Meeting Reminder...

Our March meeting is tomorrow night, March 19th. Hope to see you there! We have put together a great program for you on Precuts. Come prepared to learn lots of new terms and useful things plus many great ideas for using precuts in your quilting projects. We will have lots of quilts to show  made from precuts, particularly Jelly Rolls. If you think Jelly Rolls, Honey Buns, Layer Cakes and Turnovers are only found in the kitchen, you will learn a lot from this program!

Our weather forecast is telling us we'll have snow tomorrow, but I'm hoping it will NOT interfere with our meeting. Our roads are bare right now, and the snow is not supposed to start until evening so I'm hoping you will come out and join us for a great meeting. If it does start earlier, check here for an update re. cancellation....

Synthrapol to the Rescue!

At last month's meeting, Sue R. suggested that we all should have Synthrapol in our laundry room supplies. Synthrapol is known as a "surfactant" or a concentrated "wetting agent". It is used by those who hand-dye fabric to remove any excess dye after the dyeing process. Quilters also use it to remove color (dye) that has bled into an adjacent fabric in a quilt.
Sue showed us this small red and white quilt that she made a number of years ago and now uses as a table runner. The red fabric had been washed before the quilt was made. Recently, after adding water to a vase of flowers that sat on the runner, she later noticed a small area that was damp and the red color had bled into the white. After washing with synthrapol the "bleed" was gone. Yay! Synthrapol to the rescue! It DOES work! It is very concentrated, so you use a very small amount. Follow the directions on the bottle carefully.
Another product we should all have on hand is Retayne. It is a color fixative and many quilters use it to pre-wash all their fabric. It is also very concentrated and you use a small amount. Read and follow the directions carefully. Most quilt shops carry these two products. Country Crafts and Curtains on York St. is trying to bring it in- I will let you know when it is in stock.



Tomorrow March 16th is International Quilting Day. I hope you are doing something special to celebrate such an important day!! Maybe you will start a new project! Or finish one! Maybe you are working on your "Out of the Box Challenge" piece (deadline of May meeting is getting closer!).. Or perhaps you'll treat yourself to some new fabric, or a new quilting book or magazine.. Whatever you do, celebrate the day!!




Alex Anderson and Ricky Tims, hosts of The Quilt Show, want quilters, sewers and crafters to help them celebrate  International Quilting Day by seeing what's going on in today's quilting world. They are opening up free access to over 140 of their shows from their www.thequiltshow.com websites beginning Friday March 15 through Sunday March 17. There will be lots of terrific prizes from companies like Bernina, Gammill, Superior Threads, C&T Publishing, and more!  You'd better hurry over and check it out...

"Avian Moments" Now Open

 “AVIAN MOMENTS” DRAWS A FLOCK TO THE CHARLOTTE GLENCROSS GALLERY

Fredericton, NB—The Charlotte Glencross Gallery will seem to come alive with the sounds of bird call when the group exhibition, Avian Moments, opens on Friday, March 8^th, 2013. This three-person show will feature two- and three-dimensional works, including thread paintings, woodcarvings and photographs all on the theme of our feathered friends, by New Brunswick artists Kathy Tidswell, Brian Dykeman and Roger Smith.

Kathy Tidswell is an artist, juried craftsperson and fibre arts teacher. Trained as a biologist, Tidswell changed careers after becoming a stay-at-home mother. Now an internationally recognized, award-winning quilter and artist, Tidswell says, “I strive to recreate nature’s beauty realistically in my work.” Her textile training has included courses from Canadian, American and British quilt artists, helping her to develop her own methods of painting on fabric and free motion machine embroidery.

Brian Dykeman grew up on a farm in rural New Brunswick, developing an early appreciation and love of the outdoors and wildlife. After completing a B.Sc., M.Sc. and PhD in agriculture and the plant sciences, he fulfilled a career in agricultural extension and research. Dykeman is now an award-winning wood sculptor with his works in collections worldwide, a juried member of the NB Craft Council and a founding member of the Fredericton Woodcarving Club.

Roger Smith obtained a B.Sc. in Biology and M.Sc. in Plant Pathology from UNB. While working on his M.Sc., he took photographs for the UNB Biology Dept, and realized that photography was a more interesting pursuit than his research on potato blight. Smith spent 35 years as the scientific photographer for the UNB Biology Department. Smith is a member of the SilverFish photo collective, Photo Fredericton camera club, and a juried member of the NB Crafts Council.

Avian Moments runs from March 8 – April 15, 2013. All are welcome to attend the opening reception, March 8 from 5:30-7pm.

