newsletter president’s message...

December 2009 Quilt Show 2010: Gifts from the Heart 1

This time of year brings with itmany celebrations and tradi-tions. One of my favourite tradi-tions is stuffing stocking (quiltedones of course) and finding justthe right special surprise to putinside. I usually have to give myfamily a few hints when itcomes to stuffing my stocking _a package of sewing machineneedles, a Quilting Store giftcard, etc.

Speaking of needles, this fall, Icame across a simple andinexpensive tip for organizingyour machine needles thatwould be a perfect stockingstuffer idea. Keeping track ofsewing machine needles can bechallenging, especially whenthere are so many types ofneedles to organize. An inex-pensive bead box (I purchasedone at Michaels for just $5.75with the 40% coupon) serves asthe perfect solution for keepingyour various needles segregatedby size and function. I pur-chased the snap-lock dividersversion that keep contents fromspilling and makes the boxvirtually cat-proof.

There are a couple of styles. So Isuggest you bring a package ofneedles with you to make surethey will fit in the individualcompartments. My bead box isserving two purposes—one sideto store my needles and theopposite side to store two of mylarger sewing feet.

Paste this picture on your refrig-erator. Maybe someone in yourhousehold will get the hint!

On behalf of the ExecutiveCommittee, I hope that you taketime out during this HolidaySeason to enjoy all the activitieswith your family and friends.We wish you the best of theseason and our very best wishesfor the New Year.

December 2009

President’s MessageLinda Won

�Announcements 2

�Quilt Musings 3

�Community Projects 4

�Quilt Show 2010 6

�Challenge Fantasy 8

�fabshophop.com 8

Next MeetingDecember 8, 2009

programmeJanet Hope

In December our speaker will beHelen Fujiki.

sshhoopp ooff tthhee mmoonntthh Quilty Pleasures

ffaatt qquuaarrtteerrss tthheemmeeHoliday fabrics

NEWSLETTER

in this issue

THE COMMON THREAD QU I LT GU I LD NEWSL E T T ER


E xe c u t i ve Te a m

President Linda Won

Vice-President Susan Baker

Past President Catherine Patterson

Treasurer Catherine Parkinson

Secretary Susan Kirkham

Programme Janet Hope

Workshops Sylvie Proulx

Library Del Jazey

Membership Pauline McNallyWendy Warren

Retreats Barbara Till

Newsletter Sylvia Gilfix

Challenge Yvette Lessard

Webmaster Sylvia Gilfix

Community Victoria Van der LindenProjects

Quarters Elizabeth Jones-VilleneuveClub

Quilt Show Shirley GeigerCoordinator

To reach members of the executive write [email protected]

AnnouncementsFundraising EventOnce again we will be collecting toothpaste, toothbrushes and other toiletries for the Gloucester Emergency Food Cupboard.

The mission of the GEFC is to help families that find themselves in anemergency situation. They provide these families with a 4 day supply offood to help them through the crisis.

The food cupboard does not have a budget for purchasing non-fooditems such as toiletries so they rely on special fundraising events such asours to provide these families with the little extras that sometimes meanso much. For instance through one of our events they were able to provide every client with a toothbrush and toothpaste as a little extraduring the holidays.

In November we collected 96 toothbrushes plus toothpaste and othertoiletries. On behalf of the Gloucester Emergency Food Cupboard thankyou for caring.

You may drop off your donations at the sign in desk.

Cottage Industry Summer Contest 2009 WinnersCongratulations to the winners: Joan Ramsay-Burn who won $50.00 forher quilt, and Liz Johnston who won $10.00 for her quilt top.

Invitation from OVQGThe Ottawa Valley Quilters’ Guild would like to extend a warm invita-tion to you and members of your guild to our monthly meeting Monday,December 7th at 7:30 pm (7 pm Social) to hear our guest speaker HelenFujiki from Toronto, who will be presenting “Japan Through the Eye of aQuilter”. Her slides and trunk show will be a wonderful opportunity toexpand your horizons, and you won’t want to miss her 50 stunning wall-hangings up close.

Monday, March 1st we cater to the appliqué enthusiasts among us: ourguest speaker is Kathy Wylie, author of “Sewflakes”, a book about paper-cut applique. Her lecture takes a closer look at designs that are circularor radiating in nature. Check out her website, www.kathykwylie.com,and sign up for one or both of her workshops Feb. 27th and 28th, forwhich some appliqué experience is helpful, but not essential.

