We hosted our first regular meeting of 2020 Sobeys Stonebridge community room on February 23rd. Barbara led the educational portion of the meeting with a talk on bindings. Her talk was so engaging that even one of our members with 4 quilts waiting for bindings might finish these up! Some of us like piecing, other like the quilting, and it seems… that fewer like the final stage of binding. At least that was until Barbara inspired us.

Barbara brought her samples in a heaped shopping cart. What a delight to see so much of her work at once. We also saw examples of hand stitching, machine stitching with decorative stitches, tacking with glue prior to sewing, and backing fabric as the binding.

When the selection of the binding is overwhelming, maybe an option is just to put the right sides together, sew around the perimeter leaving an opening for “turning”, pull the right side through the opening, and then stitch down. What binding would you like to try on a future project? How do you choose the fabric for binding your quilt? Do you cut and select the binding before or after you make the quilt, have you downloaded the Robert Kaufman Quilting Calculator app? Thanks Barbara for giving us so much to think about.

We held our Holiday sew day on December 8 at Home Inn & Suites. Bev brought the charity quilt and everyone handed in their letters. Stay tuned for the reveal in the new year. Bev is doing a fantastic job!

There was lots of great food for our potluck, and six of us participate in a mug rug exchange. See below!

We are looking forward to seeing everyone back on January 26, 2020, for another sew day at Stonebridge Home Inn & Suites – from ~ 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. We will host our regular meeting from 2 to 4 p.m. and are planning for a visitor. Stay tuned in the new year for details.

In January, the annual membership fees of $60 will be for the calendar year. That will include our 4 sew days at the Home Inn & Suites, 6 regular meetings at Sobeys, and a discount to the Libs’ Elliot trunk show and workshop on September 18 and 19, respectively. See our meetings page for 2020 events listings. And don’t forget that your membership also provides an account on the MQG website providing you with lots of free tutorials and patterns.

Have a safe and wonderful holiday.