NJS Winners!

Each year the Canadian Quilters' Association holds it's annual National Juried Show (NJS) in conjunction with the spring conference. No photography is allowed in the NJS gallery, but photos of the winners are now posted on the CQA website and members will receive the NJS catalogue, showing all entries, with their Fall issue of The Canadian Quilter.
You can view the NJS 2011 Winners by clicking here.
Of course now that Quilt Ontario 2011 is over, planning for the next conference is "full steam ahead". If you aren't already aware- the next one is right in our backyard!! "Seams Like Home 2012" will take place at Dalhousie University in Halifax, NS. I hope many of you are planning to attend. Start saving now and write it on your calendar. It's too good an opportunity to miss, when it's this close!! Info will be posted on the CQA website here throughout the coming year as plans continue and take shape. Check in often to see what Karen Henry and her "crew" have in store for us! You won't want to miss it!

Trend Tex Challenge Winners!

This year's CQA conference, Quilt Ontario, in London, is now over. One of the most interesting shows during each conference is the Trend Tex Challenge. Four of this year's winners are Maritimers! Wow!! Kim Larracy of Moncton won an Honourable Mention, as did Karen Neary of Amherst whose quilt you see pictured above. Kate Madeloso won second place and Carolyn Hudson won a Judge's Choice, both also from Nova Scotia. You can view all the Trend Tex Challenge quilts and the winners by clicking here.
London is known as "Forest City" and the theme for the Challenge was "Quilting in the Forest".

And the Winners are...

Tonight at our AGM and Potluck dinner, the winners of the Viewer's Choice awards were announced.
The Large Quilt category winner was Irises by Alice Kirkpatrick. This quilt has a bit of a story behind it. The top was cross-stitched by Alice's sister Connie O'Leary before she passed away. Alice decided to complete the quilt to give to Connie's daughter. It was hand-quilted by Alice, with help from her daughter Joyce Humble and friend Betty Nicholson (See photo below. L to R. Betty, Joyce and Alice). So although Alice entered it in the Show, it was a collaborative effort on the part of all three FQG members. It is a beauty, and obviously our Show visitors thought so too! Congratulations Alice!




















The Small Quilt category winner was
I See My Sea by Barb Cross. Congratulations!! This quilt hangs in Fredericton's Stan Cassidy Rehabilitation Centre on the paediatric floor. It brings much delight to all the residents and visitors there with it's many sea creatures.









The Miniature Quilt category winner was F8 by Linda Hubbard.
The CQA ribbon, given for the quilt receiving the greatest number of votes, was also awarded to Linda Hubbard for the miniature F8.
Congratulations!




Congratulations to all the winners!

Also it was announced that Donna Young recently won the New Brunswick Contemporary Quilt Award at the Marco Polo Guild Show in Saint John. This new award, initiated by Marco Polo member Kathy Coffin, was designed to add contemporary quilts to the New Brunswick Museum collection and comes with an award of $1000.00 to purchase the winner for the Museum collection. Donna's winning quilt is titled Railways in a Northern Land. The selection criteria stipulated that the quilt must have been made since 1960, by a New Brunswick resident who is a NB Quilters Guild member. The design was to be original or a "new spin" on a traditional pattern and the quilt was to be totally executed by the entrant. Of course workmanship was an important factor as well.

Railways in a Northern Land was designed and made for a national competition entitled "Constructions of Canada" in 2004. It won the Curator's Award and later, in 2005, it was juried into a show of 32 Canadian quilts that went to the Museum of the American Quilter's Society in Paducah KY. It was featured on the cover of the Show Catalogue and the promotional card for that show. Photos here show Donna accepting her award from Kathy Coffin of the Marco Polo QG and Peter LaRoque of the New Brunswick Museum. The other two quilts in the upper photo are the Honorable Mentions, New Brunswick Coat of Arms by Judy LeClue (in the middle) and My Fundy Shores by Sandra Betts (on the right).

Congratulations Donna!!

May AGM and Potluck - are you ready?

Our final meeting of this quilting year is coming right up. Bring your Potluck dish - please bring hot dishes hot and chilled dishes cold as there is little space or time for re-heating or chilling. Also please bring your own plate and cutlery. Note the earlier start time of 6:30p.m.
Following what always proves to be one of the best meals of the year (quilters are good cooks too!), we will elect our new Executive. Then we'll learn who won the Viewers' Choice awards from our recent Show and ribbons will be presented. Also you will hear about another exciting Award won by one of our members recently. And we'll top it all off with Show and Tell. What a great evening!! See you there!

Show pics!

Ladies, the photos from our Show "Thoughts of Spring" are now available for viewing. Click on the photo on the sidebar and you will be taken to the Album. Enjoy! Our Viewer's Choice winners will be announced at our meeting next week, and photos and announcement will follow here thereafter. Again, thanks to ALL who helped make our Show such a success!

Show SUCCESS!

