Our September meeting was held on September 10th.  We had a very full house!  It is great to see our group growing.  

We started our meeting with a tiny bit of business including announcing upcoming quilt shows and our Thread Bar Workshop that will take place October 1st.  

The date for the South Western Ontario Modern Quilt Retreat 2018 (SWOMod) was also announced and it will take place April 6-8, 2018.  A $100 deposit is due by April 1, 2017 to secure our spot.  For more information you can visit the quilt retreat website by clicking here.

Sonia lead a discussion and exercise about the colour Red.  This is our last discussion in our year long colour series.  Sonia had us create a layered improvisational block using a technique by Sherri Lynn Wood of Dainty Time.​

Kristyn demonstrated some ideas on how to create improv crosses and X's.

A great tutorial for the Cross Cut Quilt pictured on the left above can be found on 'A Quilter's Table' Blog.  You can find that tutorial by clicking here.

A fantastic Improv Cross Pattern can be found here. You can access the original source by clicking on the image below.

As always we had a fantastic group of quilts shared during our Show and Share:

Since our next meeting falls on Thanksgiving weekend, the meeting will be a catch up meeting and sew day.  If you missed any of the lessons from this year, you can come to the meeting to see demonstrations and ask questions!  It will take place October 8.  Hope to see you there!

Don't forget to join us for our meeting this upcoming Saturday, September 10, 2016 at 10am.  Here is our agenda and supply list for this month's meeting:
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Volunteers Opportunities:

• Quilt X Booth - September 16 & 17 
•  Friendship Guild Quilt Show Booth - October 21 & 22
• Quilts to display at the above shows (bring at the September meeting)
• Kirkton Guild would like 3 people to do a trunk show in either March or April on the 2nd Tuesday. 
• Executive Committee Volunteers

Thread Bar Workshop

• October 1, 2016 - $65 payable to guild- sign up if you are interested as we are opening it up to the local guilds for registration.  4 Spots still available and open to non-members. 

SWO MOD Quilt Retreat 2018

Guild Business

​Sew-In

• After the meeting until 4:30pm.  Bring a lunch. Stay and sew with your fellow Guild members. 

We have 2 activities planned for our program this month.  Please bring your sewing machine, a basic sewing kit and don't forget the sewing machine cord and pedal!  

​I had a trip planned for Vancouver and made sure my dates corresponded with the Vancouver Modern Quilt Guild Show!   Some of the Vancouver MQG members are on Instagram and I have been following them for a while, so contacted Holly, the founder of the Vancouver MQG, for more information about the quilt show.  She was so friendly and helpful and even gave me all the transit routes to take over to North Van.  Once again I got to take a ferry like last year when I went from Halifax to Dartmouth for the Maritime MQG meeting.  Once off the ferry, I followed the signs to the quilt show!
 
I knew Holly was volunteering at the show near the entrance, and she was one of the first people I saw upon entering the quilt show.  She welcomed me and told me a little about their guild.  The Vancouver MQG has just over 100 members and they organized this quilt show in only a few months.  They put in long hours setting up the beautiful venue and hanging quilts, and it was obvious that all their hard work paid off- the quilt show was amazing!  Here are a few photos of the show and the venue called The Pipe Shop.

​Right near the entrance was a display of the guild’s mini quilts.  The wall was painted with their guild logo and all the mini quilts hung on this wall.

​Beside the mini wall was an activity where quilt show patrons could cut fabric and glue it to paper to create their own improv block, and these blocks were displayed on the nearby beams.

​Holly introduced me to some of the guild members who were all so proud to tell me about their quilt show.
 
The guild was raffling their 2016 QuiltCon Charity quilt to raise money for a local charity called Mom-to-Mom Poverty Initiative. I bought some tickets, but did not win the quilt. One of their members named Nancy Chan won the quilt!  Congratulations Nancy!

And now for the eye candy!  These are just some of the quilts that were on display at the quilt show. 

Here are some quilts that were made with the MQG Fabric Challenge Riley Blake and Michael Miller fabrics. 

​As you can see, the Vancouver MQG is a busy guild with lots of member participation.  I am so glad to have been able to see their quilt show, and meet some of their members.  Wonder which quilts will be at QuiltCon East?

The London Modern Quilt Guild is hosting a thread workshop presented by Anita Zobens from Superior Threads.  Anita is a fantastic teacher who will guide you through the different types of Superior Threads as well as help you navigate your fancy machine stitches.  And of course Anita will bring threads to purchase after the workshop!   Come and enjoy a lovely day while learning more about specialty threads. 

​It was a busy August meeting! Thanks to Pat for the sunny presentation on her favourite colour, yellow. We learned how to use yellow in the various colour schemes to complement or contrast and end up with a harmonious whole. Who knew that yellow is the first colour that our brain processes or that olive green is really yellow with black added.

​Pat also taught us how to make the cute little zippered bags that are shown below. These could easily become an addiction and I know some people went home and immediately made more.

We also had our own informal guild Riley Blake Sashing Stash Challenge.  The only rule we had was use a piece of the provided Sashing Stash fabric somewhere in your quilt. Here is what our members created.  Sonia won 1st place for the Viewer's Choice (top middle) and Veronica and Mary W. tied for 2nd place. (top left and 3rd down on the left)

​Kristyn finished the meeting with an improv demo on circles and had some great samples to show.

