March 31st Meeting Report

We had another great meeting in March, back to our regular schedule of the last Sunday of the month!  Sadly, Libs Elliot was not able to be with us, as scheduled, but we're looking forward to seeing her in May.

Please welcome our new resident Instagrammer/FB-er, Bobbie Sue Gentilli (aka @geekybobbin), thanks for volunteering!

Days for Girls
In place of Libs Elliot, we had a fascinating and engaging talk from Maria Pollieri, the Toronto team Leader for Days for Girls, an organisation that makes and distributes feminine hygiene kits to Grade 6 girl around the world.  This is life changing for these young women, as these kits allow them to attend school during their period, which they wouldn't otherwise wouldn't be able to do.

Maria Pollieri, Team Leader Toronto, Days for Girls

The TMQG, as a group wants to help contribute to this worthy aim, by providing sewing expertise and complete piecing for the organisation.  From this meeting, alot of the members took away materials to make flannel liners and precut and assembled cotton shield units.  The organisation has very specific criteria for putting these together, so if you were unable to get printed instructions, please email me, or one of the other executive member to get an electronic pdf.  Please return any completed materials to Rebecca Burnett, who is our liason for this initiative. She will likely not be at the April meeting, so please bring them to the May meeting instead!  Can't wait to see all the finished products!

In addition, we are hoping to run a sew day devoted to these materials, in the not so distant future, so stay posted for more news in the future!

Spotlight on Machine Binding
We had a great demonstration on machine binding from Adrienne Van Halem, with tips and tricks that she picked up from QuiltCon this year.

This is a technique that uses white glue and starch, ensuring tightness and accuracy, and achieves a nice even finish, although don't expect it to be faster than hand finishing your binding!  One of the techniques Adrienne suggested was using a fine tip squeeze bottle for the glue, and I think she might have a few extras available, if you want one......

Block Lotto Challenge String Quilt Blocks
We had an awesome number of blocks, with over 100 submitted!

So, we split the block pool into two, and Karen Brown and Adrienne van Halem were the lucky winners of this largesse.  I think we can all agree it was a pretty popular block lotto!  Can't wait to see the finished products.

Show and Share
There were lots of fun things this week!  We had two finishes from Stef Rose:

First, this crosses quilt that was a gift.

And then, Penny the cat!  This is my favourite, and the colours and contours were fab!  Stef made this in a class with Terry Aske (with the York Heritage Guild).

Next up was Lynda Kowalski:

with this Fun Pointsettia runner from the pattern from Sew Kind of Wonderful

And these Amsterdam Tulips, pattern also from Sew Kind of Wonderful. They both had some lovely machine quilted details.

Julie Ja showed us a lovely quilted zipper jewellery pouch that she designed herself.  This pattern is available, if you are inspired to make one too!

Doris Lovadina-Lee had a productive month with a Light up Owl Miniquilt

Some great quilted hangers

a pink argyll quilt

And this cool log cabin quilt

New member Karen Powers showed us her first quilt, a baby quilt: 

as well as this "circus tent" quilt

Sandra Cooper showed us a baby quilt she calls "Joy", the colours and gradients are fantastic!

Adrienne Van Halem showed us the final product of our QuiltCon Charity quilt "Missing Pieces", this was a massive effort on the part of the whole group, and the finished quilt is very large, and looks spectacular!

Now that it's back from QuiltCon, the quilt will be donated to the D'Amico Foundation, which we hope will find good use for it. Don't forget, the next one will come around soon--it was a lot of fun to participate, so definitely think about getting involved next year!  

Our last quilts were from Karen Brown who showed us three baby scrap quilts she made recently--some lucky recipients, I think!

Don't forget, this is a monthly feature, so bring your latest finishes next month for show and share!  It's great to see the creativity of the group, I am always inspired!

Member and Raffle prizes
This month's members' draw was for patterns, magazines and some other goodies, and was won by Diana
Our monthly raffle fundraiser for a $40 Workroom gift card was won by Xandra.  Congratulations ladies!

Next meeting
Don't forget, our next meeting is this Sunday, April 28th, 2019, and look out for the change in venue, we're in the Rainbow Room this month!