We had our meeting on the perfect night because 24 hours later there was freezing rain and a snowstorm in Niagara Region. But then we are the lucky ones – we have the most amazing group of quilters who share, share, share… we have the most humourous group I’ve ever had the pleasure of sharing their company… and the kinship that we feel for each other shows so many times in every meeting that we have. 

This month we had 3 guests and quite a full agenda. First up was our Charity Quilt for QuiltCon 2018. We still need a label for it and a name before it gets sent off to California. We decided that since our quilt is Bear Paws and Dorothy quilted the most amazing phrases and pictures, including the Eiffel Tower for the Paris Accord, that we’d name the quilt ……  “There is No Planet B” !!  It suits our theme! Kelly is working with the ALS Society of Niagara and we’ve decided that is who we want to donate our quilt to. 

Libs Elliott

We were so thrilled that Annette, from the Ancaster Modern Guild ( and former Niagara Modern Guild member ) came to our meeting this month. Ancaster MQG recently had Libs Elliott for a trunk show and workshop so having her input was a huge help to us. Ancaster had Libs come to a general meeting for a trunk show and that set the tone for the workshop. We have confirmation now that we DO have Libs booked for a Trunk Show at our April 12th  regular meeting and for a workshop on Saturday May 5th from 10-4. The workshop will be Embrace the Chaos. Still in discussion is the cost for non-members if we have room once members have registered. We will do a potluck lunch which means we get to share our yummy Niagara cooking with Libs too! 

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We had some wonderful news from the MQG. Since they are an American organization we were paying in American Funds. We recently found out there there is an International Discount so we were refunded part of this years payment and also from last year adjusting it for Canadian Dollars ! It’s always nice to have a bit extra in the bank!   

We have been contacted by the CQA ( Canadian Quilters Association) to be part of a focus group as they would like to grow their membership. Tara will be sending an email to everyone with the questionnaire. Keep an eye on your email! 

We have something super exciting for our Saturday April 14th Sew-In… Karen, Terry and Audrey are going to put together a workshop for us to make a Collage Quilt. If you are unfamiliar with these I have added a few links on our NMQG Pinterest pages so you can be prepared and check them out yourself. Laure Heine has some awesome patterns out there, too. More discussion to follow at our next 2 meetings!

Ann was our quilter of the Month for January and fortunately for her friends and family she makes a lot of quilts for them and gives them away. Unfortunately for us she didn’t have lots to show however her hand quilting is exquisite as she does every quilt this way. Ann’s first experience at sewing was making a drawstring bag at the Kids Can Sew program in Grimsby and her progression is amazing. I can’t wait for another 20 years to see how much she expands herself! 

Ann’s Quilt Show:

                                                                         

 

Effie will be our quilter of the Month for February

Margaret will be our quilter of the Month for March 

Challenges

This months challenge of Aurora Borealis was really fun. We have such a creative group and these are all so amazing: 

              

February’s Challenge is Page 66: It’s a great suggestion from Heather. Turn to page 66 in any book, read it and find something from that page that you can create a quilt with using ideas from that page!  

March’s Challenge is: Hearts, any shape, any size, any colour and configuration. Just have a heart and join the challenge !! 

April’s Challenge is the Paint Chip Challenge: Susan had this great idea that you go to the paint store, find a strip of paint chips and create “something” using all the colours in the paint chips… p.s. You do need to bring in the paint chip with the finished quilt !  OR Susan also suggested that you just bring your quilting stash with you to the store and find paint chips that match your fabric !!!! We will accept either method lol 

Next month Tori will be doing a demonstration on Quilting Rulers and this month Lorna did a presentation on Big Stitch Quilting. If you’ve never done Big Stitch Quilting then Lorna is your go-to-person. During her demonstration Lorna showed us her Cream Whole Cloth Street Guide quilt and it’s the perfect example of how the quilting makes the quilt and how the big stitches create the scenery. It is hand stitching but almost a cheaters guide since you do the stitches so big that the coverage on the quilt goes very fast and is very visually effective. You literally do not see the rest of the quilt since the stitching makes the fabrics pop with colour. There are many colours available and while Valdani Thread is the choice of many quilters there is also Wonderfil which offers so many shades of Cotton thread that you eyes will be spinning with colours. Lorna told us that the most effective way is to quilt your quilt like your regularly would then add the Big Stitch for a Pop on the quilt. Lorna talked of thimbles, hoops, what type of needles to use and also about using a rocking motion while quilting and during her demonstration this was evident in how smooth her stitches were. During break it was great to see people come up to try this, while using Lorna’s hoop, and I have a feeling that in the coming months we’ll see quite a number of quilts with Big Stitches on them! * We talked about using freezer paper cut out in shapes and ironing them to your quilt and then quilting around them with Big Stitches*

            

During our meeting a lot of ideas were shared. One of the biggest ones was about using Command Strips to hang mini quilts. Command Strips come in many sizes, shapes and can hold many weights. One suggestion was to buy the velcro strips to hang on the wall and to stick the other side of the velcro to the back of your quilt. ( if you don’t know how Command Strips work, they have a tab at the back to attach to the wall and you can pull on the tab at the bottom to remove the strip. Hence you can hang and rehang different quilts and move them around as you add more ) Terry has even hung a rather large quilt using Command Strips and it’s still holding !!! Lorna has bought the large Command Strip Holders, put 2 of them on the wall, and then placed a curtain rod ( that’s holding a quilt ) between the 2 command strips and hung her quilts. They can also be used if you have a quilt that is hanging and it has ripples in it. Just add a few command strips in the ripply area, press to the wall and Presto!!! It’s hanging straight !

Here is the link to a YouTube video on how to use Command Strips to hang quilts

And this link to hang quilts with a rod and a quilt sleeve 

Pinterest has a number of ideas, too. Check here! 

Debbie was raving about Shout Colour Catchers again, since she washed a mini quilt with a red backing ( and the red backing was bleeding on her extension table while quilting it ) She had huge success washing it with no colours running to the white front on her quilt. Pam was mentioning how you can use 2 aspirins to clean shirt stains and even marks on quilts. 

Show & Tell 

We had quite a number of quilts tonight but also many people had brought back their mini wall hangings that they received as gifts during our Christmas Gift Exchange. We had quite the mixture of quilts and even fabric that one member had recently purchased. Lots and Lots of eye candy tonight !!!