Here are some great events that are coming up in London!  

For more information about the play and for ticket information, click on the poster below.

Textile Showcase is an annual show and sale of original and innovative pieces by Candian Embroiders' Guild, London Members.  This year’s Textile Showcase will be held Friday, April 25 from 12 – 6 pm and Saturday, April 26 from 10 am – 4pm at St. James Westminster Church, 115 Askin Street in Wortley Village of London, Ontario. 

Works are then selected from Textile Showcase to be exhibited in Fibre Expressions IX at the Central Public Library, 251 Dundas Street in downtown London from May 2 – May 29. Central Public Library hours are Mondays to Thursdays 
9 am – 9 pm, Fridays 9 am – 6 pm and Saturdays 9 am – 5 pm.

The Creative Age London Festival is being held May 22-25, 2014.  

"The London Creative Age Network (CAN) is a collaborative, community initiative. We’re a vibrant, energetic and growing community of artists, performers, volunteers, businesses and organizations who celebrate creative potential and community engagement in the second half of life.  " - Creative Age London


There are a wide variety of events.  Click on the logo above for more information.

Our March meeting was held last Saturday, March 8th, 2014.  We had a great turn out and had one new face join the group.

Mary gave an update on our Community Outreach Project.  It was great news to hear that the interest in quilting in increasing and the participants will be moving to machine quilting in the upcoming weeks.  A request for materials, supplies and sewing machines were made.  You can read more the request and the Outreach Project here.

At February's meeting we decided as a group that one of our programming activities would be to have a monthly book review.  This month Sonia kindly shared two books by Yoshiko Jinzenji.  

The first book...

The second book...

It was extremely fascinating to here about this artist and how she got her start in quilting.  Sonia even demonstrated some of her own work inspired by Yoshiko Jinzenji. 

Using a large apple print fabric, Sonia selectively cut the leaves in the fabric.

The leaves were arranged in the centre and surrounded with a large amount of negative space (white fabric) and accented with coordinating green fabric.

Here are some additional samples of selectively cutting and arranging...

We have two separate challenges that will be coming up.  The first challenge is being held  by  The Modern Quilt Guild and sponsored by Michael Miller Fabrics.  The challenge is open to London Modern Quilt Guild Members.  We are hoping that we receive the fabric in time for our April meeting.  The turn around time for this challenge is very quick! June 23, 2014 to be exact.  For more details, click on the image below.

Our second challenge is our very own London Modern Quilt Guild Logo Challenge.  To celebrate and to show off our new logo, we have decided to each create our own 12"x12" block.  Rather than have a member create an exact replica of the logo, we will have it printed via Spoonflower and each member will create their own modern block using the logo colours.  More details on the challenge will be discussed at the April meeting.  

Here is an example of the Vancouver Modern Quilt Guild's own logo quilt.

Some fantastic quilting resources and events were brought up during our meeting:  

• The Ailsa Craig Community Quilt Festival will be holding a Quilts of Great Britain Trunk show at The Arts Project in downtown London from March 17-March 22, 2014.  For more information, click here.
  
• Mary mentioned that the Quilt Show website offers some free quilt shows.  Episode 1202 features Jacquie Gering.  It may be a grerat preface for those that are attending the Jacquie Gering wokrshops and lectures.
• The Burlington Arts Centre is holding an exhibit of "Quilts by John Willard: A 40 Year Retrospctive" until March 30, 2014
• Miceala shared a quilt inspired by the book "Colorific" (My apologies as I did not get a picture of this work in progress.  For more of Micaela's work see our Show & Share below.)

As always, we had some inspiring work shared by our Members.

Mary's quilted and embroidered "Inchies"

In the fall of 2013, the London Modern Quilt Guild decided that our outreach project would be to teach the art of quilting to residents that live in the Limberlost Low Income Housing Development. Discussion occurred with London Community Chaplaincy staff to work out the logistics of this. We also felt that we would invite other Guilds (Thames Valley Quilters Guild and Canadian Embroiderers' Guild, London) to support this in various ways such as volunteer by coming to the Stitchin' Time, contribute supplies, etc. 

The first project was to have members of LMQG make "blankets", Denyse Schmidt style and then the participants/ residents would choose one from these many blankets and add their own touch by hand stitching the blanket stitch.

On January 21, 2014 we launched the project at the London Community Chaplaincy Unit in Limberlost Housing Development and we had one person attend. We have grown to 4 participants and have a roster of  7 volunteers from the our guild and the two other Guilds mentioned above. We provide snacks and the Chaplaincy the coffee and tea. The participants have been quick in learning 5 different blanket stitches which have really enhanced the already beautiful blankets. Thank you to all of the volunteers for coming out to stitch with the ladies and providing companionship and to Guild members who have made the beautiful blankets. The participants can be so proud of their accomplishments.

As the blankets are nearing completion and the participants are eager to learn we are ready to move into quilt making from start to finish. March 25th is the date we start our learn to quilt portion. 

To make this possible we would appreciate your assistance. If you are able to provide any of the supplies listed below for this LMQG Outreach sewing group it would be great.

2- rotary cutters

2- 6"x24" grid ruler

2- 9 1/2" square grid rulers

sewing machines (2/3)

If you have any of the above supplies either gently used or new, we would appreciate your donation.

Also needed:

thread- spools of neutral colour for piecing

plain foundation fabric- muslin or broadcloth in pale neutral colour.

quilting fabric that can be cut into strips (minimum 2" wide)

This will get our group started making string quilt blocks for their quilt tops.

Eventually we will need batting and fabric in pieces large enough for backing.

Supplies can be dropped off at Hyggeligt Fabrics,  3-515 Richmond Street, London if possible by noon on March 22nd.

Here is a quick reminder that the March Meeting will be held this Saturday, March 8th!  As always the meeting will be held from 10am until 12pm, at Hyggeligt Fabrics, 515 Richmond Street, Unit 3, London, ON N6A 5N4.

There month's agenda includes:

• Welcome & Introductions
• Treasurer's Report
• Outreach Project Report
• Modern Quilt Guild Report
• LMQG Logo Challenge - Definition of Challenge (Bring your ideas!)
• Book Review - Sonia
• Show & Share

Everyone is welcome.  Hope to see you Saturday!