Betty's been creating again

 Here is another one of Betty's adorable creations.  Some kid is going to love this and be the envy of all their pals.  I've asked Betty to bring it to our White Spot lunch get together on Tuesday.  This was made from the squirrel pattern that she showed us a couple of weeks ago.

Sue in Palm Springs

 This must be the view from Sue and Malcom's house in Palm Springs.  They arrived today and are enjoying some sunshine there for a couple of weeks.  And we're getting ready for some snow this weekend.😒

Beautiful scenery

Joyce in Paradise

 Here are some photos from Joyce.  She just arrived yesterday and reports chilly weather.  But she had time to take some photos of her lush surroundings.

Joyce's favourite Impatiens garden at the Hilton.  Close by their condo.

Another beautiful scene.  Not sure what type of trees these are but simply beautiful canopy.

The view from Joyce and Ray's balcony.

January 28 Get Together Update

 Yesterday Sharon took Nancy, Leng, Betty and me on a tour of her local Price Smart store at the Lougheed Mall.  This came about as a result of all the discussion around Joyce's delicious Curried Squash soup which she served us for lunch at our get together in December.  Price Smart was mentioned enough times in that conversation to make us want to visit and since they have a little restaurant, well we had to go.

Nancy and I were ready to eat as soon as we arrived but we had to tour the aisles first which only whetted our appetites.  We looked at every item on every shelf in every aisle so, needless to say we all made some purchases.  I will definitely need to go back because I foolishly left the purple noodles on the shelf.  So I guess whether you're a quilter or a Price Smart shopper "Buyer's Remorse" for us means that we didn't buy enough.

So, we now have four of our members travelling--Joyce, Sharon, Sue and DeeDee, and one member home recuperating from knee surgery.  Hard to say who is happier but it could be Marybeth.  We wish you a very speedy recovery, Marybeth and are counting the days till we will have your company and your inspiration again.  For the vacationers, we wish you safe travels and a fun, relaxing respite from the cold and rain.

There is no plan for next week.  Perhaps it's time for us to pay a visit to Betty and Leng's neck of the woods (Essem Textiles? lunch at the Olive Garden?) just to prove that we are capable of crossing the bridge, too.  Any other ideas?

Scrappy TAQ group quilt

 Joyce must have been busy procrastinating about packing for her trip to Hawaii because she sent us two options for some scrap quilts that we can make as a group.  I think we all have some scraps left over from our Mile A Minute quilts from last year and my scrap stash seems to have grown since then.

Here is option #1.  Here is the video tutorial and Nancy found a step by step pattern on the internet and sent us the link to that which is here.

Here is a clip from the video with a more controlled scrappy arrangement and a white background.

This is a more "chaotic" arrangement without regard to placement of light,
 medium and dark scraps.

Here is another easy scrap option sent by Joyce.  No pattern required since the hearts are made with HST's and a couple of plain scrap blocks of the same size.  We can figure that one out ourselves.

We are thinking of starting on these when Joyce gets back from Hawaii.  Sue and DeeDee might be around too but Marybeth will probably still be recuperating from her surgery.

Long Overdue Thank You

 Most of you will not know anything about this and I meant to do a post about it before but it all came about when I was under the weather and then it slipped my mind until today when I was updating our TAQ kitty budget.

At Christmas the Shimokura family included our group in their list of donations and made a gift to our quilting fund of $100.  This was a very generous gift and we will put it to good use.  We should keep this money aside to use specifically for our donation projects.  If anyone has any ideas please fill us in.  Perhaps we can use it to have a large quilt professionally quilted but that is just one idea.

We've had a lot of birthdays to celebrate and other events to acknowledge so our kitty needs to be replenished.  I suggest that we each donate another $20 for this year and take $100 from that to match the Shimokura's gift.  The balance should be enough to cover our cakes, etc for this year.

Also, please don't forget that we have a roll of batting and a supply of 505 basting spray that anyone can make use of for a community quilt donation.

Fabricana sale this weekend

Our Lunar New Year sale starts Friday, January 24.

Head in-store or online for these great savings. 

Some promotions available in-store only (as noted). 

See in-store for largest available selection.

Shizuko's Quaker Quilt

 I think you will all enjoy reading this story.  When we make our quilts for donation we mainly do it for the love of quilting and never know what those quilts mean to the recipients.  This story is a reminder that they often mean a lot.

Get together January 21st

 We met this week at Joyce's just before she departs for Hawaii.  Sharon and Sue will be on their way south to Palm Springs, not together but there might be a get together with the possibility of a visit to a quilt shop.  Don't forget to send photos, everyone.

Present at this get together were Joyce, Sharon Leng, Nancy, Betty and me.

Here is a beautiful scrappy nine patch from Marybeth for our donations.  

Joyce requested a review of Nancy's offset squares border and Nancy had this new border treatment to show us which we all really liked.  This is a seminole technique and you can find a brief instructional video here.  Although the quilter advises keeping the two outside strips to a plain fabric I think Nancy's two little floral prints is very charming and would make a lovely border.

