Welcome Back! Are you ready to Quilt?

Our first meeting for the fall is on Thurs Sept 4th- here’s a list of items to remember.

Hands Across The Water- fee to be paid and your spot reserved- remember your money ($10). There is a waiting list as the event planners have received a wonderful response from all the guilds that are invited.Kathy O’malley is our trip coordinator and she welcomes offers to carpool. There will be a separate signup sheet on the table for both.

Library Books- have you got a past due notice? Please bring your borrowed books on Thurs.

Membership-to make things easier for our membership person, it would be easy to put your $50 cheque in an envelope with your name, address, phone number and email addy printed on the outside.

Guild Challenge- JennieR will be passing out challenge packets-bring $5, so you can join in the fun.

University College exhibit- EleanorD would like a list of all pieces for the college show so she can make labels.Please take the time to measure your pieces and note the title for the signup sheet. We really need this info ASAP. Mark your calendars as the set up date is Wed Sept 24th and the reception is Fri night Sept 26th. You can bring the quilts to the 3rd Thurs event of Sept. And help in hanging the show is always welcome.

Fall Fair-A team of guild members has volunteered to hang quilts once again at the Fall Fair. They’d like a few more members to assist- please sign up NOW!  Set up will be Friday Morn Sept 26th.

Take the time to make a list of any quilts you’d be willing to share. These can be older quilts and medium size work the best. Remember that over length quilts could drag on the ground – so lap size and twins work really well. This information is also needed at the business meeting. Whew! so much to remember………..don’t forget the most fun stuff – your show and tell items! We want to see what you’ve been doing since June.

We had our 2nd quilt show planning meeting and the most critical committee is Logistics. Norma and Eleanor would love to have 4 more members helping with this most important committee.

What does Logistics mean? registering of all quilts in the show, organizing into categories, planning the hanging order, making labels,checking quilts into and out of Dwight Hall, and a dozen other little important things .

Be sure to come with a plan to sign up for a quilt show committee.Good teamwork will make this the best show yet.

See you on Thurs.

Nina

Whats a Brown Bag Challenge??

our program committee decided to have a change from Blocks of the Month or Cookie Tin Exchanges.This coming year will see a brown bag challenge or more specifically, it is a gift exchange.

You are asked to place 4 fat quarters of your choice in a brown paper bag with your name pinned to the bundle inside. Bring the package to the October business meeting and the committee will switch the bags around and you will not know who get’s your bag. Each participant will make something quilty from the fat quarters and return it to the originator of the package at the end-of-the-year party in June.

Yes, you can add other fabrics of your own.

No, you don’t have to use up every smidge of all the fabric.

Yes, this is an optional activity and you can participate or not.

No, there is no size restriction ,no theme, and no rules. Simple Eh?

What does the fabric *say * to you? What do you know about the fabrics owner? Would she like something other than a wall hanging?

Have fun and we’ll look forward to the unwrapping next year.

Summer Fun in the Park

The Powell River Arts Council has again sponsored the Arts Alive in the Park to kick off the Blackberry Festival.  Last week-end’s weather cooperated and brought lots of families to Willingdon Beach.

We had a large number of out of town people stop to chat as well as potential new members from PR.  The visitors from furthest away were from South Africa.  Our tent was highly visible with the new fluttering pennants (Thanks Yvonne) and both of the long narrow banners for identification.

One of our new banners and pennants.

Thanks to guild members who stopped by to visit, chat with the public and assist me with set-up and takedown. I couldn’t have done it without Shirley , Alice, and Yvonne.

Our Booth from a Distance, with pennants a fluttering.

Chatting with a few visitors.

Quilting Bloggers

You may have noticed the Quilting Bloggers badge in the side bar.

A quilter in Ontario has created a directory of all Quilter’s Blogs. They are categorized by country, and in Canada further categorized by Province.

If you have a blog, have it added to the Quilting Bloggers website, and increase traffic.

for your browsing pleasure

Grab a beverage of choice on this hot summer day and enjoy the winners of the Trendtex National Challenge as well as the ribbon winners of the CQA’s National Juried Show that were recently posted.

http://www.canadianquilter.com/

This show was recently held in St John’s NFLD and showcased some wonderful Canadian talent. I just want to mention that the next 2 years will be held at Western Canadian venues so it will be very easy for BC quilters to attend and participate in the conferences, classes and comraderie. The 2009 venue will be in Saskatoon and 2010 will be in Calgary.

If you’ve never been to a large national show or a larger convention, please consider becoming a member of the CQA and enjoy the great quarterly magazine , and receive early notices for registration for these conferences.There’s no need to travel outside our borders to get top notch teachers and inspiration.

Art Alive In The Park-next week

plans are going well for our participation in AAIP. The tent is ready , The second banner is almost done – and would have been completed sooner if I had not used an old sheet for the backing…………note to self – those old sheets are heavy duty thread count and very dense to try to hand sew on the sleeve!

Yvonne came today and we brainstormed a nice pennant to hang on bamboo poles on 2 corners of the tent.

AND BONUS!! the weather might be blazing hot and DRY on Sat and Sun.Just need zap ties and ever useful duct tape and we’re set for all problems – pack the cooler and the sunscreen plus some hand work to demo – should be fun.

Nina

book review aug 7th,2008

gee it’s odd that I’m sitting here typing on the evening of Aug 7th and the post looks like I am posting on Aug 8th – will have to see if i can change a clock somewhere and eliminate that glitch.

But I purchased a book at the Canadian Conference that we will introduce to the guild at the sept meeting and I hope to do a book report on all purchases made for the coming year.

Machine Applique For The Terrified Quilter by Sharon Pederson is the latest from our friend Sharon , who makes her home on Vancouver Island.

In the introduction, Sharon states that she tries very hard to find the easiest way to do any project, and I know if you follow her many hints that you too can make machine applique very enjoyable.

The projects can be completed with either the invisible machine applique(blind hem stitch) or the fusible applique with zig zag or satin stitching. Sharon has included lots of hints for achieving a pucker free project with neat tidy corners,curves and points useing your zig zag stitching. Reading the 1st chapter on threads, needles and fusibles should be mandatory – I found it very helpful.

Nina

change of name-but same smiling faces 8/6/08

Just got an email from the nice gals at the (former) Rose Garden Quilt Shop.

They have changed their name to Creative Essentials(clever!)

and they hope that you’ll all visit to see their new stock of fabrics and DMC floss to begin with, and expanding into yarns for knitting and crochet as well as other crafting items in the future.

Ginette Foulds and Mary Baulne are the nice gals that you will meet.

Nina

August is flying by too fast TuesAug5th

My friend and quilting buddy, Alice , has a blog on WordPress and I thought I’d follow her example and open our guild blog at this service as well.

The purpose of this blog will be:

- to keep all guild members up to date on program activities,

-post supply lists for Thurs evening demos

-keep you all up to date on meetings for the quilt show committees, the raffle quilt workbees, and to announce sudden changes to meeting times because of bad weather.

-and to bring you some interesting links to online resources,canadian quilters and new innovations.

I will try to post an entry at least once a week, and would appreciate any comments on what you’d like to see here and on our new website ( soon to be launched)

I appreciate your patience while I learn all about blogs.

Nina