We look forward to welcoming you at our meetings and workshops.

Janet Patch, OVQG—Publicitywww.ottawavalleyquiltersguild.org

I really do enjoy EVERY part of quilting.I love to look at pattern books and magazines, trying to picture what thequilts that I like would be like in thecolours that I would do them in. I LOVEto buy the fabric (although I’m prettysure that I would try the patience of Jobwhile I pick out the fabrics that workperfectly together, in my mind anyway!)Ienjoy cutting the strips or blocks out,especially when I have a cutting tablethat isn’t cluttered with ‘stuff’ ANDthat is high enough for me. I LOVE sewingthe pieces together with my littleKenmore sewing machine. I usually strippiece my blocks, but sometimes I justcan’t stand the suspense, and I have tofinish a few and sort of put them togeth-er on my design wall, just to see what itis going to look like! I love putting theblocks together, with or without sashing,and getting the borders, with or withoutcorner stones onto the completed centreso that you can see what the quilt isgoing to look like.

I don’t mind getting the backing ready(although I have never actually piecedblocks for a back) even though they tendto be made out of the same piece of fab-ric, and I can hardly bear the suspensebefore I get to start machine quilting.And I enjoy binding – I sew it on bymachine and turn it and sew it by hand,and I love that step — it isn’t dependenton the sewing machine AND you can do itand chat (and what do I do better thanto chat?) Did you notice that I missed astep? The only part of quilting thatI’m ambivalent about (okay, I sigh alot when I’m ready to do it!)is makingthe sandwich.

I quilt by machine. And that is FAST,as a general rule. And I am DRIVEN tofinish the quilts that I start. When Istart making the quilt, I can hardly waitto have a finished quilt. I think one ofthe reasons that I like binding so much

is because it is the signal that thequilt is DONE.

So back to the sandwich. I glue thedarned thing together. I don’t like thesmell of the glue (I’m sure it isn’t goodto breathe!) I don’t like trying to getthe glue off of the hardwood on the living room floor, nor am I spectacularlyinterested in laying down newspapers sothat I don’t get it on the floor in thefirst place (although I do lay the newspapers down; listening to my hubbycomplain about the glue is not pleasanteither...)

What I really dislike about gluing thequilt parts, though, is being on my handsand knees on the living room floor. It isHARD work. In my last house, the livingroom was on the back of the house and thebackyard was quite private (due to thefact that I don’t especially care forhedge trimming and the cedar hedge was20 years old and at least 20 feet tall!)So I would open the patio door so that Ididn’t gas us all, sweep the living roomfloor to within an inch of its life topick up all the cat hair, and then Iwould take off my jeans and my slippersand socks! Have you ever tried to crawlaround on the living room floor on yourhands and knees in a pair of jeans? Ifyou haven’t, don’t! Then I would maskingtape the backing to the floor (face down)(usually with the help of the hubby), layout the batting to make sure that it fit,and lay out the quilt top to make surethat IT all fit. Then I would fold thingsback halfway and spray, and smooth thingsout and spray more halves until the wholething was stuck together.

My new house has the living room on thefront, so I guess that crawling around onthe living room floor in my underwear isnow a thing of the past! Probably a goodthing, altogether! Have fun, however youbaste it!



Quilt Musingsfrom the typewriter of Jane Maddin

How does the committee work? You can sign out a bag of donated fabric to sew into a topor finished quilt; or sign out aquilt top to be quilted; or donatea quilt; or donate fabric and batting—come see us for details.Remember: we will pay for yourbatting if you quilt a quilt for us,or contact us ahead of the meeting and we will bring a battcut to the size of the quilt youhave made.

1. The Common Thread QuiltGuild collects monthly donations of Cuddle Quiltsfor use on the isolettes at theGeneral Campus. The tiny at-risk babies look less clini-cal in their quilt-coveredbed, and the families take thequilts home. Barb Donaldsoncan tell you more aboutsizes, can show you patterns,and can give you donatedfabrics and batting. Thirtycuddle quilts were turned inat the November meeting.

