Welcome to the home of the Thunder Bay Quilters Guild.
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Monthly Meetings
Join us at the Calvary Lutheran Church at 2820 Donald Street East -located at the intersection of Donald Street and Edward Street. We will meet on the third Monday of each month, September through June – our meetings begin at 7:00 p.m. with doors opening at 6:00 p.m. Pre-meeting demos start at 6:30 pm (see below for details). All are welcome. Click here for a full listing of the dates, time and location…
Our next meeting will be: Monday, December 10, 2018. It’s Pot Luck! Doors open at 5:00 – Dinner at 6:00!
Click here to download the Quill-December2018
Program: Ugly Sweater Challenge block. The details and pattern were in the October Quill so I won’t repeat them here. If you lost them then you can download the Quill-October2018. I hope we get lots of entries.
Click here for information about our past meetings and a schedule for our 2018-2019 meetings as well as details of our meetings from years past.
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Christmas Cheer Teddy Bear Quilts – 303– Thank you!
WE DID IT.!!!! We outdid ourselves and really surpassed our last year’s total. The Christmas Cheer Kick-off was Friday November 30th and the committee attended to put the stuffed animals and their quilts, pillowcases and sleeping bags out on display. This year there were 303 stuffed animals donated by Guild members. I want to thank all who contributed to this great cause. It was really something to stand in front of the TV camera and mention that last year we contributed 256 and this year it was 303. WAY TO GO EVERYONE.
Peggy
For more details about this and other Community Service Projects click here.
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We Won!!!!!! Thunder Bay Quilt Guild was the proud recipient of a $500 grant from Tbaytel for Good – the funds will be used to hold a two-day Quilt Bee to finish bed sized quilts! More details on all the winners http://www.tbaytelforgood.net/winners/ . For more details about the January Quilt Bee – see below…
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Superior Quilt Show 2019
Time to start getting your quit(s) ready for submitting – download the Superior Quilts 2019 Submission Form. – Submission Deadline: March 18, 2019
Workshops
Guest Instructor will be Jennifer Houlden a textile artist by passion and nurse by profession, who lives with her husband and dog in beautiful Muskoka. quiltsbyjen.ca
For more information on Jennifer and the inspirations for her quilting is posted on the Superior Quilt Show page.
There will be two workshops:
Twisted Log Cabin – May 24, 2019
This is a foundation piecing project which allows for accuracy and precision during sewing. The pieces are cut larger than needed so there will be some wastage of fabric. The paper acts as a stabilizer during sewing to help create the fine points in this pattern. Completed size is 36 by 36 inches.
Mini Bargello Sunflower – May 25, 2019
Jennifer is very excited to teach you this technique of Bargello and applique. It is exciting to see it all come together and how each and every flower is different. Completed size is 20 by 20 inches.
Click here for more information – sign up at the next meeting.
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PostCard Challenge (organized by the Possibilities Group) – Seasons
If you haven’t heard of them or seen the ones Cathy Ridley makes, postcards are tiny 4″ x 6″ quilts. They are built on Timtex (thicker, stiff interfacing). They may be quilted and often the ‘binding’ is satin stitching. Some are tiny works of art. Cathy will be offering a class in January or February if you want to learn how to make them. Read more here…The theme will be ‘Seasons’ which coordinates with the regular Quilt Show challenge. You can submit an unlimited number of postcards – you may choose your favourite season or do one for all 4 seasons. We will have a viewer’s choice prize per season. We will collect these at the April meeting, so we have time to organize the display. Quilt Canada 2018 in Vancouver did a challenge last year and here are some examples if you want to see some examples of the winners. They got over 1,500 entries.
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Quilt Show Challenge – Spring Has Sprung!
Our quilt show in 2019 will be held when flowers are blooming and birds are happily nesting. The long winter will be over and the grass will be green. Help us to welcome spring by creating a challenge quilt to celebrate the arrival of spring in Thunder Bay. Northcott Fabrics has graciously donated 3 bolts of fabric for our challenge. These fabrics will be available to Challenge Participants at the March and April 2018 meetings. For more details click here.
