Sew Day Roundup

Ann worked on her hand applique. A resounding cheer went up when she finished a border.

Janice was working on Christmas aprons for the men in her life. She seems to have quite a few - men AND aprons.

Lynne was making blocks for the guild Block of the Month. She knows there are prizes involved.

Charlotte is so far behind on the quilt shop's $10 quilt she may never get caught up.

Helen was showing off her fancy socks that were hand knit by her friend's mom. Nice eh?

Nov. 24 - Extra UFO Sewing Day

Wednesday Nov. 24th. Pack up your stuff and head over to the church for a day to work on your UFOs. 

No phones, no kids, no sink full of dirty dishes.  Just you and your sewing.

9 am until 4:30 pm.  Cost is $5 to pay the rental fee.  Bring your lunch or plan to take a drive over to Timmies.

Prepare for November meeting

Lydia is making us WORK this month.  Here is your prep that should be done beforehand...
 

                                             Guild Project for November 2010

Instructions   (to be finished for the November meeting)

Fabric  - 33 inches X 41 inches  with fold at bottom  (from your stash)

( For those who are doing the BOM with Anne and are making the 16 inch blocks you want to cut your fabric 36 inches X 41 inches)

Gross Grain Ribbon – 2 ribbons, each 28 inches long.

Take your fabric and fold it in half with right sides together, so that it measures 16 ½ X 41 inches. See picture 1.

Measure in 4 ½ inches in from both sides and pin ribbon at this point with the fold of the ribbon along the edge with the long edge of the ribbon facing you. Pin in place.

Pin  all  around the open edges of you rectangle.

Sew a ¼ inch seam all around  your rectangle leaving a 2 ½ inch opening to turn your fabric right side out.

Turn fabric right side out and press.

Topstitch ¼ inch all around the rectangle making sure that the ribbons are not caught up in your stitching.

Cut 2 circles 3 ½ inches in diameter.

Bring circles, the rectangle that you prepared and a bottle of white glue to the November meeting. See you there!!!!

October - the Fair and upcoming meeting

Our guild will have it's usual booth at the Caledonia Fair this weekend - right near the quilt display/competition.  Come out and visit us!

For our October 13th meeting we have Denise McKenna of Meadow Lily Bridge quilt patterns coming for a lecture.  The gals members who signed up for swaps and other activities will be getting started on their little groups.  (I can't say 'gals' any more - we have a gentleman who has joined the guild).

As usual, those who are able will be sewing all day (any time after 9 am) and there will be a catered supper by the church ladies.  The meeting will start at 7:30.

September starts a new season

September 8th marks the beginning of our new season. You can look over all the group activities and decide which ones you'd like to participate in.
Christine will be talking about what sewing supplies are necessary when you attend workshops.
And, of course, there's always the tea & treats!

August sewing day - August 11th

Come have some fun & do some stitching on Wednesday. $5, bring your lunch and your stuff. We have the church hall from 9 - 4:30.

Handbag Roundup

The purse workshop that Lydia taught was great!!!
Sue (L) and Lydia (R) are hamming it up for me.
Eleven of us made the handbag and all were complete by day's end except for (I think) two.
Here is a closeup of my bag, which is a very bad example. I was so determined to match the pattern on the pocket I didn't realize just how far off center it was placed. Oh well, I'll do a better job next time, right? And by the time I have it jammed full of stuff it likely won't be too noticeable.
Afterwards a few of us came back to my house for a summer pot luck. One roast beef on the BBQ, six salads, one dessert. Wow - what a perfect mix of food.I'm not sure what we can do for our August sewing day that will compete with the perfection of today.

July 14th - sewing day

Here we are in the heat of summer with a forecast of 32 c. Anne sent me an email that she's staying in the basement today, working on her Dresden Plate quilt.

On July 14th we will have a sewing only day, from 9 - 4:30. The cost is $5 to cover the rent. If you would like to partake, Lydia will be leading us in a handbag workshop. Send an email to Sue R. if you want the yardage and prep instructions.

Presentation to the Heart & Stroke Foundation

We presented the Red Dress quilt to the Heart & Stroke Foundation at our June meeting. The photo with the following text was sent to the local newspapers.

Members of the Caledonia Grand River Quilters’ Guild made a quilt based on the Red Dress motif of the Heart & Stroke Foundation. The quilt was made in memory of Barb Lister. Barb was a member of the guild at the time of her sudden death due to heart disease. A presentation of the quilt to the Heart & Stroke Foundation was made on Wednesday June 9^th. Pictured in the photo from left to right are Bernadette Forbes (top) the designer of the quilt, Tanya (Barb’s daughter), Glenn Lister (Barb’s husband), Penny Weir (Program Co-Ordinator Heart & Stroke Foundation, and Jessica Lalonde (summer student working for the H & S Foundation).

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Also at the June meeting we voted on the Ugly Fabric Challenge. Wow - every single person who signed up completed their project.
I must have been pouting over not winning in any of the categories because I seem to have misplaced the list of winners. YOU know who you are, you dirty rascals!

June 9 meeting

This is our final official meeting until September. Pot luck supper - we will eat at 6:30. Please bring your own dishes & cutlery to minimize the dishwashing afterwards.

We will be presenting the Red Dress quilt to the Heart & Stroke Foundation at 7:30 pm.

We will be voting on the Ugly Fabric Challenge creations, with prizes for some lucky winners. If you signed up for this challenge and you do not bring your completed item there is a $10 penalty. Hmm - pretty big stick. Maybe your Program Committee next year will use carrots to encourage completion.

