Author: lionsgatequilters

Featured Speaker: Karen Berry

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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

Workshop: Art Tips for Quilters (Linda Sharp)

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Make a series of artist’s postcards (and have fun). Learn art essentials (and have fun). Have something complete and useful at the end of the session (and have fun). All supplies supplied. (so you can spend the night before having fun too!) Bring scissors. Not your best ones. Linda Sharp will be at the Tuesday, April 24th meeting to talk about her workshop.

DATE: Saturday, September 22nd, 2012
TIME: 9:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.
PLACE: St. Agnes Church, 530 E 12th St, North Vancouver, BC
COST: $45.00 (includes a $15.00 supply cost per person)

Community Quilts Update

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How would you like to practice your machine quilting on some else’s quilt? You can do that by quilting a Community quilt. We have quite a few quilts, of different sizes that need quilting. We will bring some to the meeting on April 24th.

If you need batting for a quilt you are working on please call Edna Simpson with the size of the piece you want and she will bring it to the meeting.

See you there.
Rosalind

Raffle Quilts

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The raffle quilts are complete and look super!

For the March meeting there will be raffle tickets for all of us to buy so we can sell them to our family and friends. We will also have pictures of the quilts and pictures on the website. As we discussed and agreed at the February meeting, the tickets will be packaged 15 in a pack and will cost $25. All of the tickets must be sold at 3 for $5. As we have done previously, the members buy the books of tickets up front for $25, sell the tickets (this money is yours) and return the stubs for the draw. We keep track of member names with the ticket packs to be sure the stubs all get returned for the big draw at the end of the show. In case you were not at the meeting, the BC Gaming people have become strict about accounting for all ticket sales at each price. They require us to print one series of tickets selling for $2 each and another for the 3 for $5 and keep track of the sales separately. It is much more straight forward to sell the 3 for $5 packs within our guild than to try to mix and match the different series. We will print a small number of $2 tickets to sell at the guilds we visit and at the show. From our previous raffle experience we found the majority of people bought the 3 for $5 tickets within the guild and also at other guilds and at the show. We can see what the demand is for the $2 tickets and decide if it is even worthwhile printing any for next time around.

We need volunteers to help sell our raffle tickets at other guild meetings in April and May. It is interesting to attend the meeting of another guild and we always get a friendly welcome. We also need people to help sell tickets at Lions Gate Hospital in May. There will be a sign-up list at the next meeting. See you at the meeting!

The Raffle Quilt Committee
Joan Gold, Linda Heese, Sonia Milanez, Louise Bovet

Membership Report

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To date we have 141 members in our guild. Do you know someone who is interested in quilting, and would like to join us? Bring them along to a meeting, the first visit is free. After that there is a $5 drop in fee payable at the membership desk…. but a membership is $50 for a year, and has its benefits. (Membership is $70 until after the Quilt show)

To be a door prize winner, be sure to be wearing your name tag at the meeting. All of your names are in the draw bag; they are entered automatically when you renew your membership.

Kate Burzuk,
Membership Coordinator

From the President

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What a great turn out we had at our AGM in February. The business portion of the meeting, which was made up of reports and many motions along with the Elections, was long but then we got to see Show and Tell, have a quick cup of tea and listen to and watch a lovely trunk show by Vivian Kapusta. But, our Executive reassured me that the time seemed to go quite quickly. We even had a laugh or two. I really need to thank the outgoing members of the Executive for the time and energy they have given to the Guild over the past years. Thank you Anne Pelton (Secretary and Vice President over a three year period); Helen Jorgensen (Newsletter Editor), Cathy Jamieson (Librarian), and Suzan Gauthier Kolker (Member-at-Large). Bena Luxton (Treasurer) and Andrea Cowie (Programs chair) have volunteered to serve the Guild for two more years. Hooray! Our brand new Executive members are Colleen Bohan (Newsletter Editor), Margo Novak (Librarian), Terri Gerath (Member-at-Large for two years) and Joan Elliott (Member-at-Large for one year). Katherine Morgan stepped up and offered to take on the Vice President’s position for a two year term after serving one year as Member-at-Large. Another Hooray!

