Author: lionsgatequilters

Update: More than 225 Quilts Registered

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We have over 225 quilts registered. Thanks to everyone for pulling out all of the stops!

Next month will be the last newsletter before the show so there will be a lot of info and reminders in it. This month is just a heads up that lawn signs will be available at the April meeting. They are our very best form of advertising the show so if you have a lawn, fence or other appropriate area please take one or two lawn signs and display them during the dates listed on the tag attached to the sign.

Krista has the following message for anyone making, or thinking about making, things for the boutique:

“Several guild members have let me know they are hard at work creating beautiful items for the boutique. I am very excited to see a gorgeous display of our handmade items! If you have any display props that you think would help show your items to their best advantage, please bring them along (large wicker baskets, wooden wine crates, small divided shelves). We have a small artificial Christmas tree that items can be hung from and the boutique will also have show curtains on three sides for pinning quilts. If anyone has a wooden coat rack for hanging bags, a sturdy wooden laundry drying rack for displaying quilts, a counter-top mug rack with little hooks… those could come in handy. Please bring display items with your boutique items at the time of quilt check in. Reminder: a complete inventory sheet must accompany your items that are priced and ready to sell at the time of check-in. Please read the boutique guidelines posted on the website and feel free to email any questions to me.”

If you haven’t given Vicky your volunteer availability as yet please do let her know as soon as possible. Otherwise she will be phoning you. Each member is expected to volunteer a minimum of two hours and your assistance is greatly appreciated.

That’s it for this month, keep working on those show quilts!

Dianne Ritter
Quilt Show Coordinator

Raffle Quilts Sneak Peak

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Again at the April meeting, we will continue to sell books of raffle tickets to Guild members to buy, for advance sales to our family and friends.

Tickets will be sold in books of 15 tickets, at a cost of $25.00. All tickets are to be sold at 3 for $5.00. As done previously, the member buys the book of tickets up front for $25.00, sells the tickets (this money is now yours) and returns the stubs for the draw. We keep track of member names and ticket books. Please return your completed book stubs to the Raffle Quilt Committee at our monthly meetings. However, please ensure all stubs are returned to the raffle committee for the draw at the end of our quilt show to ensure all tickets sold are entered for the draw on June 14th.

On May 15th, we will be selling Quilt Raffle tickets at Lion’s Gate Hospital from 10 am to 4 pm. We are looking for 3 or 4 volunteers to help us on this day, to sell raffle tickets and promote our show in June. If you would like to assist, please come see our table at the meeting.

All of the proceeds from the Raffle Quilts go to our Community Quilts program.

The Raffle Quilt Committee
Becky West, Norine McCaffrey, Suzanne Patchell, Betty Clarke

raffle1For the 2014 Raffle Quilts, four Guild members volunteered their time in the making of the raffle quilts in addition to the quilt ticket sales. We commenced our preparations in March 2013 and decided to make two lap or, as we like to call them “nap” quilts.

At our second meeting we each brought 6 or more patterns that we liked, from books and magazines. We then decided that we would make two quilts – one to be a “traditional style” and the second being more “modern or colourful”. We then selected our patterns from about the 30 that we had accumulated. Then on to what fabric colours or patterns? This is always the fun part! For the traditional style we stayed with traditional colours and used blues/creams/whites. All the fabrics for the blocks were donated by the four members. The border fabric and backing was purchased. For the modern / colourful quilt we choose Kaffe Fassett fabrics for the quilt top. All the fabrics for the quilt, including the backing were donated by Betty Clarke.

raffle2Then the work began, sewing the blocks and quilt tops together. Once complete we had the two quilts professional machine quilted. The blue and white quilt was machine quilted by Sharon Clark in Lake Country, BC and the colourful quilt was machine quilted by Wendy Margerm in New Westminster BC.

Both quilts turned out beautifully and we are very pleased with the results of our efforts. The four members of the raffle quilt committee are Betty Clarke, Suzanne Patchell, Norine McCaffrey and Becky West. We all thoroughly enjoyed the making of the raffle quilts and our time together – it was a lot of fun!

Becky West

Pincushion Challenge Q&A

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Well, we sold a lot of packets of glass for this challenge. I hope all of you who bought glass have or are making a pincushion for the June show. Several people have asked some questions that others of you may also be wondering about.

Do I have to use all the ground glass in my entry?
NO you do not need to use all the glass. Your entry should have some of the glass in it. If your entry has points, like the heads on chicken pincushions, stuff the head with pillow stuffing to make your chicken perky.

Do I really have to give my entry to the guild for the silent auction at the June meeting?
Sorry, but yes you do. This is a fund raiser for the workshop committee to buy things like better extension cords and such. You can bid on your entry and buy it back if you have fallen in love with it.