Our Show "Thoughts of Spring" was a resounding success! We have heard nothing but positive comments and much praise for the variety of pieces, the high quality and the wonderful job done by our hanging crew! We estimate we had around 600 visitors (not counting our own members) over the two days, including a busload from PEI. We were very pleased with the new venue and many commented on how bright and well lit it was. We were lucky to have the loan of beautiful brand new racks from the Woodstock Guild - we have struck a deal for our two Guilds to share our racks back and forth - helpful to both groups.
The Show Committee would like to express their sincere thanks to all FQG members involved in making our Show such a success. Thanks to all the entrants for sharing such a wonderful variety of quilts with the viewing public. To all who helped in many capacities - loaning "props", working a shift during the show, baking cookies, helping with transportation, and lastly the set up and take down crew who worked so hard, a huge heartfelt THANK YOU!! And of course we cannot forget the husbands, sons, partners and friends who helped with the setup and dismantling of the racks- we appreciate your help too! Many hands make light work and a Show certainly "brings us together" in our common love of "all things fiber"...
We are so fortunate to have such a varied membership with interests in so many styles and techniques- we had quilts from miniature to queen sized, quilts featuring cross-stitch, embroidery, Sashiko and crazy quilting. There were portraits, landscapes, strip pieced and scrap quilts, lap quilts, tablerunners, crib quilts, placemats and totebags. There were quilts with humour and art quilts. There were cats and a dog, moose, zebra and an egret. And lots of butterflies flitting around... There were stripes and batiks, pastels and brights, African and Oriental quilts. There were both hand-quilted and machine-quilted pieces. There was something for everyone to enjoy!
There will soon be a new Gallery of photos on our sidebar, with lots of photos from the Show. We'll let you know when it's up and running. I'm still editing and cropping... You can see some photos by clicking here and going back through several previous posts. In the meantime, there are a few more photos below for you to enjoy...

We Invite You to Our Show!

Well ladies, we've been working very hard this week to put together our "Thoughts of Spring" Quilt Show. And if I do say so myself, it looks faaaboulous, dahling! Our "set up crew" worked very hard today, and most of it is in place- just a few pieces left to hang tomorrow and the "tweaking" ...
I'm not sharing any sneak peeks- you'll have to come see for yourself. You'll be sorry if you don't!!
We have 169 pieces from queen size to miniature plus our Spring Challenge pieces, special workshop displays, raffle quilt, vendors and light refreshments...

Once again- Friday April 29th, from 10a.m. - 8p.m. and Saturday April 30th, 10a.m. - 4p.m. at the New Maryland Centre, 754 New Maryland Highway. Exit 285 off the TCH. Click here for detailed directions.... Hope to see you there!

Spring Challenge Winners

Our Thoughts of Spring Quilt Show is now just days away: APRIL 29 and 30, in case you had forgotten. In conjunction with our show, we issued a Challenge to our members last fall, to do a piece on their interpretation of "Thoughts of Spring". They were given a size limit (maximum perimeter 96") and the piece had to have 3 layers and be quilted. Other than that, they could do whatever they liked. We encouraged participation and creativity. The Challenge pieces were due at our April meeting on the 19th and they were displayed anonymously. Members in attendance voted to determine the winners and all Challenges will be displayed at our Show on the 29th and 30th.
Our members did not let us down - a big Thanks to all participants!! We got a wonderful variety of entries and you can see the three winners here- 1st place went to Barb Cross (on the left) for "One in a Hole", a humorous look at everyone's favourite spring occurance- potholes! Gwenda Mattinson (in middle) won 2nd place for her lovely framed thread painted piece titled "Getting Ready". Gwenda's Artist Statement read: "My 93 year old father had a long winter, so he made himself busy in the basement thinking about spring. I found his winter's work drying in the spring sunshine, just waiting to be installed at various locations on his farm for his feathered bluebird friends to return." 3rd place was awarded to Valerie Moreland (on the right) for "Primroses and Robins on the Patio ". Who doesn't look forward to the return of the robins? Great work ladies!
You'll have to visit our Show to see the other 15 wonderful Challenge pieces.... See you there!

This and That

How did you like that Red and White Quilt show in NYC? Wasn't that something?! Everyone from Martha Stewart to Ricki Timms have been talking about it. I sure would have loved to have seen it in person. I can't imagine all that work for just 6 days.... If you are like me and "wanted more"... here you go. Click here for a wonderful collection of links to this show- Flickr albums, videos, and blog post links; and here for some more wonderful viewing to music.... make yourself a cup of tea and sit for a while and enjoy this incredible show. A big Thanks to Kathy F. for sending me both of these links.


A few updates for you: we sent off 35 Leaf Bowls to the Local Organizing Committee in London for Quilt Ontario 2011. They are very pleased to have had such a good response from across Canada and report that they have already received enough bowls for each registrant and have extras as well. Thanks to all FQG members who participated in this endeavour- particularly Lois and Barb P. who made many...



The Nines and Vines quilt which we donated to the Stan Casssidy Foundation for raffle has now begun to make it's way around the province and we hear that ticket sales are brisk. It made it's first "public appearance" in Bathurst where interest was great and tickets were in demand. This quilt will be displayed at our Quilt Show April 29th and 30th and tickets will be available on it there.


Kathy Tidswell is again teaching at the edVentures summer program in Fredericton. Kathy has 4 classes this year: 1. Painting Backgrounds for Quilts or Embroideries, 2. Free Motion Embroidery: Painting with Thread,
3. Free Motion Embroidery: Flowers from Thread and 4. Free Motion Embroidery: Creating Textural Artwork. You can see photos of class projects and get all the details by clicking here. Remember if you register for a course before May 31, you will receive a 15% discount.

There are still a few spots open in Barb Foster's workshop "Pieced Diamonds" on April 16th. If you would like more info or to sign up, contact Valerie Moreland. This quilt requires one jelly roll or Bali Pop or you can cut your own strips from your stash. Barb's classes are always great fun, why not join in?? Please note this date is the Saturday BEFORE our monthly meeting, NOT the Saturday after, which is the usual day.