It was a busy meeting and the room was packed!  Next month Sonia will be presenting the colour RED and there will be a demo on Improv Cross blocks and X blocks.  We will have a brief business portion at the start of the meeting to discuss Guild Executive positions that need to be filled.  

Don't forget to join us for our meeting this upcoming Saturday, August 13, 2016 at 10am.  Here is our agenda and supply list for this month's meeting:

• Quick Review of Guild Challenges:
  1. MQG Charity Quilt/Quilt X Quilt 
     • For those who signed up at the May meeting, you may assist the assembly of the rows of the quilt at this month's sew-in after the meeting.
  2. Canada 150 Challenge

• Sew in the Park Dates
  • Tuesday, August 23, 2015, 6:30pm  (Movie: Toy Story 3)

• Volunteers Needed:
  • Quilt X Booth - September 16 & 17 
  •  Friendship Guild Quilt Show Booth - October 21 & 22
  • Quilts to display at the above shows (bring at the September meeting)
  • Kirkton Guild would like 3 people to do a trunk show in either March or April on the 2nd Tuesday. 
  • Executive Committee Volunteers
  • Blog Post - August only

• Thread Bar Workshop
  • October 1, 2016 - $65 payable to guild- sign up if you are interested as we are opening it up to the local guilds for registration.

• Riley Blake Challenge
  • We will reveal our very own Sashing Stash Challenge. Please bring your mini quilt that is 24" x 24" or less and use a piece of the provided fabric somewhere in your quilt. There will be a prize for 'Viewers Choice'

• Sew-In
  • After the meeting until 4:30pm.  Bring a lunch. Stay and sew with your fellow Guild members. You can bring your own project or assist with the following:
  • Quilt X/QuiltCon Charity Quilt - Assemble rows of quilt

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We have 2 activities planned for our program this month.  Please bring your sewing machine, a basic sewing kit and don't forget the sewing machine cord and pedal!  


​Yellow
presented by Pat
 
Join this month us as we explore the colour yellow.  Pat lead a short discussion on the colour yellow, and its relationship to the other colours on the colour wheel.  For the yellow activity, please bring the following:

• 10" square of your favourite yellow fabric cut diagonally to form two equal sized right angle triangles
• Matching thread
• Scissors
• A Sewing machine that can sew straight and zig zag stitches
• Zipper Foot
• $1.50 for a materials fee to purchase the remainder of the supplies (precut fuse interfacing, zipper)
• 3 in 1 Colour Tool (if you have one, not mandatory)

Knit Stitch is a knitting and fabric store that recently moved locations into a much larger shop on Wharncliffe Road.  
Suzanne started to carry modern quilting fabrics after the move, and is constantly receiving more and more bolts, with the most recent line being the Uppercase fabric.  She also offers classes for knitting, garment sewing and quilting. 
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On the last Wednesday evening of every month, there is a drop in night for knitting and hand sewing- here is a photo of the July drop in night.  

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Just look at this lovely store!

Knit Stitch will be closed until August 6th for holidays, but if you wanted to know more about Suzanne and her shop, while she is on vacation, here is a link to a London Free Press article- KNIT STITCH ARTICLE 

Please welcome Knit Stitch as our blog sponsor!

After a quick meeting we got straight into learning about Orange!  Sheilagh had excellent hand outs for the colour theory portion and then had mixing paints like experts.  Each person was given a paint sample in some version of orange and we then had to mix red, yellow, black and white paints into the exact shades of orange found on our paint sample.  

Let me tell you it was harder than it looked!  

Here are some examples of what we all came up with.  As you can see there was a lot of paint mixing to come up with the exact orange. 
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Here are the paint chips with the orange we mixed. 

And here are all our paint chips with the mixed paints- I think everyone did really well!

​Don't forget to join us for our meeting this upcoming Saturday, July 9, 2016 at 10am.  Here is our agenda and supply list for this month's meeting:

​Quick Review of Guild Challenges:

• MQG Charity Quilt/Quilt X Quilt  For those who signed up at the May meeting, you will be give precut fabric and instructions to create the block.  This can be done at home or at the sew-in after the meeting. 
• Riley Blake Challenge - Due at August Meeting
• ​#QuiltsforPulse  For those that have volunteered, please bring your improv blocks you have previously created this year to donate, as well as red, yellow and orange scraps to make additional blocks to contribute to our #Quiltsforpulse quilt.  We will work on these blocks at the sew-in after the meeting.

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​Recap of Nancy Trowbridge Triangle Workshop  

• Bring your quilt tops (or completed quilts!) to share with the guild.

Sew in the Park Dates

•  Thursday, July 21, 2015, 6:30pm 
• Tuesday, August 23, 2015, 6:30pm 

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Volunteers Needed:

• Someone to present the colour Yellow for August
• Upcoming Quilt Shows that the LMQGC is participating in.

 
Thread Bar Workshop

• October 1, 2016 - $65 payable to guild- sign up if you are interested as we are opening it up to the local guilds for registration.

Sew-In

• After the meeting until 4:30pm.  Bring a lunch. Stay and sew with your fellow Guild members. You can bring your own project or assist with the following:
• Quilt X/QuiltCon Charity Block - Lead by Joyce
• #QuiltsforPulse Charity Blocks - Lead by Lyndsey

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We have 2 activities planned for our program this month.  Please bring your sewing machine, a basic sewing kit and don't forget the sewing machine cord and pedal!  Please do not set up your machine until the second activity, it is not required for the first activity.