Merry Christmas everyone!

Merry Christmas! Wishing everyone a blessed Christmas, a day filled with the joy of the season, peace and joy. May we all enjoy good health and happiness in the coming year, and the continued fellowship of wonderful friends in our Guild. I hope everyone got something "quilty" in your stockings this morning!!

I am so grateful for the many wonderful friends I have in FQG, and I'm sure you all feel the same. We are indeed blessed!

Merry Christmas!

Thank You Ladies!

A huge thank you to all who turned in placemats for Meals on Wheels. These will be given out with the Christmas dinners to Meals on Wheels clients. Your response was wonderful- we received 98 placemats!! Thank you for your kindness in taking the time to create something beautiful for others. I know there are many who will get "a lift" from this unexpected small gift with their meal on Christmas Day!

They are lovely - every one!! Thank you so much!!

2013 Christmas Social

Although I was unable to attend the Christmas Social, I have heard that it was a most enjoyable evening. The speakers were very interesting and the musical entertainment, our local Lady Barbershoppers Quartet, the Meadowlarks, got everyone in the Christmas spirit with their music. And of course, the evening included the "big reveal" of this fall's Mystery Quilt- a Christmas tablecloth. Here are a few photos, courtesy of Carol Boyle.

November meeting and Reminders

Another awesome meeting under our belts! Lois Wilby-Hooper shared many of her wonderful quilts with us. Lois has "been at it" a long time and it was so interesting to see how her work has evolved and changed. She has moved from traditional quilts to art quilts, experimenting with many "unconventional" fabrics and materials. Thanks Lois for sharing your wonderful works of art with us!! Shown below are some of the many pieces Lois shared with us.
We also saw an amazing Show and Tell at our Nov. meeting. Those photos have now been added to our Show and Tell Gallery on the sidebar at right. Check them out there!
The "J team" is still accepting Christmas placemats for Meals on Wheels. They can be turned in at the Christmas Social on Tuesday Dec. 3. If you cannot attend, send them along with another member, or they can be dropped off to Jeanne Kaye S. or Joan C.
I hope there will be a great turnout to our Christmas Social on Tuesday Dec. 3 at the Stepping Stones Center, 15 Saunders St., Fredericton South. Start time is 6:30pm.  I cannot be there because of another commitment so I'll take this opportunity to wish you all an early Merry Christmas. I do hope you'll find a little quiet time in this hectic holiday season to enjoy some time at your sewing machine!

Inspiring October meeting

What a wonderful October meeting we had. An inspiring program by Nancy Elaschuk of Moncton had us all admiring her many talents. Nancy comes from a long line of quilters and she showed us quilts done by her great-grandmother, her grandmother and her mother as well as a number of her own. Nancy's four sisters all quilt as well and she assured us she's "working on" her daughter too!
Nancy has made many traditional quilts and then has moved on to designing original works, exploring art quilt techniques and pushing herself by joining challenges.We were so lucky to have her spend an evening with us. Thank you Nancy for a wonderful and inspiring Trunk Show. Here are some of the wonderful works Nancy shared with us....

Meeting Reminder

Just a quick reminder- tonight is our October meeting. Remember your nametag and your mug, Show and Tell items and count up those inches for CQA's Walk to Brock challenge. Measure (in inches) the perimeter of your finished quilted items for this month and give your total to Trudy Corey our CQA Rep. See you tonight!

Tonight's program will be a Trunk Show by Nancy Elaschuk of Moncton.

See you tonight!

Nova Scotia Fibre Arts Festival

Just a reminder - in case you are heading to Nova Scotia this week, the Amherst Fibre Arts Festival begins tomorrow (Tuesday) and runs until Saturday Oct.19. Quilt Shows, classes, workshops, displays, demos, vendors market, auction and more: a complete schedule of events can be found at www.fibreartsfestival.com

Thread Talk Part 3

Earlier this summer I started a series of posts on the differences among threads, reprinting, with permission, the educational portion of the Superior Threads newsletters from Bob Purcell. Here today is part 3. You can find Part 1 here and Part 2 here.

