Happy New Year everyone and welcome to another year of quilting with BQG.

As a nod to the winter weather, we are again holding our first two evening meetings of the year in a virtual format. Who wants to leave the house in the dark and cold anyway and, thanks to technology, we can meet from the comfort of our own homes. It looks like many of us thought so as there were about 40 members present at the meeting. This format also allowed us to enjoy a presentation by Stephanie Hackney from Hobbs Batting, Waco Texas. She entertained us with an interesting and highly informative look at these products which we all use but, for my part, I really didn’t know a lot about. We often talk about the tops of the quilts we make and even the backing but rarely discuss the middle of the sandwich.

Stephanie walked us through the stages of production of their batting products and looked at the various products, their characteristics, strengths, uses and care. She began with the 5 questions a quilter should address when choosing a batting for their quilt. What are you making, How much thread is in the quilt, Who is the quilt for, What is the use case and what is the care envirnoment. Next she described the fibre content of the different battings offered by Hobbs ranging from 100% Polyester and 100% cotton through blends of 80% cotton with 20% polyester to 80% cotton with 20% wool, 100% wool and a silk blend of 90% silk with 10% polyester. The company website gives a table of all their products with the uses, stitch guidelines and composition. All products are made with top quality fibres sourced within the USA if possible and the plant makes every effort to support local businesses and keep waste to a minimum. The presentation finished with questions and an explanation of bearding and how to avoid and repair it.

If you missed this great presentation, or if you would like to take a second look, Franca recorded it and has posted it on the website under Program. I think most of us, even quilters who have been sewing for a long time, learned something useful and interesting here.

After a short break, the business section of the meeting mostly covered information available in the newsletter. The next virtual retreat is on January 18th and 19th. Details will be coming in a blast and are available under retreats on the website. The zoom link will also be coming in an email blast and will be on the calendar.

The Program team thanked the 46 members who responded to their survey. They have lots of suggestions for the rest of the year. Dont forget to contact Christine H if you are interested in joining the pot holder challenge. This has been extended until June 1st and Christine has pieces of Inselbrite for the batting. The meeting finished with virtual Show and Tell. Photos can be viewed on the website.

The day meeting on Wednesday was a panel of members addressing the repair of damaged quilts. I’m sure it was wonderful but I was unable to attend. Please add comments below if you want to give some information about it.

How time flies. Its already December and the holidays are fast approaching. I find myself scrambling to get everything done in time, especially as I seem to have multiple projects on hand at once.

The meetings this month were a mix of guild business, presentation and merrymaking.

Both evening and daytime meetings were well attended and started with business matters. Andrea began by sharing her memories of a recently deceased former guild president and active member for many years, Anne Gill. Many members joined in with their memories and a moment of silence was observed.

The business covered all departments and everything is going smoothly. Full details can be found in the newsletter. Tool time will be making a comeback in January or February and the website now has a guild calendar. It is located under the Newsletter tab and will be used for guild activities such as retreats, Sew in days and workshops and will be a location to find any details and Zoom links. The idea is to add shows and other events of interest to members, so if you hear of anything, add it here or send it to the webteam to add. In further news, the program team will be sending out a survey to members to canvas for ideas for the next part of the year. Do you have something you want to do or learn about, is there a member who’s work you would like to see. Suggestions are always welcome. Looking forward to January, the evening meeting will be on Zoom, in case of inclement weather, and will cover Batting, and the day meeting will be relocated to the Herb Linder Annex and be a panel discussion “How do I mend this?”.

After Show and Tell and a quick break for Pickle Jar we learned about Temperature Quilts from Melanie and Pat. Thinking about our theme “Quilting with the planet in mind” it’s hard not to think about the weather. It’s part of everyday life and with the rise in the number and severity of weather related incidents, its easy to become preoccupied with the weather. These quilts are the exact opposite of inprov quilting, which has been our focus for the last couple of months. They require careful planning and exact statistics and measurements. When finished, they become a fabric memento of a specific year or time period. A quilted temperature pattern. The presentation is available on the website under Program if you want to refresh your memory of the multiple decisions necessary in order to make this type of quilt. Luckily for us, at the evening meeting, Jennifer F brought along a temperature quilt she had made and spoke about it for us. A picture is included in the presentation. Were you inspired? Maybe something else for me to try next year?

The meetings ended with the ornament exchange, when the many members who had brought an ornament,made by recycling items from home, could pick one someone else had made. After a few games of quilt bingo we enjoyed a drink and some of the multiple snacks brought by the members. Nobody seemed to want to go home as we mingled and talked. What a wonderful way to sign off on 2024.

