Gathering of the Guilds 2019

Saturday April 13th was a beautiful day for us to welcome over a hundred people to our Gathering.

I would like to start by giving a huge Thank You to our two organizers for this wonderful event.  Esther Bjorkland and Gloria Scaddan  did an amazing job of putting this event together. I would also like to acknowledge their trusty assistants, who I won’t name separately as I don’t want to miss anyone.

 

Our guest speaker Susan Jaenen-Griffin of  www.laceflowerdesigns.com   gave us a wonderful trunk show full of inspiration on how to use our stash to create beautiful quilts.

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Here Susan is standing with one of her latest quilts.   It is the first quilt in Susan’s  “Tree Mentor Series”  (Susan does work in ‘series’ a lot and highly recommends it for any artist)  Each quilt in this series will depict a conversation between the artist and a tree.

The quilt is named “BECAUSE” .  This is the conversation/artists statement:

ME:  “Beautiful Spring Tree – your beauty is so fragile and so fleeting, the wind, a frost or even the passing of a few days and all of your efforts will be lost!  Why … do you do it?”

WISE TREE:  “BECAUSE my dear, I am Just happy to be alive.”

Just a small sample of some of the detailed quilts Susan shared with us.  Many were miniatures with hundreds of tiny pieces.

Even the tiny pinwheel in the centre of ‘Seeing the Potential of my Fabric Fragments’  below is pieced!

‘Thatched Roof Round Houses’ shows as several techniques and gave us inspiration.

This was a repurposed whole cloth quilt incorporating some features of the original item.

Once again a big Thank You to Susan – our apologies that there are so few pictures as many quilts were shared as well as some fabric books, and other items.

One of our Crocus Guild items was to be a part of the Canadian Quilt Association guild challenge. “Quilting Goes Viral.”

This cute baby was the quilt chosen by attendees as their favourite.  It will now move on to be seen at Quilt Canada.

 

Many door prizes were handed out throughout the day and many lucky ladies went home with some beautiful prizes.  In addition to the store sponsors below Crocus Guild members donated items for door prizes.

A final Thank you must go to everyone that took time out of their busy schedules to attend our Gathering.  We had people travel from Moose Jaw, Regina, Torquay, Oxbow, Arcola, Assiniboa and Wapella to mention a few.

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April 2, 2019 Guild Meeting

The April 2 meeting’s program was “True Colours”, presented by Marg and Bonnie, and our members were given an opportunity to discover what Colour(s) — Blue, Gold, Green or Orange — represent our personality traits.  It was a fun and interesting activity to learn about ourselves and each other.

Show and Tell

Our cold winter has given our members an opportunity to do a great deal of sewing and as a result there were quite a number of wonderful items to see for Show and Tell.

Linda K. started Show and Tell with two projects she has been working on.  First she showed a number of “Quilts of Valour” blocks she has enjoyed making and she will give for the quilts of valour.  Secondly she showed a quilt she has made for her 13 year old granddaughter’s “Hawaii Science Tour” fundraiser’s silent auction.  It is made using cute blocks from a panel.

 

 

Eva showed three quilts.  The first shows hand-embroidered girls that Eva hand quilted around, with machine quilting around the blocks.  The other two quilts she showed were made using tans and browns.  One pattern was rail blocks and the other was left-overs to make a strip twist pattern.  She machine quilted both.  She pieced the back, so she has made good use of lots of scraps!

 

 

Adeline enjoyed spending the winter in BC and she was very busy quilting.  She showed a cute coffee can holder (with pockets) that she made for storing sewing items; she showed  a table runner that she made from scraps; and she showed two purple table mats that she made using the Lil’ Twister ruler from a class she took.

 

 

Also, Adeline made two table runners below.  The first is a gift for her sister-in-law and the second table runner has place mats to match.

 

 

Adeline showed two more pretty table runners.  The first is a stained glass design, and the second used the 60 degree ruler.

 

 

 

Ronna showed a lovely quilt she had started in 2006 and has now finished.  It is an attic window pattern, looking out on a Saskatchewan scene, including “yellow grass”.  She hand quilted it.  (Sorry there is no photo.)

