Two Local Shows...

Hello everyone! Just thought I should bring to your attention two shows in our local area. At Charlotte Street School, in the Penny Gallery in June and July is an exhibit of quilts by local quilter Solveig Wells. Solveig spoke to our Guild back in 2008 or so. She passed away in March of this year and her family has put this display together to honour and celebrate her life.
In 2006-2007 she created a series of quilts entitled Katrina Recovery Quilts to express the personal and collective experience of Hurricane Katrina. These quilts were created with fabrics recovered from the hurricane debris. These quilts as well as others which reflect her extensive travels are on display - the Gallery, open daily from 9a.m. -10p.m. is on the first floor of the Charlotte Street Arts Centre and is free to visitors.
On July 27 and 28 there will be a celebration of her life held in the auditorium of the Arts Centre, with a reception from noon -1p.m. on the 27th. All the quilts will be moved from the Penny Gallery on the 26th to the Auditorium for the celebration on the 27th and 28th. The 28th is the final day for the exhibit.

This coming weekend you can attend a Quilt Show being held in conjunction with a celebration of Maugerville's 250th Anniversary. Sponsored by the Maugerville Women's Institute, it will be open

Lois showing some of Kings Landing's antique quilts.

June 27-29, from noon-7p.m. on Thursday, 10a.m.-7p.m. on Friday and 10a.m.-4p.m. on Saturday, at the Maugerville Baptist Church on Peters Road. This is immediately after the Auction Centre (on your left going downriver).Watch for the signs along the highway. Admission is only $3.00 and refreshments will be served. On Friday afternoon at 2 pm, there will be a Trunk Show of antique quilts from the Kings Landing Collection, by Lois MacDonald. 

These events are local- why not support  them both?

Two Talented Members...

Congrats to members Kathy Tidswell and Donna Young who had pieces accepted to two Ontario Shows this spring. Kathy and Donna both had quilts in the Grand National 2013, which is held annually at Homer Watson House and Gallery in Kitchener. The show, whose theme this year was "Local Colour", opened April 21 and closes this weekend.

Kathy's piece, titled Through the Glass 2013 measures 55" x 21.25".
 Her artist statement:

As a young person, I did not notice the beauty of the Douglas valley until my first trip home from university. Paying tribute to this area of New Brunswick, I created a triptych of abstracts. The breathtaking beauty of a Maritime fall and the brilliant renewal of spring are all the more colourful when juxtaposed with the monochromatic greyness of winter. Looking "through the glass" takes me back to my childhood home. 

Donna's piece Wild Blueberry Field 2013 is 32" x 24".

Her artist statement: 

Native wild blueberries are not blue, but royal violet, and they are produced on ground covering plants on the hilly coastlines of NB. In the fall, all of the leaves turn rosy orange. It creates a brilliant, breathtaking panorama of colour. Winter eradicates the scene but the berries have been harvested and preserved. I chose contemporary techniques to emphasize the roughness of the landscape and the dazzling colour of the stored wild blueberries. 

If you would like to view the entire Grand National Show via the catalogue you can do that by clicking here.

Kathy also had a quilt accepted to  "Threadworks: A Juried Exhibition of Needle Arts " This show hung at the Wellington County Museum from April 20 to June 9 and this year's theme was "Water". Selected pieces (including Kathy's) will now travel to various museums and galleries around Ontario until the Fall of 2015.

Kathy's piece for this show was called  Splendour of the Caribbean. 

Again, you can view all the pieces from this spectacular show by clicking here, then click on View Images of the works in this exhibit.

Congrats to Kathy and Donna!! We are so proud of you both!

Yummy treats

A few posts back I promised you a few recipes for dishes we enjoyed at our end of year Potluck. Here they are today. First of all Citrus Quinoa Salad, courtesy of Ann P. I have made this several times since the Potluck and it IS yummy! Should I admit I could eat the entire recipe myself? Not all at once, of course...

Citrus Quinoa Salad
1 cup uncooked quinoa
1/2 cup chopped dried apricots
1/3 cup dried cranberries
6 green onions, chopped
1/2 cup chopped Italian parsley
1/3 cup toasted slivered almonds
salt and pepper to taste

Citrus Vinaigrette dressing
2 Tblsp. freshly squeezed orange juice
2 Tblsp. freshly squeezed lemon juice
1 Tblsp. grated orange rind
2 teaspoons grated lemon rind
1 Tblsp. freshly grated ginger
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
1 teaspoon sugar
pinch of salt and pepper, or to taste

Rinse quinoa well. Bring 2 cups water to a boil, add quinoa and cook about 14 minutes, until translucent. (Follow pkg. directions.) Remove from heat, drain any remaining water, and fluff with fork. Gently stir in apricots, cranberries, onions, parsley, salt and pepper. Let cool. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for up to 12 hours. Combine vinaigrette ingredients, pour over salad and stir in almonds. Serve.
Thanks Ann, I know our members will enjoy this healthy and delicious salad.

