look like--this was the first one.

This was the second quilt.

Everyone was busy all day. This hall is a favorite location for our guild workshops as there is lots of light and lots of room.

We broke for lunch, but many ate their lunch and got right back to work. Everyone was enjoying themselves so much, they didn't want to stop.

By the end of the day, most of the quilters finished their quilts to the flimsy stage and then received assistance from the committee in sandwiching their quilts. It makes it easier to finish the quilting process at home if your quilt is already sandwiched and prepared for quilting when you leave for the day.

This quilter had to leave early so she didn't have a chance to get her borders on yet.

These are some of the other finished flimsies. The fabric combinations put together by the committee were wonderful.

What a great way to spend a Saturday--quilting with friends!

Quilt Guild - We Care Quilts

Last Wednesday night was our regular monthly quilt guild meeting. We have an ongoing quilt charity program throughout the year where guild members make and donate quilts to our guild who in turn donates the quilts to local women's shelters, local hospitals--both the cancer ward and maternity wards, RCMP Victim Services, and local Seniors' homes to name just a few.

We had 29 quilts handed in on Wednesday evening. After the regular show and share portion of the evening, we have volunteers come forward and grab one of the We Care quilts donated that evening and stand side by side to show off the quilts to the rest of the membership. Our 29 quilts managed to circle the room completely. I was not able to get a picture of the group all at once, but i did wonder what the view would have been from the ceiling--looking down at that fabulous train of quilts that circled the room.