2. We support the Victims ofViolence outreach programwith young child/teen/adultthemed Comfort Quilts (40" x 60".) Thirty-nine weredelivered in November.

3. We support the St. Mary’sCommunity Outreach Centrewith baby/child themedquilts (anything from 30" x40" to 40" x 60"). The youngmothers benefit from coun-seling and instruction.Twenty-one were deliveredin November.

4. We have committed to making eleven 65" x 80" single bed quilts to donateto the LifeHouse programadministered by the OttawaMission. These quilts are notgiven away to their clients,but are there to decorate therooms and make them a happier place for the menenrolled in the five-monthprogram.

What You Can Do To Help:We now have the last twokits ready to be assembledfor the Mission: you get 99striped squares, 99 battingsquares, and 99 backingsquares ready for you toquilt, join, and clip theseams. Eight of the elevenquilts promised have beencompleted. Can you helpwith the last two?

Labels Ladies, even though you areencouraged to be creative inyour quilting activities, we askyou to be a conformist whenattaching labels to Guild com-munity project quilts! Please fol-low the guidelines below whenlabeling your Cuddle Quilt, orany larger quilt:

1. Turn the quilt face down.Locate the lower right corner.

2. Place the label diagonallyacross the corner with thewords facing you

3. Either pin or baste the out-side edge of the quilt to thelabel. Trim the excess label.

4. Attach binding to the quiltedge, catching in the edgesof the label. You do not haveto sew down the long edges.

Community ProjectsVictoria Van der Linden

Community Projects Committee: Victoria Van der Linden, Catherine Senecal, and Barb Donaldson



CUDDLE QUILT SIZES: Checkout the new size requirements:for optimum utility, please makeyour Cuddle Quilts 18" x 24",or make them 22" square. Ourbattings and backings are cut24"x 24" to finish 22" square. Itis up to you to provide for the18" x 24".

Thank you for all the work youdo to help those less fortunate.A pretty quilt warms peopleinside and out! Have a happyChristmas season, and visit ourtable in January for new patternsand ideas for 2010.



Offering a Full Range of Suppliesfor the Creative Quilter:

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613-521-9839Open Monday to Thursday 10 to 5:30 • Saturday 10 to 5

Friday 10 to 5 (except July & August)

MembershipPauline McNally and Wendy Warren

Guild pins are available at membership desk for$5.00. Guests are always welcome to attendguild meetings. Guest fees are $4.00.Membership fees remain at $30.00. To date our total membership is 200.

Come May 2010 both Wendy and Pauline willbe retiring. Membership is part of the ExecutiveTeam and therefore plays an active part in Guilddecisions. The Membership portfolio gives youthe opportunity to be part of a team and to makenew friends.

Team work has added benefits. Two years agowe both volunteered to help with membershipnot knowing each other. We soon formed a partnership and find it works very well. Wefind sharing duties gives us the freedom to traveland carry out our personal obligations while letting us be active participants in the guildadministration.

If you would like more information concern-ing the Membership Portfolio see Wendy orPauline.

NOTE:When signing in please have your2009/10 RED MEMBERSHIP card ready to avoiddelays.



My CommittmentShirley Geiger

As chair of the quilt show com-mittee, I feel obligated to enter aquilt in the upcoming show. Aschair of the quilt show commit-tee, I know that I will be busywith the show and (take a deepbreath) I can’t do my usual hurryup and finish the quilt at the lastminute because I did my usualprocrastinating and thought Ihad all the time in the world todo a wonderful job but oh nonow I’ve got to get it donebecause the deadline is justaround the corner!

So I am making my commitmentto the show easy on me. My quiltgift is to myself is the gift of time,as I already have a quilt top that Icompleted last month.

It has taken me seven, yesSEVEN, years to get this far. I amcalling it the Seven Year Itch. It’s apattern that I fell in love withfrom the first Nickel book. I hadjust finished a quilt with trianglesand swore I wasn’t doing trianglesagain for a very long time. Yup,this pattern is all triangles. Iworked on the quilt twice a year,each time I went on a retreat toProvidence Point in Lanark. ThenI stopped going to Lanark. Thequilt sat in my UFO box foryears. Wanting to have a quilt forthe show, it finally got done. All Ihave to do it get it quilted, sewon the binding and a label. I’llprobably pin on the sleeve,

because I will be in the hurry upand finish at the last minutebecause I did my usual procrasti-nating....you get the picture!

