Crocus Quilter's Christmas Party

It was a great meeting on December 6.  We had a fat quarter swap and we shared potholders (which I should have photographed to share) and had some great appetizers while we watched a video of the beautiful quilts at the Houston Quilt Festival.  The year ended off on a great note with a binding up of lots of loose ends.  We are very prepared for a exciting "quilty" year.  We are hosting the guild wind-up in June, and are thrilled to announce that our Quilt Show planning is well underway.  Make sure you mark your calendars for September 28 & 29, 2013.  You will definitely want to be at the Watson Arts Centre in Dauphin, our first show in 2010 was great -- and this is going to be even better! 

Here are a few of the photos that were taken during the show and tell.

Gloria N. volunteered to do the binding of the Friendship Star Charity Quilt, Lori S. finished the top stitching and it looks beautiful.

  Bev. P made this huge and cozy flannel quilt for her husbands 60th Birthday.  I can't remember the exact name she gave it but I think if I say "the Beast" would be close enough.  Bev has vowed to never do another flannelette quilt again, in her life!

 

This is Dawn's Christmas Quilt, it is very bright and festive.  Lori S. did a lovely job at the top stitching. 
The flannelette backing will be very cozy.

Marion is almost finished with this beautiful picture quilt from far away the image of her "grand puppies" is perfectly clear.  Now, take a look at the close up below.  There are probably thousands of tiny 1/2 pieces of fabric making up this cute little image.  Way to go Marion! 

Cindy is almost done with this gorgeous diagonal cut strip pieced quilt.  It is hard to see it in this photo but there are strips of red piping placed between the seams of the diagonal cuts.  So far this is looking like a stunning quilt, cant wait to see it finished.  

Merry Christmas Every one!  Our next meeting is on January 3.  We are planning a Superior Thread DVD presentation.  Try not to miss this it is going to be full of valuable information! 

Light, Hope & Opportunity Challenge: Empowering Women through Clean Energy

Quilters are invited to create and submit art quilts that address the issue of Energy Poverty. Participating quilters can highlight an aspect of energy poverty, for example, its effects on daily life, physical safety, health, access to education and information, and economic challenges posed to those who live without electricity; income and development inequalities faced by people who live in areas without steady sources of power; and the role of solar power and other alternative energy sources in mitigating the effects of energy poverty, indoor air pollution, isolation and limited economic development created by a lack of electricity.

“Light, Hope, Opportunity” is a juried challenge. Selected quilts will be included in a traveling exhibition that will open in June 2013 in Geneva, Switzerland, at the United Nations’ European headquarters, and then tour at various quilting venues in North America through 2014.

Submitted quilts must address the theme of “Light, Hope, Opportunity: Empowering Women through Clean Energy.” A strong artist’s statement is crucial, explaining the concept of your quilt, linking it specifically to the theme of the challenge and sharing your inspiration for the quilt, techniques and materials used, etc. Please limit your statement to 150-200 words.

• Each quilt should measure 24 inches high by 24 inches wide (60 cm by 60 cm).
• Sew a 5 inch (12.5 cm) sleeve with a ½ inch give sewn on the back and mount the sleeve 1 inch (2.5 cm) from the top edge of the back of the quilt to enable a uniform display of all the quilts in the exhibition.
• Photographs: We can accept digital photos only. Images must be of completed work – not work in progress. Images will be chosen on the basis of artistic merit as well as photo quality.
• Each entry will require two digital images; one showing the whole quilt including the edges; the other showing an area in detail.
• Jurors reserve the right to refuse any quilt that differs significantly from the image submitted.
• $ 25 entry fee


Quilt for Change will contact selected quilters no later than April 1, 2013 to complete the exhibition logistics for the June 2013 opening at the United Nations’ Palais des Nations in Geneva, Switzerland. Deadline for mailing finished quilts is April 20, 2013.

Quilters have the option of donating their quilts to Quilt for Change for sale in support of Solar Sister’s activities.

For planning purposes, we suggest you email us at quiltforchange@me.com with your intent to enter and provide a general description of your planned quilt. This is not required, but advised. We are happy to offer feedback and answer questions. A general description of your planned quilt and/or digital photos of your work in progress would be greatly appreciated.


