At each meeting, we enjoy presentations by speakers on a wide variety of quilting-related topics, coordinated by our Programmes Team. Questions? Contact Programmes.
2023 Programmes
MAY
Karen Johnson
Karen has been focused on the use of line, often forming an abstract grid formation. Seeing a tile wall hanging in Oaxaca inspired her to explore combining a variety of grids in one art work. It wasn’t until later that she realized that instead of an abstract grid, she was using a formal grid structure yet one that was still created by the usage of line.
APRIL
Join us for talk with Ushi Greiner of Woolies on the Coast
MARCH
FABRIC.STITCH.COLLAGE
Lorna creates unique conversation Pieces for your living space. Her pillows, blankets, mirrors and wall art burst with color and joyful pattern, inspired by people, places and the beauty of nature
INSPIRATION
The colors and climate of British Columbia have inspired Lorna to replace the luscious silks she used in the 90’s with warm, wool melton, cotton and linens. The people and cultures she encountered on her travels in Turkey, Borneo and South Africa, have inspired her whimsical colorful stitched portraits. Also, inspired by the beauty of nature, You will find queen bees, leaves and an explosion of florals in her collection.
Techniques
Lorna fuses traditional embroidered appliqué techniques with her own style of fabric manipulation to create her signature stitched and collage surfaces on pillows, blankets, mirrors and purses.
She takes mosaic-like pieces of fabric, bonds them onto a wool Melton background and then with mostly a straight stitch, she stitches over and around the shapes in a sketch-like , hand drawn style. The stitches not only hold the design together but create a sense of movement and energy over the surface, defining the composition and adding intricate details.
FEBRUARY
Our February speaker is Sandy Fitzpatrick of Hissyfitz Designs. Sandy will be “Zooming” in from Cary, North Carolina. She is an applique quilt pattern designer and national teacher. Her fusible applique patterns are full of whimsy and will certainly bring a smile to your face. She strives to make her patterns easy to follow and fun to make.
Her early days of sewing included making clothing for herself and her three children. As often happens, Sandy’s love of sewing transcended into quilt making. She found that stitching quilts was “sew” much easier since there are a lot of straight seams and a quilt will fit anyone.
Sandy’s topic is “Why Didn’t I Think of That” and is full of tips and tricks to make our quilting lives easier.
I hope you will all join in for what I think will be an interesting and entertaining presentation.
JANUARY
Phyllis Cullen of Phyllis Cullen Art Studio. Phyllis gets to live in beautiful Hawaii and is a more or less retired physician, multimedia artist, art quilt teacher and author who loves to make faces! After making a few hundred portraits, one of her students convinced her to write a book. It’s called “It’s All About the Face” and she has a series of classes, workshops and a fun lecture/slide presentation to go with it.
I personally have taken a series of classes from Phyllis and found her to be always patient, entertaining and a great instructor.
Please join me for what promises to be a very interesting presentation.
2022 Programmes
NOVEMBER
Our November speaker was Julie Faulkner. Julie is a Quiltworx certified instructor and has made over 150 Quiltworx designed quilts. She will present a trunk show of various quilts. For her day job, Julie is a Portfolio Head, Project Management in the Cardiovascular Medicine field. She has been quilting since she was about four when her grandmother taught her how to English Paper Piece. Her first quilt was made by hand using a hexagon template made by her grandfather which he drew around onto cereal packets and a slightly larger one for fabric. Julie loves all needle crafts and has spent many hours sewing, knitting, crochet, cross stitch and needlepoint.
Originally from the UK, she was transferred by her job to the USA where she discovered the world of machine piecing and quilting. In 2004 she immigrated to Canada and now lives in New Westminster.
Julie loves to “piece a memory – one patch at a time” and share her passion for quilt design and colour while making beautiful quilts with others.
APRIL
Patricia Belyea from OKAN Arts will be the speaker at our April 26 meeting. Join Patricia as she takes us on an insider tour of the 2020 Tokyo Quilt Festival. Patricia presents the highlights of this international quilt event, then continues onto a traditional chusen-dyeing workshop to explain this traditional hand-dyeing process.
Patricia finishes with a show of her own quilts, made with vintage Japanese cottons, and talks about how these special fabrics inspired her. (photo credit: https://okanarts.com/collections/quilts-patricia-belyea)
MARCH
Scrappy Applique Lecture by Laurie Wildey
Students learned about Shannon Brinkley’s Scrappy Applique technique during the fun, interactive program and trunk show. Fabrics, supplies, Scrappy Applique technique, and finishing options for your project were discussed. During the trunk show, Laurie showed her quilts and examples from other quilters.
