What a great meeting we had! A full house and an atmosphere exuding energy! I think everyone is shedding their winter skins and hoping for an early spring! Our guest speakers were our very own members Judy Ann Sadler and Barbara Haworth-Attard, who have formed their own quilt design company called Babs 'n Jas Designs. Both ladies have a background in writing and met at a writers' group and discovered they also had similar interests in quilting and crafts. Judy Ann has written 21 craft books for kids, 2 picture books and was a columnist for Today's Parent for 5 years. She has sold over a million craft books world wide. Barb has written 14 books of junior and young adult fiction and has been nominated for several book awards. Barb has also been actively involved in this guild for many years, serving on the executive in many capacities including being president for 3 years. Bab and Jas treated us to a wonderful trunk show of their original designs. It seems that Barb does most of the quilt designs while Judy Ann does the writing of all the instructions. Clear instructions are very important and they are proud of the fact that no one has ever complained about faulty instructions. One of the joyful benefits of designing quilts are receiving new fabric lines from manufacturers and being some of the first to be inspired by these great prints. This one (below) is from Mark Lipinski's new line "Califon" and is called "Sunny". All Barb's designs are named after songs. Here Barb added these bold strings of rickrack and encourages quilters to give rickrack a try, it can really add to a quilt. This fun piece, made from Benartex "City Girl" line of fabrics has yet to be named or quilted. Barb will take suggestions on a name as long as it is named after a song. One of the best selling lines from Babs 'n Jas are "The Skinnies". Quick and fun, these can fill that tiny empty wall space begging for something home made! Babs 'n Jas Designs will be featured in the fall 2010 issure of A Needle Pulling Thread magazine, one of Canada's few craft magazines. Barb and Judy Ann chose to self publish their patterns as it is difficult to find reliable Canadian publishers to feature Canadian product. By publishing and distributing themselves they were able to get their product some prominence in local stores and develop a demand for their patterns. All their patterns are reasonably priced and contain a little extra such as a recipe or the lyrics of titled song. Judy Ann designed this giant picnic quilt out of denim. She wanted it to be used for picnics so made it in a circle shape and chose denims for durability. Judy Ann then treated us with a trunk show of kids' crafts. She feels that crafts or "making things are in our genetic code" and that we should all be hunter-gatherers of fabric! As a former librarian, Judy Ann has made thousands of crafts with kids and gets profound joy in watching their creative juices flow. She estimates that she has ordered 28,000 buttons from a manufacturer in Montreal, to make these wonderful Button Buddies! Barb and Judy Ann stressed the importance of passing on our skills with the next generation. Take the time to teach your children or your grandchildren how to sew! Not only is it fun, it fosters creativity, pride in accomplishment and an opportunity for self expression. In this world of over scheduled lives it is important to give the gift of time to our children.
The LFQG would like to thank Barb and Judy Ann for their entertaining talk and wish them the best of luck with Babs 'n Jas Designs! ************************************* Other Business: Nominees for LFQG Executive Rose is on the prowl for nominees for positions on the executive! Speaking from experience, working on the executive is a lot of fun and you really get a chance to know your guild and guild members. Being on the executive is a group effort and you receive a lot of support from everyone. Think about it and give it a try! All positions are always available but those that have no nominees were, at last count, Membership, Treasurer, Vice-President, and there is an assistant position availble in Outreach. Descriptions of these positions can be found in the latest newsletter,and in the Constitution. CQA 2011 in London, Ontario??? The LFQG is putting together a proposal to make London Ontario the destination for a CQA Show in 2011. If you are interested in being on this committee, please contact Rose. Outreach Penny is hosting a Batt-up Quilts evening at her home on Mon March 9. Help Penny and Elaine batt-up 26 quilts destined for the Children's Aid Society. Contact Penny for details. London Public Library Check out the Winter 2008/09 edition of the London Public Library's Access Magazine for a blurb about LFQG's Quilt Display at the East London Library. May Workshops Outgoing President Cynthia M-R has booked St George's for 2 workshops in May. Cynthia will conduct a Table Runner workshop on Saturday, May 2 and on Saturday, May 23 she will organize a skills building workshop. Comments are closed.
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