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Activities Update March 1st 2008 The PPQG
has been very busy, we have had a full slate of interesting
workshops this winter, thanks to the creative hand of Leann
Clifford. Guest instructors Anna Hegert ( The
guild is busily preparing for our biennial quilt show which
will be held September 27-28th, 2008. The show theme is
"Quilting Dreams". Our Guild Member Show Challenge will be
to create a quilt of any size [artcard to bed size] which is
based on a photograph or painting. This can be one's own
photo or someone else’s or from a magazine. The photo will
be displayed along with the quilt. This can be done by
oneself or with others. Full show details are on our website
at
http://www.prairiepiecemaker.com.
Since
September 2007 all of our newsletters are on our website.
Our website also contains a full list of our quilting book
lending library. Our
Guild does not permit vendors to promote their goods at
monthly meetings but on April 5th we will have a
vendor's day at the Pasqua Neighborhood Centre.
Activity Update – September 2007 Our Guild resumed meetings this month and there are some new things that we are trying. Our Guild newsletters will now be posted on our website. Each month we plan to do a feature newsletter interview with an Executive member, a nice way to get to know both the roles of these positions and the specific volunteers that have so generously offered to fill these roles so that we can continue to have a Guild! One new thing we recently tried was to institute a Summer Book Borrowing Program – members were allowed to sign out books over the whole summer if they made a $25 security deposit for each book. This program was used by members and worked well. Our September 2008 Quilt Show is currently being organized under the very capable hands of Convener Diane Secoy-Smith. The theme of this show will be “Quilting Dreams” and the Show Judge will be Elinor Burwash from Edmonton. At this show we plan to feature the wonderful work of Guild member Margaret Martin. For Guild meeting programs we are starting a “Stay and Play” activity – members will be shown a new quilting technique each month in which they can choose to work on a quilt block after each meeting or on their own at home. The idea is to learn an old technique with a new twist. By June participants will have enough blocks to create a unique sampler quilt! For more info on this unique approach please view the information below. Prairie Piecemakers Quilters’ Guild 2007 – 08 Meeting Program – “Stay and Play” This year’s meeting program theme is is “Thinking Outside the Block, Personalizing and Growing” In keeping with this theme we will be doing an exciting, fun filled, adventurous program. Watch each month for what we will be doing and come prepared to learn Techniques New and Old. After the meeting portion of the night you can “Stay and Play” to learn the monthly quilt block. The idea is to learn an old technique with a new twist. We hope at the end of the year, you will have revisited techniques that you may have forgotten or really didn’t know how to do. As well we hope you learn how to use new and different products such as foiling and oilsticks, all while developing and enhancing ideas for future projects. So join us and “Stay and Play”. It’s going to be a Great Time The following are the “Stay and Play” times for the next 3 months. October’s “Stay and Play” The Nine Patch and Rail Fence – learning Snippet Cloth Fabric. What to Bring 3 colors of fabric ½ meter of Wonderunder which is available at Walmart and quilt stores – note it must be Wonderunder not another product as we are going to paint it ¼ meter of 2 colors of tule which are within your fabric colors scissors November’s “Stay and Play” Log Cabin – learning decorative stitches and Tyvek What to Bring 3 colors of fabric Sewing Machine and appropriate thread Needle and appropriate decorative threads December’s “Stay and Play” Paperpiecing – hearts What to Bring 3 colors of fabric Sewing Machine and appropriate thread
Activity Update –
The Guild currently has about 140 members. We enjoyed a dance performance by the Young Saskatchewan Express group for our December meeting – very entertaining indeed! Over 90 placemats were created by the Connecting Threads group – these were given to Meals on Wheels recipients for Christmas. At our January meeting we held a “Vendor Night” where quilt related vendors were invited to display their wares (since we do not allow vendors to promote their products at regular meetings). This was a nice opportunity to see new products. Brenda Caswell, President, has issued a challenge to members to interpret a short poem in a quilt. The challenge entries will be displayed at the May meeting. In an effort to recognize volunteer contributions, members voted a new policy – Guild Executive and Guild Show Committee Heads will be given a $25 credit towards Guild workshops, effective September 2006. Thank you to Lori Tourscher who volunteered to assemble the top for our 2008 Quilt Show Raffle Quilt (this is a major fundraiser). One new meeting item that we have added this year is to ask any member who has a birthday that month to say a few words about what inspires them to quilt. This has been very enjoyable. During our February meeting we held a “Heart Challenge” – members worked together in small groups to sew pretty pillow cases, which were then donated to local women’s shelters. Members are looking forward to our April Retreat - this retreat will be held in conjunction with the Moose Jaw Quilt Show, which is always so enjoyable.