Helpful hints:

  • Consider putting an inner bag lining in your cushion to hold the glass.
  • Use shorter stitches to keep the glass in the pincushion or its liner.
  • Be sure to keep glass out of the way of your needle while you sew.

OK let’s get a big bunch of pincushions on display for judging of three favorites at our show in June. Also bring your cash to bid on your favorite at the June meeting silent auction.

Barbara Beatty

Help Us Plan Future Programs

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Last meeting we handed out a questionnaire re program plans for 2014/2015. Thank you to all of those who returned these to us. The questionnaire is included in the newsletter this month and we would encourage you to complete it if you did not have an opportunity last month. Questionnaires can be left at the registration desk or be given to a member of the committee. Thank you. We look forward to your input.

Your Program Committee
Marina Green, Genevieve Tobin, Lois Crawford, Rita Douglas

Featured Speaker: Tricia Sherman

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Tricia Sherman is the Producer/host of the Great Canadian Shop Hop. Tricia has been an avid quilter for over 20 years. She has experienced many facets of the craft, including owning a longarm business, part-time work in a quilt shop, and teaching. Her involvement with QNNtv.com opened up the opportunity to develop The Great Canadian Shop Hop videos to promote quilting in Canada. Working on the show has provided a forum for Tricia to travel across the country filming, teaching and meeting other quilters. A quilter’s dream if there ever was one!

Membership

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April showers bring May flowers and Easter weekend is not far off! Both should also give us, as quilters, a good reason to stay inside and finish our quilts for the quilt show in June. So not only does rain bring flowers, it brings Quilts!!!

Now that you have renewed your membership, did you remember to pick up your new membership card and quilt show tickets? This year’s colour is red! Your membership number should remain the same as in past years. Be sure to keep your card handy when going shopping as some quilt/fabric stores may offer a discount if you are a guild member in good standing. Membership also allows you to sign up for workshops and borrow library books.

We currently have 120 members registered and we had 86 members in attendance along with 2 guests at the March guild meeting. If you know of someone who has been a member in the past, remind them to renew their membership.

A membership list has been emailed out to all registered guild members. If you notice any errors please let me know and if you have any questions please do not hesitate to email me.

Be sure to remember to be wearing your nametag in order to claim your door prize, should your name be drawn. Nametags are available, if you forgot to bring yours, and are $1.00 each.

Happy Easter and Happy Quilting!
Joan Herrin

Community Quilts

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Thank you to everyone who took home a kit for community quilts. If by chance you have a finished top we have arranged for the meeting hall to be open April 22nd from 1 – 4 pm. Community quilt volunteers will be there to help layer quilts and we also have a selection of precut strips and squares for people to look over and take home to produce a quilt top in the coming months. We know you are busy with quilt show quilts but community quilts don’t have a deadline – we accept them all year round. Kits, strips and batting will also be available before the meeting and during the break. May is our show of all the quilts collected to date.

Looking forward to seeing all of you.
Anita Jones-Gould

Library: Colour, Shapes, and Corduroy

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We’re proud to present our electronic library! The library, which contains all of the guild’s books, can be found at the following website: http://www.librarything.com/catalog/lionsgatequilters. It was put together by Colleen Bell, and it looks wonderful.

New books this month:

1607050099-01-_sx142_sy224_sclzzzzzzz_ 1596683872-01-_sx142_sy224_sclzzzzzzz_ 1584798378-01-_sx142_sy224_sclzzzzzzz_ 1440318476-01-_sx142_sy224_sclzzzzzzz_ 1604683996-01-_sx142_sy224_sclzzzzzzz_

If you are interested in reserving a book, feel free to send us an email. The library also has magazines and periodicals – don’t hesitate to take a look! And as a reminder, the library has many overdue books. Please remember to return your overdue books!

Library Survey Form

We are trying to gather information from the membership to understand what type of books we should be purchasing. Please take a few moments to complete the questions. Click on link to open the Survey page: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1WHq2_pFuvYNd7UX690B668YkOCCx4OlrDK2tdH8myQ4/viewform

Thank you,
Sonia Milanez
LGQC Librarian

Beginnings: Laurel Hickey

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In this new section of the newsletter, we’ll feature members and their projects at the start of the process of making a quilt. Share what inspired you – a change of season, a fabric you couldn’t walk away from, a workshop, a new baby in the family, a wedding, anything at all. The quilt needn’t be finished – there is always show and tell for that. If you’ve ever felt the urge to say more about your quilt, here’s the place. Please send your photo(s) and story to the newsletter editor.

