Pins and Pine Needles, preparing for big quilt show in March

 

The Pins and Pine Needles Quilt Guild held its regular meeting on Thursday, November 9 at the Spruce View Lodge. “Our main topic right now is our Quilt Show on March 17, 2018 that we are partnering with the Woman’s Conference. It will be held in the gym at Hilltop High, and admission is free to the public,” explained Tracey van Os, the president of the guild. “The show gives us the opportunity to display our work and not just our guild members but quilts from other quilters out of town so it’s nice to see different designs and colours.”

During the meeting, the group discussed the floor plans of the gymnasium which will help them plan the vendor spacing as well as which vendors have already registered to be part of it.  Meetings are the second Thursday of every month in the Great Room at Spruce View Lodge and anyone interested is invited to attend. Each meeting begins at 7 p.m. with a show and tell where members get to showcase projects they are working on or have completed.

Member Anne Schaffer brought in several pieces of her artwork to show including a beautiful, large quilt and several smaller design pieces. As a group, the guild regularly makes charity quilts and donates them to Wellspring Family Resource & Crisis Centre.  Donation quilts range from baby quilts for cribs up to adult sizes.

“We like to promote quilting as a skill; a form of artwork. Quilting is hundreds of years old, so we would like to continue to teach that skill and to pass it on to the younger generation. We welcome quilters of all ages and all skill levels from the beginner who needs to learn how to thread a machine to skilled quilters. We have such various levels of skills that we all learn from each other and are willing to teach,” explained Tracey.

Every two years, the group holds a big quilt show and, in the off years, they hold retreats which involve multiple days of sewing together while learning new skills and homing in on their abilities. “On November 25, we are having a Christmas Fun Day Sewing Day at Homestead Fabrics & Quilting in Barrhead. We will be making various Christmas projects. It’s a one-day workshop,” said Tracey.

As a quilter since 1999 and a member of the local guild for 12 years, Tracey says she enjoys getting to learn from other quilters and taking part in the activity. “For myself, I find it a wonderful creative outlet.” Guild members make all kinds of products from quilts to purses, bags, clothing, decorations, and so much more.

For more information on the Pins and Pine Needles Quilt Guild, please visit our Facebook page.