It’s time for our September Guild meeting!
We’ve practiced Zooming and Show and Share, and have had an opportunity to join with a presentation with another Guild. Now it’s time for our first regular virtual Guild meeting!
The Zoom co-ordinates have been sent to members via email.
The meeting starts on Tuesday, September 15, 2020 at 7:00 p.m. Doors open at 6:30 p.m.
Prior to joining the meeting, we ask that you turn off any computer notifications you have (on your email account, for example) so we won’t have dinging and donging going on during the meeting.
You may invite a guest to join this meeting at no charge to the guest; simply forward a copy of the Zoom Coordinates email to them. Guests to future meetings will be expected to pay a guest fee. Guests will not be permitted to access any recording of this meeting.
For those of you who want a ‘How To Zoom’ refresher, we will play the Zoom instructions video at 6:45.
If you need assistance to join the meeting, please contact one of the following people:
At our meeting we will:
If you can’t attend the meeting, it will be recorded, and the link will be sent to you a day or two after the meeting.
Please send in photos of your Show and Share items to yhqg.zoom@gmail.com! The deadline for submissions is Monday, September 14 at noon.
Just in case you’re going into withdrawal due to lack of quilt shows, a member has kindly brought to our attention the fact that there are two in-person quilt shows this month that we can consider going to.
Both shows are put together by SAQA members.
The first is Colour with a U, which is at Homer Watson Gallery, 1754 Old Mill Road, Kitchener. Call ahead to book an entry slot (519-748-4377) and check www.homerwatson.on.ca for their Covid details (e.g. no groups larger than 5 people). The show runs until September 7, 2020, from 10:00 to 4:00 Tuesday to Sunday.
The second is Colour with a U Too, which is at the RiverBrink Art Museum, 116 Queenston Street, Queenston, Niagara-on-the-Lake. Call ahead to book an entry slot (905-262-4510) and check www.riverbrink.org for more details. The show runs until September 5, 2020, from 10:00 to 2:30 Wednesday to Saturday.
For a more virtual experience, check out the Texas Quilt Museum, which has a virtual on line gallery on its website at www.texasquiltmuseum.org
If you think you’ll be craving a lecture or workshop to cheer you up in February, check out the Modern Quilt Guild’s QuiltCon, which will run from February 18 to 22, 2021. Registration is now open at www.quiltcon.com.
Don’t forget…in September, we’ll have our first Zoom meeting of the 2020/2021 year on Tuesday, September 15th, featuring Andrea Tsang-Jackson: From Flying Solo to Flying Geese.
And remember, keep working on your President’s Challenge Blocks….we’ll be voting in September! Stay tuned for more details!
ALSO REMEMBER THAT WE WANT YOUR SHOW AND SHARE PHOTOS FOR OUR SEPTEMBER MEETING! Send your photos with your name to yhqg.zoom@gmail.com any time!
Stay well and keep on quilting!
Anne McLauchlan
President
WE WANT YOUR SHOW AND SHARE PHOTOS! We are having our own show and share at tomorrow’s meeting. Please show us what you’ve been sewing in the past few months! Masks, quilts, etc.; we’ll be happy to see it all! Send your photos with your name to yhqg.zoom@gmail.com
July 26 Meeting Invitation:
Toronto Modern Quilt Guild and York Heritage Quilters Guild are inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting. This is a shared Toronto Modern Quilt Guild/York Heritage Quilt Guild meeting, featuring Dr. Chawne Kimber as speaker. An email has been sent to all members with the details of how to join the meeting. This information is not posted online, since this is an invitation-only meeting.
Time: Jul 26, 2020 03:00 PM Eastern Time (US and Canada)
Tomorrow’s meeting is at 3:30 p.m. on Sunday, July 26, 2020. Doors open at 3:00. Please try to join the meeting a few minutes early, as there will be quite a number of people attending and it will take time to admit everyone.
Unfortunately, we are unable to record this meeting for our members to watch after the time of the meeting. If you are unable to come to the July 26 meeting, and want to hear Dr. Kimber speak on her topic, she mentioned that she will be presenting it at Quiltcon in the winter.
