John Country Quilter's Guild is a group of approximately 35 members ranging from beginners to advanced who meet at 7:00pm on the 2nd and 4th Mondays of each month at the Northern Environmental Action Team (NEAT) building (September to June). John Country Quilter's Guild is a non- profit organization. John and the surrounding area learning, laughing, and getting to know one another. Not only is it
a great way to increase your quilting skill, but it's also a great way to get involved in an organization that supports our community. Membership runs from September to June and cost $40. Membership dues are not pro-rated. Dues go towards paying for teachers, out of town guests, purchasing fabric and batting for care quilts, and prizes for activities during the year. Some of our activities are listed below. Care Quilts - these are sewn together and then given to community organizations such as Maeope House, Premies, Kidney Dialysis, Fire Victims, Meals on Wheels, Peace Villa, Pregnancy Care Center, Salvation Army, Fort St John Hospital and the FSJ Women’s Resource Society. Each member is encouraged to make one quilt per year. Christmas Party- each year the guild has a Christmas party at the last meeting in November. There is usually a gift exchange and Christmas related games. North Peace Fall Fair - the guild displays quilts in the old log cabin during the August fair. Volunteers are needed to monitor the display and this time is used to tie care quilts. Members are encouraged to bring things to display. In Town Retreat - this is a great time to learn a lot about quilting and to finish projects. It is usually a 3 day retreat 9am - 5pm on a Friday, Saturday and Sunday. You may attend 1, 2 or 3 days. It costs $10 per day. We also collect donations for the food bank &/or the FSJ Women's Resource Centre during this time. Guest Teacher - the guild usually brings in a guest teacher at least once a year. They bring new ideas and techniques to share with us. We try to keep the cost to a minimum. Mini Workshops - we hold a mini workshop once a month. These take place at our 2nd meeting of the month (the 4th Monday). These are to teach new techniques and short cuts. Fellow members are invited teach the class. We encourage members to teach something new they have learned via the internet or from friends or even a shortcut they have discovered themselves. If you are not comfortable to teach, talk to someone on the executive and ask them to arrange someone to teach the technique you would like to share. In the past years there have been workshops demonstrating appliqué, aprons, chenilling, crazy-patch quilting, disappearing 4 patch & 9 patch, various quilting techniques and yoga for quilters. Quilt Show - the show is held at the North Peace Cultural Centre. We display all sizes of quilts and quilted items show casing a variety of techniques. Raffle Quilts - several quilts are raffled as a fund raiser for our guild. Quilts may be made by one person or many people contributing blocks. Quilts may be hand or machine quilted and members help with basting and binding. Block Exchange - the participant chooses a block design which they provide and everyone makes that block. The next month the participants make the next persons block. The participant can choose color scheme and may even provide some of the fabrics for the blocks
Round Robin - each participant creates a block as the centre which sets the theme for their quilt. They may provide fabric if they have a specific colour scheme or theme in mind. The group coordinator draws up a list for the members to pass on their block. Each block is passed to the next person and that person then creates and sews a series of blocks to go around the centre block. The next month the “quilt in progress” will be passed onto the next member (no peaking for the owner of the quilt top). When all members have completed their ‘rounds’ the top is revealed. Row Robin - each participant creates a row of blocks - setting the height and length of the ‘robin’ and the theme. Each participant creates a row which can be sewn to the first row or not. If the participants wish to have a specific color or theme they may provide the fabric. Grid Robin - each participant sets the size, theme and color scheme for their quilt. Then each participant chooses part of the quilt to sew and they sew that portion of the grid. If the participant wishes to have a specific colour scheme or theme in mind they may provide fabric. UFOs - are UnFinished Objects that you would like to get finished. It starts in September and October when you fill out the UFO form stating which projects you want to get finished- it must be an already started project. To cover the cost of the completion prize there is a small fee of $1.50 per UFO. UFO’s end in May and for each item you finished you will receive a prize (a fat quarter) at the AGM.
