January's meeting

Here is the crowd, waiting for the church ladies to finish setting up the buffet.  These gals were hungry - many of them had spent all day sewing.  We had shepherd's pie, salad, rolls, fresh veggies, squash, dessert (which I cannot remember at this time).  Yum.

I presented the evening program.  It was a fun game, challenging teams to assemble puzzles of quilt blocks.  A word scramble of the block name accompanied each bag of pieces, and points were awarded for both the name scramble and the block piecing.

Stay tuned for our February 13th meeting when the Quilts of Africa team gives us a preview of their spring show at the London International Quilt Festival.

January meeting coming up...

Well, the first meeting of 2013 will be happening in two days.  Happy New Year to y'all.
Our Christmas pot luck in December was brimming over with food, as usual.  I was camera-challenged, again, so there are no photos.  For those of us who had to undo the button on our pants after supper, I guess that is a good thing.  ha ha.

Our program gal had us play a memory game, and did not give us a chance to practice first.  Mean Charlotte, mean!  It was fun though.  As usual we had lots of show & share to keep each other inspired.

I provided the members with a pattern to make this bag, from THIS tutorial.

Yeah, ok, I got a little carried away and have made 11 of them now.  This is for our MAKE A BAG, TAKE A BAG, VALENTINES SWAP which will happen at our February meeting.  If you make a bag, fill it with $10 worth of stuff.  Any kind of stuff - sewing things, cosmetics, food, gift cards, liquor, tea, whatever.  You will bring your filled bag, and take a different one home.

Here are my personal EXTRA instructions regarding the ZIPPER.  This will make sense when you are actually doing the zipper.

• Sew the first thingy on the TOP end, leaving the two metal bits exposed so you don’t hit them with the needle.  This will leave ¼” space at the folded end that does not have any of the zipper tape, and will not get in the way when you are grading the seam later.
• To get the other end with the same empty space – get out the pliers and rip off the metal end stopper of the zipper, so you don’t hit it with a needle or cutting blade.  Cut the zipper to a length of 7.75”, starting at the folded edge of the pretty thingy
• Sew the second thingy to the end piece, allowing ¼” space where the fold is.  The length should be 8” when you are finished.

This will eliminate a lot of the bulk at the zipper ends and makes it MUCH EASIER to turn these buggers right side out.

As for our January meeting on the 9th - I will be hosting a puzzle game.  We will split the attendees into groups.  Each group gets a set of quilt block puzzle pieces that they have to assemble.  I suspect we will discover some, um, NEW blocks.

Pot luck next week

Pencil in next Wednesday - December 12th for our Christmas pot luck supper.  Here - I'll just give you a clipping from our newsletter...

PROGRAM
December is our annual Christmas potluck supper. Supper will start at 6:30 pm, with meeting starting at 7:30 pm. Bring your own china and silver, along with your special potluck dish. Also this year, it would be nice if everyone brought their own Christmas placemat. We are also having a Christmas ornament exchange (bring one take one home). Ornaments must be handmade, sewn, knitted, crocheted, etc. At this meeting you will be able to sign up for our “Christmas in June” challenge. If you sign up in December, in January you will receive a Christmas Fat Quarter of fabric. To this you may add as much as you like of two other fabrics. (Backing/lining and binding do not count as “other” fabrics). Make something for Christmas and bring your creation to the June meeting to be voted on by your fellow members. If you do not bring your item back in June, there will be a $5.00 charge which will be donated to the guild. We will also have a demonstration of something “Christmassy” by Charlotte.

In January we will return to our regularly scheduled dinners by the church ladies.

October's meeting

When I got to the church some of the gals had been sewing all day.  And again, there appeared to be a few knitters in the group.  This was about 5 pm - they cleaned up their stuff and the tables were rearranged for our usual dinner, put on for us by the church ladies.  We love the church ladies.  :-)

Lisa Hill from Soft Impressions by Lisa was our guest speaker.  She brought a TON of notions, talked us through many of the items, and then happily wrapped up our purchases.  You can reach her by phone at 519-682-4353 or by email at softimpressions @ hotmail.com (take out the spaces around the @ symbol).

Coming up:
Our November meeting is ONE WEEK EARLY due to a booking conflict at the church, AND it is UPSTAIRS in the fellowship hall.  November 7th, 7:30 pm for the meeting.  Daytime sewing for those who would like to attend will be in the normal room.  There will be NO DINNER.  I apologize for all the capital letters.  :-/
Our guest will be Grantham Books - he brings a zillion books related to needlearts. 

The Fall Season

We had our annual booth at the Caledonia Fall Fair at the end of September.  Volunteers from the guild work in four hour time slots at the table (which is not here yet).  Some of us bring sewing machines and work on projects.

This year the fair board asked us to demonstrate hand quilting on Sunday afternoon.

I missed the September meeting, as did a few of our members, because the RCMP Musical Ride was happening at the fairgrounds at the same time.  Really!  Someone should have scheduled that better.

What can I tell you from the September minutes? 

• We collected 10 chemo quilts that will be going to Juravinski Cancer Centre, and lots of knit squares for a similar program
• We will be having a charm square exchange all year
• We will do a conventional Block of the Month program, where one participant wins all the completed blocks each month
• There will be monthly raffle draws

And from the newsletter...

• Lisa Hill from Soft Impressions will be our guest speaker at the October 10th meeting, discussing quilting gadgets and tools.  She will have stuff to buy, so bring your wallet.

 ***IMPORTANT NOTICE - November meeting****
Our November meeting will be moved up one week and take place on November 7th at the church as usual but there will be no dinner. We can still have all day sewing but must vacate the room by 4:30 pm. Our guild meeting will take place upstairs in the Fellowship Hall at the usual time.

Getting ready for a new season

Yes, I am the worst blogger in recent history.  My camera only made it to guild for the February meeting, where it seems we were hosting the local knitting ladies.  Just kidding, but a lot of our gals DO like to knit.  And talk.

For the last couple of years I have found a free pattern for bags and I give the members a different pattern each year.  Whoever would like to participate must make a bag and put $10 worth of 'stuff' in it.  This year I did wallets - here they are, ready for our Valentines meeting. This is the Victoria Wallet, by Talin's Corner

Our first meeting of the year will happen on Wednesday Sept. 12th.  If you like, you are welcome to come and sew all day - starting at 9 am.  Bring $5 for hall rent, and your lunch.
If you only want to come for the meeting - that starts at 7:30 pm.  We will (probably) introduce all the programs and groups and exchanges that will be running during the year.  And I will be rounding up volunteers to man our booth at the Caledonia Fair from Sept. 27 to Sept. 30.

October's Relay Race

This was such fun. Except for the part where poor Hanna cut her finger with the rotary cutter. The members of the non-winning team will be bringing treats for the rest of the year. AND we now have 40 9-patch units that we can use in our next donation quilt.