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!

Karen Johnson is our Program speaker for our March 25th guild meeting. Karen has been sewing for most of her life, having made her first dress when she was six years old. Her grandmother taught many of the young women in the community to sew and her mother was her 4-H sewing teacher. She spent 8 years in a 4-H sewing club as she was growing up, continuing on to a degree in Home Economics at the University of Manitoba. Karen majored in Clothing and Textiles before moving to British Columbia and a teaching career, working in both Vancouver and Langley.

Quilting took over about 1994 and although Karen has made many of her own clothes, it’s not a big part of her quilting journey. She’s been involved with the Langley Quilters’ Guild since its inception in 2003 and appreciates the energy of being immersed with like-minded souls. She’s also a member of the Langley Arts Council, Canadian Quilters’ Association, Studio Art Quilt Associates and Fibre Art Network.
Karen will be sharing the various themes she’s explored during her quilting journey, as well as a focus on the quilts and workshops that have played a pivotal role in shaping her direction.

I’d like to send a huge shout out to Krista Hennebury for suggesting that we invite Lorna Moffat to speak to us this month. A few of us met Lorna at the VMQG meeting in December but I think Krista was the only one smart enough to keep in touch and suggest to me that we contact her to come to our meeting.

As per Lorna’s suggestion, I stole the following “bumf” (Lorna’s word but I like it!) from her bio on the Dragon Threads website (publisher of Lorna’s book, Silk Unravelled, 2008):

“Lorna is an internationally renowned award winning textile artist, author and lecturer who has been at the forefront of contemporary and innovative machine embroidery. After graduating from the Glasgow School of Art in Scotland, her work has been exhibited worldwide in prestigious galleries, craft exhibitions, museums and stores such as Bergdorf’s, Barneys, Takashimaya, Nordstrom, etc.

Lorna has also been commissioned for several large embroidered installations for multinational corporate headquarters and healthcare institutions. In addition, she has been instrumental in advancing creative embroidery techniques through her inspirational workshops and lectures together with teaching in schools and colleges around the globe.

Having developed her own unique style in the manipulation, deconstruction and reconstruction of fabrics, Lorna’s has now taken inspiration from the intricate and ornate craft work of indigenous people in remote corners of the world. Her extensive worldwide travel has also included living within communities in remote mountainous regions of Turkey and in the jungles of Borneo.”

Are you excited? Intrigued? I am. I don’t know what brought Lorna to Vancouver but I’m very glad she’s here. I am really looking forward to meeting her. I hope you are too. Let’s hope that our AGM runs smoothly giving Lorna lots of time to talk.

Back to business, I hope you are all enjoying your mystery quilts. I expect that everybody participating is now an expert in making a square within a square and that you don’t want to see another one of them anytime soon. Clue 4 will be out shortly if it isn’t already and, again, if you are not receiving your clues please send me an email.

As this is our last month as your Programs Committee and I would like to take this opportunity to thank JoAnn Lee and Paula Bohan for all the work they have done the past three years. They are the true work horses in our committee and trust me we would not have had the programs we did if it weren’t for them. So thank you…I owe you each a bottle (or case) of wine. See you on the 25th.

Andrea & your Programs Committee

 

Happy New Years to one and all! I hope you all had a wonderful time over the holidays. I know I did – lots of time with family and friends. Lovely.

This month’s guest speaker is Felicity Ronaghan. I first met Felicity at a day quilting retreat and she is fantastic. Felicity is going to talk to us about modern quilting. If we’re lucky she’ll answer the question “What is Modern Quilting?” Here’s what Felicity has to say for herself:

“No one in my family quilts, but I’ve been an admirer of quilts for as long as I can remember. I didn’t clue in to the fact that I could actually learn to make them myself until around 2001 when my husband suggested I take a class. I knew the first minute of the first class that this was “my thing” and I haven’t looked back. My style started out pretty traditional, and it remained so until I discovered the online quilting world and Modern Quilting in late 2009. My style changed nearly overnight as my passion and interest went into overdrive. I dove head first into the online modern quilting community – I started a blog, participated in many online swaps and bees, participated in quilt alongs and blog hops. And through it all, I keep making. When I’m not quilting, I’m a training and development consultant for a large credit union, and wife to a wonderful man who’s currently a stay-at-home-dad to our hilarious, smart, creative and beautiful 6-year-old daughter. I’m also co-president of the Vancouver Modern Quilt Guild (they noticed I showed up at every meeting and, well, you know how that goes. :D)”

If you are interested in checking out Felicity’s blog you can find her at http://felicityquilts.blogspot.com/

Just before writing this I finished one of my quilting resolutions – I’m off to a great start to the New Year! To bad it’s not a quilt for the show…heavy sigh.