The Charlotte Street Arts Centre is located in the heart of Fredericton, at 732 Charlotte Street.

Ricky's Tip of the Day

I hope you enjoyed visiting Tim Latimer's blog (see previous post). Isn't his quilting amazing? You may not have been familiar with that Tim, but I'm sure you'll have heard of this next "gentleman quilter".. Just found this great tip from Ricky Tims, and thought I'd pass it on to you. Do you get frustrated with all the little thread bits, fabric "strings" and other textile "flotsam and jetsam" that stick to your design wall? Well Ricky has the answer for you: Got my Fabricville flyer a day or two ago. What caught my eye was 25%off cutting mats and quilting notions... also 25% off Clover items... Good to know... Flyer sale valid March 11- April 2. Also did you know Fabricville has a website? (who doesn't these days? lol) Anyway, keep an eye out there for coupons.. I recently got a 50% off coupon (good for one item). Great thing to have if you are looking for a pricey item such as a new mat. It's simply fabricville.com Just hover over Advertising at the top and you'll see coupons in the drop down menu. And remember the first Wednesday each month is Senior's Day with 10% off your purchase for customers 60 and over...

Thanks for your measurements, Ladies...

Your quilt's measurements, that is. Thank you to all who have diligently measured the perimeters of their quilts brought to Show and Tell since September for the CQA/ACC Stitch Across Canada Challenge. We had a great Show and Tell at our February meeting- probably the largest yet this Guild year. Our Feb. total of 7,212 inches brought our final total to just under 40,000 inches for "the cause". Thank you all for participating. The grand total has now been posted on the CQA/ACC blog here and you will see that we made it to the Pacific coast with 87.5 inches to spare! How close is that!!

I want to offer special thanks to Marg W. who provided us a few laughs at our last meeting, when she measured not only the perimeter of her quilt, Ricrac Nines (104" square for a total perimeter of 416"), but also gave us a few more figures... The quilt contains 2,670 two inch squares, and 12,018 inches of seams. At 13 stitches per inch, that means the total stitch count is 156,234!!! These calculations were all done in good fun, but a moment's reflection makes one realize just how much work we put into our quilts. We're often asked "how long did that take?" And it's a difficult question to answer as most of us do not keep
track of time spent.... Most people who are not quilters have NO idea how much time and work go into a quilt... But certainly the time involved contributes greatly to the value of the quilt - in most cases likely more than the cost of all materials...
I recently discovered a new (to me) blog called timquilts.com  Tim Latimer lives in Lansing Michigan and is a certified florist, floral design instructor and avid gardener. He also collects vintage and antique quilt tops and finishes them, with the goal of preserving the fine art of hand quilting. I found one of his recent posts discussing the value or worth of hand quilting very interesting. It is well worth the read- you can find it here. I'm sure you all would enjoy seeing his fine hand quilting on his current project (a whole cloth quilt), and if you scroll down through earlier posts, you will see other quilting progress photos... WOW!!!  While you're there, another very worthwhile read is titled "Quilt Buyers Beware". You'll see it listed at the top of the sidebar. And don't miss the Quilt Gallery. His quilting is awesome!!!
Until next time.. keep those needles threaded!

What a Meeting!!

Odyssey Coat- of felted wool, silk and bamboo, lined with Dupioni silk

What a fabulous February meeting we had! An awesome program with such creative pieces of art by an inspiring guest, some good tips/demos, a "blow you away" Show and Tell, and lots of laughter. What more could you want?

Detail of Odyssey coat lapel

Our sincere Thanks goes out to Sharon Riley of Whisper of Spirit. She shared many of her wonderful pieces of felted fiber art with us. Sharon has been working in a wide range of mediums for over 40 years, including clothing design, fiber art murals, quilting, vintage restoration, Liturgical and costume design, mixed media sculpture, screen printing and dyeing, hand felting, needle felting, leather craft and painting.  Sharon's creations are deeply influenced by nature. She uses a wide variety of materials, including Merino, Corriedale, silk, bamboo, angora, alpaca, tulle and silk chiffon. She embellishes with  novelty ribbons and yarns, embroidery and metallic threads, seed pearls, vintage prayer beads, seed beads and Swarovski crystals. She also incorporates found objects - "gifts from Mother Nature", such as stones, bone, feathers, moss, seed pods, shells and driftwood.
Sharon shared with us a number of her felted creations, including cuff bracelets, garments, wall hangings, vessels and art dolls. Although our "topic of the evening" was embellishment, we were all very interested in the felting processes she uses as well - both Nuno felting and wet felting. She kindly allowed me to photograph her work to share with you here.

