Spring has arrived! It’s that time of year when many of us will struggle to find the time do all our spring gardening when trying hard to finish their quilts for our upcoming show. But it’s a time of regrowth – the days are longer and warmer and hopefully drier – and I know you all can find the time to make aspects of your lives beautiful.

After meeting Dougal last month and watching her presentation, I feel energized to get to work on my needlework BUT not until I finish my show quilts, my new cushions and…well, the list is long. And speaking of cushions I made a quick trip to Creative Edge to buy binding fabric for my Dresden plate pillow. Does anybody have theirs finished? If you bring yours to show and tell in April I’ll bring mine.

This month we have Karen Berry coming to us from the Fraser Valley.

Karen has been quilting for nearly 20 years and is a self proclaimed quiltaholic having inherited the gene from her paternal grandmother. There is nothing about quilting that Karen doesn’t love and she is continuously amazed with the unending creative, unique techniques and methods of quilting that evolve from all over the world. Karen says that the realm of quilting has been a wonderful gift for her, opening many learning opportunities wrapped up in all the colours of the rainbow. Karen is a member of the Fraser Valley Quilt Guild and the friendships she has made in the Guild are particularly important to her.

Now that Karen has retired from Public Health Nursing, she can quilt for many hours most days, resulting in a collection of numerous finished projects and dozens of ufos. Karen’s quilts are always very colourful as she tends to work in the gemstone colours. Other than paying attention to colour values, Karen doesn’t follow many rules and tends to be happy with the imperfection that expresses her own creativity. Karen states that “None of my quilts are tasteful!” And that probably 90% of her quilts have some sort of three-dimensional aspect to the design. Karen enjoys whimsical art patterns as they address the “little girl within” who likes to come out and play.

So come on out on the 24th and meet Karen and see her collection of whimsical, colourful quilts.

Andrea & Your Program Committee