NOTE THAT NO GUESTS ARE PERMITTED AT THIS MEETING. DO NOT SHARE THE INVITATION WITH NON-TMQG/YHQG MEMBERS.
Tech Support: If you need help getting into the meeting, and the instructions below don’t get you there, contact our tech support people (contact info can be found on your membership list):
Mac/Apple devices: Chriss C.
P/C devices: Sandra Y.
For those of you without Zoom apps or accounts, you do not have to have a Zoom account to attend a Zoom meeting. You will be prompted to download the necessary software, once you have clicked on URL.
Looking forward to “seeing” you all at the meeting!
Bev Stevens has been working hard putting kits together for Community Quilting, and Wendy Dines has been driving around the City distributing them to a few of our drop off spots.
As you all know, the Community Quilting items completed by our members are gathered together and when we have a sufficient number, they are donated to one of the various shelters for women and children in the City. Before the pandemic, the shelters were full. Now, because of the pandemic and the difficulty of sheltering in place with a possibly abusive spouse, the shelters are feeling even more of a strain. Anything we (that is, you) can do will be of help to them.
There are two kinds of kits which Bev has prepared.
One is just a top, with the fabric and instructions for completion. If you pick up one of these and want to finish it, you can add your own batting, backing and binding to complete it. Alternatively, you can just put the top together and return it to one of our drop off locations.
The other kits consist of a top, batting and backing. These need to be sandwiched, quilted and bound.
Kits can be picked up only at the following drop off locations at this time. Please call or email ahead to ensure that someone is home for your pick up (or drop off). Contact information can be found on your YHQG Membership List.
Wendy Dines – (near Avenue Road and Davisville)
Anne McLauchlan – (near Yonge & Lawrence)
Leslie Batt – (near Bathurst & Finch)
Donnaleen Vlossak – (near York Mills & Victoria Park)
These are the other drop off spots, for tops, quilts, blocks or Guild library books. There are currently no kits at these locations. Again, please call/email ahead before making a drop off, to ensure that someone is home.
Irena Hopper – (near St. Clair & Kingston Road)
Mical Pearlman – (near Dufferin & St. Clair)
Carline Oakley – (near Queen & Roncesvalles)
Thank you all for supporting our Community Quilting program!
See the July 2020 entry on the YHQG Community Outreach page for photos of quilts that have been recently donated.
In partnership with the Toronto Modern Quilt Guild, the York Heritage Quilters Guild is presenting Dr. Chawne Kimber, at the Toronto Modern Quilt Guild virtual meeting being held on Sunday, July 26, 2020 at 3:30 p.m.
Dr. Kimber is an award-winning textile artist who exhibits quilts and embroidery in museums, galleries, and festivals all over the United States.
Through cultivation of cotton in rural Alabama, some of her ancestors (unwillingly) participated in building the United States. Inspired by quilts made by these ancestors in the late 1800’s, Chawne interprets traditional patchwork forms in an improvisational style and indulges in political confrontation in quilt form. When not manipulating cotton, Chawne is a professor of mathematics at a small liberal arts college in the Northeast United States.
Her lecture is entitled “When the Cotton is High: Social Justice and Textiles”.
Dr. Kimber says: “For centuries women have used their utilitarian and decorative textile work to express their politics and opinions on issues of the day. We’ll take a look at some historical examples and then romp through my own work. My quilts use the lens of identity and difference to confront social conflicts like campus rape culture, Black Lives Matter, and censorship.”
All YHQG members are entitled to attend this meeting and will be provided with the Zoom co-ordinates prior to the meeting.
For the past month, the YHQG Tech Team has been working on getting ready for the Guild’s first Zoom practice meetings.
YHQG Members are invited to attend Zoom Guild Meetings which will be held on July 7 and July 14 at 7:00 p.m. Zoom “doors” will open at 6:45.
Zoom co-ordinates for each meeting will be sent by email to members a day or two before each meeting.
We know that many of you may not be familiar with all the features of Zoom. We will include Zoom training sessions at our July 7 and July 14 meetings, and will have a meeting solely dedicated to Zoom training on September 8, 2020, in case you can’t make one of the July meetings, or in case you want to have a review before our regular September 15, 2020 meeting, which will take place virtually.