All the best in 2014,

Your Program Committee,
Andrea, Jo Ann & Paula

Happy Christmas Season! And thus the gorging commences.

Our November meeting is the last social of the year. Bring show and tell, bring stitch work, bring some treats, bring the quilting tool you can’t live without and bring the quilting tool that you CAN definitely live without (we’re all suckered in once in a while – give your fellow quilters the heads up on any tools you have purchased that you wish you hadn’t).

Your executive is planning to have some fun and games (with door prizes) so be ready.

Our Mystery Quilt fabric requirements were emailed out last month after our meeting but some email addresses (or our interpretation of them) might have been incorrect. If you didn’t receive your instructions please send me an email at ajcowie@shaw.ca. We’ll make sure to correct your address and get you instructions as soon as possible. I’m really excited to participate in this mystery and will be sewing along with you.

I hope to see you all at the November meeting but if you can’t make it please enjoy the holidays and sew responsibly.

Your Program Committee,
Andrea, Jo Ann & Paula

I want to quickly introduce you to our speaker in October. We have somebody from outside of the quilting world come to speak to us this month. Tasia Pona is the founder of Vancouver based Sewaholic Patterns which she established in 2010 out of frustration in having to alter commercial patterns to fit in her words “her curvy lower body”. You can find out more about Tasia at her website  or her blog

Tasia will be bringing patterns and garment samples and will take cash or cheques if anybody would like to purchase any of her patterns after her presentation.

Your Program Committee,
Andrea, Jo Ann & Paula

Gosh, less than two weeks before our Fall time change. As the sun sets earlier it’s only natural for us to want to start warm cozy quilts to wrap ourselves or our loved ones up in during the winter. Luckily your Program Committee is starting a mystery quilt so you can do just that!

Paula and Jo Ann are the masterminds behind our new mystery quilt project. Here is some information in case you missed Paula’s introduction in September:

Mystery Quilt in 6 Clues:
October Sign-up and Fabric Requirements
November Clue #1
December* Clue #2
January Clue #3
February Clue #4
March Clue #5
April Clue #6 – complete top
May Clue #7 – optional borders

Clues will be provided for 3 sizes:
Original – 64″ by 76″
Lap – 51″ by 64″
Baby – 38″ by 51″

It’s meant to be scrappy, and uses a light background and four more colours: 2 medium value fabrics and 2 dark value fabrics – the original uses all one fabric for a medium, scraps for the other, all one fabric for a dark, scraps for the other

It’s a traditional design, but would look good with your favourite colours – Paula is probably going to do it with 30s repros, because that’s what she has, but it will be lovely in modern brights, batiks or even Christmas themed fabric

When choosing fabrics, remember that colour gets all the credit, but value does all the work – making sure that you have good separation between values means that the secondary design will show up as your clues come together We will be doing a sign up for the mystery quilt in October. The steps will be sent out by email. Your Programs Committee is going to be doing this mystery along with you so hopefully we will be able to address any issues along the way.

Your Program Committee,
Andrea, Jo Ann & Paula

My oh my hasn’t this summer blown by.

This month our guest speaker is Judy Leslie. The following is from Judy’s CV:

“I have always been a fibre artist, whether it was designing and sewing ‘exotic’ doll clothes for my younger sister or making most of my own garments from my early teenage years to the present. I taught in both elementary and secondary schools for over twenty-five years; I especially enjoyed integrating art with other subjects so as to enable my more ‘visual learners’ to more easily grasp concepts in subjects like math and history.

“I have worked successfully as a potter and stained glass artist in the past, but in recent years I rediscovered the wonderful tactile nature of textiles in the ‘quilt’ form. I began by producing a few traditional quilts but soon moved on to designing and creating art quilts. Having retired a few years ago, I am now able to devote more time to experimenting with techniques and design. I feel that I have come full circle when I think back to the ‘exotic’ creations that I made for my sister’s dolls!

