November Newsletter

 

Due to rising Covid 19 numbers, Senior Come Share can no longer let us meet even in small numbers until further notice. 

For those participating in the Round Robin, round two is due to be passed on by this coming Monday. 

Faith will provide the next round of directions soon. 

The results of the poll asking if our CQ members have ZOOM access are as follows: 

-30 people responded and 25 members do have access to Zoom.  Our plan is to have Rita Solken do a trunk show for us via Zoom in February. 

We will have a date scheduled ahead of time for people that have never tried Zoom before to try to log on just to see if they can get in. Once we know a date, an email will be sent out.

Thanks to Jean and Gillian for sending in Bio's this month. We already have two people signed for next month as well!

Jean's bio:

 In the nineties, I turned to quilting. I started my first piecing project and in my ignorance, chose the queen-sized Tennessee Waltz pattern.

 

My hand-quilted masterpiece took me over two years to complete.

 With my next project, Mississippi Flyway, (also queen-size) I accidentally twisted a few blocks and now my poor geese fly both north and south at the same time. Sadly, it is also only 3/4 hand quilted. Lesson learned; if you want to avoid tendonitis, don’t use a 200 thread count sheet as a backing.

 Grandchildren started appearing in the early 2000’s so I concentrated on baby quilts. I could complete them in a reasonable amount of time with an immediate sense of accomplishment. Never one to follow the rules, my quilts often strayed off the original pattern or followed the one in my head. The baby quilts started to morph into art quilts.

When I retired from medical lab technology, I combined my love of quilting with a new skill, writing. I self-published my first Storybook Quilt picture book, Surprise, in 2016, and Millicent Marvel & Bentley Bunny, in 2018.

These books feature my original thread-painted quilt blocks. I’m working on the third book in this series but it’s a slow process.

As well as being a Crescent Quilts member since the second year it formed, I belong to a writers group. I have also just published my first middle-grade novel, Tangled Tongue for ages 8-12.                                                                                                                                                                         12 year-old Duff Fraser can’t leave his stutter behind even on the soccer field. Ambushed by a bully from a rival team, he limps home, his only communication tool, a tablet, smashed to pieces. Something has to give. Duff and his dad team up to create the F.U.S.E., a device that alters brain pathways and lets Duff speak normally. But what happens when outside forces kidnap his dad for the new invention. Will Duff, with his new found confidence be able to rescue him?

View at IngeniusCreations.ca Or Available on Amazon.ca. The link is below.

It has been added to our Crescent Quilter's book wishlist here

I’m looking forward to more quilting and writing during this Covid time.

Gillian's bio:        

I have always sewn. As a child I designed and made clothes for my teenage doll. I remember making a turquoise velvet gown with one shoulder strap.
 It wasn’t until I took sewing in grade 8 that I actually used a sewing machine. I enjoyed the whole process of taking a two dimensional piece of fabric and making something that worked in four dimensions.
 I made my own clothes and even a dress for my mother. 
We didn’t have a sewing machine at home but when I graduated from high school I was given a sewing machine as a gift.

I think it was in 2000 that I went into Wineberry fabrics and saw a beautiful stained-glass hummingbird quilt. I wanted to make it but was told I needed to take some beginner classes first.

 Donna Mercer taught me my first class. By the time I came to do the stained-glass class they were no longer doing the hummingbird. I made an angel instead.

At the same time I joined Fraser Valley Quilt Guild, participating in all the round robins, challenges and tinners that came my way.

The next year Crescent Quilters started up and I helped by doing coffee, then programs for a number of years.

My favourite part of quilting is creating. I love to design things, play with colours and figure out how to make things happen. I’ve always been very mathematical as well, so that comes in very useful.

I have only followed a few patterns over the years, the Angel being one of them. Mostly I design my own. The first quilt I made was actually a hexagon and it still hangs on my sons wall.

Right now I am sewing pyjama bottoms for people for Christmas and participating in the CQ round robin. Next I will choose one of my many UFOs to work on.

Speaking of UFOs, please see my poem in the separate email that Gloria sent out. I wrote in 2007 about members of Crescent Quilters. As you can see it is in alphabetical order and I only ever got to M. (It has not been included here as privacy is of outmost concern. We did not want to post last names of our members without their permission.)