My Gift from the HeartShirley Mack

A few years ago I decided tomake both my daughters a quilt.Bonnie, being the eldest, wasfirst on my list. The colour of theover-all pattern, that I chose forthe Kaleidoscope pattern contained greens, pinks and yellow range. I happily startedthe quilt and showed it to mydaughter. She looked at it andstated, “Mom, I am sorry butMarc (her husband) can’t standgreens”. Fortunately, my otherdaughter, Cheryl looked at itand said “Mom, I’ll take it!”This left me with the problem:What do I do about Bonnie? Idecided on a shopping trip withher, where she could pick out apattern of her choice. Bonnie isan engineer, who likes shapes.The pattern she chose wascalled “Twisted Star”, a paperpieced creation, designed byJudy Neimeyer’s son, Bradley.Bradley’s design was done foran engineering economicscourse. The time came tochoose the colours for the quilt.I scanned a black and whiteoutline of the pattern into thecomputer and e-mailed it to her.She made several copies andexperimented with various

Quilt Show 2010colours, chose her favourite andgave it to me. I also receivedmany coloured copies from mygrandchildren.

The time arrived for me tochoose the material. By thistime I was in Arizona, as a winter snowbird. After choosingthe colour scheme and purchasing the material, Iopened the pattern and readthe directions. My heart sank.The pattern was composed of 42 triangles and 10 half trian-gles. Three triangles made up astar pattern. The larger triangleseach contained 48 paperpieces.

Never one to shrink at a challenge, I started cutting andsewing. I have a back problemwhich limits my sewing time. Ittook me three years to finish thequilt and the work in progresswas hauled back and forth fromOttawa to Arizona as well as tomy cottage. Along the way therewere many frustrations andmuch ripping and re-sewing. Iwas delighted with the finishedproduct as was my daughter. Itwas truly a gift from the heart.



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CHECK THIS OUT

fabshophop.comSylvia Gilfix

I confess! I enjoy shopping online. I love to letmy fingers and mouse do the walking ... often.

Obviously I enjoy looking for fabric. On onesuch hunt I happened upon a logo of a bunnyand the words YOU FOUND IT. I’m quite cautious about what and where I click ononline, but that day I thought ... oh what theheck ... I’ll do it. Well I was introduced to theworld of fabshophop.com, an on-line shophop. (There’s even a shop specializing inbatiks.) I have found some fabulous shops,and more importantly, some really good bargains.

I must warn you that pretty much allof the shops are in the States so the pricesare in American dollars. Of course the fabricis also sold by the yard not meter. However, Ihave found good quality fabric I like for as little as $4.99/yard. So when the Canadiandollar is high, even with exchange and shipping charges included, I’m still gettinga good deal.

Of course this won’t replace actually visitinga quilt shop in person and seeing the fabricclose up. Plus there’s no one on-line to helpyou pick coordinating fabric...you’re on your own.

All that being said, sometime this winterwhen you’re stuck at home and you’re looking for inspiration, check out the fabshophop ... looking is free and fun.

ChallengefantasyChristmas is almost upon us and we’re thinkingof everything we want to accomplish. That initself is a FANTASY.

A couple ladies have told me how they’ll usethe fabric to create their fantasy wallhanging. Ilove listening to people who are so enthusiasticabout what they are doing.

Catherine Patterson’s fantasy is to be set upwith her sewing paraphernalia on the lawn (ordeck) of the cottage on the point at HarmonyBay. On one side is the Ottawa River, on theother a tranquil bay. The sun is dappled, thetrees rustle in the breeze, the birds sing cheer-fully and she sews while nature surrounds,sooths and entertains. She doesn’t stop until it istime to go back across the Bay to Bob’s cottageto pour the wine before supper. The next dayshe goes back and sews some more!

We have sold 39 fabric bags ... only one left.I’m hoping it sells.

Have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!Yvette

Sewing TipRubberized shelf protectors are wonderful

to prevent your sewing machine foot

pedal from slipping all over the place.

Just cut a piece larger than your foot

pedal and place it underneath the foot

pedal. Also, if you have trouble with your

sewing machine 'walking' across your

table, this same product will help.

newsletter president’s message...

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