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KINGSTON HEIRLOOM QUILTERS NEWSLETTER,
January, 2006

Contact the Kingston Heirloom Quilters at (khq at quiltskingston.org).

Meeting Dates:

Greetings from the President
Donna Hamilton

Happy New Year to you and yours!

We're at the start of yet another new year. Winter is truly here, the perfect time to enjoy our favourite past time, quilting. Turn on the TV, radio or CD, sit down and sew away.

Our 2005 fall meetings were very successful and your executive is working hard to bring another interesting set of meetings. We already have lots of projects going and I hope you will find them fun over the next 10 meetings, learning new ways of doing things as well as get to know other quilters. Please don't feel pressured. Just enjoy!

Your executive plans to learn more about what you are interested in learning, and what talents you can share with us. We will have a questionnaire for you to complete sometime in February. We will use this information to help plan mini and regular workshops, the block of the month, and which kinds of guest speakers to find. There are so many different techniques out there. We want the group to tell us what suits their fancy.

On a slightly different note: If you would like to try a different challenge, a "Show and Tell" or "Mini Trunk Show" of quilts you have made, and possibly pair up with one or two other

Members, please talk to one of your executive. You could show the quilts, wall hangings, or quilted clothing and tell us their stories. This mini show does not have to be long, 20 minutes is good, or a maximum of an hour. It's always fun to share these stories with friends. I hope you will consider sharing in a slightly more formal way.

So here's to a winter and spring full of friends, inspiration and lots of quilting fun for all.

Remember: "A day without fabric is like a day without sunshine!"

Program and Projects

Doors open at 9am . We play from 9:30am-3pm , 7-9pm . Each quilt day you will have a choice of working on the following projects:

Each meeting, announcements begin at 11am unless a special event delays it. Show & Tell follows. Note that the Alzheimer's quilt needs to be completed by June. Thus a couple of work days will be focused on that quilt. The program below is a work in progress. Watch for additions to be announced.

Back to KHQ Roots: A Trunk Show with Margaret Rhodes and Diane Berry

Margaret and Diane are the founding members of the Kingston Heirloom Quilters. This group originally started with women who had taken their quilt classes. You will meet Margaret and Diane and see their quilts and hear their stories.

 Important notice for evening quilters ONLY:

We will meet at Diane's home from 7 to 9pm on these Thursdays ONLY:
January 26 th , February 23 rd , March 23 rd .

Baby Quilts
Joan Bales

I wish to thank the members of the Kingston Heirloom Quilters for their help in making the baby quilts for the new babies at Kingston General Hospital . We managed to hand in twenty five quilts before Christmas and we hope to continue in the New Year. N.B. While Joan is away the next few meetings, Peggy McAskill will look after the baby quilts.

Quilt Canada
Donna Hamilton

Quilt Canada is fast approaching. We have committed to make ort boxes and table toppers. Please see Sylvia for instructions, supplies, and help (Donna can also aid you) to make the ort boxes. We still need to make lots more. It doesn't take too long. I hope you can volunteer to make a few.

The table toppers are small projects (24" to 30" maximum) where you can learn or brush up on a technique in a reasonably short time. We have two group table toppers so far: the maple leaf and diamond block. I hope you can sign up to help with one of these. If you have an idea for a group topper, please share with us. If you are making one on your own, please submit to Donna upon finishing. Many thanks for your help in these projects.

Church Hall Phone
Donna Hamilton

There is a phone in the Church Hall from which we can call out. However, it cannot receive incoming calls. For calls to the Hall, please call the St. John's Anglican Church phone number, 542-6464, and leave a message if necessary. Their Admin Assistant, Leslie, assures me that this is okay and that she will pass the message along.

Laws for Quilters
Mary Catherine Robb

First Law: The woman in the line ahead of you at the store will buy the last half meter of fabric you wanted.
Second Law: If you use up your favourite fabric today, it will be exactly what you will need to finish tomorrow's project.
Third Law: When ironing any unknown fabric with a hot iron, you will discover that it has a polyester content.
Fourth Law: The quilt book you put in a safe place for quick reference will be lost forever.
Fifth Law: When a bad seam is sewn a second time, it will always be worse than the first.
Sixth Law: When sewing one more seam before going to bed, you will catch your elbow on the pin dish.
Seventh Law: The burr on your scissors blade will fall exactly at the place where precision is most important.
Eighth Law: A 12" block will always measure 12 ½" on one side and 11 ¾" on the opposite side.
Ninth Law: The distance a spool of thread will roll under the quilting frame is equal to the length of your arm plus one inch.
Tenth Law: When you have pricked your finger with a needle, you will always assume that the prick is not deep enough to bleed on your white fabric.
Eleventh Law: A lost quilting needle is a misery in the foot.
Twelfth Law: The joy of each day is directly proportionate to the hours spent in quilting.