This is Part three in a series discussing the differences in threads. A generation ago, there were very few thread choices.  It was almost is if one type of thread was used  for every project, whether that was piecing, quilting, clothing construction, upholstery, and so on.  Times have changed and much better quality products are available today.  Thread has become more specialized to enhance and improve our sewing projects.   There are differences between quilting, embroidery, bobbin, applique, serger, upholstery, and, construction threads. Applique Thread Although some applique techniques call for a medium or heavy thread to show off the thread, most applique techniques intend to hide the thread and therefore use a fine, blending thread. We will discuss the blending applique threads. #100 silk  Kimono Silk is a very fine, smooth, and lint-free multi-filament silk thread.  The highest quality silk thread is multi-filament (multiple strands twisted together) silk.  Lower grades are spun silk (short pieces of scrap silk spun together).  Because Kimono Silk is so fine, it seems to disappear into the fabric. Available in 80 colors Ideal for hand and invisible machine appliqué, detail quilting, lacework and bobbin thread Silk naturally has a lustrous sheen 50 wt. cotton  A little heavier than a fine silk or poly, but blends very well.  The highest grade cotton is Egyptian-grown extra-long staple MasterPiece cotton. Cotton is iron safe.  A low lint (to avoid bulkiness), high grade #50 cotton thread is fine enough to blend into the appliqued fabric, yet strong enough applique by either hand or machine . Recommended: MasterPiece available on 600 yd. spools (3-ply) in 75 colors and on prewound bobbins (2-ply) in 70 colors. 60 wt. multi-filament polyester. Fine, strong, lint free, and blends well.  Bottom Line is a 60 wt. 2-ply lint-free filament polyester.   Available in 55 colors Ideal for hand and machine appliqué, detail quilting, embroidery, stitch-in-the-ditch, bobbin thread, trapunto, binding, free standing lace, heirloom sewing, serger thread, and garment construction. Several colors blend into fabrics so well that they appear invisible. Available on 1,420 yd. spools on prewound bobbins dozen sets and a set of 35 in a BobbinSaver ring. Recommended: Bottom Line Note: Bottom line 1,420 yd. spools are on sale through the end of July. See Specials below. Monofilament thread.  Invisible polyester monofilament thread available in Clear and Smoke colors.  Commonly used for invisible applique.  Recommended to set iron to low or medium heat.  If you like monofilament thread, make sure you use polyester monofilament and not nylon because nylon tends to go brittle, discolor, and has a lower heat tolerance.  Some brands of monofilament invisible threads are labeled "polyamide" which is the chemical name for nylon. Recommended:  MonoPoly invisible thread.  100% polyester.

Used with permission from Bob Purcell,   www.superior threads.com

Yard Sale for Quilters!

Photo from iStock

Oct. 7 EDIT: All items below have now been SOLD.


Just passing this info along for a local quilter who is moving away.. She must downsize her "stash" considerably, and asked if I would pass this along to local quilters who might be interested: 






 MOVING SALE –

·         Quilt Fabrics - quality cotton

·         Crazy Quilt fabrics – yardage & squares & odd sizes - silks, satins, velvets, cotton threads, etc

·         Art quilts -  various non-conventional fabrics

·         Patterns for  bed quilts, wall art quilts,    picture quilts, totes, etc.

·         Quilt books

·         embroidery books

·         Gold work & metal-thread

·         Crazy Quilt books

·         Fabric Painting books

·         Needle Felting, Punch Needle. 

·         Etc.

You can contact her to set up an appointment to view her "goodies"...