If you don’t have a computer/tablet/iphone etc., don’t worry. You will be able to hear our meetings by phoning in to the meetings. You won’t get to see the various presentations, but you will be able to hear the various participants in the meetings.
The July 7 and July 14 meetings will consist of an introduction to Zoom for users of all platforms, a few brief announcements, Show and Share, and an opportunity for attendees to ask questions and chat with one another.
These are practice meetings for the Tech Team as well as for our members. We’re still learning how to do this. There will be glitches. Please be patient!
Participation in Show and Share:
Please send photos of your Show and Share items to yhqg.zoom@gmail.com at least three days prior to the meeting at which you wish to show them. For Tuesday meetings, that means you should get them in by the preceding Saturday, at the very latest.
At the virtual meeting, you will have an opportunity to speak about your project. When taking photos, if there are areas of your project which you wish to highlight (e.g. sections with embellishment), include a close-up photo as well. Make sure that you include your name in the email which you send in to us.
Keep in mind that, if you plan to display your quilt in a quilt show, you should probably not submit it to Show and Share (depending upon the rules of the show you intend to exhibit).
All photos submitted to Show and Share will be added to the Guild’s Instagram and Facebook accounts (anonymously, so the name of the quilter is not indicated) unless the person submitting the photos clearly indicates in their email that they do not wish to have their project shown on Instagram/Facebook.
We plan to include the summer Show and Share photos at the September Zoom meeting as well; if you don’t want this to be done, please indicate this in your email to yhqg.zoom@gmail.com.
As you all know, we’ve had to postpone our Quilt Show to 2021, which means that you won’t have an opportunity this November to indulge in retail therapy (I think we all need some therapy at this point!).
You can, however, indulge in some on-line retail therapy now, and support the vendors who had planned to be at our 2020 show.
Like all on-line and store-front vendors, they don’t have as many staff members working as in the past, in order to maintain social distancing, so it’s taking them a bit longer to fill orders. While awaiting the arrival of your order, repeat the mantra which we are all saying these days: patience is a virtue!
So is supporting our vendors! Who knew that buying fabric and other sewing essentials could be a way to support our quilting community during a pandemic?!!
Here’s a list for you:
The Quilted Ruby (Facebook page: The Quilted Ruby or email joy@thequiltedruby.com)
Stay well and keep on quilting!
Anne McLauchlan
President
As masks become an accepted way of protecting ourselves and others during the pandemic, groups are contacting the Guild with requests for the donation of home-made masks. I know that many of you have made dozens, if not hundreds of masks, but for anyone looking for a new place to donate to, or for a place to start, here are a several options for you (some of which you have seen before; I thought I’d consolidate things for you!).
At the end of this message, there’s a listing of several different sources for information about mask making.
You don’t have to just make masks for big organizations. Your family, friends and neighbours will also like them! Have a look at www.goodnewsnetwork.org (April 23 entry) to see one woman’s neighbourhood ‘Giving Tree’ with her free home-made face masks to see what one Iowa woman is doing!
Whether you make some masks just for yourselves and your family members, or whether you make masks to help the rest of your community, I want to thank you for all you do! We have great members!
Stay well and keep on quilting!
Anne McLauchlan
President
Toronto Bay Bloor Rotary Club:
If anyone is interested and able to make face masks for those most vulnerable in our city, here is a request from the Toronto Bay Bloor Rotary club:
This club supports the Seeds of Hope project in downtown Toronto, providing meals for the homeless, and also supports the Common Table program at the Church of the Redeemer, where meals are given not only from the church steps to those who can get there, but where teams of volunteers also walk the streets of the area, bringing the food to those who do not make it even to the church for one reason or another: and receive food where they are. There is a great need for fabric masks to be distributed to these people who have nothing, not even a place to shelter in many cases. Those who would go to shelters are afraid to be in such crowded conditions, so they are more and more forced onto the streets. The Executive Director of one of the programs described being at “an encampment” the other night, handing out sterno, water and food to those who had no masks, but are living communally and the volunteers had no masks to give them. The volunteers themselves are in need of masks as well.