We Didn't Make this Up!
Eleanor Clark

A Kingston geophysicist attended a conference in Houston last fall. The taxi driver delivering him to his hotel from the airport inquired what brought the gentleman to town. "I'm here to attend a geophysicists conference", was the reply. When the driver asked how many would be attending, our geophysicist responded, "Oh, it will be large; about 10,000 are expected". To which the driver responded that wasn't very big; "there were 58,000 quilters here last week". "Geophysicists deal with very important things, like oil" came the rebuttal. "Yes, and when the oil's all gone, we're going to need those 58,000 quilters!" shot back the driver.

Tips and Tricks
Donna Hamilton

These were shared during our January 10 th meeting. If you have any one, please bring to our meeting and share after Show and Tell.

Mary Ann: I found this Macramé board for $1 at Value Village . It's great for designing blocks (pin pieces to board) or to display a block you are making. You can cover the board with flannel to eliminate the need for pins.

Simone: Similar to the Macramé board, you can use a piece of left over ceiling tile, cover it with flannel and use it as a designing board.

Several members talked about the use of a "soap stone pencil" for marking dark fabrics. But don't purchase them in a fabric store. Instead, buy them from Canadian Tire (automotive section). They are much cheaper there. The "soap stone pencil" is sharpened with a pencil sharpener when its lines become too thick.

From the Ontario Quilting Connections Newsletter: A mustache trimmer can be used as a great stitch undoer.

Quilting on the Web
Donna Hamilton

 Quilters News Network
Believe it or not, there is now a Quilters News Network (QNN) which is online 24/7. It came into existence in June 2005. Yes, quilting programs all day and all night are now available on the Internet. Visit www.quiltingchannel.com . I should add, it does cost, $12 USD per year for a basic membership. Pay first, see second. I personally have not seen any of these videos. The comments on the web page are, not surprisingly, all positive. Some more good news/bad news is that they warn you there are banners on the computer screen with the program that allows you to order the products that are being discussed during the program; as the topic changes, the banner(s) change. You can click and order items as you learn about them. Some sample programs (all 30 minutes long that are repeated throughout the day/night) include:

•  Sewing with Nancy : Simply Landscape Quilts, Part 1, 2, and 3
•  Friends in the Bee: Turning an old photograph into a Mosaic masterpiece!

All you need is a computer, web browser, software to view videos (which comes with most computers and shouldn't be a problem) and a high speed connection. This "channel" will reach an average of 22 million quilters from around the world!

It is the start of TV moving to the internet where it is cheaper and easier to setup a network than on "Cable" or "Satellite". And imagine beginning with quilting! In its first month of existence, their web site tells us, "QNN had over 250,000 unique visitors (a few more than our web site), and the network's advertisers experienced a never before attainable milestone of 10 million ad impressions." The combination of viewing, learning, and ordering with the click of the mouse is clearly attractive for business. What's next? The site says they are planning a cooking channel for diabetics.

FREE Quilting Videos
Being disappointed that I would have to part with dollars to see all those programs, I did a search for FREE quilting videos on the net. Why should I pay, if I can get FREE information? And I was rewarded with many other sites. One in particular was interesting: http://easymade.com/video.html

This site has several video clips on basic quilting, advanced techniques, and quilting patterns. The clips range from 3 to 10 minutes. You can also purchase CD-Roms from the web site (the primary reason for the site) if you want more information. But you can pick up ideas and have a bit of fun even from watching these short clips. (Billie, the host, has a sense of humor and is clearly enjoying what she is doing)

Basic Quilting topics include: Rotary 101 - Getting the Most from Your Cutter; Troubleshooting 102: Basic Triangles; Sandwiching Your Quilt; Birthing Your Quilt. Advanced Techniques include: Getting Started with Foundation Piecing; String Heart Quilt; Cutting 60 Degree Angles; Tumbling Block Quilt. Quilting Patterns include: Complete Chaos (an interesting variation on the Happy Star technique); Faux Log Cabin Block; and There are Cats on My Quilt.