FEBRUARY
Cheryl Arkison, pattern designer, educator and author of Sunday Morning Quilts and A Month of Sundays presented another program which resonated in this strange COVID time we are living through. It was called “Make Time for Play” and talked about putting the fun back into our quilting instead of always focusing on perfect points and fabulous quilting.
JANUARY
Nicholas Turcan is a multi-talented and very creative individual. His journey into quilting began in 2012 with one quilt that quickly turned into several, which made him realize that he needed a better way to finish these quilt tops than a small domestic sized machine. In 2014 Nicholas purchased a HQ Fusion to help with this task. It didn’t take very long to realize that the creativity this machine unleashed from within him deserved to be shared. www.mysterystitch.com
2021 Programmes
NOVEMBER
Exploring Shape as a Design Element with Lorna Shapiro
In the past, Lorna tended to stay within a comfortable zone of familiar shapes as she developed new quilt designs. Although shape is only one of the elements of design that we get to work with as quilters, it can be a powerful aid in creating new designs. Starting with shape as a jumping-off point, Lorna has arrived at designs that she would not have found otherwise. In this one-hour lecture, we look at quilts as we isolate the element of “shape” and see how we can use it as inspiration for new design ideas.
OCTOBER
Thank you Krista Moser (The Quilted Life) for your excitement, enthusiasm and energy. Your presence, although virtual, resonated with everyone as if we were all in the same room. Your quilts looked shockingly complicated yet your presentation showed us that they are actually simple compositions of tried and true piecing techniques. Avoiding the dreaded “Y” seams was of particular interest to many. How you think about colour and fabric choices when imagining a quilt were as refreshing as the names you give your quilts.
SEPTEMBER
Ann Turley is a quilter and fiber artist from San Diego, California, who has been juried into many prestigious events. The program she gave us was titled, “Confessions of the Quilt Police”. As a trained judge, Ann has seen it all on the judging floor and if you’ve ever wondered what happens behind those closed doors, Ann answered questions during a mock judging process.
JUNE
Suzanne Paquette of Atelier Six shared the emotional, creative, and technical aspects of memory quilting through colorful storytelling and photography. Her practical projects inspired by real families’ stories celebrate love, provide comfort, and honor your family’s heritage.
MAY
Cheryl Arkison, modern quilter, writer and teacher, whose name may be familiar to many of you as one of the authors of “Sunday Morning Quilts”will deliver her lecture entitled, SCRAPS v. SCRAPPY. Far too often people say that they can’t do scrappy because
1. It looks too messy or
2. They don’t have pretty scraps.
In this lecture and trunk show Cheryl showed us all the pleasures of using your scraps. It starts with sorting and storing. Then we can discuss the difference between a scrap quilt and a scrappy one. That’s right, they are not the same.
To Learn more about our Guest Speaker be sure to visit her online HERE
APRIL 
Bettina Matzkuhn, who works in the textile medium and lives in Vancouver is not a quilter per se but uses fabrics to do all sorts of interesting pieces.
In the 1980s, her NFB animated films –using textiles– garnered awards, and an interest in narrative continues to inform her work. She holds a BFA in Visual Arts and an MA in Liberal Studies from Simon Fraser University and is the recipient of Canada Council and B.C. Arts Council Grants. Stories about ecology, history, and geography appear in her embroidered sculptural sails, maps of many kinds, and experimental pieces. Matzkuhn has collaborated with people from disciplines such as meteorology and marine biology. Using machine and hand embroidery, paint, and collage, she values the familiar and versatile language of textiles.
MARCH
Our very own Krista Hennebury is a certified Aurifilosopher, having trained with Aurifil’s owner/President Alex Veronelli and Master Thread Educator Karen Miller. She delivered a live, professional Powerpoint lecture on the origin, history, production and uses of all Aurifil thread weights with photographic samples of projects and specific threads stitched out onto quilt sandwiches for comparison. Each Zoom attendee will receive one small spool of Aurifil thread in a random colour & weight and a product catalogue when the guild is able to gather in person again.
FEBRUARY
Our speaker was Susan Purney Mark whose name will be familiar to many of our members as an outstanding quilter and teacher. Her program is called ‘My Icelandic Narrative’ and below is a glimpse at the subject of her talk.
Imagine spending an entire month – halfway around the world – to create your art? Doesn’t that sound like heaven? Well, actually it was Iceland and I was fortunate to devote myself to exploring a topic that has become a major focus of my work – textile book forms. I’ll share my experiences, thoughts and plans with you and include suggestions on how you can create your own art residency far, far away or in your own backyard. Plus I’ll show you the results of my creative adventure.