Downloads:
Submission Requirements
Entry Form


Complete details available on website including the history of Quilt for Change: www.quiltforchange.org

Volunteer Needed

Our friendship star quilt has been quilted as is ready for binding.  If binding is a job that you feel you could help with, please let Lori or Dawn know and we will get this lovely quilt into your hands for finishing.  We don't have a definite plan for this quilt yet, so there is no rush to have the binding done.  After Christmas would be just fine.

Loads of free patterns

Looking for some free quilting patterns?  The Fat Quarter Shop had a great page that links to free pattern from 20 different fabric companies, as well as some Fat Quarter shop exclusive patterns.  You might want to make a cup of tea before you head on over here......

Fusible Web Workshop: Sat. Nov. 24 @ 10am. Ochre River Hall

For those who have registered for the Fusible Web Workshop... 

The Fusible Web Workshop starts at 10am this Saturday, November 24th at the Ochre River Hall.

Items you will be required to have:

1. Pre-purchased Kit
2. Sewing Machine (with ability to drop feed dogs)
3. Spare sewing machine needles (just in case)
4. Sharp scissors for cutting paper and fabric (Because there are lots of tiny pieces; large scissors are not recommended)
5. Teflon Pressing sheet (** if you don't have one I can lend you one for the day)
6. Lite Seam a seam 2 (** if you don't have this product you can buy a piece from me)
7. Thin sharpie marker
8. Sharp pencil
9. 12" square piece of your favorite low loft batting
10. 12" piece of fabric for the backing
11. Selection of pastel threads for top-stitching, neutral or Superior Thread Monopoly.
12. Bobbin thread (neutral color; whatever works best in your machine)
13. Optional:  Iron & Ironing board (this will be provided for your use to share, if you want to bring your own feel free)

Call me ASAP if you have any questions,  Dawn Piasta  (204) 572-6173

For those of you who are not registered for the workshop but just want to participate in the Ochre River UFO day --- come on out there is lots of room! 

Cool Free Motion Quilting

Check out Amy's bog at Amy's Free Motion Quilting Adventures.  She does beautiful work on her home sewing machine.  Here is a video of her using a ruler with her Janome machine.  I hope someone around here gives it a try. If you see someone who inspires you, don't forget to share with the rest of us!  Email the info to me and I will post it for you.

Raffle Quilt Progress

A mini work bee today and the center of our raffle quilt is starting to take shape!

Online Classes for Quilting

Here are two great resources that our members may find fun and helpful.  Since we don't have a store in town offering classes this is a great option.

Craftsy is a website offering many different kinds of classes.  This is listing of their quilting classes.  I took the "Machine Quilting Negative Space" by Angela Walters.  The great thing is that you can watch the videos when it is convenient for you and leave comments and ask questions.  The class never expires so you can go back and reference it whenever you want.  I bought my class on sale and felt it was money well spent.  They also offer a free block of the month.  I haven't personally checked it out, but it might be just what you are looking for.

Annie's is another website offering crafting classes.  Their list isn't as extensive yet, but it may be of interest as well.  Their quilting classes can be found here.  The "Learn to Machine Quilt" one seems like a great one for people wanting to keep improving on their free motion skills.You can watch a course preview and a video introduction of the teacher to get a better idea of what it will be like.

If you know of any other resources you would like to share please let me know.

Hope you are getting some quilting time in this weekend.

Lori

November Meeting Highlights

We had a wonderful group of ladies out for the November meeting.  Gloria led the evening while Dawn was in Houston schmoozing with famous quilters. 

Our current comfort block is the split leaf block.  So far we have 15 pairs returned and they are looking wonderful.  Patterns are still available from Lori if you need one.

The UFO Day and Art Quilt Workshop is being held on November 24.  The location has been moved to the Ochre River Hall, as there is more than enough light and plugins for a large group.

The Christmas meeting will take place on December 6th.  You need to bring the following to join in the fun:

1. A Potholder for the exchange. The theme is your choice.  Please bring it wrapped.
2. A 100% cotton fat quarter of fabric for the exchange.  Please make sure it is wrapped.
3. Appetizer or dainties to share. Remember when you share they are calorie free :)

All of our meeting days will also be daytime UFO days.  Karen or Cindy will have the room open at 9:00 a.m.  This will begin on December 6th.

