Come join us for our first Hand Sew Happy Hour at Anderson's Brewery at 1030 Elias Street in London.

Anderson's is just across the road from where our new location will be in September- the Boyle Community Centre, so this is a nice introduction to the neighbourhood!

Bring a friend, and you can also bring in some snacks and any non- alcoholic drinks you would like.  We will have some peanuts and pretzels because they go so well with beer! 

Once you are inside Anderson's, grab a beer and go up the stairs, we will have a table where we will be working on our handwork.  See you Thursday. 

Doris is coming to the London Modern Quilt Guild in July to teach us how to hand dye fabric.  

Here is some info about a quilt exhibit in Toronto that includes her work. 

Sewing Connections by Quilts on the Wall
 
From June 2nd to June 29th Quilts on the Wall is pleased to present “Connections”, a celebration of sewn art, in the auditorium of the S. Walter Stewart Public Library, 170 Memorial Park Avenue, Toronto.  The exhibit is open to the public during regular library hours: Monday – Friday 9:00 a.m. – 8:30 p.m., Saturday 9:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. and Sunday 1:30 p.m.  – 5:00 p.m.; admission is free.  Free parking is available in the lot adjacent to the library.  To get to the library on the TTC take the (70A) O’Connor bus northbound from Coxwell Subway Station.
Join the artists at the opening reception of the exhibit on Friday, June 9th 2017, from 5:30 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.   Light refreshments will be served. 
Quilts on the Wall are: Catherine Clarke, Helen Garland and Doris Lovadina-Lee.  The group was formed in 2015.  This is their first joint exhibit, presenting art quilts based on the theme “Connections”. 
Catherine Clarke is an experienced quilter and member of the Toronto Modern Quilt Guild (TMQG) and Yorkshire Rose Quilters’ Guild of Toronto (YRQGT).  She explores new expressions of quilting traditions. The theme allowed Catherine to pursue the emergence of secondary patterns through colour placement and simple graphic designs that express our connections to ideas and language.
Helen Garland is a member of the YRQGT.  She started making quilts as a serious art form 8 years ago creating complex-pieced designs representing the world around us.  For this exhibit Helen investigated the ‘perception’ of connectedness.
Doris Lovadina-Lee has been an avid quilter for 15 years and is a member of the TMQG and YRQGT.  Doris hand-dyes much of the fabric used in her more recent quilts and enjoys exploring traditional quilt block forms over the course of a series.  She used “Connections” to focus on mosaic pieces that reference the past while looking toward the pixilation found in digital formats.
See examples of the artists’ work on Instagram feeds: Catherine @lilyandherbrother, Helen @piece_by_piece, and Doris @lovadina.lee. 
Questions should be directed to: Helen Garland at helengarland56@gmail.com.
Hope to see you there! 

This is a photo of Doris and her 6 art quilts titled Crossing Borders as well as the larger quilt titled Atmosphere.  These quilts were on display at The Hungerford.

We are very lucky to have Doris share her expertise with our guild!  Can't wait for July.  We have a few spaces available for this workshop- click HERE to read more information.  Anyone can attend this workshop, not just London MQG members. 

Jan was our instructor for April.  Jan took a machine quilting on your domestic machine from Christa Watson at QuiltCon. Jan is also a wonderful teacher so this month was a fantastic lesson!  We will have the resources updated soon with the templates shown here. 
Here are 2 books that Jan recommends. 

Jan explained how to spray baste with 505 spray. It is best to spray the quilt backing and top instead of the batting.  And you can spray then gently fold the quilt top in half to move it around and then lay it out on the batting. The 505 spray does not gum up your needle as well.  

Jan also had templates for us to trace so we could section our quilt sandwiches and have different areas to try a few free motion designs. 

Members got right to the machine quilting- here we are busy at work.  

And here is Maria's free motion quilting- the double and triple loop! Oh and Jan recommended using some kind of grippy gloves to better control your quilt. 

Thank you Jan for another great workshop!  We hope to see some completed quilts using this free motion technique at the next Show and Share!

Linda is collecting slab blocks for the Great Canadian Quilting Bee in June.  More info can be found on our Community Events page.  Here are some we have received these past few months. 