Sharon has been busy working on a new I Spy quilt which is a block surrounded by strip on two sides.  Sharon experimented with the layout and then decided diagonal rows of the same coloured borders worked best.  In the lower right of the photo you can see the exact same I Spy layout which appeared right after Sharon made hers.

This is Leng's most recent project that has actually been in the works for about four or five years.  All those little hexagons were hand pieced with the English paper piecing technique to that was actually pretty fast.  I expect there are a lot of bags and boxes in quilters sewing rooms with unfinished hexis.  This is a summer quilt for a friend in Malaysia where it is always hot and humid so Leng made this without a batting.  The quilting disappears in the photo but it was quilted in the background fabrics.

Betty's Show & Tell

 Betty brought two pieces her (DIL?) made for Christmas Gifts. They are needle punched on wool. Quite the artistry.

January 7, 2025 - Donation Quilts

 We met at Joyce's and picked quilts for the Surrey family. Labels were sewn on and Betty was able to take one quilt for each child and one for the Mom. We also celebrated Colleen's Birthday (a little late). Nancy can provided more labels when needed, if you want a special wording, just let her know and I can bring them to the next meeting. I think I'm missing one of the quilts for the kids - it was hard to keep track. 

Sue was also sewing a label on one of Marybeth's quilts. Sorry for the poor quality of the photo -hopefully we can get a better photo next time.

I think it was decided that we wouldn't meet until January 21, as many couldn't attend next week. I'm sure Pauline/Joyce can confirm that.

Donation quilts needed

 Berry contacted us last week about a family who has lost everything do to a house fire just before Christmas.  Betty's son and daughter are friends of the grandmother where the family is staying till they can get back on their feet.

The girls are aged 1, 3 and 9 and the boy is 6.

If you have a quilt that you would like to donate, please bring it on Tuesday, Jan, 7th and Betty will take care of the delivery for us.  Please note that we will not have any labels at the meeting so if you need to label your quilt, please do it before you bring it.  

We have five donation quilts on hand which I will bring on Tuesday but, since the children are older we will need more.  

Saying Goodbye to an Old Friend

 On December 19th we had our last TAQ get together at the Double One Chinese Restaurant on Hastings Street in Burnaby Heights.  Unfortunately the block is being developed and the restaurant will be closing it's doors after 35 years.  Most of us remember the Chinese New Year's celebrations and Burnaby Children's Fund fundraisers organized Joyce, Michi and Arlene.  Those were really fun occasions.  We will keep our fingers crossed that they can find a new location and carry on.

Double click to englarge this.

Here are the photos taken by DeeDee at our luncheon:

DeeDee and Penny

Penny, Sharon, Joyce, Leng, Betty, Pauline, Adrienne, Sue

Sharon

Joyce

Leng and Betty (ha ha, not sure what is happening here but don't you love Betty's expression?)

Pauline and Adrienne

Long Overdue Update

 All the holiday celebrations got in the way of the December updates to the blog and I apologize to everyone who sent me photos.  I hope I have tracked most of them down and posted them here.  If I am missing any, please resend them and I will add them to this post.

On December 17th we met at Joyce's for a delicious lunch provided by Joyce.  The table was set with Christmas decorations so it was very festive and we all gave Joyce's Curried Squash Soup two thumbs up.  👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍

Here is Joyce's recipe:

Here is the “recipe “ for today’s soup, if you are interested. Apologies I do not have measurements!! 

- I used a large kabocha squash-but any kind will do.

After I cut and peeled it -I put chunks in the microwave to soften the outside skin to peel. Someone suggested baking it, which I will try next time. 

- The chunks went in a stock pot with a litre of chicken stock and as much curry as you like. 

- After it was cooked I added a can or two of coconut milk-not the sweetened kind. And used my mixing “stick” to make it all smooth but i liked it smoother, so, I sieved it. 

- When served we added croutons, sour cream -you could easily add thyme, parsley etc. 

This is the sauce mix that Joyce used which is widely available 

Leng even brought some Christmas Show and Tell:

Leng's beautiful Christmas table runner.  

You can also see the boxes of Michi's fabrics and quilting supplies which we went through for future group projects.  I have two boxes of fabrics still to go through and group together for some quilts.

Another extra long table runner with more Christmas prints

Here is Leng's stunning hand embroidered Christmas quilt.  Please click on this photo and the others to enlarge it so that you can see the detail.

After lunch we went on to a performance of Christmas music by Sharon's Andante Choir.  It was all very fun and festive.  The choir members were in fine voice and the selection of music was fun as well as nostalgic.  A dessert buffet was served after but we were all still stuffed from lunch so most of us headed home after saying hi to Sharon and others whom we knew in the choir.

Thanks to DeeDee we have some photos taken at the church:

Joyce, Nancy, DeeDee

DeeDee, Penny, Sue (did you two plan your outfits?)

DeeDee, Pauline, Colleen

Penny's famous Advent Calendar and it looks like the grandkids have been opening the pockets early.  DeeDee took this picture at Penny's house before heading to the concert.

Whew!  That's Post #1.  Still a couple to go.