 

Elaine showed a quilt she has made for her oldest grandson who is getting married.  It is a modern design and it has minkie on the back.  Colleen quilted it with a circle design.

 

 

Debbie showed several quilts she has finished.  The first is a quilt with lots of cute animals, quilted by stitching in the ditch.  The second quilt  of squares was quilted by Terry .

 

 

 

 

The third quilt was from Connecting Threads and Debbie used the 60 degree ruler.  Terry long arm quilted it with a feather design.  The next quilt, Great Grandma’s, has blue minkie on the back and it, too, was quilted by Terry.   Debbie also showed a double-sided flannel receiving blanket.

Bonnie has been working on Challenges.  Her Idiom Challenge is “Life’s a Beach” and it is cute with her own shells from the beach and appropriate fabric choices.  For the Upholstery Challenge, Bonnie made a welcome sign using Donna’s upholstery.  The sashing is also Donna’s donated straps.

 

 

 

 

Leeann showed a cute butterfly design quilt that she has made for her six month old great-niece. Colleen quilted it with a butterfly design.

 

 

 

 

Jaynie showed her creative Leaf “Dirty Ash” wall hanging that shows Ash leaves.  It is a leaf metaphor for the earth.  It shows the decayed and bad parts of the leaf that represent what we do with our hazardous wastes, etc.

 

 

 

 

Joanne showed a huge quilt (larger than a King size) that she started at a retreat several years ago.  It has lots of pieces, including 1/2 inch sashing. She will give it to her daughter who just had twin girls.  Colleen quilted it and she said it was perfectly flat and straight with its many seams.

Marlene showed two knitted baby blankets that will be gifts for her new twin great-nieces (Joanne’s granddaughters).

 

 

Leanne showed a quilt that she has repaired.  She started working on it last July and it was a lot of work!  It was for a friend.  She basically re-quilted it.  It was made from Fortrel. Leanne also showed two cute little quilts for the two celebrations: St. Valentine’s Day and St. Patrick’s Day.

 

 

 

 

Vera showed an Upholstery Challenge item — a nice bag that used Donna’s upholstery fabric.

She also showed a cute Easter “bag” that uses an Easter paper napkin that is covered with iron on vinyl.  She has made several for her grandkids.

 

 

 

 

Marg showed a UFO that is sewn using a panel and pattern from Periwinkle in Saskatoon.  Colleen, in keeping with the snowman theme, machine quilted it with a snowflake design.

 

 

 

Lydia showed a Lil’ Twister quilt that she made from fabric that her daughter gave her.  Colleen machine quilted it using a circle design.  Lydia also showed a cute spring table runner that she made from scraps.  She quilted it herself and put rick rack around it.  She also showed three doilies that she had turned into pretty bowls.  She used a mixture of 1/2 glue and 1/2 water (but she thought adding more glue would be better) and put them over bowls covered in saran to harden.

 

 

Donna M. has been busy!  The first quilt she showed was a baby blanket using three yards (1 yard of 3 colours).  It is “hatching dinosaurs” with minkie on the back.  She used her walking foot to quilt it.  The second item was an Easter table runner that she quilted with straight lines.

 

 

Donna also showed her April blocks of the month (one appliqued, and the other a pieced tipped basket) as part of her Block of the Month series.  Donna M. thanked Donna L. for the fabric contribution for the colourful umbrella.  Her final item she made from a pattern “Gratitude Wallet” and it has several places for cards.

 

 

Trudi has been using the snow to her benefit.  She showed several pieces of fabric that she snow-dyed.  It is interesting to see how the colours spread and change.  In the second photo, the brown looks purple.

 

 

She showed two small blue linen fabrics.  The final piece is a fine scarf.  The dyes on different fabrics turn out differently. Beautiful colours, Trudi!

 

 

 

It is always so inspiring to see what others are making!  It was a fun evening and it is nice to see our “snowbirds” returning and the promise of spring.  Happy Easter, everyone!

Our next Guild meeting will be on May 7 with a supper and meeting.

