Friday, 13 January 2017

Happy New Year! Jan 2017 Meeting


Let's start off the year by thanking Janet and Michelle for organizing our meetings and Charmaine for being such a fabulous note taker.  I can well imagine the organizing is a bit like herding cats - and I know note taking is a challenging art form.  So a big thanks to all of you!



Janet started off by taking care of some past business, specifically the Hunter Star class that Gail will be doing again for those interested.  Contact Janet if you are.  

Another item we discussed was the matter of "homework blocks".  We've sort of stalled on that front.  The previous blocks are all posted on a separate tab in this blog.  We decided that going forward, in addition to email, Mary would post the monthly block on the group's Facebook page (which she has done for the upcoming month's block).

Stephen Rice of Sewing Sensation/Sewing World hosted our meeting.  Thanks Stephen!



Here is our happy little group.  Actually not so little!  But our attendance was down this month, likely due to the frosty weather.





Charmaine - above - taking notes and below - show and tell.



The minutes would not open for me, so my apologies - the names won't be coming unless I happen to know your name.  I don't know this lady's name, but I do remember that she said this was her first time out trying feathers.  She did a great job on this log cabin!



Sandy, above, did an "infomercial" for Quilts of Valour.  There is even a new line of fabric that can be used, which she is showing here.  She noted that in Alberta, we have tall Veterans, so we like our quilts to be larger than the "official" size.  Ours should be 60" * 80" or even bigger.  She had 5 with her that needed quilting and in short order, quilters volunteered.  We are such a great group!  😀 (I found the emojis - look out now!  😎)


Allison, enthusiastic as always, talked about her recent training and that she now has Pro-Stitcher on her Handi-Quilter machine, which she was testing for the first time the other day on this quilt.




And maybe this quilt?


Again, a name I don't know but she did this pretty fabulous quilt.






And here is Heather.  I asked if I'd read she was in a magazine with this quilt.  She said no.  But now that I've done a quick search on our FB page, it turns out I wasn't dreaming - I just remembered wrongly - it was not a magazine, it was on the APQS blog, so she is famous and her quilt is famous!  Yay!






I believe this lady said her name is Joan...(?) She did this baby quilt - we discussed quilting as she had a few questions.  She did a fabulous job!







And Janet, taking her inspiration from Terry's bags, made herself a quilted tote.



Kim, above, showing Quilters Connection - her recipe is in there and I think she's a regular contributor.  I actually picked up a copy of this rag as I've been asked to submit a quilt - it will be in the next issue.  But it was fun to see people I know in the mag - in addition to Kim J-H, Gail and Kim H are in this issue and there are a couple of Calgary people on the editorial board as well.  I had not heard of this publication until recently.

Jane gave a presentation of her tricks and tips or "Quilting Hacks" as she likes to call them.  She has some really great ideas for making quilting easier and it's great that's she's so willing to share them. 








Jane shows how to bury threads with a self-threading needle.

Let me know what I've missed - I am going strictly from memory here so by definition would have forgotten something critical!   Cheers and stay warm!  😍☃







December 2016 Meeting

The December meeting was hosted by Gail Heller of Erie Quilt Art in NE Calgary.  Cheryl Arkison was our guest speaker.  We all enjoyed her stories and inspiration.  




Cheryl shared many of her quilts and their stories with us.  This "slab" quilt is the one that launched her quilting career.



This is the quilt where she decided borders are not for her!




Green is the Pantone "colour of the year 2017" and Cheryl, just by chance, has a number of green quilts in her stash, so decided to share those with us, too.















And some other quilts....



And a book containing at least one of Cheryl's patterns.



Cheryl's "Smooch" quilt!  She wanted to make 1/2 circles with no seam (i.e., not made with 1/4 circle blocks stitched together) do she designed this quilt to prove it could be done!



More curves....




Here she is with one of the three books she has either co-authored or authored.




One of her "book quilts" - based on crossword.  [I have quilted one of these for a customer and my tip if you're making one is to be absolutely sure that all the letters/words are in the right spot - I had to move a few blocks around as they had been mis-placed.]











"Equalizer" quilt below - based on the readout from an equalizer (related to sound).  Cool!  :)



Bigfoot - an enlarged version of the Sasquatch in Elizabeth Hartman's Legendary quilt pattern.   



A bit more about Cheryl:
She is the author or co-author of three books: 
  1. A Month of Sundays
  2. Sunday Morning Quilts
  3. You Inspire Me to Quilt
She has patterns published in: 
  • Lucky Spools Essential Guide to Modern Quilt Making
  • Playful Little Paper Pieced Projects by Tasha Bruecher 

She has at least one pattern out - Oh Canada.  But I believe she actually has more than one...


She teaches, she has classes available on Craftsy, has appeared with Ricky Tims and Alex Anderson, she judges quilts at quilt shows - she's a one woman quilting force!  Thanks Cheryl!



Moving right along to our group show and tell, above, Charmaine.



Above and below - Linda.





Here is Lee with a couple of her creations.



Janet showed us some samples by Ana Buzzsalino.  She is arranging to have Ana come to speak to us in an upcoming meeting.


Gail shared her recent experiences at the quilt market and talked about some new products that she will be carrying.  Of course we always get excited about "new stuff"!!!  Thanks for hosting, Gail!