September's Scrappy Group

As you can see, there are some obvious overachievers who are finished a SECOND top already.  A few of us are a little bit slower, continuing to work on pattern number one.  In both cases, though, we are working through our scraps.  Yay!!

September meeting - the start of a new season

Our new season started on September 11th.  As usual, we had several members come in the morning to spend the day working on many different projects.  The church ladies provided a delicious meal of sweet & sour meatballs with all the fixings, followed by a delicious dessert.  The official meeting started at 7:30 pm when programs for the coming year were announced.

For the past year, and going forward, we are covered by our own insurance policy.  This has necessitated an increase in our membership dues to $50 per year.  That works out to $5 per meeting and is still an inexpensive way to spend your evening. 
Membership gives you:

•  a monthly newsletter
• access to our wonderful library of quilting and needlework books
• the opportunity to join in sewing days and catered dinners
• guest speakers exhibiting a wide array of quilts with related lectures and classes
• easy access to members with lots of expertise and the willingness to share knowledge
• fabric swaps, block exchanges, structured quilt block lessons, raffle draws
• social break at every meeting with coffee, tea, and a selection of desserts

This year we are running a Sampler Quilt program that is based on the Underground Railroad quilts.  So don't miss the next meeting!

Coming up on October 9th:

Kathy Thompson from Simcoe is giving a quilt related talk on the history of the Underground Railroad.

Cross Border Quilting

August is not a typical choice for quilt shows, but it worked out really well for five of our members.  Summer is a wonderful time to travel and experience holidays with your friends.  We loaded up our weekender suitcases and headed down the highway to Caledonia, NY for a quilt show by our adopted sister guild.  They refer to themselves as the Caledonia Guild, NY Office.  Ha ha - too cute.

Caledonia, NY is a very old, very pretty town.  I was joking that I think the Stepford Wives must live there - it was so clean and tidy. The quilt show was in a beautiful school where the guild had quilts hung in two gymnasiums.  Lots of quilts.  A surprising number of quilts for a small guild.

This is a wee selection of the quilts I thought looked nice and scrappy (in honour of OUR new Scrappy Club).

We stayed at the Genesee Country Inn - a beautiful bed & breakfast that is a former mill.  The bedrooms were pretty but not fussy, and each boasted a private bathroom.  The beds were super comfy and breakfast was delicious - lasting for a couple of hours, relaxing over coffee.  The owners were friendly and chatty, making us feel really welcome.

Over the next year our guilds will be making cross-border challenge quilts for each other that are destined for donation to our respective Quilts of Valour programs.  So far we have given each other 3 yards of fabric, with a deadline of June 2014 to complete a quilt, approximately sized 72 x 90.  With luck we can arrange a picnic day next June or July to swap the completed quilts and get better acquainted face-to-face rather than via facebook.