PEI Modern Quilt Guild August 2020 Meeting

Here on the island, the temperatures are cooling off and it seems like summer is coming to an end with some hints of leaf colour changes to signal the onset of fall.  We continue to be extremely thankful with the small number (less than 5) active cases of COVID-19 and with our public health guidelines, we can gather safely in small numbers.  So we had our first in person meeting since March 2020, hosted by one of our members in her long-arm studio and recreation space.  What a wonderful experience to be together again.  Eighteen of our members were able to come to our meeting.

We had our block lotto blocks on display and Susan was the winner of these beauties.  She gave them to Brenda who was interested in making something with these blocks.

Our guild committed to making two Quilts of Valour Quilts in 2020.  One is already with the longarmer and Susan is showing us the 9-patch which will be part of a disappearing 9 patch block once reassembled.  Members took the kitted blocks and will bring them back for our September meeting.

Can't wait to see the finished quilts!

Liz shared the Christmas Cracker exchange planned for our December meeting.  Members were amazed at what you can fit in a toilet paper roll, wrapped in Christmas fabric!

Velda shared her E-Zee-Pee-Zee Whirly Gig blocks when demonstrating the next block lotto block for our October meeting.  These look like they would be easy to put together and my imagination is running wild as to the setting possibilities...

Blueberry Cove LongArm Quilting Studio sponsored the Trend Tex swag bags at our retreat this summer.  Within the bags there were ballots for these two beautiful prizes.  The lucky winners were Janice and Martiza!

Recently we did a pouch swap with the Victoria MQG.  The participants in attendance brought in their lovely pouches for everyone to see.  Look at these beauties!

We then moved to the show and share part of our meeting.  Here is Liz's cute I Spy Baby quilt that she quilted.

Roberta shared her Posh Kitty, quilted by another member Colleen.

With a back full of kitties!

Roberta shared her Lady at the Beach mug rugs that she did on her embroidery machine.

 

And here is her At the Beach wall hanging.

Roberta shared her work on Zen Chic's pattern using the fabric line Chill that is being offered at the LQS.

At the retreat, Dawn was working on Penguin Party for her granddaughter who is moving out next month.  What a fabulous finish, quilted by Colleen.

And the back...

Linda is trying very hard to make a dent in her batik stash, but she is not convinced it is working after completing her Flying Geese quilt, quilted by Colleen.

And the back...

Here is Linda's quilt Stepping Stones, quilted by Colleen.  What a beauty and love the background colour chosen to offset those blocks.

Linda also shared Nancy's Rope Bowls, as she was unable to attend the meeting.  She did a fabulous job.  These were as a result of the skills learned from a workshop taught by Jean at the retreat.

Velda continues on her mini quilt work.  These are as a result of the prompt from Curated Quilts using crosses and their colour scheme.  Here is here ++ Mini.  Great grid work quilting to also showcase crosses in this quilt.

Velda's second mini using their prompt.  Such different designs and so creative!

Shelly shared her Blue Log Cabin.  Shelly spent the day with Jean and Doug quilting her quilt on their longarm.  She shared it was a long day of quilting this baby!

Cathy K. shared her Memory Quilt.  She cut up her mother's clothing and made a number of quilts for her family which she found was a great healing process.  Colleen quilted this beauty and we were all emotional when Cathy shared the note found in the envelope for the recipient.

Cathy V. shared her recent purchase of Tula Pink's latest collections from a Canadian store.  Lots of fondling followed as she passed these around.

Heather has been working on her UFOs found in her sewing room.    Here is the result of winning the block lotto earlier this year.  She gathered up more low volume fabrics to design this setting to showcase the blocks.  Quilted on Jean an Doug's machine using blue thread.

And the back...

Heather just recently finished this Elizabeth Hartman "Awesome Ocean"quilt. It was well worth the effort involved to make this special quilt!!

Heather participated in a Polaroid Block swap more than 5 years ago with quilters from the UK, US and Canada.  She finally pieced them together in this setting to showcase the fussy cut fabrics on Kona Forest.  She also used an orphan block for the back to get it out of the closet!

And the back

Jean shared her latest rope bowl.

Jean has been working on her Christmas presents.  Here are her potholders with cute fabrics on the front and showing the quilting on the yellow back.

More potholders with gnomes and mushrooms!  What great gifts.

Jean loved the PEIMQG raffle quilt (yet to be raffled off) in the guild colours so much that she wanted to make her own version of the Lilla quilt - a pattern by Cheryl Arkison.  While she loves the guild colours, she challenged herself to use colours that she would not normally use, and her jumping off colour was mustard!  What a great colour combo and mustard is now a colour which has its place in her stash!  She quilted it on her longarm using green thread.

Martiza also attended the rope bowl workshop at the retreat and here she is juggling her wonderful creations!

And the insides!

Lucinda did not bring her work with her, but was describing the quilt for her nephew and we caught a sneak peak of it on her phone...

Susan shared the mini she received from the recent CQA swap from her partner from Calgary.

Well our members have been very creative and we had a super in-person meeting.  We will continue to meet in person at our members' homes for the short term until we are able to return to our usual meeting space.  Until then, we will continue to Quilt forward...

July 2020 2nd Annual Retreat

Well, our retreat was postponed from March to July and we were fortunate to be able to go on retreat with the easing of public health measures and the opening of the Atlantic Bubble where the four Maritime provinces were able to move freely without having to self-isolate upon arrival.

Fifteen keen quilters were gung-ho to go on retreat from late Thursday afternoon until Sunday after lunch...

Here is the view from the room with physical distancing in place!