 

 

March 5, 2019 Guild Meeting

The Program for the March meeting was an interesting presentation done by Charlene and Debbie on rulers.  They showed examples of rulers useful for cutting strips (Striptology) and for making log cabin blocks, etc. Following the meeting and program, we had Show and Tell.

Show and Tell

Linda K. showed some of the many squares she has made during our cold winter.  The first block is for the Stash Buster Challenge and Linda has made 16 of the 104 she wants to make.  The second block uses “Fossil Fern Fabric” and she purchased the fat quarters quite a while ago.  She has run out of blue fabric, but Jaynie says she has some, much to Linda’s joy!  The pattern for the quilt is “Scrap Inc.” and she has lots of blocks yet to do.  Some of the blocks are reversed colours.  We look forward to seeing her end results!

Charlene showed three items.  The first is a mat to go under a sewing machine.  It has lots of pockets.  Happy Birthday to  Debbie as she is the lucky recipient of this mat!  The table runner is one that Charlene made and it is a Stripology pattern using the Strip Ruler she demonstrated in the program.  Charlene quilted it in a grid design leaving a diamond in the centre.

 

 

Charlene also showed her T-Shirt quilt she has made following a class she took in Houston. She designed this 89″ x 93″ quilt herself and she used the Magic Binding.

 

 

Donna M. showed two quilts she has finished.  The first is a pretty baby quilt that was a UFO from a kit and she was happy to complete it, quilting it herself.  The second quilt is a Quilt of Valour one that she used her scraps to make the log cabin design.  Donna also showed some blocks from a Block of the Month she started in February — “A Time for All Seasons” from Sew Incredible Crazy and Friends.  She showed the cute February and March blocks with the Valentine’s and St. Patrick’s themes. Each month has two blocks, one pieced and one appliqued.

 

 

Lydia showed her scrappy strip quilt that she will donate to charity.  It was made with the “Quilt As You Go” method.  Lots of scraps were used!

 

 

 

Leanne showed a wall hanging she made (by paper piecing) for her sister who loves goats.  She also showed two Christmas stockings that she knit.

 

 

Marg showed a table centre, “Rock Candy”, which she completed using the Jaybird Sidekick Ruler.  She bought a pack of charm squares after taking the Hex ‘n More Ruler class a few years ago and she finally put it together.

 

 

 

Colleen showed a”Monster Truck” quilt that she made for her grandson who loves monster trucks.  It has monster truck fabric and she long-arm quilted it with a monster truck design.  She used Glow in the Dark thread which is quite expensive, and she used the Susie’s Magic Binding technique.  Another time she said she would just use the neon thread in the binding!  The pattern is “Fat Quarter Sizzle” with 13 inch blocks so it is quick to cut out and piece.  Colleen puts a little heart on the label, love from Grandma!

 

Esther made this colourful quilt of 52 blocks from the  2019 Stash Buster Challenge using tiny scraps she had.  She only purchased the light green border fabric to complete it.  Colleen long-arm quilted it using a “sparks” design.  Eileen plans to donate it for a family reunion raffle.

 

Eileen showed two items.  The first is a pretty table topper that she made using the 60 degree ruler.  The second item is a quilt she made for her grandson using a kit  of wilderness fabric and flannel backing.

 

 

The final quilt of the evening was shown by Jaynie.  This modern quilt was started at a retreat years ago and Jaynie finished it by long-arm quilting it herself while visiting her aunt in Winnipeg.  She did not use a pattern; she improvised the piecing — very creative!

 

 

Our next Guild meeting will be on April 2.

Our Guild will host the Gathering of the Guilds on April 13 at the Wheatland Senior Centre.  We will gather at 11:30 a.m. with lunch at noon, followed by our guest speaker, Susan Jaenen-Griffin (Gold in Your Stash) and then at 2 p.m. there will be Show and Tell. Coffee will be at 3:30 and we will end at 4 p.m.  Cost is $10 which includes lunch and door prizes! We look forward to seeing neighbouring Guild members!

P.S.  Please forgive any errors in the photo descriptions — it is tricky taking notes quickly as our quilters show and describe their beautiful works of art!

