July Meeting

We started our meeting off with an uplifting and positive message in the wake of an inexplicable tragedy. 

Sheila has designed a block for us to make so we can put together a quilt to support the victims of the Pulse nightclub shooting in Orlando. Its a cause that many of us feel strongly about, so we wanted to make this quilt to raise awareness about this issue. The design comes from Lin Manuel Miranda's acceptance speech at the Tony's in the wake of the shooting, when he declared that no matter who you love, Love is Love is Love is Love. Its a beautiful rallying cry and I think the quilt we make from it will be stunning.

Berene is in charge of our Block Lottos, and has put together another adorable block selection for us.

SPOOLS! How cute are they? There's a couple of different size and design options as you can see, and whoever wins this one is going to have a really sweet quilt to put together. The tutorial can be found here. The date for finished blocks is the September meeting, so that would be September 25th I believe.

Elaine brought in a wall hanging sized quilt that she made for a Riley Blake Challenge. Its called "Its an Illusion". I believe that she fussy cut a printed fabric to make the black and white sections. Frankly, I am in awe.

Berene designed and made this gorgeous meditation on the design possibilities available using half-square triangles, and what happens when you put warm and cold colours together. It is called "The Juxtaposition Quilt".

This intricate and  beautifully detailed little stunner is called "Hundreds and Thousands". For those of you that are not from South Africa, Hundreds and Thousands are what we would call Sprinkles, like the kind you put on a birthday cake or a donut. It was made by Berene and members of the Fab Bee. She put out a call for them to use 1" strips of rainbow fabric to piece half inch squares at random angles and location to each other. As we all know, true randomness is very hard to achieve, but she said it was interesting to see how comfortable some people were with the randomness and how some still contrived to find a way to create order. When all the blocks arrived she added more of her own to fill the spaces and put it together as randomly as possible. I really love the way it turned out.

Diana is a new member of our guild, and had lots of interesting things to share with us.

Here is a detail of the lovely improvisational quilt that she made. She has a textile-artist background and loves colour and contrast.

Even the back is lovely.

And we were particularly delighted by these teeny tiny little hexies that she is putting together. She doesn't know what she's going to do with them yet, but was really enjoying the process of making them.

Karen brought in this riot of colour and pattern called "Crazy Life, Crazy Quilt". She made it at a workshop with Sue Paquette in Oakville where participants were challenged to bring in fabrics that they haven't been able to use in something else, or don't really like, because somehow, they will work together. It was a sew, slash and turn type of technique that lets all the crazy come out and play together, with a really fun result. 

July was also the deadline for our Not-Really-President's Challenge. The theme was "Self-Portrait".

…and the winner is…. Adrienne Van Halem! 

Her entry is a whole-cloth quilt made of fabric that she designed and printed on Spoonflower, and then quilted.

An excellent piece indeed!