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FAQs and Tips
Cindy has shared some great information about using Wonder Clips for binding. Do you have any tips to share? Click here for more…
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Comfort and Figit Quilts
The Comfort Quilt Committee members met in November to plan distribution of 50 quilts made this year. Thanks for the beautifully made comfort quilts brought in so far. We will be saving the comfort quilts collected now until the Quilt Show so they can be displayed at the show. Quilts were taken to some of the seniors homes, George Jeffrey Centre and Healing Hearts. We have also donated quilts for all the beds at the Adult/Teen Challenge home. There are many facilities that would appreciate bed-sized quilts so we are very appreciative of the Quilt Bees.
There were 12 comfort quilts and four (4) 12 1?2 inch squares. Jackie has kindly constructed many comfort quilts using the Hinge Method and the Quilted Squares brought in during the past two years. Jackie will provide instruction on the method at the Bee in January 2019. Please note that you can make any quilt square and then sandwich it with cotton or cotton/poly batting and a backing fabric to make a quilted square that should measure a minimum of 12.5 inches (so start with a 14 inch piece for backing and batting). Don’t trim your blocks as they may fray so blocks should be trimmed just prior to making the quilt tops. Almost any colours can be used but we recommend using a neutral (beige, red, blue, brown, black & white) backing and would like colours that will appeal to both males and females.
Comfort quilts collected from recent meetings were taken to Precious Bundles, Pinewood Court, and Hogarth Riverview by Committee Members. Click here for more information about our Comfort Quilts and other community projects.
Have you thought about making a Figit Quilt? Florence and I could provide you some tactile fabrics and notions to give it a try. Here is a great example of a fidget quilt. This is from ‘Man Quilting’ with Rob Apell. He has some great ideas on this fidget quilt. If you Google ‘fidget pillows’ you’ll see more examples made as pillows instead.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?reload=9&v=GhojSOjTAn4
Florence and Pat
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Quilt Bee – January 26 & 27, 2019
The Great Quilt Bee for Charity will be held on January 26 (Saturday. 10 am – 9 pm) and 27th (Sunday 10 am – 4 pm) at Oliver Road Community Centre with the goal of finishing quilts. We are planning a fun and productive weekend. Meals will be provided and as always, please bring dessert to share. We encourage you to participate and plan to attend as much of the weekend as you are able to attend. For more information, click here…
Anyone who has comfort quilts from Bees last year (or the year before…) please let me know when you turn them into the Comfort Quilt Committee at the meetings so I can mark your name off the list of quilts that are out being completed. No rush. If you are in need of batting and/or backing to complete quilts, let me know at meetings or by emailing me at alopes@tbaytel.net. If you need any for September please email me and I will bring it to the meeting.
I will be bringing kits to each meeting for members to take and finish at home if anyone wants to take a quilt kit to finish. It is a great way to practice quilting and to hone your quilting skills. Please see me if you’d like to sign out a charity quilt to finish.
Looking forward to another fun and productive year.
The link to the stripe tutorial on YouTube is https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l8xgM1H2X18
GREAT NEWS! We have received the second instalment of the grant we were awarded from the Northern Credit Union. We will be using the funds to purchase batting and backing for our quilts. Thank you to the Northern Credit Union for this support. It allows us to buy high quality batting and backing for our quilts, making for long lasting donations.
Adrienne
For more information on the Quilt Bees and our Community Projects – click here.
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Placemats – *New Patterns* added
Looking back over the year, we are reminded of the creativity, skills and generosity of our members. Since September, over 275 placemats have been made and donated for Meals on Wheels! Along with thanks to the creators of all of those wonderful placemats, we would also especially like to express our appreciation to Kirsi, Jennifer and Gail for their assistance in assembling kits, Wendy for her donation of batting, and our most recent fabric donors Fiona, Cindy and Maureen. Although we will not be distributing kits in June, we are collecting placemats and will have more kits in the fall. Have a great summer!
Some members have recently inquired as to how the labels should be attached. Simply fold in half, wrong sides together, and encase the raw edges underneath the binding by attaching to the seam before completion. The folded edge remains free, so that both sides are readable.
Remember that you can view pictures of our donated placemats on our Flickr site. If you want to make placemats using your own fabrics and patterns, we will also have labels available for you to add.
Click here for information and links to the patterns or to download the pdf’s.
And here are some new patterns to try
**NEW- Blushing Peonies Placemats– from Cindy Cockell
Doris & Judy
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Superior Quilt Show 2017 Winners
Dorothy Mills – 1st Place Viewers Choice Flights of Fancy
Winner of the Quilt Show Challenge.
The Guild will be be hosting their next Quilt Show in 2019! The organizing has begun – click here for regular updates.