January 2018 Meeting Recap




Well, hello 2018! Thank you to everyone who came out to kick-off the year, it was nice to see old friends and meet new ones at our January guild meeting. Equally refreshing was cleaning out our sewing space and adding new fabric finds! Here’s a recap of the fun we had!




TMQG Happenings
Hip hip hooray! Introducing our 2018 Executive Team: President Steff Rose, Vice-President Karen Brown, Secretary Christine Narravo, Treasurer Adrienne Van Halem, Communications Officer Laura Henneberry, and Guild Photographer Diana Fox-Revett.


The Toronto Modern Quilt Guild is currently 72 members strong and we’d like to welcome our 9 new members! Thanks for joining us, we’re so happy to have you! One goal for 2018 is to encourage member engagement (nudge, nudge, wink wink, yep, we're looking at you!). With that nudge, would you like to step up and chair a committee? We’d love to see your leadership on the following committees: Social, Programming, and Charity.


Know anyone who’d like to join us? Excellent, we’re accepting new members and our annual dues are $40. Payment method details can be found on our website.


A few announcements in support of guild members or interesting things happening:
  • Gunnel Hag is running a Winter/Spring fabric printing workshops at the Colour Vie Studio. More details can be found here.
  • Catherine Clark is attending a retreat in April in Hawley Hills and there are two openings.
  • Creative Reuse Toronto is applying for grant and is looking for volunteers and Board members for a grant application. More information here.
  • The Canadian Quilters Association (CQA/ACC) is looking for some input on what modern quilters are looking for from a National Quilting Organization. Contact Irene Lafleche at membership@canadianquilter.com to give feedback.
  • Berene Campbell of Happy Sew Lucky has her Badass Quilt kit on sale at Fabric Spark.
  • Doris Lovadina-Lee was included in a book called Quilts and Health. Congratulations on having your work recognized!
Want to know more about your executives? Full bios can be found at the end of this newsletter.


2nd Annual Crafty Sale
Scrap bonanza! Thank you to everyone who donated to and shopped at our Crafty Sale. This year was definitely more scrap focused, perfect for those small piecing projects. Together we raised $657.85, with the proceeds contributing to upcoming programming initiatives. Leftover items were donated to Helen at Creative Reuse Toronto, who was very grateful for the support.


2017 UFO Challenge
There were some final challenge finishes at our January meeting.

First up was Laura Henneberry’s improv quilt named A Mighty Hok. She organically built the quilt out after using improv strips for the center. Aren’t the colors so soothing! It’s a gift for a friend, but it was a hard one to let go! @commonwealthquilts


Lynda Hutchison blew everyone away with the beautiful colors and simplicity of her Rainbow Remix My Way quilt. She started this at QuiltCon in a class by Rebecca Bryan. @artfultoo



Catherine Clarke had two UFO beauties! Stars was beautifully quilted using techniques learned in last summer's Melissa Marginet’s Modern Quilting with the Feed Dogs Up workshop. Wow! And Here Fishy was a quilt kit she found again and tackled for a big finish. @catherineannclarke



Berene Campbell finished a quilt she started three years ago when she first moved from Vancouver to Toronto. Moving is always tough and so she pieced “Home Sweet Home” as a way to help the transition. We’re so glad to have you here in Toronto, Berene! @happysewlucky


Elena Langlois finished her Carpenter Star, made using a Love Moda Bakeshop pattern. She started with the backing fabric and felt too constricted to its colors. But, after breaking free and adding some additional colors, she was able to produce this beauty. Well done! @elenalanglois


There were so many beautiful quilts finished during this challenge. And while the real win was FINALLY getting those UFOs completed, Christine Navarro, Karen Brown, Dia Sue-Wah-Sing, Steff Rose, and Emily Becket Smith got a sweet top off of some nice prizes!

Want to participate this year? We’ll be kicking off this same challenge for 2018 at our February guild meeting. More details to come!


January Show & Share

Catherine Clarke is going to be grandmother for the first time this spring (Congratulations!) and she hasn’t wasted any time making the first baby quilt. Backed with super soft flannel, Bright Star will no doubt be treasured for years to come. Plus, such beautiful quilting! @catherineannclarke


Gunnel Hag is starting a new trend, because Green is the New Black. Gunnel used the longarm at the Workroom to quilt this beauty and painted the green fabric herself. What a beautiful job, Gunnel!


Sandra Sarner started these Roosters awhile back in inspiration of her father. She built out the border with techniques learned from a Wonky Block workshop she attended. Amazing work!