February 5, 2019 Guild Meeting

On a cold and snowy evening we had a fun evening with about 18 members attending.  Marnie Bernard and two other Khedive quilters came to collect the sewing for the Canadian Nurses Africa Project, and we still have until March 5 to complete this sewing.

For our Program, thanks to Sharynne Pearce for showing the video from Superior Threads.  We learned a lot about threads and their uses, including tips about metallic threads!  The girls who attended Quilt Canada in Vancouver in May were given ten of these videos for our Guild, and so we drew names to see who would receive one.  One of the videos was kept for our Guild library.

Show and Tell 

Some of our members have been very busy quilting!  We enjoyed seeing what people have completed.

 

 

Debbie Giroux showed a beautiful large quilt she had completed!

 

 

 

Jaynie showed two pieces she had made. The first was a wall hanging for a 2020 Vision Challenge and hers is “Far Out”.  This is an outer space machine images. The sun went around the earth seeing the vision in passing.

 

The second wall hanging will be entered in a juried contest.  The theme is “Still” and so Jaynie did a “Still Life with a Still”.  She had the idea from seeing the Lumsden brewery and she did an abstract of a still.  So creative!

 

Marg has been preparing for Valentine’s Day and she has made four hangings for the occasion, one of which was UFO #1.  The hangings work well on the Ackfeld wire stands. She will share her work with her daughters.

 

Donna M. has also done a wall hanging for Valentine’s Day from an image she saw on Pinterest.  Donna also did a very pretty quilt called “Shimmer” which uses 20 different colours or fat quarters.

Bonnie has been using up her scraps to create this colourful quilt.  The only thing she had to purchase was the fabric for the sashing.  The stars are very striking! There are 100 2.5″ squares in each block of squares to total 900 little squares.  Good job, Bonnie, in creating something so pretty from your scraps.

 

 

Verla has finished a very pretty quilt from fabrics she had purchased about 10 years ago for a New York beauty class that unfortunately was cancelled.  Vera decided to make this brightly coloured quilt for her daughter, and the Khedive ladies quilted it.

 

 

 

 

Sharynne showed a pretty UFO pot holder that she had started a while ago.

 

 

 

 

Eileen showed her #1 UFO which is a table runner she made using the 60 degree ruler.  Eileen also showed some table covers that she has made for some lucky little girls.  She did the quilting on these covers practicing using the machine quilting rulers from the class.

  

Leeann used an X block ruler and two fat quarters to create this interesting table runner.  She used the 3.5″ block (there is also a 6.5″ block), and it is sewn like a 9-patch.

Leeann had a tip she shared:  To prevent the ruler from slipping, she put (on the back of the ruler) the small stick-ons that you use on the back of a cupboard door corner to prevent the door from banging.

 

 

 

Jill completed this beautiful “Antelope Canyon” pattern king-size quilt which measures 98″ x 98″.  She made it larger than the pattern.  The beautiful blues are Bali fabrics that she purchased on her trip to Bali.  Colleen did the long arm quilting using an orange peel design.  Jill put the “Susie’s Magic” binding on the quilt.

 

Donna L. added a lot of fun as she told about her quilts.  She has been very busy!  She showed four quilts.

The first quilt was from Lydia’s sale of quilting items several years ago.  Donna added the black sashing to Lydia’s pre-made “pineapple design” blocks.  Colleen did the machine quilting.

 

Donna’s second quilt used Lydia’s pinwheel blocks.  A third of the wheels were going a different direction, so Donna took them apart, and then sewed them all going in the same direction.

Colleen did the machine quilting using an orange peel design.

 

The third quilt that Donna completed was made from appliqued blocks that Lydia had made.  Donna put the blocks together and used “coffee” fabric to go with the theme.

 

Donna’s fourth quilt was a quilt she made herself (without Lydia’s blocks)!  Donna purchased the “woollies line” of flannel from the Quilt Patch quite a while ago.  She used the Hopscotch pattern and when she wanted to add a border, she was surprised to learn the Quilt Patch was no longer there.  She fortunately was able to find material to complete the quilt. Colleen did the long arm quilting.

