Lorna Shapiro – Exploring Shape as a Design Element

I tend to stay within a comfortable zone of familiar shapes as I build new quilt designs. This past year I had the opportunity to spend 4 days in a workshop with quilter Maria Schell from Alaska. Maria’s work is very different than mine… very electric and busy and vibrant… but I chose to study with her because customers had praised her teaching. She was indeed a fabulous teacher, and I came away with a newfound interest in incorporating different shapes into my quilt designs. Shape is only one of the elements of design that we get to work with as quilters. However, it can be very powerful as an aid to creating eye-catching designs. Come spend an hour looking at quilts as we isolate the element of “shape” and see what we can do with it.

Dianne Stevenson

As a 5^th generation quilter from Southern Ontario, Dianne cannot remember or imagine life without the warmth of quilts.  Her career as an instructor began in 1976 and has taken her abroad as well as expanded into the presentation of numerous lectures and trunk shows.  With traditional roots and a twist of the unexpected Dianne’s extensive research explores our country’s history in such classes as “Canadiana in Cloth” and “In Honour Of…” as well as enabling you to make fun projects with her pattern line of “Black Crow Quilt Designs”.  With a (warped, playful) sense of humour, Dianne combines her love of Canadian textile history, red wine and ever changing roles of women; but not necessarily all at the same time.  Dianne prefers to “preserve the past and use it as a stepping stone for future possibilities!”   She was honoured to be the CQA/ACC  Teacher of the Year in 2010 and thrilled to be able to cycle across our magnificent country and explore it’s diversity of cultures and landscapes in 2011.

Canadian Influences: slide and trunk show

Trish Poehnell – CANCELED DUE TO THE WEATHER

I have been quilting since the 1970’s but have taken it up with gusto since returning to Vancouver in 1989.  I readily admit to having a bit of a “squirrel” approach to my quilting – easily distracted by the next great project.  And to my everlasting sorrow [not!], I am not much of a perfectionist, so have not yet produced a perfect quilt with perfect points and perfect 1/4″ seams.  But to my great joy, along the way, I have completed quite a number of quilts – some favourites and some not so much – and I would like to share some of them with you.

What You Should Know About Taking Your Quilt to a Professional Quilter

If you have had or are considering having one of your quilts professionally quilted, our January 9th program is just for you. Three of our members will be giving the program: Parm Gosselin and Moira Perlmutter are professional long arm quilters and Debby Gray is a professional hand quilter. After a short presentation from each of them, there will be lots of time for your questions—What preparation should you do? How do you work with the quilter to agree on a design? Is batting included? How is the price determined? How much lead time does the quilter need? And anything else you need to know so that you get the quilting you want and a great working relationship with your professional quilter.

Contact Information for Our Speakers:

Debby Gray 778-228-8151; scrappyblue@gmail.com; www.scrappyblue.com

Parm Gosselin 604-889-1764; fiddleheadquiltz@shaw.ca; www.fiddleheadquiltz.com

Moira Perlmutter 604-619-9525; moirap@telus.net; www.MoiraPerlmutter.com

• Something delicious to share for the snack table
• Strips of fabric for “strip poker” 

  Preparation:

  3 strips of 2 1/2 by width of fabric in any solid colours, and 3 strips of 2 1/2 by width of fabric in any green prints.

• Christmas Ornament
  Preparation:
  Cut 
         2, 7 inch diameter circles from different Christmas fabrics; one light and one darker.
  Bring
  Needles and matching thread
  Scissors
  Button for centre of ornament
  8 inches cord/ string to make a hanger for ornament

  You can view this YouTube video for more information:  YouTube Video

All members of the guild are encouraged to bring along their quilts and show them at the October meeting creating a Giant Guild Trunk Show.  BIG OR SMALL; NEW OR OLDER…,ALL QUILTS MADE BY YOU, OUR VQG MEMBERS,  ARE WELCOME.  These could be ones which are being entered in our UPCOMING SHOW… or a  quilt from a past show or even one that has never made it to a Show.  This is a great opportunity to share in the wealth of knowledge our guild has to offer and celebrate all skill levels. Because we are expecting such a HUGE turn out of quilts…we would like to suggest that members limit themselves to  THREE QUILTS PER MEMBER!!! Don’t be shy, — COME AND SHARE YOUR QUILTS WITH YOUR FELLOW VQG MEMBERS

Cindy Scraba of Cindy’s Threadworks

Cindy’s love of texture began as a child. She secretly stashed bits of lace and trim to re-fashion into doll clothers.  She taught herself to sew, crochet and embroider by watching her mother and admiring her mother’s needlework pieces. Her love affair for all-things-textured lives on in her collections of vintage crocheted items, embroidered linens, semi-precious-to-her stones, and antique glassware for their awe inspiring beauty and design elements.  Her life-long love of texture includes her pets who possess an endearing texture and her home that is surrounded by five acres of a natural rainforest which has ever-changing seasonal textures, colours, flora and fauna.

In 2007 she discovered Superior Threads and with this her experience in creating textures took a great leap forward and inspired her to begin her on-line business, Cindy’s Threadworks.  Her topic for our program is Thread Therapy and she will bring a selection of Superior Threads (500 yard spools of King Tut, Bottom Line, Micro Quilter, Masterpiece So Fine, Variegateds, and some specialty metallics), patterns, and some notions for us to purchase.  If you want a cone size of any of her threads (see www.cindysthreadworks.com for a selection), you can order them from her website (chose option #2 pick up/delivery when you check out of the website and let her know you are ordering them for delivery to our meeting).  She will bring them with her to our guild meeting on September 12.

The final meeting before the summer.

This will be our Annual General Meeting where the committee is finalized and other Guild business is discussed.

Our June program will also include mini trunk shows by three of our members—Sherri Dennison, Isabelle McCaughey, and Wendy Roberts. They represent a range of quilting skills and loves. They explain their love of quilting as follows:

Sherri Dennison:

I have been quilting since the mid 1980’s when I took my first quilting class at the Cloth Shop. My love of Civil War fabrics (also known as Reproduction Fabrics) began when I went to Lancaster County, Pennsylvania in 2003. My Mom wanted to go on a tour being offered by her local quilt shop. None of her friends were interested so my sister and I accompanied her. We toured the area visiting museums dedicated to Civil War quilts and fabrics, spent many hours in fabulous fabric shops and soaked up the atmosphere. By the time we left, I was hooked.

Isabelle McCaughey:

I developed an interest in art quilting with the use of silk ties several years ago. This has grown to include fabric collage, some dyeing techniques, and use of vintage linens. I will show some examples of these techniques.

Wendy Roberts:

I am not a machine person. I have always thought of machine work as ‘doing’ and hand work as ‘being’. I can loose myself in applique. As I pick up my applique project and begin to work on it, upsets go away and troubles smooth out.