There is also a large prize drawing so bring some $$ for tickets.

the Red Dress Quilt

This quilt was Bernadette's brainstorm. After Barb Lister passed away so suddenly, Bernadette drafted the pattern from the Red Dress design featured by the Heart & Stroke Foundation. This was partially machine quilted and partially hand quilted. It's all finished except for binding and a label.

Our Program this month was presented by Sue - she taught us all about quilt binding. There were lots of samples of binding and she explained how she chose her fabrics, and her favorite methods of cutting & making bindings. After we had a chance to peruse her handouts she did some hands-on Q & A with the members.

Binding Lesson on tap for April

Don't miss the April meeting - Wednesday April 14th. Sue will be demonstrating quilt binding. We will also have treats. How much more incentive do you need???

Interviews with the UFO-ers

Q: Hello Candace. Why are you here at UFO day today?
A: I am avoiding work and home responsibilities. It's the only way I can get any sewing done.

Q: Charlotte, you are obviously enjoying yourself. Why are you here today?
A: I hate my dungeon at home - I can't see anything. I come here to sew. And I get feedback on lobster colour from the other girls.

Q: Lydia it's good to see you back at sewing days. Why are you here today?
A: I am escaping from family and friends who bug me all day long. I want to frikkin' sew!!

Q: Ann, you always bring your lovely hand applique with you. Why are you here today?
A: This is a forced social outing for me and my Ott light. We are avoiding the Howard Hughes syndrome. And it's a bit of dedicated time for sewing.

Q: Janice now that you're retired we see you more and more. Why are you here today?
A: I like the company - I come to socialize and sew. And I have to collect the cash, you know?

Q: Helen, you seem to be talking to yourself as the interviewer and the interviewee. Why are you here today?
A: I am avoiding work at home, since I work at home. Also, I needed fodder for the guild blog. And I wanted to converse with someone who walks on two legs for a change.

March Review and Extra UFO Day

This month we are having an EXTRA sewing day to clean up those UFO's. Wednesday March 24th, from 9 am-ish until 4:30-ish. Bring $5 for your share of the church rental, and your current UFO.

Here is a sneak peek at our Red Dress quilt for the Heart & Stroke Foundation. Hand quilting was started at our meeting on March 10th and will continue in April.

The Three Sisters gave us a great trunk show at our March meeting and kept us giggling for an hour. These are some of the quilts they shared with us.

March meeting & Sewing Machine Videos

We will have the Four Sisters (really only three - one of them is down with illness) from the Tillsonburg area for a trunk show & talk. I've seen them before and they are very entertaining.

The show will start at 7:30 and our business portion will follow.

Bring your thimbles to put a few stitches in the Red Dress quilt.
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YouTube has some fun videos about sewing machines, if you want to kill some time.
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3


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Placemats from Orphan Blocks - tutorial

One of the projects that our guild has adopted is making placemats for Meals on Wheels. At our last meeting we had so many pillowcases presented to Sue's Quilt 'n More Store, it seems no one made any placemats.

Let's remedy that for the March meeting. Here is a link to Three Creative Studios - they have an EXCELLENT tutorial on their 'free projects' page. Turn your orphan blocks into placemats! You will see it near the bottom right hand corner of the projects page.

Where are all the quilt shops??

Ladies, I thought I would pass on some info about my recent trip to Florida. Just like always I look at our route and plan out which quilt shops I will stop at on the way. I am allowed ( %%$*!!) to find ones that are no more that 5 miles off the beaten path. In total around 5 plus the bonus ones that a visitor centre gave me (not updated I may add). All together my hubby drove me to 9 shops. In my total unbelievable surprise 7 of these shops had closed. The stores I did visit mentioned the economy had destroyed so many small businesses and to call ahead next time. Sooooo, I just want to pass on that info. Call ahead so you don't waste your time. We did end up laughing a lot, me blaming Bill for calling ahead to warn them I was coming and not to let me in. Very disappointing thats for sure. Also some states still has material in Walmart and some do not. Again very disappointing. I did purchase what I wanted but still cannot find orange sequins!! go figure. The shining point of the trip was once again Jo-ann Fabrics. It was literally the only shining point, we were in Florida for a week and saw sun for about 10 hours in total and the temp got up to 12 one day. I think we need to later in the year.

Happy sewing gals, see you next meeting

Janet

Moda Bags

We had a great response to our Secret Sister Exchange using a pattern from the Moda Bake Shop web site. This will go on our Program for next year.

Here are some closeups:

Feb 10 meeting

Tonight we will be exchanging our little Moda bags in our Secret Sister Swap. This should be so much fun!

Afterwards we will have a lesson on quilt battings by Helen. What goes in between the layers really does make a difference.

Hopefully the snow does not keep too many gals home. 7:30 - see you then!

Extra Sewing Day - Wed. Jan. 27th

We had a wonderful trunk show by Aline at our last meeting. I know everyone went home very inspired.

This week we are having an EXTRA sewing day to clean up those UFO's.

Wednesday Jan. 27th, from 9 am-ish until 4:30-ish. Bring $5 for your share of the church rental, and your current UFO.

Aline Chan in January

Aline Chan from Ancaster will be our guest speaker at the meeting on January 13th.

C'mon out - visitor fee (if you're not a member) is $4.00. The meeting gets under way at 7:30 so come a bit earlier than that.