President's Message

I would like to thank all those that participated in our first Quilt Show challenge. We had 31 entries. ( Outstanding response) The winners were Beginner 1st- Mary Horne. 2nd-Shirley Davies, 3rd-Violet Verhoog. For the non beginners 1st- BJ Edgel, 2nd-Donna Ward, 3rd-Phene Richardson.

Congratulations to all. Don't forget to save your challenges for the quilt show. We will be displaying them all then. So don't give them away yet. I will be announcing the next challenge at the general meeting. With what I saw submitted in this last challenge I believe that these winners will have a tight competition if they want to get another ribbon. We have some very talented members to give you a run for the money.

I have been doing a lot of travelling in the last week. Connie and I went to the Burlington Quilt Show at the royal botanical gardens. There were lots of vendors; some even had full bolts of fabrics not just fat quarters. We participated in some of the demos. We learned how to make pillow cases with no raw edges, and how to do a binding with one fabric on top and another on the bottom. If you are interested in these techniques let me know and we can arrange a demo before a meeting. The next day we went to Mary Maxim on the way home, and of course spent more money. They had a nice assortment of fabrics, buttons, beads and my big weakness cross-stitched patterns. Yes I ordered one. Not sure when I'll get around to it, or where I'll put it, but does that really matter? If you need it you buy it. Next we went to Lens Mills in London. If you haven't been there lately you should go. They have the neatest food fabric. Each bolt is a different food. Bananas, tomatoes. potatoes, oranges, limes, strawberries, cherries. You name it they had it. One lady bought some of each to make grocery bags.

Thursday Connie and I took off again to the London Embroidery Guilds Show. This was excellent. All different techniques of embroidery. And it was free. Only cost was for the tea room. I would recommend that you attend the next one. We also checked out the new Cotton-by-Post in north London. Very nice store. Don't forget that they are having the Irish Quilters this years. If you are planning to attend the banquet, do it soon as the tickets are almost sold out. Connie showed me how to get to the Quilt store in Mount Forest; another nice surprise.

My last trip was to the Windsor Quilt Show on Saturday. This was an outstanding show. It was far better than Burlington. The quality and variety was wonderful. I have picked up some ideas for our show next year. We will have to work hard to equal their show, but I have no doubts that if we all pull together that we can make this our best one yet.

So needless to say I have to confess that I didn't get much quilting done this month. But on the upside I have increase my stash and projects to do list. Does the list ever get done? If any one has an idea as to how to finish all these projects, please H E L P.

Janice
Chairperson