You can view more of Sharon's creations at   http://www.whisperofspirit.com/index.html
Thank you Sharon for an inspiring program!!

Luscious Lavender Morning Cuff bracelet

Hummingbird's Garden  Cuff Bracelet

Metamorphosis - Rebirth of the Phoenix art doll

Felted vessel

Felted Vessel

Felted wallhanging Earth Sky - 14" x 36". A celebration of the dance between Mother Earth and Father Sky

Detail of Earth Sky

Detail of Earth Sky

February Meeting Reminders

It's that time again! Our February meeting is only a few short days away - this coming Tuesday, the 19th - hope you will be there! Don't forget to wear your nametag and bring your mug. I do hope we have a large Show and Tell this month - this is the LAST month I'll be asking you to add up the total perimeter measurements of your quilted pieces for the CQA Stitch Across Canada Challenge. We have almost made it to the west coast!! Please be prepared to give me your totals at our meeting.

Shore Birds by Diane Ramsey

In case you missed the recent show of hooked rugs by the Fredericton Heritage Rug Hookers Guild at Government House, I thought I'd share a few photos with you (in no particular order). A number of our FQG members are also very talented rug hookers so I couldn't resist photographing some of their pieces. I'm sure you'll enjoy seeing them and I do hope you'll pass on your kudos to our very talented members on Tuesday night. See you then!

This is the peacock  by Ann Price

 

 

 

 

 

Family Heritage  by Jean Ketch

Geometric  by Barbara Hart

Friars House  by Helen Steeves

Grenfell Style mat  by Barbara Hart

Froggy Dip by Diane Ramsey

Molly's Mat  by Jane Seabrook

Lily's Mat  by Jane Seabrook

Christmas Goose  by Helen Steeves

As It Was  by Carole Christie

Detail of As It Was  by Carole Christie

Detail of As It Was  by Carole Christie

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A Journey to India

At our January meeting we were whisked away on a magical journey to India. Well... not quite, but almost! Jean S shared with us some tales of her journies to India and best of all, showed us many of the wonderful silks and other fabrics she has purchased there. She kindly passed many of them around, allowing us all to indulge our "quilter's desire" to fondle and pat, and enjoy the luxurious textures. She also showed her sari and explained how it is wrapped and worn.

Besides fabrics, Jean has also collected numerous pieces of Indian embroidery and needlework.
Of course different regions of the country have different styles and patterns. In the north, in Rajastan they are famous for their mirror work and Jean told us just about everything is decorated with shisha mirrors stitched into patterns.



























 Beading and sequins are an art form and are used in many ways, on beautiful ornaments, clothes,
wall hangings and of course saris.

























 Block printing seems to be popular in northern Maharashtra where Jean visited this time.  The art of block printing is quite labor intensive with colors printed over each other and some beautiful saris have individual block printing  and are one of a kind.








Wedding Saris are usually in red and gold and have 5,000 threads running across the width of the fabric which is 5 meters long.  Kamchapuram silks in Tamil Nadu are the finest and people travel from miles to buy there; this is where Jean's sari is from.

It's always exciting to see fabrics and needlework from another part of the world. Thank you Jean, for this inspiring textile journey to India. It was a very special evening and we will be anxious to see what you create with these beautiful fabrics.

By the way, if you haven't been in to Government House yet to see the wonderful display of hooked rugs by the Fredericton Heritage Rug Hooking Guild, you only have a few days left! The display finishes this Friday, Feb. 1 at 4p.m. Better hurry! You'll be sorry if you miss it.

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year!! Our January meeting is only a few days away now - January 15th. It's a little early this month. I hope we will see you there. Have you been sewing lately? Now that winter is really here with its cold days and colder nights, I bet many of us are "hibernating" in our sewing areas... Bring along your Show and Tell to share with us. Don't forget to measure the perimeter of each piece for the Stitch Across Canada Challenge.
Speaking of challenges, have you started your Guild Challenge yet? Remember we've all been challenged to do something that's "out of the box" - in other words, out of our comfort zone... I have mine planned, but not yet started...
Many quilters start the New Year off with a tidying/sorting/cleaning of their sewing area. I came across a really interesting blog post the other day and thought you might like to see it too. It's from the Blog Sew Many Ways... She has a very well organized sewing and crafting room and I bet you will find more than a few ideas here you would like to try... Click here to read her blog post.  There are lots of photos and many great ideas! I bet you'll try at least one ...
See you Tuesday the 15th.