JANUARY
Thanks to Meerkat Shweshwe for sharing the fascinating social justice story of Shweshwe fabric, produced in South Africa, and how it connects with the world history of cotton production, exploration and trade. https://meerkatshweshwe.com/home
2020 Programmes
NOVEMBER We were inspired by the presentation by Bill Stearman showing his beautiful quilts and inspiring stories during his Backpack Show presentation
OCTOBER Thanks Brandy of @quilteronfire for sharing your Storage presentation with our members. It was great to hear ideas for claiming and organizing a studio space.
SEPTEMBER It was great to have a live mini-workshop of “Fussy Cut like a Rocket Surgeon!” presented by Bobbie Gentili (www.geekybobbin.com). Bobbie shared a demonstration of her fussy cutting techniques that quilters can use to combine various colourways of the same large print or stripe to exciting effect! The advantage of an online lecture is that we got a close up of techniques demonstrated live. We hope members who attended the ZOOM meeting found this as a great opportunity to learn a new and useful skill.
Thanks too to the members who shared their quilts during the virtual Show & Tell. It was wonderful to see what has been keeping members busy during spring and summer. Slideshow of the quilts will be available here in the coming days.
JUNE – first guild meeting held using the ZOOM platform
MARCH – MAY – guild meetings cancelled due to COVID-19 precautions
FEBRUARY It was a pleasure to have Kevin Williams, the owner of Dragonfly Quilting & Gifts from Cloverdale, BC, the home of Cantik Cottons & Batiks.
Kevin introduced Shania Sunga, a Canadian designer. The Trunk Show encompassed a journey of Cantik and Shania’s designs.
A Little Dragonfly pop-up shop showcased Cantik with an incredible selection of fat quarters, 1 metre cuts of Cantiks, along with kits, which were shown during the Trunk Show.
Neighbourhood Quilt-Along: We had a very nice selection of techniques used for the flower blocks, including a shattered pansy, yo-yo flowers, and some really cute and cheerful trapunto blooms. It is very enjoyable seeing the various different blocks that people are inspired to create!
Your quilt top, of whatever size, is due at the March 24 meeting [meeting cancelled]. The quilt top must include a tree, flower, and house blocks., plus at least one other design block for the Neighbourhood Quilt.
JANUARY We were excited to share with you two of our long time members of the Guild as they presented their quilting journey. As we know every quilter has a unique beginning.
Dianne Ritter
Dianne began quilting in 1998 and 22 years later, is still happiest when she is in her studio! Hanging out with her grandson being the exception to that rule, “nothing is more joy producing than that!” She flexes her creative muscles by designing quilts on EQ8 and gets great pleasure from sharing her designs as projects with her Stitch group, Foreshore Quilters and our Guild. Dianne has been a staunch supporter of our Guild in many roles, including fall seminar team, her inception of COPS, many positions on the Executive, and Quilt Show Coordinator. Dianne stated, “being raised on a farm, the closest she came to a quilt was the pattern of a newly mowed hay field”!
Betty Clarke
Betty was never a sewist; she tried but failed. In 1995 she took her first quilting class at the Cloth Shop. It was a suggestion by two of her quilting co-workers. It was an exciting time. Finally, she sewed some fabric together that did not need to fit a body. She joined the Lions Gate Quilters’ Guild that same year but did not get fully involved until her retirement in 2001. She has been on the Programs Committee, Workshop Committee and was President for four years. About four years ago she became interested in free motion quilting and bought a mid arm quilting machine, a Tiara by Baby Lock. She loves all aspects of guild life and has met many wonderful people on her quilting journey. What great fun this craft of quilting is!!!!!
2019 Programmes
NOVEMBER WOW, our November Social was a fun event! We enjoyed 54 of our Guild members participating in the handmade gift exchange and game where we formed a circle and Carol Piercy read a Right/Left Story. The game had us all passing back and forth the numbers we were given that corresponded to the gift we would evenutally ‘win’. It was lots of laughs!!
OCTOBER Our speaker was guild member Krista Hennebury of Poppyprint, who spoke about The Search for Signature Style, sharing simple, achievable strategies for finding your own unique quilting voice in the face of constant exposure to inspiring work by others in social and print media. She used examples of her own path from traditional quilter to traditionally informed modern quilter throughout her 20 years of quiltmaking and 10 years of blogging, designing, teaching and active social media participation.