Karen showed some of the Alzheimer's quilts that have been completed by a few members of the guild.  A couple of kits were still needing to be completed. Thank you to those who volunteered to help finish them.

There were only three items for show and tell today. 

Pat made a neat quilting tote bag perfect for UFO days:

Bev perfected her paper piecing with the Christmas wall hanging.  The bias binding was the perfect touch.

I brought this purple diamond quilt, made from a jelly roll and a half.  It has no corners as I ran out of strips!

Gloria brought some of her favorite tools from her sewing room for the evenings program.

Until next time happy quilting!

Lori

UFO Day - Ochre River

Bring your UFOs to the Ochre River Hall on Saturday, October 27 (approx 10am)
There is LOTS of room and we have the space for the whole day. Everyone welcome to join in!

October 2012 Show & Tell

Here is the parade of Show and Tell from the October 2012 Meeting.

Gloria's cute dog & hydrant quilt.

Karen P's cheerful Bali Pop quilt.

Karen P's quilt with Minky backing and no batting.

Nina and Pat's joint effort.  I didn't get a close up of the lovely hand quilting :(

Sandra's Turning Twenty.

Sandra and her cute Christmas wall hanging.

Bev's Nine Patch from the blocks she won at the guild.  Very creative setting.  Looks so different than our donation quilt.

Cheri's Halloween topper.  Look at the cute pumpkin quilting.

Karen M.'s cute wall hangings.

Thanks to everyone for helping out and holding your quilts away from the table!  It really helps get better pictures and allows everyone to see.  If any of you like taking pictures and would like to help out with this task just let me know!  I hope I didn't miss anyone, sometime I get distracted looking at the quilts and I forget to take the pictures!

See you on Saturday at the UFO Day!

Lori

October 2012 Meeting Highlights

There were 27 enthusiastic ladies in attendance at our October meeting.

 The meeting began with the donation of the "Ocean Serenade" quilt to the St Paul's Ladies Auxiliary Executive.  The quilt will be used in a fundraising raffle.  The ladies were thrilled to receive the quilt.  Thank you to Karen P. for the quilting and Gloria N for the label and for the many hands that pieced a block or helped to assemble the quilt top.  A beautiful result from a team effort.

 Our next UFO day is this Saturday October 13th at the WAC.  Hope to see many people out for a fun day of sewing, laughter and learning.  Upcoming UFO days are: October 27 (Ochre River) and November 24th (WAC).

Five Artist's trading cards were returned for the "What's in Your Heart?" Quilting Arts Magazine Challenge.  Dawn will send them away.  We look forward to see what is received in return!

We had 22 pairs of ice-cream cone blocks turned in.  They lucky winner of the draw for half of the blocks was Pat Milburn.

Our new block is the Split Leaf block to be made in Autumn colors.  Please contact Lori if you require the pattern or have any questions.

The new Challenge kits for 2012/2013 were sold at the meeting.  All 24 kits were snatched up.  These are the fabrics for this year.  The challenge was issued for everyone to try something new to them.  Can't wait to see all the completed projects in May.

Dawn P.  gave a thread painting demonstration.  Don't forget that Dawn still has a couple of spots left in her Art quilt workshop happening Nov.24.  Our last blog post contains all the info you need.

I will post all the wonderful Show and Tell in a separate post.

Fused Art Quilt workshop

Due to popular demand for the Fused Art Quilt workshop we are holding  on November 24, I have ordered additional McKenna Ryan Home Tweet Home kits, I currently have TWO left.  If you are interested in taking part let me know ASAP. (Cost is $27.30 /kit)

Other items you will need for the workshop include: 

• Sewing Machine (ability to drop feed dogs preferred)
• Approx. 1 metre of Fusible Web (Steam-a-seam 2 or Lite Steam-a-seam work best. Available at Fabricland, Fabriculous(Swan River) & Kickass (Plumas) or other fabric/quilt shops, the Walmaart stuff is too thick)
• Selection of top stitching and bobbin threads to match the fabric collection in your kit.
• Fabric scissors & sharp paper scissors, the pieces we will be cutting are small so small scissors are recommended.
• Sharpie Pen (fine point black)
• Fabric of choice for backing
• 10" X 10" low loft batting
• Teflon Pressing sheet. Similar to this item available at Kickass Country Store

Sale!

