Links Archive

2010-11

Mavis' reports from the Ottawa Valley Quilters’ Guild Meetings

May 2011

• An update on the May Guild Meetings:
  Our May meeting of the Ottawa Guild was finalizing plans for our Quilt Show which was held the Mother's Day weekend. The guest presenter was Daphne Greig and she did a very nice presentation using her method which many of you will be familiar with. Her technique is called Give and Take appliqué (a fusible reverse method) and she has a line of patterns available as well. Her technique was interesting and she had many samples with her. Her patterns are also available through The Patchworks Studio. I volunteered for 2 days at the Ottawa Guild Show and will send some photos in a separate e-mail.
• The Kanata Guild had a in-guild guest and she did a beautiful trunk show of approx. 60 quilts (where do these women get the time?). She is now a fibre art quilter and does incredibly beautiful work. However, she started out just like you and me and her show began with her beginning pieces and went to present day. It showed what can be done one baby step at a time and she was very encouraging and inspiring. She also was diagnosed with breast cancer this year at 60 years of age and didn't miss a beat continuing on with her and her husbands winter plans down south and coming back for her treatment and returning south to spend time with their children and grandchildren.
• Sittsville informal guild had a show and tell by a group of about 10 women who have been taking appliqué instruction for a year from a fellow member who is a very talented appliqué. The show and tell was so very nice. They have all been working on the same pattern. However , with their individual choice of materials, they all looked quite different. The pattern book was "Home Sweet Home" by Barb Adams and Alma Allen. This instructor usually does the Baltimore Album quilts and those of you familiar with them realize the amount and complexity of appliquéing involved. She is doing another project of our individual choice beginning in Sept. and I have registered for that and am looking forward to learning her many little tips and techniques.
• That about brings you up to date on my guild happenings. I want to mention that all of the guilds have been encouraging charity quilts that can be sent to Japan. I used some of my blocks of the month that had been sitting around made up but not put together in a quilt as yet for this and it made me get my act together and also put my blocks to good use. The baby quilts here are 24" X 24" and so they look so tiny and are easy-peasy to make....just four 12 1/2" squares and with or without binding. They are now asking for quilts for deceased infants and want them to be 12"X12". Must go for now. Hope you are still enjoying hearing about the various guilds. If not, feel free to unsubscribe!! (: Take care. Mavis

April 2011

• An update on the April Guild Meetings:
  Our Ottawa Guild was a fun meeting. Our guest presenter was Pauline Grondin, a storyteller and heritage performer. She provided a one hour presentation exploring quilt designs of the past, as well as the influence the origin of our ancestors arriving in Canada played in helping to determine our quilt designs and how they are completed ( example: borders or no borders, patterns, color, etc.). She also gave a history on fabric and its many sources through the years. Pauline did the presentation wearing period clothing ....all 30 lbs. of it.... and completed her presentation by showing us her many layers of clothing and giving a description of each of these articles. Also, visiting was Jacqueline Lekuyer who is a doll fibre artist and makes original and unique fabric dolls. They ranged from approx. 6"-12" and have such character. They each had small quilts to match their decor and their outfits were all made out of the quilt scraps. They are so delightful and she does such superb detail of the faces. She gives classes and has such a delightful fun personality as well as being a "very classy" (no pun intended) lady. See examples of her fine work in the gallery of pictures - you may even recognize some of the ladies or at least similarities to someone you know (tsk. tsk.). Another "Hope to do " project for me.
  The Ottawa Valley Quilters' Guild is holding its Festival of Quilts Show, May 6-8, 2011. It is never too late to catch a flight!


• The Kanata Guild meeting was made up of 7 stations, each demonstrating techniques or specific quilt blocks provided by our own members. A time limit of 20 minutes was spent at each station and then we moved in an orderly fashion to the next. Everyone really enjoyed this and felt comfortable to share a different approach to the same technique or a problem that they hoped others could help them solve. There was a follow up with instructions for each demo sent out via e-mail for members to print if they so wished.


• Other quilting activities:
• In May I will be attending the Quilts of the Netherlands in Alsa Craig. I am also hoping to attend one day of CQA/ACC Quilt Ontario 2011 in London, that is on at the same time.


• I hope you have enjoyed hearing about these groups and what we are doing.

February 2011

• The January meetings for the various guilds I have joined included garage sales plus vendors. I didn't buy much fabric as I have an armoire full to work on yet. However, I must admit I did purchase a few "can't live without" fabrics. Besides, who doesn't like just ogling at the new materials?
  