RECENT ACTIVITIES – UPDATED
Our Guild meetings have resumed for the coming quilting year and our Biennial Quilt Show “Remembering Yesterday – Imagining Tomorrow” is now history! We had a wonderful selection of quilts and our Friday Reception Feature Artist, Mary Sullivan Holdgrafer (from Edmonton) was exceptional. She is an accomplished textile artist, teacher, mentor and group facilitator. A heartfelt thank you to Dianne Petrich, who was our Show Chairperson, and the many Guild members who volunteered their time, either as a Chairperson or team member. As a show of membership thanks, all Chairpersons were presented with flowers at the October Guild meeting. Please press Quilt Show links to view the winning category quilts. We realized a small profit from the show, most of it arising from ticket sales on the raffle quilt. All of the blocks for the 2008 raffle quilt have already been sewn and Guild member Lori Tourscher has agreed to assemble the quilt in good time for our next Show.
A garage sale for
Connecting Threads
fundraising was held at Shelby Love’s home in late August.
Many members provided items for the sale and helped out.
Thank you to all. Connecting Threads donations go to the
Neo-natal unit at the
For our September workshop, Arlyce and Heather taught us about the Curves Ruler. These two are outstanding instructors! For the October workshop, a small group made items with donated fabrics. The beautiful results were displayed at Show and Share at the November meeting. Press the Workshops link to view upcoming workshops and dates.
Our Guild theme for the upcoming year is “Be Inspired”. One activity is to get each member who is having a birthday this month say a few words about how they were inspired to quilt and what keeps them inspired. This has become a very enjoyable part of the monthly meetings.
The Guild now has a Youth Membership category. Membership fee is $10/year for those 16 years and younger. Our recent quilt show also incorporated a youth quilting category.
This year’s Patches of Hope
Quilt Auction enjoyed contributions of 125 quilts, donated
by quilters from
At our November meeting we viewed a slide show of the Canadian Quilters Association 2006 National Juried Show and the winners of the 2006 Trend-Tex Quilters’ Challenge. We were truly inspired!
President, Brenda Caswell, has issued a challenge to Guild members to interpret a specific poem, through quilting. The challenge entries will be displayed at the May 2007 meeting. To date, several members have joined the challenge.
Total membership before our November meeting was 132 members. Our fees have not changed and still stand at $25.00 per year.
March
2006 Update
The Prairie Piecemakers Quilter's Guild now has 171
members as of our March meeting! We are enjoying our new
meeting venue at the Whitmore United Church, at the
south end of Regina. The Viewer's Choice winners of the
Centennial Quilt Challenge at our December meeting were:
Carol Brown (First Prize), Margaret Martin (Second
Prize) and Sylvianne Revet (Third Prize). A nice
selection of themed quilts was presented by the members.
On March 30th weekend, the Guild will be having its
Annual Quilting Retreat. Once again, it is being held in
Moose Jaw. We are all looking forward to abundant
quilting, warm fellowship and great food. Plans continue
for our biennial quilt show; the theme is "Remembering
Yesterday.....Imagining Tomorrow". A theme pin will be
available shortly. Our Guild has a great library, having
acquired over 22 new books during the last year alone.
For a second year in a row, Sharon Harras has done a
wonderful job of putting together our newsletter - it is
always full of great ideas and news!
Guild Activities - November 2005 The Guild now has 137 members and an assortment of interesting activities. Our meeting venue has changed as of this month and our new location will be at Whitmore Park United Church (corner of Grant Road and Durham Drive). A Tote Bag Workshop was held by our Connecting Threads donation group and 30 nice totes were sewn and donated to Transition House Shelter. This group continues to create beautiful quilts for preemies in the neo natal unit, the General Hospital, and a variety of women’s shelters in Regina. Many members contributed quilts for the Patches of Hope Quilt Auction and this successful fundraiser raised $54,000 this year! Check out www.patchesofhope.org to view the quilts sold at auction and the final selling prices. New meeting activities include a fat quarter exchange and a block lottery. The themes for blocks will change every month and each contributor has a chance to win all or many of the blocks contributed that month!