We also have another logo block brought in.  I think we are going with a leaf/ tree theme!

And we did have more Show and Share this month, but I forgot to take photos.  Hopefully we can upload a few more soon.  Sheilagh is showing her block that was hanging in the Crimson Tate booth at QuiltCon.  It was EPP- Sheilagh's favourite quilting technique!  Mary had her flying geese circle tote bag and Pat was showing us her elephant quilt that was made with raw edge appliqué like our ticker tape workshop in December.  Linda was busy once again and made a few Lone Star quilts as well as the Pantone Greenery quilt and Stars quilt.   Sarah made a Libs Elliott inspired greys and lime green quilt and Joyce made a grey quilt that she is in the middle of machine quilting. 

In May, Sonia will be showing us how to make a traditional block into a modern block and Jan will be explaining an online  palate builder website. 

March was our first QuiltCon workshop review.  
Sheilagh took a hand embroidery class from Alison Glass in Savannah, and Sheilagh demonstrated how to do various embroidery stitches, as well as provided thread, and supplies to make a hear sampler.  (the pattern can be found in our resources pages)

Our members traced the pattern and got straight to work making some familiar stitches and some new to them stitches.  
​Here are some photos of their work

I think one of our members Liz needs no help with hand embroidery!  Look at her hoop- she is working on 1 new stitch each day for the whole year.  Can't wait to see how it looks in a few months.

Here are some of the quilts that were shown at Show and Share. Our members are very productive! 

And here are some in progress quilts from our afternoon sew-in.

Once again we had a very productive meeting!  Can't wait until April.
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Members of our guild have made Canada themed quilts that will be on display throughout London to celebrate the 150th birthday of Canada.
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Here are the locations, so that if they are in your neighbourhood, you can stop by and have a look.

May- Pond Mills Library 1166 Commissioners Road East
June- Masonville Library 30 North Centre Road
July- Byron Library 1295 Commissioners Road West
August- Stoney Creek Library 920 Sunningdale Road East
September- On display at the Western Fair
September- Crouch Library 550 Hamilton Road
October- East London Library 2016 Dundas Street East
November and December- Landon Library 167 Wortley Road

Thanks to everyone for making this display possible. 

Our guild is growing in leaps and bounds!  We had another few members join today, which leaves only 3 available memberships because of the fire code for the Artisans Centre.  

If you were thinking of joining our guild, please visit us as a guest at the next meeting on May 13th, and if you like our guild, please join while you can!

April Meeting ReminderHere is a reminder for our April Meeting that will be held April 8, 2017!
Here is our agenda:

• Hand Sew Happy Hour will take place April 27 from 7-9pm.  More information can be found here.  Space is limited. Please rsvp!
• Sign Up for Fabric Dyeing Workshop, July 8, 2017. More information can be found here.
• East Lions Artisan Centre Sale - April 29, 2017, 11am - 4pm.  Members can sell items at sale.  A portion of the proceeds goes to East Lions Artisan Centre.   
• Bring Slab Blocks for the Great Canadian Quilting Bee held by the CQA. More information can be found by clicking here.
• LMQG Logo Challenge Blocks - Due August. More information can be found here.
• There are lots of Quilt Shows coming up!   You can find out more by clicking on our Community Quilting Events Page.
• Chatham-Kent Quilt Raffle - 3 quilts to be raffled. Tickets will available through Linda at the meeting - $2 per ticket or 3 for $5.
• Update about our Canada 150 Block Challenge.
• MQG Updates
• Show & Share
• We will have a open sew-in until 4pm that day.  Bring a project and stay for the afternoon!

March Meeting ReminderHere is an early reminder for our March Meeting that will be held March 11, 2017!
Here is our agenda:

• Reminder that the deposit for the SWOMod Quilt Retreat is due April 1, 2017. More Info can be found here.
• Stratford Guild Trunk Show - If you are willing to lend any modern quilts to be shown at this trunk show, please bring them to the meeting.
• Libs Elliot Workshop is SOLD OUT!
• Sign Up for Fabric Dyeing Workshop, July 8, 2017. More information can be found here.
• East Lions Artisan Centre Sale - April 29, 2017, 11am - 4pm.  Members can sell items at sale.  A portion of the proceeds goes to East Lions Artisan Centre.   
• Bring Slab Blocks for the Great Canadian Quilting Bee held by the CQA.  More information can be found by clicking here.
• LMQG Logo CHallenge Blocks - Due August. More information can be found here.
• 2016 Financial Report
• Show & Share
• We will have a open sew-in until 5pm that day.  Bring a project and stay for the afternoon!