The next Guild meeting will be on March 5.  We look forward to seeing the next Show and Tell (including UFO #4’s).  With the cold and snowy weather, it is nice to be inside quilting!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

January 8, 2019

First I must apologize for the delay in this post.  Sharynne uploaded the photos very quickly and I just did not get to this until I realized today was Guild and I hadn’t done January blog!

Our meeting started with talk of retreats – what a fun way to spend time with other quilters.  I always learn something new and love seeing what others are working on.

I did a quick program on curved piecing that didn’t go quite as expected as I was sewing with and audience with no thread!

We ended with some beautiful Show and Tell.

Debbie showed us a quilt she had made from a kit from Craftsy.  She started the way the pattern showed but wasn’t happy with the result so did a little unsewing and switchhed some blocks around and it looks wonderful.

Debbie’s second quilt is a baby quilt with fabric from Craftsy.

Shelley shared a great resource with us – a book the All in One Quilters Reference.

Vera has been busy making a Journal.  She used pieces from the Locker hooking class and has pages inside with various techniques she has learned.

Leeanne has finished a two year project – a beautiful knitted poncho/sweater.

Jaynie shared her upholstery sampler.

Trudi has been working on more art pieces.  This one included machine and hand stitching as well as embellishments.

You can check out what Trudi is up to at her blog http://www.elementalquiltworks.com

Lydia shared a cat quilt she made from scraps for the Humane Society.

Linda has been working on a Little Twister stocking.

Happy Quilting – stay warm in this cold weather!

 

 

 

 

Quilt Classes

We have been very lucky this fall and had two more wonderful classes.

The first was 60 degree ruler class with Heather Carruthers of Quilters Haven in Moose Jaw. Heather had a great assistant Lesli who helped all of us as we put together our blocks.

This was the kind of blocks we were learning to do. Heather and Lesli

brought some wonderful quilts al made using the 60 degree ruler.

We were all inspired to get working on quilts.

The second class was Quilting with Rulers with Shirley Kelly of Shirley’s Sewing Room in Moosomin. This was another great class and maybe we can now quilt the quilts we picked in Heathers class!

Here Shirley is showing us one of the many techniques she showed us.

Here we are hard at work trying out the new techniques.

Shirley brought a wonderful array of fabrics for anyone that was looking for more colours.

She also had all the feet and rulers needed for the class. There was much discussion about low shanks or high and medium shanks etc.

Here are a few examples from my work. Not the greatest as my machine was being temperamental and did not like going backwards. With Shirley’s help I got things working not too badly.

Two great classes by great instructors thank you the Heather and Shirley.

December 2018

We started our December meeting with a great meal catered by the Wheatland Senior Centre.  After a couple of reminders we went right into another great show and tell.  It was surprising how many #6 UFOs were completed!

 

Charlene showed us her Magic Tiles quilt.

Charlene also shared a cute reversible quilted hanging she received at the Torquay Christmas exchange.

Donna W. showed us her charm square Christmas runner.

Leanne used some of the upholstery squares and made a very nice reversible bag.

Eileen has been busy finishing this cute growth chart which incorporated a measuring tape from Peachtree.

Sharynne completed her tablerunner that she showed us last month.

Marlene has been working on the Idiom challenge.

Its raining cats and dogs!

Debbie Giroux shared the modern quilt blocks that Darlene Holdstock has put together after our gathering in September.

Donna M. has also been working with some of the upholstery fabric to make a cute pyramid bag.

Donna has been busy this month as usual and showed a couple of other bags.

 

 

Leeann finished her #6 UFO – a hopscotch quilt for her grandaughte quilted by Colleen with dragonflies and waves.

Elaine added eyes to a snowman runner she made for her daughter in law several years ago.

 

Marg’s #6 UFO was a Fold n Stitch wreath. It went to Australia with her.

Vera had several things to show us – she has also been busy!

 

Helen made two very cute quilts for her grandchildren.

 

 

Adeline has been busy using her 60 degree ruler making several table runners and centres.

 

We finished off the evening with our usual Left-Right game.  Anyone that wanted made a paperpieced Christmas tree item and wrapped it.  Brenda King did another great job of including all our members in a wonderful story to distribute our gifts.  We sit in a circle and every time left or right(or write) comes up in the story we pass it that direction.