“In my work I am drawn to the things I know well. I moved from the prairies to the west coast almost thirty years ago and I am forever fascinated by the lushness of this landscape. I am particularly familiar with the rhythms of my own garden and the terrain of Pitt Lake, where we have a family cabin. I love to observe, draw and photograph the scenery around me. My goal is to capture and highlight some of the inspiring sights. I use a combination of techniques, depending on the subject and mood of the art quilt. The only restriction is one that I have self imposed……to use a sewing machine to the maximum in the construction of each Art Quilt; in turn, this has caused me to push boundaries and I have originated several machine techniques that are unique to my pieces. The complexity of each artwork’s construction means that a single piece may take weeks or even months to complete. Making art quilts is an important part of my life and I receive immense pleasure from working in this medium of artistic expression.”

WOW – I’ve seen some of Judy’s work – AMAZING!! Can’t wait to meet her.

Paula and Jo Ann have been hard at work organizing a mystery quilt for us. Paula will talk about it at the September meeting and we will have sign up in October. The designer of this mystery quilt uses scraps so with any luck this mystery can also be a stash buster. Two in One!

See you at our September meeting. I’ll be the one limping around after spending a week and a half cycling in Nova Scotia – crazy!!

Your Program Committee,
Andrea, Jo Ann & Paula

Hello all, Summer is here and we’ve got a social this month – what could be better!

This month we are celebrating Community Quilts and the end of the TGIF Challenge.

Show and Tell has been absolutely fabulous since the start of the TGIF Challenge. Not only have we seen some beautiful quilts but we’ve also heard some pretty great stories about their creation and time spent on the shelf. If the finished TGIF quilts are any indication we’re going to have a fabulous quilt show next year and I think some of you probably already have a quilt or two ready to go. We’ll be handing out door prizes and the cash prizes for the TGIF Challenge on the 26th so don’t miss the meeting if you finished even one of your entries.

When you arrive at our meeting in June you will already see quilts hanging – they will be a sample of the community quilts completed this year. Please take some time to appreciate the love that has gone into making these quilts for our community. Community Quilts is a huge part of our Guild and the Committee organizers deserve a huge thanks for their commitment.

So bring some stitchwork and your social self to our meeting on June 26 and celebrate the beginning of summer and another great year of quilting.

Your Program Committee,
Andrea, Jo Ann & Paula

Hello all,

What a beautiful month so far… And so many quilt shows. As I type this up on my iPhone I am on the ferry to Gibsons to see the show up there. Two weeks ago was a fabulous show in Maple Ridge and next weekend off to CQA in Penticton! Fun! Of course some might suggest that I stop going to shows and start doing some actual quilting but right now I am happy being “inspired.”

Speaking of inspired, this month Cynthia Frenette coming to speak to us. Cynthia does a lot of different things. She is a graphic designer, illustrator, fabric designer, and mixed media/fibre/quilting artist living in Mission, BC with her husband, Norm, and dog, Starr. By trade Cynthia is a graphic designer, and owns and operates her own design business with her husband. Cynthia also designs fabric for Robert Kaufman Fabrics and has three current collections released with them, as well as one more to come later this year.

In addition to her design work, Cynthia is an active quilt artist, as well as co-founder of the Fraser Valley Modern Quilt Guild. Over the past few years her work has been shown in various shows in the US and Canada, and has won several awards. Most recently, Cynthia won first place in the Designer Style Challenge at the CreativFestival in Toronto for Quilting, for her piece “Mr. Crow’s Tea Party” (currently out traveling with Janome). Her piece, “Paris in the Moonglow” placed 8th in worldwide entries in the Create Your Style with Swarovski Elements, Art quilt competition in 2012. Cynthia has also been published in Quilting Arts Magazine, Quilting UK magazine, and was chosen/had her work published as Mixed Media Artisan 2012, by Cloth Paper Scissors Magazine in January 2012.

I am really looking forward to meeting Cynthia and seeing some of her work in person. Here’s a warning though. Cynthia is bringing fabric and some goodies to sell so fair warning: bring your wallets!

Now to the serious stuff – This is the last month for your finished TGIF projects! Please bring your finished treasures on the 28th and make this a Show and Tell to remember. Prizes will be awarded at our June meeting. Enjoy the rest of the month and see you soon.

Andrea & Your Program Committee