Toronto MQG October Meeting Recap

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October 2020 Meeting Recap Hello TMQG! If you joined us for Mary Elizabeth Kinch's Summerhill Sampler workshop held on October 24 you may have left with a few more skills in your quilting arsenal. Accuracy is key when piecing together 1.5" squares, and achieving it requires investigation and adaptability. Students revisited the basics of quilting with a keener eye, and set their sights on strengthening foundational techniques. There was certainly some seam ripping, but students were elated when everything measured up! At the guild meeting on October 25, Mary Elizabeth Kinch shared her discovery of how quilts compel people to tell their story. She emphasized that each quilt has a voice of their own that you need to learn to listen to. Members enjoyed viewing a variety of her quilts, and what she learned from listening to them.  Some of her lessons included the value of copying antique quilts, the power of "ish" (use of inexact measurement) in layout, embracing "chaos theory" and then establishing some design parameters to create harmony. Other suggestions included adding shocker fabrics (fabrics that you normally avoid) to give life to a quilt. Mary Elizabeth embraces using small pieces to create stunning quilts and has co-authored two books on the topic: Small Blocks, Stunning Quilts, and Small Pieces, Spectacular Quilts (co-authored with Biz Storms). Her final words of advice were "Small pieces aren't scary." QuiltCon Community Outreach Quilt We are thrilled to see our Community Outreach quilt blocks expertly layout by Peter Byrne, and in three versions no less! Members: It's time for you to decide! Which layout will become our QuiltCon Together 2021 submission? October Show and Share Gail McHardy-Leitch This baby quilt was a HST BOM with the London Modern Quilt guild.  We could choose whatever size we wanted for our HST's.  Mine are 3" finished. I quilted this one with my DSM walking foot.  The print fabric has little seagulls wearing sweaters on it.  The baby has already been born so this one will be given away shortly.     Gail McHardy-Leitch Thank You For the Music This quilt was a music challenge with my traditional guild. We were to depict a song. The material in this quilt is from my Dad's shirts. He died a couple of years ago.  He played the fiddle for 84 years.  He played at family gatherings, dances, concerts, nursing homes etc.  My song was ABBA's "Thank you for the music", specifically the chorus. There are more details on my blogpost on October 23rd. www.thecozyquilter.blogspot.com Gail McHardy-Leitch This last quilt was also a challenge for the guild's 20th anniversary .  We were asked to make a centre block and then add various borders over the course of several months.  Stars, appliqué, paper piecing, curved piecing and HST's   There has to be a reference to twenty somewhere in the quilt   XX=20 I also quilted this quilt myself     Dee O'Connor Little Ghost Quilt Inspired by the book "The Little Ghost who was a Quilt.  Hand dyed indigo, machine pieced and quilted.   Looking Forward The next virtual guild meeting will be held on November 29, 2020. We will be looking forward to a spotlight by Karen Brown, updates on the year-end gift swap, Show & Shares, and some casual conversations. Hope to see you there!