Contact:  Esther Clark, esther.f.clark@gmail.com;  471-4696

Off to a Great Start

We're off to a great start this fall. Our September meeting was so much fun! And there was lots of laughter - laughter is, indeed, good for the soul! The program was of the participatory type, with members "showing and sharing" quilts that they had made from books in our Guild library. We saw many fine examples of projects that had come directly from books, or resulted from the inspiration they provide. This program was a great reminder of all the wonderful resources we have at our disposal, for loan each month. Our meetings are busy and sometimes we don't always

get make time to visit the library. I'm sure, after this program, the library will be seeing more "traffic". Thanks Susan, Donna, and Marijke for an inspiring start to our "new year".
We saw a few changes...for the good... our new microphone system with both floor mike and table mike which can be hand held, provided great sound. We encourage everyone to use the mike when they are speaking so all can hear well... The decision to reduce the "business"  portion of the meeting to just three times a year met with no opposition, and will allow us more

time at meetings for program, show and tell, and more time at break to socialize and get things done (library visits, signups for workshops and workdays, etc.)
It was great to see so many familiar faces and some new ones too! We welcome our new members, and hope that those who were visitors "checking us out" will decide to join us! During our break, I overheard a visitor say: "I'm overwhelmed!  I'm definitely out of my league here..." That is a common response and I reminded her that we ALL start as beginners, and progress. We all have strengths which we must discover, and build on. Many of us in the Guild have been "at it" a long while so we have learned, improved our skills and  grown as quilters.But we LOVE to help new quilters learn and grow too! 

We all start at square one, as with any skill - playing piano, basketball or anything else. So please if you are a beginner wanting to learn, or a new member feeling "out of your league", don't worry. We will help you learn basic skills, answer your questions and help you along on your journey as a quilter. Join us and have fun! Meet new friends! Learn new skills! Enjoy our resources (like our wonderful library!) Get involved in a Community Project!

Last Saturday, Sept. 26, we held a very successful "Intro to Quilting" day for beginners (along with our "Quilty Pleasures" workday for members). We had nine enthusiastic "newbies" join us for lots of helpful info and demos. They learned some basic skills in cutting, piecing and pressing, and are now ready to tackle their first project. It was a great day, with lots of enthusiasm on both sides - the teachers and the "students". Members who attended were working on various projects, some were working on piecing for the Mystery Quilt project, others were doing their own thing - cutting, layering and pinning a quilt ready for

machine quilting, etc. so the "newbies" had a chance to see projects underway, at various stages. Overall, a great day for all! I can't wait for our next meeting on October 15th! See you there!
Prospective new members are welcome. Meetings are held the third Tuesday of the month at 7:30pm, at the Johnston Ave. Seniors Centre. If you are heading upriver from the bridge, towards Nashwaaksis, Johnston Ave. is just after MacDonalds at the intersection of Main and Brookside, on your left - 777 Chinese restaurant and Na'sis Memorial School are on the corner.  

In the News

Look who was in Saturday's paper... what a lovely article on Jeanne Kaye Speight, our new Community Projects Co-ordinator. She is indeed kind and generous as the article states, and her involvement in the community is to be applauded. We all know Jeanne Kaye as "the energizer bunny" who never fails to have lots of Show and Tell to share with us at the end of each meeting. She has more energy than most of us put together! She is the perfect person to head up our Community Projects  team and keep us organized and on track with our charity projects. There is something for everyone who would like to participate- if you want to work on a large project, she is looking for 60" by 80"- 85" quilts for the beds at the Veterans Unit, and if you want to work on something small and quick, there are placemats to be made for Meals on Wheels... and if you want a "medium sized " project, Goldilocks, I'm sure she'll have something in mind for that too! She also has fabric at the meetings if you need to add to what you have, for whichever project. If you have more fabric than you know what to do with, Jeanne Kaye would welcome donations of some brightly colored strips 2.5" by WOF (width of fabric). If like me, you don't have a lot of full width yardage, JK is happy to receive 2.5" wide strips off the long side of your fat quarters as well. Please, good quality fabric only, that has been pre-washed. These bright strips will be available for pickup for use in future Community Projects.

Log Cabin Revisited - KV Show and Sale

Just a reminder of the KV Show this week - all the info you need is on the above poster. Hope to see you there! I know of at least two of our members who have entered quilts...
EDIT: You can see some photos from the show on my personal Blog here and here.