Its been a busy start to the month of April at BQG. Our evening meeting took place in person on Tuesday 2nd April at Centennial Hall closely followed by the morning meeting the next day. I attended the morning meeting on Wednesday at it was a very lively affair. First off, we dealt with some business, the president’s report, a plea for outstanding penguin blocks to be delivered to outreach and news of the library show (now up and running) and the imminent June show. Then it was time for coffee and pickle jar prizes as no one had brought any show and tell – a first in my experience.

After moving the chairs aside to divide the room into 4 stations we started the next part of the meeting where some of our fellow members shared their expertise with the rest of us. The timing was strictly controlled by Nicole, as otherwise, I’m sure we would have spent too long at each table.

The four stations on Wednesday were:

• Andrea -presenting 6 ways to make flying geese
• Richard and Lorraine – showing us how to use the 60 Degree ruler and the Stripology ruler
• Christine – Introducing us to no-mark quilting design
• Pat – showing us her method of creating labels on her computer using word, muslin, masking tape and fabric pens

A similar activity took place on Tuesday evening with different presenters. This was a really interesting and useful exercise as we have so much knowledge and expertise amongst our members. How lucky we are! Thank you to everyone for an excellent activity and I believe that some information sheets on the demonstrations will be available on the website under Program.

After the meeting, some members stayed to have lunch together and then to work on an initial mug rug using a 1 inch grid with Pat. She is also going to present this as a workshop at the May retreat.

To finish off our week of fun, a group of us set off to the north shore for a Saturday shop hop. We were a group of about 25 including a couple of guests, Karen Brown of justgetitdonequilts.com and a former guild member, Gillian Lee. We visited 3 quilt shops Tissus Roger, Elégante Virgule and Styliste & Complice and had a delicious lunch. It was really great to get to know some of our fellow members outside of the usual meeting places. I’m sure we all spent some money and came home with a delicious collection of sewing treats. Now we wait to see who will snag the prizes (?) in the scavenger hunt. Thank you program team for another wonderful activity.

Finally, keep working on your Tulips and Spring Flowers Challenge due at the May meetings.

BQG Challenge Show at the Beaconsfield Library

Please note: The library is open to the public from Monday-Friday: 10am-8pm, and Saturday, Sunday: 10am-5pm.
Do give the library a quick call before your visit, just to make sure there is not a board meeting or lecture scheduled for your desired time!

New dates and new location – we hope to see you there!

Our February evening meeting was again held via Zoom as we welcomed another speaker Emily Taylor, or the Collage quilter, who is active on various platforms. She has a YouTube channel Collage Quilter – YouTube , an Instagram and Facebook presence and of course a website Collage Quilter. She has developed a method of creating beautiful collages with scraps of fabric and she walked us through her background and methodology and answered questions from guild members.

Emily Taylor is based in Utah and has a history of involvement in art. Having started to study to become a lawyer, she decided that an office job was not for her and she began painting murals in local homes. Following the birth of her children she began to paint watercolours reflecting family life and then after visiting a quilt shop she took up fabric design, teaching herself to use the software required. She worked for Riley Blake Designs creating designs for their fabrics for 7 years, producing her final collection for them in 2016. Whilst producing these designs, she received a bolt of fabric for every design so she decided to learn to quilt. Discovering that this is not so easy, especially knowing what the finished quilt will look like, her next project was to develop a free quilt design website, PatternJam.com, where you insert your fabrics and work out the pattern and quantities.

Nowadays, Emily has embarked on her latest venture, Collage Quilts, which she says is like painting with fabric. After selecting an image you split it into zones by its values (dark, midtone, light) and then layer the scraps of fabric onto the image. When she first started she used glue to attach the pieces but it was messy so now she uses fusible. When creating the image the most important aspects are values, fabric selection and contrast. Her technique involves creating the collage on parchment paper and then peeling it off and ironing it onto a background fabric. After this a regular quilt sandwich is made with this background fabric including the collage becoming the top layer. The whole thing is then densely quilted, especially the collage, to avoid any movement.

