Sad news

We are saddened to hear that member Sadie Miller has lost her beloved husband Reg. After a period of declining health, Reg passed away on Friday, Sept. 25th. Sadie, we all send you our loving thoughts and heartfelt sympathies. We are sharing in your sorrow and praying for your comfort...

Also, former FQG member Clara Allen passed away in her sleep on Friday night. Clara was recently diagnosed with ALS. She was an energetic and keen member, taking part in many workshops and Retreats, and also served on the Workshop Committee. We will miss her smile and fun-loving spirit. Our deepest sympathies go out to her family, including her sister Joyce Rice.


"Sometimes it seems the sun goes down too soon."

Karen Henry Workshops in Fredericton - Oct 17, 18, 19

The Fredericton Quilters Guild is pleased to have CQA's Teacher of the Year, Karen Henry, come to Fredericton to deliver 3 of her workshops. There are places left in each of these workshops and we invite any quilter to register to take one of these classes. If you have questions or to register, please contact Wendy McLean at 506-209-9422.

Woven Quilts – Saturday – October 17th – - $40.00 - Beginner + (know how to use rotary cutter & mat)

Celebrate the weaving of two or more different materials to create a distinctive piece of fabric. There will be a discussion of the variety of materials that can be used to work the fabric, how fabrics of various patterns can create movement, and how different values can accent your focal point. Students will select the technique they wish to do and create a small wall hanging in this one-day workshop.
(The squirrel and shoe are not part of the workshop)

Pet Portraits – Sunday – October 18th. $40.00

Take a photograph of your favorite pet and transform it into fabric using fusible web products and your sharp scissors. Add a little bit of character to the wall hanging by including the pet’s toys or hobbies. This is a small project designed for those students who have experience free motion quilting.

Delightful Dragonflies Monday – October 19th. -- $40.00 + kit fee

This class offers the intermediate quilter an opportunity to work on tulle and/or organza. Students will work with water-soluble stabilizer, raw edge appliqué, machine appliqué and wooly embellishments. Students have the option of quilting the entire project, or just the borders. Built in embroidery pattern ‘Dragonflies’ from the Pfaff Creative Vision machine included in project. Kit Fee of $5.00. No embroidery machine is required!

Upcoming Events to note...

Since our meeting, we have received notice of several events we should draw your attention to:

The first is a Quilt Show being held in Hampton NB on Oct. 10, 2009 from 10 a.m. till 4 p.m. It is being held at the Hampton Senior Resource Center on DeMille Court. There will be quilts, antique quilts, demos of quilting by seniors, cro-hooking, spinning, rug-hooking and swedish weaving. Admission is $6.00 which includes lunch, and tea or coffee. Further info can be obtained by calling Anna Young at 832-5056. Please note this is not a guild show but a show by local seniors.

The second event takes place on Oct. 17 in Fredericton at the Charlotte Street Arts Centre, 732 Charlotte St. It is the Tammachat Natural Textiles Fair Trade Gift Show and Sale. Support sustainable communities and rural women with your purchase of fairly traded gifts: eco-fashions for you and your home- silks and cottons hand-woven and naturally dyed by women artisans of Thailand and Laos. At 1p.m., there will be a free slideshow/talk titled "Social Fabric" which will introduce you to some of the highly skilled artisans and how they create these special textiles. . For more info go to www.tammachat.com or call 1-902-624-0427.

We also have received info on two Retreats being held in Nova Scotia. The Ocean Waves Quilt Society of Cape Breton is holding "Retreat at the Keltic" May 21-23, 2010 at Keltic Lodge, Ingonish, Cape Breton. Spaces are available. Teachers will be Hilary Rice of NL, Deb Plestid, Susan Tilsley Manley and Anne Morrell Robinson, all of NS. Contact Linda Hubbard at hubbard2@nbnet.nb.ca for more info or to have a brochure/registration form emailed to you.

The Northumberland Quilters' Guild of Pictou NS are planning a weekend Retreat at Liscombe Lodge for Oct. 15-17. 2010. After Nov.1, 2009, they will open it up to non-members. There is a choice of a one day Intermediate Sampler class, taught by Martha Davidson of Moncton, or 3 half day classes : a design and color challenge, a mystery quilt or a French Braid table runner. Again, further info or brochure available from Linda Hubbard.

Sept. meeting - Off to a great start!

