Wednesday evening was our regular Quilt Guild meeting. The Workshop Committee encouraged members to bring along their hand work to this meeting so that we could stitch and visit the evening away. As you can see, these ladies are very busy stitching.

Busy hands.....

Wonderful handwork on these crazy quilt blocks.

We also had a short presentation from Grace. Grace talked about her years of quilting--she has been quilting since 1976--33 years!

Other members are being encouraged to share their "quilting journey" in the coming months. What a great way to get to know one another a little more.

Grace led us through how she started quilting through to the present time with wonderful humour and some great samples of her work.

Show and share is always a popular part of the evening.

These blocks were won by one of our members in a monthly block draw last year. The blocks made up into two wonderful lap sized quilts.

Dorothy has been chosen by our quilt committee to be our featured quilter at our upcoming quilt show in October 2010. Dorothy has been quilting since she was 5 years old. Many of Dorothy's family members have benefited by her wonderful talent and generosity as she shares her finished projects with many of them.

This giraffe project was perfectly timed for our show and share as there had been an announcement on that night's news that there were two baby giraffes born in the Fraser Valley this week--one in Aldergrove and one in Langley. Janet told us her project was a 39 year old UFO! Congratulations on getting this one off the UFO pile and onto the wall, Janet!

These small quilts have Velcro on the back so that they can be rearranged on the wall of the library. Enid was responsible for getting this project off the ground and sharing it with the local library. Each block was designed by Enid and represents a different children's story.

And of course the grand finale that is always a great hit - the revealing of We Care quilts that have been turned in that month.

Guild Night

Wednesday, March 18 was our monthly guild meeting. Our guest speakers were some of our members who presented their pieces that they have created together as a group as they have worked together through some art quilting books.

Later, a couple of the members disclosed during show and tell that sometimes they incorporate some unusual elements into their quilted pieces--in this case it was Guinness beer cans. They have discovered that after being heated with a torch a Guinness can turns into a bronze/gold coloured medallion shape. Interesting for sure!

The highlight of the evening was after show and tell when all the We Care quilts that had been handed in that night were held up for display. We had 32 quilts turned in at this meeting and once we had them all held up, they circled the hall.

You will recognize some of the quilts from the workshop we had earlier this month.

Annual Guild We Care Workshop

Last Saturday (March 7), our quilt guild hosted their annual We Care Workshop. Every year our guild rents a hall and members bring their sewing machines, irons, and other supplies for a day of fun sewing together with the objective of making as many charity quilts for our We Care Program as possible.

This year's quilt was inspired by Julie Higgins' Square Deal quilt pattern which appeared in the October / November 2008 issue of Quick Quilts magazine. The We Care Committee modified the size and number of the blocks to suit our needs.
You can see the sample quilt in the background of this picture.

As always, the committee had kits all prepared for the workshop participants. All the pieces we needed to start sewing our quilt tops were pre-cut and labeled for us in zip lock bags. The efficiency and organization of our committee members enables us to be more productive, finishing our quilt tops before the end of the day.

I took pictures of the members working on their quilts.

This was one of the first finished flimsies of the day. I missed getting pictures of the rest of the quilt tops.

I finished putting the last stitches in the binding on my quilt early this morning. This is my DD playing the role of quilt hanger so I can snap this picture of my finished quilt. I will be able to turn my quilt in at the next guild meeting on Wednesday night.