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.

Happy New Year!

Just a reminder that our January 9th evening meeting will be held only via zoom.

The link can be found in the newsletter or on the “Program” page of the website.

The day meeting on January 10th will be held at “The Annex”. For those who don’t know, The Annex is in the same building as the Beaconsfield Library:

303 Beaconsfield, Blvd, Beaconsfield, QC H9W 4A7

The December meetings had everything! Everyone came wearing something holiday themed, some even going so far as to wear Christmas lights or lighted hats. The array of delicious treats was also impressive and something to look forward to after the serious part if the meeting.

Guild business and the pickle jar were swiftly taken care of and show and tell had the usual array of impressive quilts, bags and other items. Members brought along a selection of new and old holiday themed projects to share. There was some truly wonderful items displayed to help increase the holiday spirit and to provide ideas for future projects. I have entered a few photos which I managed to snap at the meetings. Apologies for the terrible camera work, this is clearly not my forte. There is no winner but as Andrea’s Christmas tree had lights on it it got extra points.

After the show and tells, it was time for more serious business as Nicole gave us the first part of her presentation about the course she did on feather work. She received the guild’s development grant towards the online course “Freehand Feather Fiesta” by Bethanne Nemesh, and offered her insights into why she wanted to do the course, its format and what she has learned. The course ran from May to early July 2023 and had so much material to cover that she said it was a challenge to keep up with the program, requiring watching a lot of videos and practicing both on paper and on prepared quilt sandwiches. Now she is revisiting parts of the material, which is all available to her as part of the course, and refining her skills. It sounded like a lot of work but the results are apparent and I’m sure we are all looking forward to the next part of her presentation, which is promised for later next spring.

Following the presentation, it was back to the holiday theme for the ornament swap. Some members had brought a “fabric” holiday ornament and then got to choose one brought by a fellow member. There was quite a large participation and everyone left happy with their prize.

The meeting finished with the “coffee break” when we could drink our coffee and share the treats. It was lovely to chat with everyone without the normal time constraints we have at the meetings.

Finally, wishing everyone a happy and healthy holiday season and a wonderful New Year 2024.🥳

The November meetings were separated by almost a week due to the calendar but were both well attended as members were keen to hear our first guest speaker since before the COVID pandemic. Suzanne Paquette spoke to us about her journey into creating modern memory quilts and showed examples of her work, many retrieved from the families who commissioned them.

Suzanne first explained how she embarked upon creating these memorable quilts after a career in hat making and costume design. After working for Cirque du Soleil in the merchandising department, creating souvenirs for audience members, she heard about memory quilts and was hooked. With little experience in quilting, she made her first memory quilt with her husband’s and son’s clothing.

These quilts are all about “capturing meaningful moments”, emotion and storytelling. The fabrics she uses are steeped in memories and she spoke about the three most common reasons that people wish to create a memory quilt, joy, grief and family memories. Because so much depends on the owners reaction to the finished quilt, Suzanne spends a lot of time getting to know about the family and the story behind the desire for the quilt. She aims to put herself in the shoes of those asking for the quilt, to look at the fabrics chosen and to let that dictate the design of the quilt.

As you can imagine this can take a lot of time. Suzanne estimates that each quilt will take her between 30 to 60 hours depending on the size, design and number of fabrics included. She recommends documenting and photographing every stage of the process, including each piece of clothing before cutting. The fabric also has to be prepared by washing, pressing and cutting. It may need stabilizing with starch or a backing.

Her quilts are modern (something we learned about last month) and have many of the signature characteristics such as asymmetry, negative space, improvisational piecing and bold colours.

The main takeaways of her highly engaging presentation about creating these quilts were that empathy is the heart of design, the materials provided must come first and dictate the feel of the finished quilt and that time spent preparing the materials will save time and effort in the end. Finally she gave us some tips on how some of the sample clothing items brought by members could be prepared and used in a quilt. Many of us took the chance to buy our own signed copy of her book to provide lots of happy reading (and sewing) for the dark evenings ahead.

After the coffee break, the business part of the meeting covered news about the spring show, the DDO fundraising stall and the great success of the cross body bag workshop. The finished purses were shown in show and tell. There was no time for icebreakers and we were reminded that the December meeting will include an ornament exchange and a finger food party. Wear your holiday finery and watch out for details in the newsletter.

Both of the October meetings started with a program presentation on Modern Quilting presented by Nicole and Caitlyn. This was followed by the Quilty Icebreakers (more on that later), a very brief business catch up and show and tell. Julie also presented the results and prizes for the 2022-23 UFO challenge.

Diving straight into the program section we had a thorough rundown of the history of the modern quilt movement and the quilt styles deemed to be its precursors. Members can find a link to the PowerPoint presented at the meeting on the program page of this website, including the references and details of the books mentioned. It seems that although the Modern Quilt Guild was founded in 2009, quilts in this style have been around since the 1800s. Several elements came together to make this type of quilt more popular in recent years among these are the increased interest in design, the availability of digital camera technology, social media and the changes in the fabric industry.

So what makes a quilt modern? It seems there are certain characteristics which define a modern quilt although not all of them need to be present in a single quilt. The presentation highlighted each of these giving examples drawn from our own guild photo archive and using the quilts of more than 50 of our members. What a rich source of inspiration we have at our fingertips. Thanks to both Nicole and Mélanie for doing this research and spending long hours searching in the archives.

At the end, the consensus seemed to be that we don’t need to label ourselves as traditional or modern, probably we are all influenced by this movement to some degree. Looking at the quilts presented at the meeting, members didn’t always agree on their classification. In the end, isn’t it all about self expression and not labelling, about trying new things and facing new challenges. After all our theme this year is “Curiouser and curiouser”

Quilty icebreakers this month asked about seam rippers. A very necessary item of equipment for some of us. Many people had a couple of these and many had more than 10. However at the day meeting Richard and Lorraine got the title of the most seam rippers with “at least 50” and Brenda had the most exclusive. A beautiful hand made seam ripper using the handle of a knife and inscribed with her name. The other icebreakers were questions on how many times you would pull out and resew a seam. Many said 3 times but others said until the fabric was no good any more.

The last item on the agenda, after quickly dealing with guild business and pickle jar winners was Julie and the UFO challenge. She showed the final submissions and then announced the winners. All of the participants got a prize and a rosette with Annette taking the grand prize. Well done everyone. Time for a break from UFOs maybe, at least until next year?

PS Happy Thanksgiving everyone 🦃