Any help to make masks would be greatly appreciated. A mask design has been developed, based on the Michael Garron patterns, but taking extra public health requirements into account. If you can help, please contact Jean Kammermayer at jkammermayer@gmail.com
Kingsway-Lambton United Church
A team from Kingsway-Lambton United Church has organized sewists to make over 1500 masks for charities, and hundreds of masks have already been delivered to the Fred Victor Centre and Eva’s Initiative for Homeless Youth as well as other charities serving the vulnerable. Now, St. Joseph’s and St. Michael’s Hospitals are also asking for the masks they are making…so they need even more people to sew!
The team has sanitation procedures in place, courtesy of Gibson’s Cleaners, and a medically approved and researched mask pattern. While not medical grade, these masks are high quality, reusable and can reduce the risk of exposure to Covid-19. The materials are being assembled into kits with instructions. All operations are in Etobicoke so you can pick up the kit and drop finished masks off in the West End. (WE stands for West End.)
If you have a sewing machine and can help, please contact WemakemasksTO at:
WEmakemasksTO@gmail.com
When you email, can you please tell WEmakemasksTO how you heard about the project
Michael Garron Hospital Foundation
The initial call for hand-made masks from a public institution was put out (in Toronto) by Michael Garron Hospital Foundation (the foundation for the former East General Hospital). They want 1000 hand-made masks a week, to provide to approved visitors to the Hospital, all discharged patients and the broader community around the Hospital. For more information, go to www.mghf.ca Drop off is at the Hospital Coxwell lobby at 825 Coxwell Avenue from 8:00 a.m.
to 4:00 p.m. Monday to Friday. Word is that they have enough masks now, so check their website before making any deliveries, or consider another recipient for your work.
Sew for TO
A group of Sewists got together to co-ordinate the making of and requests for protective, handmade masks and scrub caps, and created Sew for TO; their website is www.sewforto.ca They are working with donors of fabric and material, sewists and volunteer drivers to boost the supply of masks in Toronto, and organizations or members of the public can contact them to request masks or scrub caps. Their web site contains instructions for making masks, scrub caps, and related items, and has links to helpful videos, as well as information about arranging to have your completed masks picked up.
Holland Bloorview Kids Rehabilitation Hospital
The Hospital has recently started a 1000 mask a week challenge, to provide non-medical masks to their staff, clients and families who are coming and going to and from the hospital, and for use in the community. They would like people to use fun, child friendly patterns or dark-coloured fabrics for the front of the masks, and cottons for the back. They’re also looking for scrub caps with buttons; visit
www.canadasews.ca for scrub cap patterns and instructions. For more information about Holland Bloorview’s drive, go to www.hollandbloorview.ca/mask–drive Drop off is at the main reception desk at the Hospital at 150 Kilgour Road, Toronto between 8:00 a.m. and 8:00 p.m.
Masks can also be mailed to the Hospital.
Justice for Migrant Workers
This is a local group supporting migrant farm workers who come from Latin America and the Caribbean to work in our greenhouses, orchards and fields. Completed masks can be mailed to Riam Mirigmitr at Upper-7 Askew Street, Leamington, On N8H 1X4. There may still be some pre-cut tops and linings available from Toronto designer, Susan Singh, who can be reached at sumack66@hotmail.com, if you don’t want to use your own materials.
PATTERNS:
In addition to the links that some of the groups, above, have included, the Fabric Spark facebook page has tutorials in mask making from Shirley Dawson and from Kris Boos, if you are looking for some help in making your masks.
www.canadasews.ca also has patterns and YouTube links for masks and scrub caps.
Typically, we start asking for membership renewals for the following year at our March meeting and continue through April and May.
As these meetings have all been cancelled, we obviously can’t do that this year.
If you want to support your guild by proceeding with renewal, you have the following options:
We quite understand if some of you want to wait to renew until we all know when our meetings will recommence.
If you choose not to renew at this time, but intend to renew when meetings start up again, please let us know at yhqg.membership@gmail.com
In the meantime, stay well, and keep on quilting!
