August 2016 Dessert Party

This month, in lieu of our guild meeting, we gathered together at the Murray Centre in Kensington, PEI to host a wonderful event. A PEIMQG Dessert Party featuring guest speaker Sharon Baldwin's "Time out with Textiles". 

Susan was the MC for the night and she welcomed our 81 guests and thanked them for coming, We had people from all over PEI and some visitors from NS as well. She brought everyone's attention to our fabulous door prizes and the silent auction items contributed by PEIMQG members, local and not so local businesses. 

Huge THANK YOU! to our very generous contributors.

Next up, Heather J, the president of the PEIMQG, spoke about the Modern Quilt Guild. How it was formed in LA in October 2009, developing out of the thriving online community of Modern Quilters and their desire to start meeting in person. The MQG is made up of over 150 guilds across the world. There are currently 18 Modern Quilt Guilds in Canada.

So what is "Modern" Quilting? 

Modern quilting is primarily functional and inspired by modern designs. Modern quilters work in different styles and define modern quilting in different ways, but there are several characteristics to help define a modern quilt. These examples include, but are not limited to:

-The use of Bold colors and Prints

-High contrast and graphic areas of solid color

-Improvisational piecing

-Minimalism

-Expansive negative space and alternate grid work.

- Modern traditionalism or the updating of classic quilt designs is also seen in Modern quilting.

Modern quilting has existed in many forms for much of the 20th century but wasn't until the 2000's that quilts with a modern aesthetic began to appear in greater numbers.

More info can be found on the MQG website. You can find the PEIMQG blog here, to see what we've been up to.

Cathy talked a little about our most recent charity quilt, and about the generosity of the quilting community as a whole.

 This beauty will be heading to the Orlando MQG as a donation to the Quilts for Pulse project.  The PEIMQG has also donated an additional quilt top to this cause as well.  Previous donations of quilts were made to Fort MacMurray and quilted placemats to the Montague chapter of Meals On Wheels. We are very proud of the charitable work we've been able to accomplish so far, given that we are a new guild as of January. Due to the success of this evening, we will be able to continue to do more charitable endeavours and education of our members in the future.

Next up, Susan introduced our guest speaker - Sharon Baldwin. Sharon is a very accomplished Textile Artist and quilter. She began sewing at the age of six. By the 1970's she was making traditional quilts.

 In the 1990's she began working with surface design. She dyes her own fabric, does needlework and is a fabric painter. She says that screen printing is her favourite medium and most of her work is "All about Nature". Her pieces are absolutely stunning, and need to be seen to fully appreciate their beauty. Her attention to detail is unparallelled.

Here are some of my personal favorites and a slideshow of many more will follow as well... 

 Halfway through the evening we had a break for desert and coffee. 

The guests were invited to come on stage and look and admire Sharon's pieces up close. We also gave out some door prizes and encouraged guests to place their final bids on the auction items.

The second half of the evening Sharon showed more of her work and opened the floor for a question and answer period.

click here to access the photos in the album


 I think the entire room was inspired by Sharon and her passion. Thank you so much to Sharon Baldwin for agreeing to be our guest speaker. We loved having her and we hope to see her again in the future. If you would like more info about Sharon you can check out her guest blog here.


We gave out the rest of the door prizes and finalised the silent auction items, I think everyone who won, enjoyed their winnings and a great time was had by all. 

Huge THANK YOU to all the members of the PEIMQG for making the event such a huge success,especially the setup/cleanup crew and the kitchen volunteers the desserts were beautiful and (as I was told by many guests) DELICIOUS!