Lynda Hutchison shared a MQG Mini Quilt Exchange finish, but since it’s a secret (shush…) we won’t be able to share it here on the blog. But let’s just say, like all things Lynda does, it is beautiful. @artfultoo


Berene Campbell is an inspiration in the creative community and really, quite a badass. So, it makes perfect sense that she would have designed this beauty, The Badass Quilt. This quilt kit is being sold exclusively at Fabric Spark with 30% of the profits going toward a local Toronto women’s shelter. @happysewlucky Quilted by Stacey M @hushrules
Apologies, the photograph taken at the meeting got corrupted, so we've used the one from Fabric Spark.


Wendy Rosenthall blew us all away with her Wild Fire quilt. The trees are all paper pieced and is going to be at home in her office. Such a beautiful quilt, Wendy!

Coming in February!
Congratulations, you’ve made it to the end of this blog post! But, aren’t you just tingling and inspired to get back to your projects? Just a couple more announcements on what’s coming up in February! Our next meeting is on February, 25th from 3:30 to 5:30 pm at Trinity-St. Paul's (427 Bloor St W).
  • Karen Brown of Just Get It Done Quilts will be presenting on Color, Energy, and Those Darn UFOs.
  • Kicking off the 2018 UFO Challenge (please bring cash)

Additional Executive Bios
Stephanie Rose @steffwess
Hi I'm Stephanie Rose (Steff is just fine too), and I'm happy to be serving as this year's guild president. I have been quilting about 15 years and love the quilting process. In my opinion  piecing is just done so I can get to the quilting. During the day I am the director of an undergraduate Engineering program at U of T, and when I'm not quilting I can be found teaching classes at The Make Den, curling, or hanging around with my hubby and our two cats. I was previously VP and President of the Riverwalk Quilters Guild in Naperville, IL. I am always open to new ideas for our guild, so don't hesitate to reach out.

Karen has been a life long crafter. When her life reached a breaking point in 2011, she signed up for her first block-of-the-month, which in turn led her to her first quilt guild and has never looked back. This year she participated in the Canada 150 Nine Patch exhibit that hung at the Houston Quilt Festival and now travelling through Canadian Embassies. She finds quilting is the perfect mix of projects, colour, friends and fun.

Christine Navarro @the_nav
I made my first quilt as a teenager in Sarnia in the 1990s, and I finished my second quilt about 20 years later just before joining the TMQG in 2016. So I'm still a relative beginner but I love to keep learning. Likewise I'd call myself an advanced beginner garment sewist and post my various makes on IG as the_nav. When I'm not sewing you may find me at my day job as a public health physician at Toronto Public Health or in my natural habitat, as pictured. I live with my partner Kent in a tiny Parkdale house. I also take really good meeting minutes.

Adrienne Van Halem @agentpeachquilts
Adrienne is proud to be serving on the TMQG executive for the second year, this year as the Treasurer and last as the President. She started quilting in 2012 after making her first quilt, a queen-sized Summer in the Park jelly roll quilt, which needs some mending, because seam allowances are hard. Since then she's worked on one quilt at a time, because space is limited, but dreams of having a stack of UFOs and a stash to be ashamed of. During the day, Adrienne is a Librarian in the corporate sector and loves a good spreadsheet if such a thing is possible, making being Treasurer just makes sense. Adrienne likes working with strong contrast, bright colours and very modern designs. For some reason she likes to man-handle giant queen sizes quilts through her Featherweight, and really needs to tone it down a bit and make smaller ones. You can follow Adrienne on IG @AgentPeachQuilts, because Agent Orange is too violent, and peaches are just peachy.

Laura Henneberry @commonwealthquilts
Laura has been a happier camper since 2015 when she found the mothership and all her people in the form of the Toronto Modern Quilt Guild. She is most ecstatic with life when debating how much new Carolyn Friedlander to buy or which has better hand, Kona or Free Spirit… Blues, teals, peaches, and pinks are her happy spot. Having given away every quilt she has ever made, she can now be found at her new Instagram handle to Commonwealth Quilts.

Diana Fox-Revett @pinkinked
Toronto-based artist, Diana, is a graduate of OCAD and NSCAD, where she specialized in textiles, printing, dying and weaving. Her love of colour-play and obsession with the process of working with fabric drew her to modern improv quilting. When not in her studio at Artscape, you can find her travelling with a box of hexies for her next project.

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