Happy holidays everyone.

The autumn is here and our colourful surroundings are making us reach for our fall coloured fabric. Its a busy time with the holidays around the corner and it was a busy couple of meetings this month

Tuesday evening was again well attended and we had the pleasure of meeting Bridget O’Flaherty, the Sustainable Quilter (bridgetoflaherty.com) whose vision matches perfectly with our theme of the year. Based in Perth, Ontario and speaking to us via Zoom, this podcaster, teacher, quilter and free motion embroidery expert held us in thrall as she spoke about how we can continue our craft but also help the planet in our own small way. She spoke about the importance of Community, Materials and Benefits in quilting and looked at ways to use materials so that we lessen the impact of our craft on the environment. The aim is to return quilting, which historically relied of used fabrics, to its roots by using fabrics from sustainable sources and only resorting to new fabric when absolutely necessary. She spoke of using upcycling and thrift shops as sources of cottons for quilting, of fabric swaps and other means of reducing the amount of new fabric in our lives as the production of the cotton we use is a complicated and high cost process. Other topics included de-stashing and the use of fabrics certified as organic and sustainably produced. Visit her website for more information on these topics and for links to her other social media and podcasts.

The Tuesday meeting ended with the guild business update and show and tell whereas Wednesday morning started with this. Last month’s in person retreat was a success and quite a few items were made for the guild stall at the DDO Artisans fair the first weekend in November. Christine H handed out the prizes to the winners of the tool time raffle, yet another example of recycling and reusing within the guild.

After the break several members gave demonstrations of gift wrapping items, following on from last weeks reusuable wrapping presentation. Pat presented her lovely reusable gift bags and had quite a few pointers on ways to ease the process. Hopefully they will be gifted between family members and friends for years to come. Annick then demonstrated how she makes a snap closure bag with steel measuring tape. Ingenious and attractive. Finally Nicole showed us 3 ways to make reusable gift card holders. This months virtual retreat will enable us to try these for ourselves.

Finally the meeting finished with the opportunity to make a scappy Christmas decoration with leftover fabric and glue, producing varied and very individual results. If you would like to send me pictures of your ornaments we can start an unofficial gallery!

Now we can get to work on this month’s Quilting Bee challenge and look forward to our December meetings when we will have an ornament exchange made with recycled materials.

The October evening meeting was very well attended and several new members introduced themselves. What a pleasure to welcome new faces to the guild.

The in-person speaker was a local inprov quilter, Émilie Trahan from Joliette, who uses fabric from thrift shops to produce her amazing quilts. She shared her quilting history and process with us and displayed many of her works. She came to quilting after finding a quilt in her grandmother’s effects addressed to her. Now she produces inprov quilts from upcycled fabric in an amazing range of colours. She described the act of inprov as creating something new, it takes courage but it is fun, exciting and gratifying. It feels like playing, you feel your way and make mistakes but it is not as repetitive as traditional quilting, theres not so much pressure as there is no “right” way and as you have to be “in the moment” it is almost like meditation. Although there are stages in the completion of a project such as inspiration, direction and preparation, she said that you have to trust in the result, that it will be Ok and that you will learn something. For more information you can find her on Instagram at mili.tra

For the Wednesday meeting we had another in-person speaker this time from a  Longueuil based company, Next Chance. This local company was founded in 2020 and is turning their values into action by saving fabric from the landfill. How apt when our theme is Quilting with the planet in mind! A vast amount of new fabric produced finds itself in the waste pile, as much as 12%. This company collects that fabric and produces reusable gift wrapping. They have products for furoshiki, the japanese art of wrapping with fabric, as well as bows and other decorations. We had a demonstration of the technique and it’s clear that many fabrics could be used for this. And it doesn’t have to be 100% cotton. Their products will be on sale in Simons stores from November. Why not check them out and support a local company and help the planet. More information can be found on their website, nextchance.ca , including a demonstration of gift wrapping techniques.

As everything else discussed at the meetings is pretty much covered in the newsletter, that’s it for this month. I have to get on with my square for the quilting bee….

Just a quick note to those members who enjoy a quilting related read.

A copy of Circle of Quilters, number 9 of the Elm Creek Quilts novels by Jennnifer Chiaverini, is currently circulating among the members after being included in the Tool Time Raffle.

If you are interested in having your name added to the list, either contact me (Chris Basra) or add a comment to this post.

For info https://www.amazon.ca/Circle-Quilters-Creek-Quilts-Novel-ebook/dp/B003P9XHZI