Here is our story – a big thank you to Brenda! PLEASE don’t believe everything you read!!

Santa, the Guild, and the Soo Theater

RIGHT after Santa arrived in Weyburn last Christmas, he realized Weyburn citizens were LEFT with a crushing blow.  The Soo Theater had closed.  To the LEFT and RIGHT businesses thrived, but the theater was LEFT deserted.

Santa realized RIGHT away that avid theater goes like Diana,Vickie, Debbie, and Helen were RIGHTfully heart broken.  The three Donnas, Jaynie, and Verla LEFT Weyburn to see movies in Regina and Estevan.  That wasn’t RIGHT as money then LEFT town.

Jill, Jan, Marion and Terena decided to WRITE whomever they could think of to get help.  Adeline even decided to WRITE Santa.

Santa couldn’t help as he would be LEFT with no time to supervise his elves including the mischievous Charlene, Shelby, Eva, and Joanne.  Mrs. Claus couldn’t help as she would be LEFT with no time to coffee with her friends Grace, the two Dots, and Leona.

Santa turned to the Crocus Quilt Guild.  Could they RIGHT this wrong for the community?  They would try or be LEFT with great disappointment.

Marg, Dorothy Benning, and Michele volunteered to head up this committee and the rest of the quilters said these ladies wouldn’t be LEFT doing the bulk of the work.  RIGHT away the group realized that to make profits LEFT, RIGHT and sideways, it wouldn’t be RIGHT to use all the space for seats and the screen.

Lydia and Sharynne wondered if it would be RIGHT to have 150 seats and a screen half the size and to use the LEFTover space for other profitable things.  Yvonne, Marianna, and Eileen thought that was the RIGHT idea and asked those LEFT without jobs to come up with ideas.

“My longarm machine could go in the RIGHT back corner,” said Colleen Sproat.

“I wanted the RIGHT back corner for my hand quilting frame,” said Esther, “but I could use the RIGHT front corner instead.”

Bonnie, Lynne, Shelley, Darlene, Leann Miller, and Nancy smiled impish smiles as they rolled their homemade cigarettes.  “Let’s have a smoking area RIGHT behind the screen,” said these legal pot-smoking ladies.

That LEFT Vera and Shannon aghast.  Smoke pot RIGHT in the guild’s theater?  No way!  It wasn’t RIGHT to get the smell of smoke into the fabrics.  They could smoke their pot RIGHT outside in the alley like the rest of the guild members.

Those who thought the pot smokers’ idea wasn’t RIGHT, shouted out other ideas.  Leanne Alexander said an area for cutting fabric was RIGHT.  Marlene and Linda Unraw said an area for the library was RIGHT.  Trudi said an area to store charity quilts was RIGHT. Gloria added that an area for swapping unused fabric was RIGHT and Linda Klemenz said it was only RIGHT to have a demo area.  Dorothy Schoff said any LEFTover area could be used to rent space to Weyburn’s RIGHT wing and LEFT wing politicians.

Rhonda and Sheila weren’t at the meeting so had to WRITE and mail their ideas.  Their ideas were LEFT at the bottom of a mailbag due to the postal disruptions.

It was Peggy and Elaine‘s job to WRITE to Santa and Mrs. Claus so they knew the guild hadn’t LEFT the community hanging.  They had saved the Soo Theater!  They included a list of the first movies they would show:  The Kids Are All RIGHT, The RIGHT Kind of Wrong, Elvis Has LEFT the Building, Dudley Do-RIGHT, RIGHT at Your Door, My LEFT Foot, All the RIGHT Moves, and Do the RIGHT Thing.

Mayor Roy was so pleased with the Guild that he declared December 25^th Crocus Quilt Guild Day.  The rest of the world was LEFT with it being only Christmas Day, but RIGHTfully Weyburn would celebrate both Christmas and their beloved heroes – the Weyburn Quilt Guild.

Santa smiled as he LEFT for his 2018 trip.  Gifts and gratitude would be LEFT for the Crocus Quilters who made Christmas especially great RIGHT in their own neighborhood.