Celeste Compion of Meerkat Shweshwe Quilts gave us a marvelous trunk show today.
Celeste is originally from South Africa and moved to Canada with her husband in 2001.  
She introduced us to Shweshwe cotton.  It's long history takes us back to when cotton was found in India and brought to Europe, where linen and wools were the predominant fabrics.  Colours were also introduced.  Indigo blue is from India, Calico is from Calcutta. 
Because it had to travel by sea the material was coated with a waxy starch to protect it from the elements and/or vermins.
To this day the material still has that starchy feel and must be washed in warm water to dissolve this sizing.
On her website - meerkatshweshwe.com Celeste provides all information to care for this cotton.
Shweshwe cotton is made by DaGama Textiles in Zwelitsha, South Africa.  It is an equal opportunity employer and the employees have a share in the company.

For today's meeting we had two presenters. 
Marlene Dunlap and Debbie Wyant.  

​The demonstration is on how to take a half square triangle and make a friendship star. The pattern for this star is where Marlene got the idea about making half square triangles.

Deb and Marlene wanted to show how to make half square triangles a number of ways.

Debbie’s demo showed how much we waste.

The final discussion from Marlene was the easy angle ruler with no waste

Below are the instructions Marlene demonstrated at the meeting today.

AUCTION DAY!
‘Twas the day of the Auction and all through the hall
Every member was bringing in their haul.
The tables were filled with bundles of fabric, patterns and books and tools. 
There was even a “thing-a-ma-jig” that held all your spools.
The auctioneers were run off their feet.
”Going once, Going twice, SOLD!” How sweet.
All in all, it was a good day,
Items not sold were donated away.
In the end all had fun, lots of new projects begun.
Happy Sewing to all, and to all make it sew!
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Thank you to all for their participation, the money brought in will help with future Programs.

Gail Kreek gave us a wonderful demonstration on what to do with out small fabric scraps. 
She collects her scraps and has them in sandwich bags in each colour.  From there she picks out the scraps and sews them together in strips. When there is enough of them together she cuts into blocks then puts them together in a "quilt as you go" method. The block is attached to a batting block and that is sandwiched with a block for the back.  On the front side and back side of the block she sews a strip of sashing with a 1/4" seam.  The blocks butt against each other. She then brings over the sashing and machine sews to the front side of the adjacent block, then hand sews the back sashing. 
Gail's next method of using scraps is to make a Crazy quilt block.  With a backing fabric, she applies a centre piece that has 5 sides.  She then uses the "flip & sew" method around this centre piece until the backing fabric is filled with scraps.  The Gail trims this block. She also adds decorative stitches from her machine to decorate the block.  She uses this technique to make bags, trivets, and even a very small needle case.
Baskets was the third method  Gail demonstrated this morning.  She buys 3/16" clothesline rope at Canadian Tire. She then wraps 3/4" strips of fabric around the rope.  She starts to coil the rope at one end with a straight stitch to keep the coil together.  This part is the hardest as it is hard to keeps the tightness on the coil.  Once that is established she then switches to a zigzag stitch and with the rope to the right side she starts to stitch around the coil.  If it's a trivet you want just keep going around flatly.  But to make a basket - once you have your base size determined you start stitch the rope at an angle and keep going until you have the right height for your basket.
Gail's book reference for baskets is "It's a Wrap" by Susan Breier.
​Eileen Hogan showed us her scrappy Spider Web quilt top she is working on.  Another use for your scraps.
Thank you, Gail for all the great way to use our scraps.

This Let's Quilt Day was going to be an all day session.  Members are preparing to be there for the day and work on their projects.  

Our guest speaker today was Millie Cummings.  A renowned fiber artist from Fergus, Ontario. Before becoming a quilter, Millie was a palliative care physician in British Columbia.
Her quilts are inspired by nature, and cottage life.

Her first large quilt was inspired by her son, Andrew.  She designed a dinosaur hockey game with photos of parents in the gallery. Many of Andrew's drawings are incorporated in her quilts.  

Designing a quilt is a long process she claims, and sometimes takes longer than actually making the quilt.  The backs of Millie's quilts are as inspiring as the front of the quilts.

Many of her materials she finds in thrift stores or garage sales.  Looking for unusual or odd fabrics.  She has used linens, the kind that were embroidered as napkins, aprons.  When they are incorporated in her quilts its like keeping those memories alive of days gone by.