  I am including photos of the Underground Railway quilt I just finished piecing and the short version story about it. I was anxious to see the end result as I modernized it up by using polka dot borders, but being uncertain as to my choice. I actually really like it. I will set it aside for now as I haven't decided about the quilting.....am leaning toward a combo of machine and hand quilting, but need more thought processing. I wanted to finish piecing it as my Stitsville Guild is having Heritage Quilt show and tell the next couple of meetings. And there is a new heritage connection. Some of you may know that Bill was (and is) working on his family tree. While he was hunting through a recently released census he discovered that his Great-Great Grandmother was part African American. We visited the Anglican Church in Kingston where his relatives came to Canada and he learned that her family most likely were slaves and escaped to Canada from the United States. The search is ongoing. I decided I would do this quilt in memory of her (Julia).
  
  

January 2011

• I want to bring you up to date on guests we have had so far in January at the Guilds that I belong to:
  
  At the Ottawa Guild meeting, the featured shop owner was Elaine Quehl, a fibre artist who teaches wonderful workshops. Her students usually create their own patterns from photos (i.e. florals) and then learn how to construct their quilt design. The quilts are designed for machine quilting and free form cutting techniques. Elaine also dyes her own materials and they are also for sale at her store. Visit Elaine's website at www.equarelle.ca.
  
  The guest for the evening was Pat Hardie. She does what she calls altered art quilts and uses recycled material for her free form art quilts. She collects and uses everything from found material to the outsides of used tea bags to miniature train track and more in her quilts. She works as a volunteer at the Salvation Army in a small town outside of Ottawa and that is where she finds most of her supplies. I can't imagine what spring cleaning at her house is like!!
  
  At the Kanata Guild meeting, Michelle Gagne gave a show of 78 of her quilts (representing only a smattering of her quilt collection). She has worked in retail sewing machine stores and quilt shops for years teaching classes. Her quilts were every size, technique and color one could imagine and each and everyone of them were just beautiful. What a delight to see them all! Such a talented lady and she is only in her early 50's and a wonderful, humorous, entertaining speaker as well. Unfortunately she does not have a website.
  
  I know some of you ladies in Regina have as much talent and many quilts hidden in your closet. Don't be afraid to bring them out and share them with other people and guilds. Everyone loves to see them and enjoys hearing the stories behind them...go ahead! Show off !

October 2010

• I joined a new quilt guild that started in Kanata.....a very friendly group, and through that group met some gals and we have formed a friendship. Through them I joined another informal quilt guild that meets twice a month at Stittsville (just the other side of Kanata). The good thing about these two guilds is that they meet and have their meetings in the mornings when everyone is fresh, happy and willing to travel. It is not unusual for ladies here to be members of several guilds. There is such a short distance between villages and each guild offers something different.
  
  Our guest at the Kanata Guild on Wednesday morning was Catherine Timm and she presented her trunk show.It was lovely...she was in the area doing workshops. Visit her website to have a peek at her beautiful work. A lovely beginning to my day.
  
  I was in Saskatchewan and missed the Ottawa meeting. Our guild that meets twice a month on a Monday morning (again a lovely start to the week) does not have guests, but rather you bring whatever project you are working on and after a very short meeting and show and tell, it is just socialize and do our own thing and so is a great sharing group. This group offers inexpensive workshops taught by mostly talented same guild members. Consequently, each of the 3 guilds I have joined plays a very different role and as we all know, variety is the spice of life.

2009-10

Mavis' reports from the Ottawa Valley Quilters’ Guild Meetings

• June 2010
  "Hi to all my fellow Regina quilters. Our guest for the June meeting was Mary Pal. She is a well-known fibre artist in the Ottawa area. She gave a wonderful presentation about the SAQA ( Studio Art Quilt Associates), followed by a trunk show of artists from this group. The trunk show consisted of approx. 65 works of art which were 8"x8" and then matted by a white, black core mat approx. 2'' beyond the works. They were lovely to see first hand because of their 3D aspect and the artists had a description of their work and how their ideas originated. The trunk show has traveled the world. Do visit the trunk show and the links to Mary Pal's works. For those of you doing or interested in the fibre arts aspect of quilting they will be an inspiration and enjoyable even if you are not interested in the fibre arts. The Central Canada blog provides information about Studio Art Quilt Associates members' activities (the SAQA representative of western Canada is Anna Hergert). Enjoy. Have a wonderful summer of quilting and take care." Mavis.