We really had a strong showing of London MQG Canada members at QuiltCon in Savannah this year!
 
Some drove down before the quilt show and did some early sightseeing, while others sat around in the Pearson airport for 12 hours waiting for the fog to lift, and others stayed longer to continue on vacation.

The weekend was jam packed with so much to see and do, both at QuiltCon and in the city of Savannah!
The first morning was the awards ceremony for the winning quilts- and a few Canadians were honoured with ribbons!

There were classes to take, lectures to attend and demos to watch from 9am to 9pm.

Here is an overview of the vendors and quilts on display.  Look at the vendors!

One of our members Sheilagh had a mini quilt she made hanging in the Crimson Tate booth- way to go Sheilagh!  And Sonia met Heather Givens too- isn't she just the sweetest!

Even with the thousands of attendees, some of our members were able to pose for a photo.  Others missed each other entirely (Sonia isn't sure Kristyn was actually at QuiltCon because they never saw each other)

There were various meet ups during the show.  The MQG had their very first Mini Quilt Swap some of our members participated in.  

As well as the evening happy hour social events and a Quilts for Pulse meet up.  Lyndsey assembled a guild quilt for Pulse so we left a London MQG button on their display booth. ​

The MQG arranged a tour of SCAD including their art gallery and fibre building. 

And the quilts- there wasn't enough time in the day to see all the quilts!  
There were amazing quilts- like Bling made by Katherine Jones which won Best of Show!  

And there were some not so great quilts, which was kind of disappointing.  

For anyone with some free time, a tour of the historic Savannah was a must.  But not for long since the biting gnats were so terrible after a while you just wanted to hide in your hotel room.  We saw giant cargo ships, but were told that the river is being dredged even deeper to accommodate the super ships.  Can you imagine a ship bigger than this?

And to get across the river we got to ride this cute little passenger ferry back and forth, and back and forth, and back and forth- you get the idea!  It was a nice break to sit down and catch up with friends.  

And just look at how beautiful Savannah is!  Blue sky, the sun, palm trees, multiple squares (that's what they call parks) and historic buildings. It's a city full of rich heritage. 

We had a quick business meeting on Saturday, which included topics like: volunteers needed at Limberlost, upcoming guild workshops, lots of new library books, local quilt shows and our Canada 150 quilt. 

This month's workshop was on Transparency Piecing and by the look on everyone's faces- Kristyn was confusing them!  
But not to worry, things were figured out eventually once blocks were drafted on graph paper with the use of lots of coloured pencils.  It really was confusing at first but you could see the moment when each person figured it out. 

Transparency Piecing is used to create the illusion creating a 3rd colour when 2 colours are layered one on top of the other. 

​Although all of the colors are opaque, the goal is to create the illusion that they are transparent. The degree of transparency can be dictated by the level of color or value contrast used. 

If you use a grey scale image and break it down into 3 parts, it really is a simple concept.  Interaction of Color, a book by Josef Albers, is a wonderful resource for all things related to colour.  He explains that you need a Parent 1 colour and a Parent 2 colour to create a Child colour.  The basic blue and yellow makes green colour theory explains it all!

These examples show how your eye perceives the colours and what it is lead to believe just by colour and fabric placement. 

For example A- you don't see transparency, you just see a green square on top of a blue rectangle.
For example B- you see 3 fabrics in a row.
For example C- you mind actually believes that you placed one blue colour, on top of the other peach colour, and the overlapped area is in fact the green colour. 

Here are 2 images- your mind believes that the new middle colour has been created just by layering the two bottom shades of greens.  Print out your own blank design and colour it in to make your own transparency.

Here are some examples of what was created in the workshop.  If you want to make a rainbow transparency runner, the pattern link is in the resources tab. 
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And always we had some fantastic member show and share!
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