SEPTEMBER Our speaker was one of our Guild members, Trudy Jaskela, who traveled to South Africa in April this year with fibre artist Valerie Hearder from Mahone Bay, Nova Scotia. The group made visits to embroiderers and quilters. The group also viewed the Keiskamma Art Project and spent a day at the Hillcrest AIDS Centre. Trudy highlighted some of the very creative and ambitious works coming out of South Africa with her photo slide presentation and other items she shared with us.
JUNE Topic: Come and be inspired by our own, talented Guild members! There were three Show and Tell presentations: our usual Show and Tell after the business part of the meeting, the finale of the Animal Block Quilt along and our Community Quilt Committee, who showcased their fantastic completed quilts. They were also recognised for their on-going hard work. And… there were also surprises and games!
MAY Our guest speaker was our very own Guild member, Carol Chernov. Many of our Guild members have had the pleasure of our Quilts long arm quilted by Carol. We also have had the opportunity to view Carol’s work up close at our 2018 Quilt Show, including the 2018 Raffle Quilt. Please join us as Carol shares her inspirations and long arm Quilting journey.
APRIL Thomas Roach on ‘Cloth and Connection’ Thomas is a Vancouver based textile artist who recently managed the (in)finite: spiritual conversations in cloth exhibition at Christ Church Cathedral. Thomas discussed “Cloth and Connection”. He states, “While a quilt is typically defined as three layers stitched together, I believe that the result is vastly more than the simple sum of the component materials. There are a myriad of layers of meaning, memory and connection that at first don’t seem visible, but are often transmitted anyway by the visual and tactile experience. Such is the power of cloth. As quilters, weavers, fibre artists and lovers of textile we know this.” Imagine opening that experience up to a community to (re)discover together. Join Thomas to hear about his experience leading two large textile based community projects and how it has changed his approach to textile art-making.
MARCH Sandra Sandvik from Mayne Island presented her trunk show “Zero Waste – Up-cycled Quilting”. A textile artist for 30 years, Sandra’s love of textiles has focused on quilting, mix media, art quilts and weaving. She hopes to answer the questions around what is zero waste, what is up-cycling or repurposing and how does that work into her quilts and textile art? Sandra will be returning to the guild on May 24 and 25 as the teacher for the “Botanical Beauty” workshop.
FEBRUARY What’s New with Lorna?’ The dynamic speaker Lorna Shapiro, who is the Owner, Maker, Designer of Quilters Dream Fabrics in Vancouver. Lorna spoke about some of the new areas of exploration that she has been pursuing in the last couple of years. Lorna’s focus was design, but she also chatted about some new-to-me tools she has adopted in her quilting activities. She shared the process changes she is making in her design approach. Lorna has a passion for quilting and for Japanese & Batik quilting cottons and silks. Lorna also brought her a pop-up-shop.
JANUARY Chase away the January Blues! Our very own Guild Members were ‘Showcased’ in this special program: Jane Ellis, Paula Bohan, and Suzanne Patchell shared their quilting experiences. Every quilter has a unique beginning, and quilting is a world of color, pattern, design, techniques, ideas and of course endless feedback. Our friends told us about their quilting stories, their quilting journey and showed us their quilts.
2018 Programmes
NOVEMBER Our annual Christmas Social. Show & Tell of special Christmas Theme Quilts. A Secret Santa Draw for all Guild members that chose to participate.
OCTOBER Shannon from Skunk Hollow Fabrics in Squamish. Carol Piercy introduced the Animal Quilt-a-long and names were drawn for ‘Secret Santa’ gifts.
SEPTEMBER Berene Campbell of Happy Sew Lucky presented her trunk show. She talked about collaborative community projects and craftivism work, and the inspiration behind it. One of Berene’s statements is “Busy Hands Make Happy Hearts”.
JUNE Strawberry Social and Quilt Show Wrap-up before our Summer break
MAY Uschi Greiner of Wool Penny Rugs is a textile artist, designer and instructor in wool applique. She incorporates various hand embroidered stitches, she also hand dyes wool, silk-velvet and linen. She presented her Trunk Show of beautiful wool creations and also a Pop-up Shop.
APRIL Carola Russell of Carola’s Quilt Shop Threads and Trunk Show spoke about the latest trends in thread. After the presentation there was an opportunity to shop.
MARCH Paul Krampitz from the Vancouver Modern Guild gave a trunk show on his journey from traditional to modern quilting, with examples of lessons he learned in traditional quilting and how he has adapted these lessons in making modern quilts.
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