We are looking forward to a very busy Spring. We started this month with two days of Community Quilts activities on March 2nd and 3rd. Rosalind and her committee were pleased with the number of members who came out to sew for Community Quilts. They had the church hall organized into sewing areas (machine and hand), cutting areas, shopping areas (in a sense – the fabric was free as long as you put it into a community quilt). There were tables set up for cutting and assembling kits and the “goodies.” I could write a paragraph about the “goodies.” One of the purposes of our Guild as stated in the Constitution is “to provide a community service through the creation of quilts for a variety of community facilities/services and individuals as needed.” We look forward to seeing all of our efforts at a huge Show and Tell at the May meeting. On a personal note, I took 4 kits last year which will be complete by May, I promise. Rosalind is accepting kits back with a “guilt free” tag attached. The North Shore News dated March 7th gave an entire page to Lions Gate Quilt Guild Community Quilts. We look like a very happy group of people. Well done, Community Quilts Committee.

Our Quilt Show Committee is getting into high gear. Just one more month to register your quilt/s. All registrations plus photos must be in by March 31st. Dianne Ritter put out a call for much needed help in the Publicity Department. So, please think about the different aspects of that particular job and let Dianne know where you would like to help. Our Show is always a success because it involves every guild member. Our Quilt Show Committee spends much time laying the foundation and the rest of us need to help with the building and decorating. Our Raffle Quilts will be on display at the March meeting and the proceeds of those tickets go to supplies for Community Quilts. See how interconnected we are?

Happy Quilting
Betty

Featured Speaker: Dougal Ann Walker

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Dougal designs The Freckles Collection, patterns that combine whimsical stitchery and appliqué into quilted wall-hangings. Her inspiration came in 1987 in a hand-piecing, hand-quilting sampler class. A trip to International Quilt Market confirmed that stitchery/embroidery was making a come-back. She combines hand-work, stitching, color, fabric, quilting, the many things she loves to do, into one medium. Patterns that could teach stitching and quilting
techniques are the answer.

Dougal’s patterns have been published in Australian Patchwork and Quilting and Quilter’s Connection magazines. She was also featured in Canadian Quilters’ Association magazine. Through exposure at International Quilt Market, Dougal’s patterns are now sold in Australia, Norway, New Zealand, South Africa and throughout North America.

Dougal has taught at many quilt shops in the Vancouver area. She particularly enjoys sharing her quilts, ideas and knowledge through presentations to quilt guilds and groups.

Come and meet Dougal at our March meeting and bring your wallets. Dougal will be bringing some patterns with her for sale. She is also generously donating a door prize or two so remember your name tags!

Quilt Show 2012 Update

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Registrations for the show will continue at the March meeting. The registration committee is taking photos of quilts for a $1 fee to cover the cost of printing. If you supply your own photo please be sure to submit a photo no larger than 4×6”. THE FINAL DEADLINE for registration is March 31st if Elaine has not received your registration form and photograph by this date your quilt will not be eligible for entry in the 2012 show. If you are mailing your entry bear in mind that it must be in Elaine’s or the guild’s mailbox no later than March 31st. Your quilt does not have to be finished to register it but we do need to see the colour scheme and know the finished size within an inch or so.

If you want to sell a quilt you are entering in the show please be sure to indicate on your registration form that it is for sale.

Gaye McCanse has volunteered to assist with publicity but we still need volunteers to look after a variety of tasks. Ie: Hanging the two vinyl banners, placing plastic signs on district and city properties where we have permits to do so, delivering posters and bookmarks to local shops and setting up directional signs on the day of the show etc. If you are interested in helping with publicity please send me an e-mail (see address below).

Volunteer forms are on the website. If you haven’t already submitted your volunteer form please do so as soon as possible.

Happy Quilting!
Dianne

Pillow’s Talk with Krista Hennebury

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Thanks, Krista, for hosting a fun filled day of sewing in which we created a Dresden Plate pillow cover with your guidance. I am hoping to see many of the pillow covers shared with the guild during ‘show and tell’ as they were all so bright and cheery.

Joan Herrin
Workshop Coordinator

Workshop: Needle Turn Appliqué (Nancy Chong)

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Nancy’s specialty is stress-free needle turn appliqué. She puts students directly in touch with their needle, thread and fabric. She shows how incredibly easy appliqué is without the use of freezer paper, toothpicks, starch, cardboard, ironing or interfacing – all things that needlessly complicate what is an otherwise very simple process.

DATE: Sunday, June 24, 2012
TIME: 9:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.
PLACE: Community Room at Capilano Mall (2nd floor)
COST: $50.00