 We were fortunate to have a Canadian company, Soak Wash provide Flatter for all and Soak for the folks on retreat.  Such a great product and can be found on-line or in a local store. Thank You Soak Wash for sponsoring our 2nd Annual PEIMQG Retreat!!

Linda, who won the viewer's choice ribbon for her block, put together all the blocks from the President's Challenge using the Pantone and Kona colours of 2019 using the theme Summer.  Look at that arrangement!  Definitely reminiscent of summer here on the island.

Lucinda was Santa and led the group with the door prizes - Christmas in July.  Here is the group, showing off their goodies!

Of course, we had to respect the fact we had a number of lefties in our group.  So here is the iron station set up for the right handed and left handed quilters.

Day Two: 

In the morning retreaters were surprised to find swag bags filled with fabric and other goodies, provided by Blueberry Cove LongArm Quilting Studio in partnership with Trendtex.  

Lynn was showing off her shirt, striking a pose!

Physical distancing is the new norm, so even our dining experience was different and just awesome!

Lots of projects in the works:

Nancy's Checkered Lattice

Jean's Kaffe Fassett quilt of her own design

and some pot holders

Anna's Sweet Grass quilt ready for binding

Heather's binding her BOM (April), yet to be named, quilt.

and she shared her Giant Spider quilt

Janice's "You're in my place" wall hanging with her" Flower Power" peaking from below.

Dawn's Penguin Party

Cathy and Anna were working on Ombre Lattice quilts....Here's Cathy pressing her blocks..

and Anna's sewing hers..

 Linda's Batik blocks (formerly a Block Lotto)

Lucinda spent some of her time hand piecing some "Farmer's Wife" blocks.

with so many blocks and small pieces she is staying organized!!

Dianne was busy playing with scraps and making pineapple blocks.

Janet was cutting out her fabrics for the "City Slicker pattern

Shelly was making masks and baby towels, but she was so quick we missed a photo, oops. We did manage to capture some of her Batik Log cabin blocks.

Susan was binding a Red, Black and White quilt.

and assembling her "High Rise" quilt.

We even had visitors for short periods of time.  Here's Roberta who has a summer place not far from the retreat centre.

Liz and Lisa (from NS's Maritime Modern Quilt Guild), made arrangements to do their CQA swap while visiting us!  Here they are opening their mini quilts!

In the evening we decided to postpone the games in favor of the gorgeous view of the sunset and to sew until dark.

 Nancy had her "Checkered Lattice Quilt" layed out and it looks fantastic!!! There is just so much movement in this design.

 Maritza's "Shattered Frames" quilt designed by Angela Walters came together really quickly. The end result is stunning!!

Dawn made excellent progress on her "Penguin Party" a pattern by Elizabeth Hartman. Their faces are just so cute!!! and I can't wait to see all the fun sweaters they get to wear.

Jean's Gnomes and Toadstools potholders are just so chic!!!

and her Kaffe Fasset quilt is really taking shape

Lynn was able to get 2 baby quilt tops assembled from panels...

Day 3

Some of us took advantage of the extended retreat by going to Sew Blessed Quilters in nearby Kensington. More than a few pennies were exchanged for some fabric lovelies!!!

We also had a blast in the afternoon, when Jean hosted a workshop on making rope bowls.

The bowls were varied and beautiful and more than one was made by several members...

I think most of us tried the baskets on as hats, but Cathy was the only one silly enough to pose for a photo, LOL.

Lynn is making a beautiful " St Tropez" tote with this beautiful Hoffman panel.

She was also working on her CQA Row by Row challenge

After supper the guild focused on making Quilts of Valour Blocks as part of our charitable block drive.

Here's Susan holding up an oopsie..... oh well maybe it's time for a break....

In the evening we played 2 rounds of Left, Right, Centre. A game played with 5" squares where winner takes all!!!

Susan won the first round and a gift from our last sponsor Riley Blake Designs. We were very fortunate to have such generous sponsors this year!!!

Jean won our second round and came home with a few more squares to add to the stash!!

Day 4

On our final morning of retreat, most of us were working on finishing up last minute details on the projects we had brought....

Nancy was cutting up strips for her next project a "Spiral Log Cabin"

Here are Janice's wall hangings.... "Flower Power"

Lollypop...

 and "You're in my Place"..... WOW!!

Dianne completed a few pineapple blocks

and Janet started assembly on her "City Slickers" quilt

Mother and Daughter, Anna and Cathy were able to assemble one block before packing things up. all the remaining blocks are ready to go, so hopefully completed quilt tops will be revealed soon!

Linda got an excellent start at laying out her Batik blocks. (Although she wants to try several layouts before deciding on the final one).

She also shared this stunning "52 blocks in 52 weeks" quilt in black, white and grey with Kona Wasabi as the background.

The only thing that remained was to take a photo off the balcony, so we could maintain social distancing and still get a group shot.

On Behalf of the PEIMQG, We would like to express our thanks and gratitude to out Amazing hosts, Earla, Martin, Darlene, and Kent. We truly appreciate all the extra work that was involved hosting a group our sized during this pandemic. We look forward to coming back next year!!!

We would also like to thank our generous sponsors: Soak, TrendTex with Blueberry Cove Quilting Studio and Riley Blake Designs. Each of us felt special and pampered with the flatter spray, swag bags and prize draws!!!

Reminders:

July Virtual Meeting (Zoom) - July 23, 2020 (7 PM)
August Virtual Sew-In (Facebook) - August 8, 2020 (9 AM - 4 PM) FB Room (lunch break 12 PM)
August Virtual Meeting (Zoom) - August 27, 2020 (7 PM)