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….