Her husband, Graeme Chalmers, also contributes to her quilts with painting and linocut art.

Millie has inspired us to break away from traditional approaches to quilting.  Thank you, Millie.

Today, Louise Coghlan demonstrated the use of Derwent's Inktense colour pencils.
These colouring pencils have a lead made of ink.  The colour becomes intense when a medium such as water, Aloe Vera Gel or a textile medium is applied to the hue.
Louise explained the effect of the different types of medium when applied to the colour.
Water tends to make the colour spread out into the fibres.
Textile medium keeps the colour from spreading, but there still is a minimum of spread.  Whereas, the Aloe Vera Gel keeps the colour where it is applied.
Brushes were also mentioned. The one Louise prefers is a short rounded bristle one.
​Louise demonstrated on fabric how to colour and also brought samples of her work in quilting art.

Our meeting today consisted of demonstrations by members of the guild. 
The theme was Colour in our Quilts.
Irene Philp showed us how to use threads when quilting on our machines.  She uses Omni thread which is a blend of polyester.  
Choosing a colour, though, is a personal choice.  She suggests auditioning the thread on the quilt top.  Puddle some of the thread on top of your design and see how much contrast there is, or do you want it to blend in.  Sometimes you might want to use a colour that is "outside the box" and will help pop the design.  Also, the back of the quilt will show the mistakes more, but a busy backing help hide those mistakes.

Helen James gave us a quick demo on Colour theory. Right from the three basic colours - blue, red, yellow, through to the secondary and tertiary colours.
Other terms used when dealing the colour chart are; Hue - which is the colour itself; Tint - is created by adding white to make a colour variation of that colour, such as adding white to make pink. Tone - is created by adding gray to a colour.  
When choosing colours for a quilt it is good to know that warm colours advances the design and cool colours recede.
Helen also suggested some books about colour that she found interesting such as: Adventure in Design by Joen Wolfrom, and Color Play by Heather Thomas. 
Also, she suggested to invest in a colour wheel and/or the Colour Tool, which is like a tablet of all colours.

Our third presenter is Christine Van Dyk.
Christine talked about choosing fabric for our quilts.  
When she goes to a fabric store she chooses light, dark and medium colours. Usually, the selvage of the fabric has the spectrum of the colours used in the fabric and she will often work from that to choose fabrics that will work with the main one.
​Below are examples of her work.  

 OUTREACH
Lots of quilts made by our members were donated today.
​Most of these will go to Joan's Place for their Grand Opening Feb. 24, 2025

  Janet Trewartha displays some of the items that members donated to be sold in our Quilt Show Boutique in May.

Our demonstrator today is Irene Philp.  
Irene showed us how she does English paper piecing.  
She brought along the different needles, paper products, and books that she uses in this technique.
This technique is not only for the octagonal unit, but can be used in other shapes. 
With her method the paper (which is more like card stock) can be reused many times.
There will be instructions on how to do this method in our Instructions & Quilting tips section of the website.

Over 60 members joined the festivities at our December Social.  Lots of good treats to enjoy as well as our friendship.  The centrepieces were provided by our Refreshment committee and someone at each table got to take a poinsettia home.  The tables were also adorned with table runners made by our members. 
The chair of the quilt show committee, Ellen James, mentioned that there will be a ballot out in January to determine which 2 charities will share the money we make in our boutique at the quilt show.
The charities mentioned were: 

• Y. O. U. - Youth Opportunity Unlimited
• LAWC - London Abused Women Centre
• My Sisters' Place
• Victoria Quilts

The ballot will also be in the January newsletter.

There were many rows presented for the President's Challenge. Three lucky ladies were picked to get a fat quarter.

Our presenter this month is Deb Owens.
Deb demonstrated how to make smocked Christmas ornaments. 
A grid pattern is drawn on fabric with little dots.  The fabric is then gathered and hand sewn using a running stitch.
The gathered stitches create small pleats in the fabric.
Then embroidery stitches are sewn on the right side of the material to create a decorative piece of fabric. 
In this case the fabric is wrapped around  3" styrofoam ball.  There are also different ways to finish off the ends.  They can be gathered, add a ribbon for hanging, or a tassel can be added to the bottom.  

Our November Let's Quilt Day was an all day event.  Many members brought their sewing machines to work on their own projects.