 

hickey3I’m drawn to brighter colours in the Spring, away from the taupes and muted homespun that I usually work with and find so deeply satisfying. While at Creative Edge looking for fabric for the Stack-N-Whack workshop in May, I found a fish print from the Kaffe Fassett Collective that I couldn’t put down. ‘Wild’ barely describes it. There wasn’t enough on the bolt for the class but I picked up three meters for my stash, plus some Kona fat quarters in slightly greyed colours to tame the very bright print. Once I got them home, I realized the solids went perfectly with a dotted fabric that’s been in my stash practically from when I started quilting a few years ago. I knew I wanted to work with brighter fabric after the long winter, the problem was deciding what pattern to use.

After thumbing through quite a few books, I found myself returning again and again to Denyse Schmidt’s “Modern Quilts Traditional Inspiration” and her Churn Dash pattern. I checked online and liked the modern versions with strong colours and free motion quilting to fill in the spaces, or more simply, straight lines. And besides, the name was irresistible. I didn’t get far into the cutting and making of sample blocks before I realized these weren’t going to be quilts that really spoke to me. Fun yes. I’ll enjoy making them – the twelve-inch bocks work up unbelievably fast – and I won’t have any trouble finding homes for them either. But I still wanted a ‘me’ quilt in that pattern.

There’s another quilt in Denyse Schmidt’s book that I love, but more for the play of light on the fabrics than for the design: Shoeman’s Puzzle. The large-scale block uses just two fabrics, a shot cotton and a Kona solid. It got me thinking – what about a relatively low contrast churn dash quilt that mixes a wide range of shot cottons instead of just one. I’ve a lovely selection of Kaffe Fassett shots and stripes, but the fabrics are so beautiful I’ve hesitated dipping into them. Plus, the skinny-quarter length shots were a birthday present and I wanted to use them together in something special. I pulled out some likely pairings of colours and ironed them, applying Mary Ellen’s Best Press at full strength to stabilize the loosely woven fabric. Blues and browns, rusts and greens, soft stripes… yes, this was what I wanted. I anticipate a quilt I’ll fall in love with again and again over the years, and in all seasons.

Laurel Hickey

From the President

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I would like to thank all of our members who came to the AGM on Tuesday February 25th. The rain came in the nick of time and got rid of that snow. It is a meeting we must have and I was pleased by the participation we had. One member was brave enough to hold her hand up in disagreement with a motion and so then we had a bit of discussion and then an amendment to the motion. It really did help to clarify the motion so thank you Barbara.

I am pleased to welcome the following people to the Executive: Debbie Barrett as Vice President; Suzanne Patchell as Treasurer; Laurel Hickey as Newsletter Editor; Joan Herrin as Membership(one year); Sonia Milanez and Joan Gold as Librarians and Norine McCaffrey as one of our Members-at-Large. They have all agreed to serve for two years with Joan taking over from Kate Burzuk for one year. The rest of the Executive who are in their second year of a two year term are: myself (Betty Clarke) as your President; Paulette Morton as Secretary; Anne Pelton as Workshops Coordinator and Joan Elliott as one of our Members-at-Large. Programs Coordinator has not been filled as yet.

The Walk to Brock Challenge has been extended to mid June 2014. So, we shall continue to measure those quilts that are shown at guild meetings and Dorothy Porter is going to make sure we submit the circumference measurements of all of our Show Quilts. Boy, we are going to have many, many inches of quilting to be proud of. Dorothy submitted a total of 3,032 inches to CQA for the month of February. That brings our grand total to 29,008 inches or roughly 734.38 metres of quilt circumferences. This is kind of fun. Perhaps someone in the guild would volunteer to make some kind of graph showing our progress. I shall leave that with you.

The past weekend was our Community Quilts weekend. I had a wonderful sewing experience. The coffee and tea were always ready along with super goodies and I ordered a fabulous sandwich for lunch. It felt like being on a Retreat. On Friday night we were even allowed to leave our sewing machines set up ready to start again the next day. The Community Quilts committee must be congratulated on doing such a fine job. It is a great deal of work to set the hall up, organize furniture and people to work on a variety of tasks, and keep us all happy with caffeine and sugar. Community Quilts will have kits available at our next guild meeting for anyone interested in helping out and contributing to this worthwhile guild endeavour. In May, part of our Program will be to celebrate the fruits of our labour and enjoy the wonderful feelings of accomplishment. Our guild efforts give comfort and enjoyment to so many people. We should be very proud of ourselves. Even if you make just one quilt it may make a difference in someone’s life.

Our next guild meeting is on Tuesday, March 25th. Don’t forget the usual items: your name tag; mug; money or cheques for library book fines, raffle quilt tickets, 50/50 tickets, workshop registration; library books; your Show and Tell; Quilt Show registrations forms; and your smiley faces. I shall see you all soon. (We need 2 extra bodies in the kitchen at 7:00, please help).

Happy Quilting,
Betty