This next one might not be quite so "healthy" but we all need a little treat now and then, don'cha think? This Brownie recipe comes from Paula MacD.

Cream Cheese Brownies

1  8 oz. pkg. cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup w. sugar
1 egg
1/2 tsp. vanilla
Beat these 4 ingds. together until
smooth, set aside.

1/2 cup butter or margarine
1 cup w. sugar
1/2 cup cocoa
2 eggs
3/4 tsp. vanilla
2/3 cup flour
1/4 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. baking powder
Melt butter or margarine, add sugar, cocoa, eggs and vanilla. Mix well. Sift dry ingds. together, add and mix well.  Grease a 9" square pan well. Spread half of chocolate batter in pan, pour cream cheese mixture over, top with remaining chocolate batter**. Bake at 350F for about 40 minutes, being careful not to overcook. (Test with a toothpick)
**Note: the chocolate batter is quite thick and the cream cheese mixture is more runny. It is difficult to "spread" the thick batter on top of the runny mixture- just do the best you can to spread it out. It will sort of resemble marble cake.

These brownies are sooo good. They do not require frosting. However, in my house (yes we are all admitted Chocoholics!) frosting is "expected". So I just threw on some chocolate chips when the pan came out of the oven. That was my addition- it's not mentioned in the recipe above.

Enjoy!!

Quilt BC 2013 Winners

Each year the Canadian Quilters' Association hosts a national conference and this year's was in Penticton B.C. Quite a distance for our local quilters to travel, so if we cannot attend, it's nice that we can at least enjoy photos from some of the Shows.
Click here to see the 2013 winners from the National Juried Show. You can click on each image for a closer look. This show features "the best of the best" in Canada. A jury panel selects the NJS entries from a large number of submissions so just to be accepted into the Show is quite an honour! There are a number of categories ranging from traditional to contemporary, and most entries must be original. There is one category which accepts quilts from patterns or books, these are judged on workmanship only, and are not eligible for Best Of Show Awards.
Click here to see the 2013 Trend Tex Challenge entries and winners. Each year Trend Tex Fabrics donates the fabrics for this challenge. Five of their fabrics are selected, and a theme is chosen; the theme this year was "Sunshine and Vines". Participants purchase a kit of the five fabrics (5 fat quarters) - every one gets the same five. (Of course you can use both sides of the fabric, so I suppose you could say you have 10....)  Two additional fabrics can be added if you choose. The idea is for each participant to make a quilted piece on their interpretation of the theme and donate it back to CQA/ACC. The  quilts are sold by auction at the conference and the money raised helps support CQA/ACC. It's always inspiring to see how different all the pieces are. Some quilters are so creative!! I'm sure you'll enjoy looking over this year's entries and winners.
If I come across any photos from other shows at the conference, I will add links here.

Out of the Box Challenge Part Two

As promised here are the rest of the Out of the Box Challenge pieces shown at our closing meeting.

Hand Applique by Linda Glassford

Challenging Curves by Monica Washburn

Use of Flannelette by Jeanne Kaye Speight

Miniature Landscape Sadie Miller

Unusual Colors by Joyce Humble

Partially Original design, use of tulle to create shadows by Gwenda Mattinson

The group "Women of the Cloth" (Gail B., Jean K., Deanna M., Cathy W. and Marg W.) decided they would work together on their Out of the Box Challenges. They found an idea online for something called "the 40 minute quilt" (very similar to the "jelly roll race" idea, I believe) and agreed they would use this as their strip-pieced base, each participant making one in their choice of colors. Next  they cut these up and exchanged, so that each person had a section of each of the five different colored "bases". Then they each went on to "do their own thing"... Cathy W. was not quite finished so hers is not shown below.(You can find this online by simply googling "40 minute quilt". It is an 11.5 minute video tutorial with Valerie Nesbitt )

This is what the first step, the strip-pieced "base", looked like.

by Jean Ketch

by Deanna McAllister

by Marg Wood

by Gail Butts

 Great work everyone!