What a great first meeting we had this past Tuesday evening. We were so fortunate to have with us the "Divine Stitchers of the Yo-Yo Sistahood" from Moncton. They really showed us how good it is to push yourself to try something new that's out of your usual "comfort zone". These gals are all members of the Greater Moncton Quilters' Guild, and feeling they needed a little "more" in their "quilty lives", formed this group to challenge themselves creatively. In the spring of 2007, they decided to join together and challenge themselves to "work outside their comfort zones" and "think outside the box". Their first project, called "Slice" was inspired by a painting by Newfoundland artist Virginia Houston, above, titled "A Kings Road Morning". After receiving copyright permission, they made a color copy of her painting and vertically divided it into 9 equal slices. After a random draw for the slices, and establishing some guidelines, they headed off to each repeat their slice in fabric. Here you see the finished results- the slices were not sewn together but are mounted on a "backing board". For their very first project together, I think the results are most impressive! We could see right away- this is one talented group of ladies!

Other projects and techniques explored include Journal quilts, paper quilts, artist trading cards (ATC's), trapunto, family trees and postcards. Above is Margaret (on right) showing her "journal" quilt- she included many old pieces of crochet and lace that her Mother had made, and Juanita shows her beautiful Trapunto work. "Sista Wany" took a lot of ribbing from her sistas that she got a little carried away and tried to trapunto everything she could get her hands on, for a while! She certainly turned some yard sale finds into beautiful pieces! (You can click on the photos for a closer look).

Another group project was "Let Me Introduce Myself": each member was to represent themselves in fabric. They were given prechosen fabric and a random pattern shape and were to create a self portrait incorporating 5 words to describe themselves. We had great fun trying to guess who was who. (They are identified on the back with real photos) I guess now would be a good time to tell you who these ladies are! Left to right on the piece are: Jennifer Vienneau, Betty Rice, Margaret Sawyer, Juanita Allain, Carolyn Mitton, Shirley Baillieul, Sue Berube and Nancy Elaschuk. Of course, we enjoyed hearing their "Sista" names as well : names like Sista Divinity (for the fudge, she SAID), Sista Futility, Sista Procrastinator and so on. These fiber artists clearly have lots of fun together!! We certainly enjoyed their humour!
Can you believe I did not get a good photo of the entire group? Now how stupid was that? Here are six of the Sistas, showing us their tree projects. Missing are Jennifer and Juanita. Sorry Sista Divinity and Sista Wany! L. to R. are Nancy, Shirley, Sue, Betty, Carolyn and Margaret, and Juanita's arm! How many of you figured out which Sistas are actually sisters? The answer is.....Nancy and Shirley are sisters (and sisters to Susan Dobson of FQG as well). Their most recent group project was unveiled at our meeting - it is called "Where the Wild Things Are." Again, some common fabrics were used and each participant was to depict an aspect of nature while hiding a "wild thing" somewhere on their piece - some were easy to spot and some were well hidden!

One thing for sure- the talent in this group is not hidden- it's very evident that these gals are very skilled and enjoy pursuing creative techniques to stretch their talents even further. We are so glad they came to FQG and shared their love of contemporary quilting with us. Thanks Yo-Yo Sistas!

Special thanks to Sue Berube for the use of her lovely Nikon camera, for sharing the photos with us and also thanks for providing me with info for this post.

Fredericton Quilters' Guild article in the Daily Gleaner - Saturday Sept 5th

As we are getting ready for our first meeting of the 2009 - 2010 year, we want to be sure that quilters know that there is a place to go for encouragement, avenues into learning and most of all - inspiration. The FQG executive contacted the Daily Gleaner and Lori Gallagher interviewed Linda Hubbard about her work and about the role of the Fredericton Quilters' Guild. If you missed the article, you can read it by clicking here and another little article here .

Meet Linda Glassford

Meet Linda Glassford from New Maryland. Linda is the Fredericton Quilters' Guild's Coordinator for 2009-2010. Be sure to give Linda a big HELLO when you see her at the meeting on September 15th. Linda is fairly new to the Guild, so let's all show her lots of support as she "takes the helm" this year...

Are you interested in becoming a guild member? Come to the meeting at the Johnson Avenue Senior Center on September 15th at 7 to sign up. Meeting starts at 7:30.

Welcome to the Fredericton Quilters Guild's new Blog

Welcome. We are so pleased you have found the Fredericton Quilters' Guild's new blog. This blog is being initiated by your new FQG Executive as another way to add value to your membership. Since it's a new venture, please be patient with us. It is a work in progress and we hope our members will contribute content and even more, we hope you will visit often. The blog will be administered by Gail Mitchell and Linda Hubbard, both long time members of FQG. In order to give our members lots to look at, we intend to update the blog every week. We're not going to promise what day the update will happen, so you'll just have to check back often.

What will you see on this blog? We are hoping our members will allow some of their quilts from show and tell to be posted on the blog. The more information you can share about your quilt, the better it will be for other viewers of the blog. Please, when you visit our blog, leave a comment.