Note that Billie Lauder has been teaching quilting since 1976. Her teaching techniques and quilts have been featured on 17 episodes of the Home & Garden Television Network's series " Simply Quilts " hosted by Alex Anderson.

I came to the web site, http://quilting.about.com/od/foundationpiecing/ , looking for videos and still haven't found one yet! But it does contain a wealth of information: it gives free foundation paper piecing patterns, English paper, full quilts, English style, and many How-to-do it pages. There are some splendid detailed instructions on how to paper piece with pictures and diagrams. If you haven't tried this technique, this is one place to learn how to do it. There is information on many other techniques including Appliqué.

There are also lists of computer quilting software, galleries of quilts, several quilting forums, and links to "blogs" for quilters.

A "blog" is a daily journal that someone writes about specific topics. Some of the blog topics include: Gina Halladay's Quilters Buzz Blog; Lazy Gal Quilting (Tonya writes from Egypt); Quiltville's Quips and Snips (Bonnie from South Carolina maintains this blog); Pieces from my Scrapbag Blog (Finn from Wisconsin maintains this blog about her quilting projects); Lucy's Quilting Blog from the Netherlands; Nashville Stitch N Bitch (this blog combines quilting and knitting and news of fibers in the Nashville, TN areas).

If you have a favourite web page, be sure to send its url to Donna so we can all enjoy it!

Upcoming Events
Donna Hamilton

 February 23, 2006 - Quilters' Retreat Day, featuring a Welsh Bed Quilt, Odessa Fairgrounds Hall, 9:30-4:30 , $30. Contact Bethany Garner 376-6150.

 March 3-5, 2006 - Fibreworks Kingston presents Maggie Vanderweit, "Fabric Painting for the Fibre Artist". Participants will mix their own colours and produce yards of original colourfast fabric. Friday 7 PM slide lecture $5. Saturday - Sunday workshop $100, kit fee $45. Both events in Room 12050, Link Building , St. Lawrence College. Contact Bethany Garner.

 March 24-26, 2006 - Etobicoke Quilters' Guild, "Quilt Fever 2006", Neilson Park Creative Centre, 56 Neilson Dr , Etobicoke. www.EtobicokeQuiltersGuild.com

 April to September 2006 - McDougall Cottage Fourth annual "Wee" quilt challenge. More information at: bususan@region.waterloo.on.ca

April 22, 23, 2006 - Guelph 's Royal City Quilters' Guild are celebrating their 15 th Anniversary, "A Gathering of Quilts", at the Royal Canadian Legion, 919 York Rd (Hwy 7 east). More information call 519-856-1084.

April 27-29, 2006 - Huron Stonetowne Quilts' Guild, St Mary's Community Centre, James St South , St Mary's.

May 5-7, 2006 - Kawartha Quiltmakers' Guild "Feelings in Fabric" Show and Sale , Evinrude Centre, 911 Monaghan Rd , Peterborough .

May 6-7, 2006 - Halton Hills Quilters' Guild, "Symphony of Quilts" at the Acton Community Center , 415 Queen St , Acton .

May 23-27, 2006 - CQA National Juried Show at Algonquin College , Ottawa , Ont. See www.canadianquilter.com

May 26-28, 2006 - Common Threads Quilt Guild of Ottawa, biennial Show at the RA Centre, 2451 Riverside Drive , Ottawa .

Quilting Word Find
Donna Hamilton (can you believe the breadth of talents of our President!)

This puzzle was partially developed using software I found on the Internet (wordsearch.braingle.com) and partially by myself. I came up with a collection of words related to quilting and used the software to produce a first draft of the puzzle. I then completed the puzzle with more words. Enjoy.

Can you find all the words listed below hidden inside the grid of letters? Once you do, the remaining 9 letters will form a word. The object is to determine this word.

Remember, words may be listed horizontally, vertically, or diagonally, up or down, forward or backwards. (If you receive this newsletter electronically, please print this page before trying the puzzle.)