On of our "local" quilt stores is having an online sale as well as an in store sale.  What a great opportunity to pick up fabric for the upcoming mystery quilt!  Here is the link to their online store.

KickAss On-Line Birthday Sale

Beat the rush - shop the on-line sale BEFORE the in-store madness!

at least 20% off on almost everything !!!! All fabrics - both yardage & pre-cuts - all books and patterns - and gift items and notions.

The on-line sale starts now and ends September 21st.

Or

KickAss In store BIRTHDAY SALE!!!!!

Tuesday Sept 25th to Saturday Sept 29th

10 AM to 5 PM

Hundreds of sale fabrics at $5/yard; all other regular width fabric at $10/yard

Large selection of precuts, kits, notions, and gift items

marked down to clear

Free gifts with purchase

Can you say road trip to Plumas anyone???

September 2012 meeting highlights

We had a wonderful turn out of 26 ladies for our first meeting of the fall.  It was great to see some new faces and some returning faces.

We are going to be trying something new for our next meeting on October 4th.  For a very small additional fee we can rent the Old Firehall for the entire day rather than just the evening.  We know not everyone is free during the day, but for those who are available it can be a time to work on your own project, solicit help or opinions from other quilter or work on one of our group charity projects.  Karen P. will be there is the morning.  She would love to know if you plan to join her.  I will be joining her in the afternoon.

The Crocus Quilt Guild will once again be hanging quilts in the Watson Arts Centre gallery in October-mid November.  Members are asked to bring items to the October 4th meeting.  No specific theme this year, please bring something that hasn't been hung there before.

If you are interested in participating in a challenge outside of our guild one check out the Trend Tex challenge.  More info here and here.  Some us have participated in the past, why not give it a try?

Here is the show and tell for the evening.

I had fun playing with my longarm over the summer and here are some of the results.

Sandra used here mebroidery and quilting skills to complete this adorable wall hanging way ahead of schedule!

Brenda made her 4th "baseball bears" quilt.  So cheerful!

Karen did some extraordinary quilting on this UFO.  This picture does not do it justice at all!

Gloria finished her "Rowdy Bunch" quilt.  Again sorry for the picture quality.  Thread work and quilting is stunning.

That's all for now.  Please let Dawn know if you have an idea for a program this year.  If anyone loves taking pictures and wants to help out at the meetings please let me know.

Happy quilting,

Lori

News from Fabriculous

Fabriculous has their new fall newsletter out today.  Check it out here.  They have moved to a new location in Swan River and are sure to be bigger and better than ever.  Check the info about their classes and Open House and Sale happening September 29th.  Road trip anyone???

Lori

September is here!

Where did the summer go?  Our first meeting of the fall will take place this Thursday, September 6th at the Old Firehall in the Watson Art Centre beginning at 7:00 p.m.  We will be discussing plans for the upcoming year and renewing our memberships.  If you know of someone who might be interested in coming and learning more about quilting, or a past member who hasn't been around for awhile - give them a call and invite them to join us.

Did you make any of these over the summer?

We will be collecting ice cream cone blocks at our September and October meetings.  If you need the pattern, or help with paper piecing, just let Lori know. WE are collecting one for the guild for our group project and one for the draw.

I am looking forward to seeing what everyone has been working on over the summer.  Don't forget to bring some show and tell. See you Thursday!

Lori

MS Society request for Donation

I just had Robin Searle, MS Society (Parkland) stop in and ask if I know anyone who would be interested in donating a quilt (any size) to the MS Society Auction that will take place during the annual walk in September.  She would need it by Sept 3rd.  She apologizes for the lateness in her request, however a quilter from Swan River was expected to donate but that fell through.  

Apparently, last year they had two quilted items that went over VERY well and brought in a sizable donation. They have a number of other of art pieces that are expected to bring in a large donation.

I am going to make a wall piece that I will donate, maybe you have something you would like to share??
The MS Society will be able to issue a tax receipt for the value of the item donated.  If you are interested feel free to phone Robin at 204-622-2940 or email her at robin.searle@mssociety.ca  MS Society Parkland Chapter