Uncategorized | Kenya Quilt Guild

After all the excitement of January’s Tea with the Stars, our February meeting, held on the 17th, seemed very calm and productive. We welcomed a few new members to join us, Varsha Sodha and sisters Arvinder and Sandeep Bhogal. We are pleased to welcome them into our quilting family!

Our more familiar members were reminded to renew their subs at KES 1,200/= per year. That amount must be paid before or at our March meeting before 10:oo a.m. on the 24th. Only fully paid-up members will be eligible to vote for the election of officers and on the Constitution.

Three of our more senior members, Indu Shah, Jean Classen and Heather Campbell, were awarded Honorary Lifetime Memberships, the first time in the history of our guild such an event has been occasioned!

We have another special event coming up on the morning of April 9, a Bernina International presentation hosted by The Woman Shop at Sarit Centre. To attend, members must RSVP the formal invitation when it is offered. More information will be posted here as it becomes available.

Member-at-Large Gill Rebelo encouraged everyone to participate in the African Quilt Challenge, drawing from African myths and legends to inspire works of art.

Upcoming classes were described as those on offer by Paramjeet Bawa, due to be with us by the first of April, who will be coming to us from Kuwait City! Paramjeet is known by a couple of our members who have recommended her and we will all be excited to learn what she has to share during the first week of April. Dena Crain will be teaching a workshop called Beautiful Bindings immediately after the monthly meeting on May 19. The following two days, she will be teaching her highly successful workshop called Darned Quilts. We are also negotiating with another teacher about a workshop on bags. Find more information, including supply lists, on our Workshop Schedule, as and when it becomes available.

Thanks to Paper Pieces, the Kenya Quilt Guild enjoyed a lesson and a free sample of English Paper Piecing. Our own Deanna Gaudaur was happy to show the 40 members in attendance her “skills” so that they could become scrapaholics as well.

English Paper Piecing dates back to the 19th century. It involves using cardboard or plastic templates and scraps of fabric which are basted to the paper. Although most of Deanna’s experience has been with hexagons, there are dozens of different templates available, from apple cores to tumbling blocks. The donated sample kits make a pincushion or can be appliquéd onto a block. The papers can be removed and reused many times.

Although templates can be downloaded from the internet and printed on paper, Deanna recommends ordering whichever size/shape is needed from Paper Pieces. These packets of precut paper shapes save hours of cutting time, when you could be quilting! And, yes, shipping to Kenya is both possible and economical!

Star Quilt (English Paper Piecing) by Deanna Gaudaur

We enjoyed seeing a few samples of this method, an ongoing project of a hexagon quilt and this star quilt which was pieced a few years ago by Deanna, an unfinished Grandmother’s Flower Garden by another member and an antique Flower Garden given to Deanna by another of our members, Lady Jay Hewett.

Hexagon English Paper Pieced Quilt

Members who finish and incorporate their “flower” into something else will have the opportunity to snag another kit at the next meeting, as there were a few left! And don’t forget to have a look at the Paper Pieces Free Downloads!!

See you at our next meeting on March 24th.