The meeting was well attend with 45 members logged in for the presentation and there were many questions for this engaging speaker who pointed out that her website offers a free pattern to try out the technique (the mushroom pattern above), as well as kits and other supplies, and her YouTube channel includes instructional videos. I must admit I have already ordered the book and downloaded the pattern.

Following a short break the business part of the meeting focused on preparations for the Queen of Hearts tea party at the in person morning meeting. Members were invited to wear something special for this love themed programme. Also those signed up for the “Sky’s the Limit” challenge were reminded to advise the organizers if their submission would not be ready for inclusion in the April show (set up: April 2, viewing/vernissage: April 3) so that other suitable items could be found for display. Christine urged members to send in their tool time requests and Dawn asked those interested to pick up kits for the outreach penguin blocks for the online February retreat. No show and tell this time.

Both of the March meetings will be in person and I will not be able to attend. If anyone is interested in writing a quick description of the meeting, I will be happy to post it. See you all in April.

Guest speaker on Zoom-Peter Byrne

The January evening meeting was held via zoom which worked out well as winter made an appearance and most of us preferred to stay home. Good call!

Peter Byrne is an award winning quilter based in Ontario and he presented his trunk show to us and then answered our questions on his journey into quilting and his novel techniques.

Peter’s aunt, a quilter, introduced him to quilting and so after retiring from full time work he bought a sewing machine and started to make memory quilts for friends and family, mostly bed sized so that why his work tends to be larger. He worked without any formal training, just doing what felt right. In 2017 Peter joined the Toronto Modern Quilt Guild and started to take classes after which he started to teach quilting. Even though Peter has been quilting for a relatively short time, he has achieved much success due to his dedication to his craft. He has won numerous prizes at quilt shows, including 1st, 2nd and 3rd prizes in the Modern category at Quilt Canada 2023. He has been interviewed by quilting journals (Today’s Modern Quilters: Peter Byrne – Curated Quilts) and websites (Spotlight: Peter Byrne, Modern Quilt Designer – Create Whimsy). He has also been featured as a guest on the “The Quilt Show” with hosts Alex Anderson and Ricky Tims (show number 3310)

His quilts sometimes reflect current events such Roe v Wade (women’s rights), Origami Gold (MMIWGT2S) and Regeneration (regeneration of hope for Ukraine). He has saved all his quilts to date for future display.

Peter has also devised a novel way of doing raw edge applique without fusible web. This innovative technique produces not only a beautiful controlled frayed edge, but also creates the illusion that the appliqué is hovering above the quilt top. He calls it hover quilting and we are lucky to have the opportunity to take part in his workshop next month. The workshop will feature a section of the award winning Pathways quilt shown above. Roe v wade above also uses this technique.

Thanks to Peter for a most enjoyable and beautiful introduction (for some of us) to his work. Here is the link to his webpage Peter’s Quilts – Quilter/Designer/Teacher (peterbquilts.com)

After a quick break, we moved onto the business section of the meeting. It was pointed out that the Wednesday meeting was planned as in-person and would go ahead even with the weather. The hardy souls who attend would be offered a panel discussion “How should I quilt this?” and were invited to bring along any problem quilts they have on hand. I won’t be able to go which is a shame as I have such a quilt.

Other business included mentions of the hover quilting workshop which still had some places available. It was discussed how those out of the area could join in and get the kit sent to them. In addition the guild is moving into the new year with a retreat on January 20th and 21st via Zoom, Outreach has kits available for those looking for something to do, Christine promised a Tool Time raffle in February or March and the quilt show is definitely set for the weekend of June 14 to 16. Planning is ongoing if any member wants to get involved and each member will be able to submit at least 1 quilt. The “Tulip and Spring flower” challenge quilts will be in the show and the “Sky’s the limit” challenge quilts may also be included.

Thanks to everyone for a good attendance and see you next month also on Zoom.