• April 2010
  "Thought you might be interested in hearing about our April guest, Dena Crain who comes from the shores of Lake Baringo in the Great Rift Valley of Kenya. She was a soft-spoken, very pleasant lady who gave a presentation on her surroundings in Kenya. A typical day in her sewing room is to look out her window to see many, many monkeys swinging from the trees and hear them rushing across her roof like " a herd of Elephants"! She and her husband have lived there for 20 years. Following her presentation she related to us about the type of quilting happening in her area and there is a guild in Niarobi with approx. 300 members.She doesn't join in alot with other quilters as she is really a quilt artist and so her work is unique. She works mostly in silks. She prefers to work in solid colors and hand-dyes her own material. For more info I will direct you to her web-site which is www.denacrain.com/blog . Her work is really quite lovely and she also offers internet classes, which from all accounts are great."


• March 2010
  "Once again we had a delightful guest, Kathy K. Wylie. I am not entirely sure where she is from, although I believe it is Ottawa. Her quilts have been getting recognition locally, nationally and internationally. She uses a technique called paper applique. She uses this for borders,sashing, in the block design itself, absolutely anywhere you can be creative enough to think of. This paper applique technique is creating a design in the same method ( fold, draw and cut) as when we made a string of paper dolls when we were little girls. So, you would end up with a string of paper dolls, snowflakes, trees, anything that you would like to have a repeat pattern for. Often, in her quilts she would make a quilt block and then place a wreath appliquéd on top of the block with the wreath being designed from paper applique. For example, her block may be bear's paw and her added small wreath might be teddy bears for a baby quilt or a black bear wreath for and adult quilt. In order to make the wreath design she,of course can not merely fold the paper accord ian style or she would end up with a string of her design. So, instead she must fold the SQUARE paper piece in thirds, cut off the two pointy areas at the top, draw her design and cut out, unfold. Now you have a quarter of a wreath,. Continue until you have a complete wreath. The neat part was that it was something that anyone could design by just getting ideas from nature, objects, pictures,etc. and implement into your own quilts. She does have quilt book named "Snowflakes" for anyone interested in not designing your own or to make this "clearer than mud" if I have not explained well enough. Her web site has a gallery of her quilts. Look carefully for the repeats. My favorite is Bridal Tea as I love the wee teacups!!I believe she is going to be at the National Quilt Show in Calgary and is well worth the time to look her up if you are there.
  
  Now, the charity group that I am taking part in is making a HUGE quilt. It has a large medallion in the centre and then it will be surrounded by log cabin blocks-all made out of like material and all donated. The quilt if for palliative care and is large enough to cover two double size beds. It is to be utilized when loved ones stay over with the patient and enables them to put the two beds together. We have only the small blocks made-people unable to attend the charity group in the afternoon also took part as kits for the blocks were available to take home."



• February 2010
  "Our evening began with 4 long tables of potluck finger foods. It was nice to have a festive feeling in the middle of winter. Enough about food. The guest of the evening was Diane MacLeod Shink from Montreal. She is a quilt historian, certified AQS appraiser and co-author of the book "Canadian Heritage Quilting". Her presentation was on techniques used by our grandmothers and still used today.She brought with her approx. 50 quilts from the 1800's and early to mid 1900"s (part of her personal collection). Many of these quilts she was in the process of refurbishing. It was so nice to see all the original fabrics and how they had survived the elements. Alot of them she acquired as she has traveled through the Laurentians. She also gave tips on caring for and preserving our quilts.She apparently has an apron collection which she did not bring with her. I think they would have been wonderful to see.She is doing a workshop or presentation at the Canada Quilt Show in Calgary in April .So, some of you may see her there. She may have some of her collection there. Anyone interested in the historical aspect of quilting would enjoy her. I must say, I surely look forward to the meeting- always so interesting!"



• December 2009
  Mavis Wood writes "Helen Fujiki" from Toronto was the guest for the evening and she had a trunk show featuring approximately 125 small quilt projects, wall hangings and her quilted interpretations of manhole covers she saw while visiting Asia. Apparently, Asian countries (in particular, Japan) are much more creative in designing their manhole covers and actually have contests for designs representing their economy, culture."
  
  Mavis continues, "Helen Fujiki did a series of approximately 50 of these interpreted by quilting. She combined broderie perse, machine and applique, with the use of panels to accomplish her wall quilts. She also had 2 video presentations of her trips to Japan and showed works of and info on the 5 original quilt masters of Japan. I loved every single moment of the evening."
  
  Mavis notes that some Guild members may be familiar with Helen Fujiki's work as she had some pieces at the mini Canadian Quilt Show in Saskatoon last spring. Mavis highly recommends visiting Helen Fujiki's website and encourages you to click on all tabs, especially the underground of Japan.


• November 2009
  Mavis Wood recently moved to Ottawa and has joined the Ottawa Valley Quilters’ Guild. Pippa Moore, a fabric artist from Comox, B.C. made a presentation at the November Guild meeting. Mavis recommends visiting her website, particularly take a look at the “Kitambaa” designs!