June 2005 Update Our Guild finished the meeting season with a great evening! Margaret Martin, one of our esteemed members, did a trunk show of all of her many beautiful works. Eleanor Podl gave a presentation on quilt preservation. A really nice touch to the final meeting was the potluck supper. Guild meetings will resume in September. We have a Centennial Challenge Project - to create a quilt theme using inspiration from a Saskatchewan author or person of note. The Guild would like to have at least 100 entries that would be featured at the December 2005 meeting. There will be Viewer’s Choice awards of $75, $50, and $35. One a closing note, to date, our Connecting Threads group has donated 198 quilts over the last year - primarily to Regina hospitals and women’s shelters. Guild Activities - March 2005 The last few months have been very busy - alot of quilting gets done during our cold prairie winters! We now have 155 members in our Guild. Our library books have been signed out at a furious rate, with many exciting new books added to our collection during the last year by Librarians Doreen Tamlin and Johanne Karvelson. Joan Godfrey, Workshop Coordinator, has been working diligently, organizing a number of interesting workshops. Elinor Burwash, Edmonton, delivered a 2 day applique workshop in November, one for beginners and the second for more advanced quilters. Elinor also gave a trunk show of her work. Her explanations were very clear and her demos easy to follow. In January, Joan led a Cutting Bee Workshop, which yielded many beautiful finished quilts. Please see the Workshop link on this website for a complete listing of all other upcoming workshops. Since July, 2004, 75 quilts have been taken to Labour and Delivery and NICU at our Regina Hospitals. It is estimated that we need between 60-70 more quilts by our upcoming June meeting (to provide enough quilts until members meet again in September). To meet this end, a Preemie Quilt Workshop was held by our Connecting Threads group in February and about 20 beautiful quilts were made by members. We hope to reach our target in time - some generous members have donated at least 6 Preemie quilts each! New strategies to get Preemie quilts sewn include offerring pre-packaged kits for sign out by members at meetings. A sincere heartfelt Thanks goes out to Margaret Martin for providing so much time to this project over the years! At our February meeting, Sharon Brooks, President, provided some fabrics, and issued a challenge to Guild members to use these fabrics in a design. No restrictions were made on size. At the March meeting, the resulting projects were displayed and members voted on their favorite creation - Lori Tourscher was the happy winner of this event. This year is Saskatchewan’s 100th Birthday. We are currently developing an interesting idea - to issue a challenge to members to create a quilt using a theme or idea from a book written by any Saskatchewan author. This idea has many possibilities and will increase awareness about what wonderful writers we have in our Province. It will also result in many inspiring quilts!
Nov. 2004 Current membership is 140 members and growing. We are planning monthly workshops (including a Preemie Donation Quilt Workshop after Christmas) plus other exciting events. One of our well known members, Margaret Martin, gave a fun workshop in October, using the Magic Tiles Pattern. The Connecting Threads group continues to meet and make donation quilts - over 60 Preemie quilts were donated during the past year, along with larger quilts donated to other needy recipients. Nearly 5 donation quilts were completed by members attending the Guild display at Buffalo Days, our Regina summer fair. Our Biennual Quilt Show "Stitches in Time" was a huge success, thanks to the many volunteers and especially the dedication of Kathy Tanner, our Quilt Show Coordinator. We had 20 trade show vendors (sold out), a wonderful Trunk Show (sold out) featuring Martha Cole, whose art quilts were spectacular. Workshops were also well attended. One hundred and fifty-two quilts made up our quilt show with quilts of Charter Guild Members an especially nice part of the show. Our Guild is starting to make plans for our 2006 show already. Mark your calendars for September 30 and October 1 at the Saskatchewan Centre of the Arts and watch our website for further information (www.prairiepiecemaker.com). Over 90 pieces were donated to the Cancer Society Patches of Hope Auction, held October 21st, with many donations being made by Guild members. This is the third year for the Patches of Hope Auction and the event has been growing in fund-raising ability each year. This year the Auction raised over $35,000 for cancer research and assistance to families living with cancer (over $17,000 was raised in 2003). With these two big events now behind us, members are looking forward to stitching up some of their fabrics into exciting quilt patterns and trying new quilting adventures - a great way to spend our prairie winters! © 2003 Prairie Piecemakers Quilters' Guild Site maintained by Double LL Designs
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