Workshop Time at the Inuvik Quilting Guild

I was reminded this weekend of how amazing the Inuvik Quilting Guild is, and by Guild I mean where we live, the membership and just the all-round atmosphere and attitude of this group. I am so proud to be a member of the Guild and being Chair of this group is the cherry on top of an already great dessert!

Each year the Inuvik Quilting receives funding from the NWT Arts Council and we use this funding to bring up an out of town instructor for a weekend of quilting. Now with the combination of participant fees and guild fundraising we stretch this funding into 2 weekend workshops.
 

If people can believe this a return plane ticket Yellowknife to Inuvik is $1750.00 (Canadian North airlines) and Vancouver to Inuvik is $1150.00 (Air North) so even more great reason to get some extra financial support.  

 

In January we welcomed Donna MacDonald and Hazel Wainwright as teachers. These two ladies have become great friends of the Guild, although Hazel and I have known each other since she was my Brownie leader in the late 1980s! Donna and Hazel have come to Inuvik about 7 or 8 times to teach classes but this time we focused on the Buggy Barn ‘stack and whack’ techniques. We were skeptical at first that they would be too ‘country or folky’ but it turned out all of us loved the quilts we produced!

 

 

Then this past weekend we welcomed Krista Hennebury to Inuvik and she loved our community (and maybe us too!). Check her out at: http://www.poppyprintcreates.blogspot.ca/. She also has a brand new book out; MAKE IT, TAKE IT by Martingale http://www.shopmartingale.com/make-it-take-it.html.

 

We did Krista’s Improv Quilting class which uses the Chess on the Steps layout. Lots of discussions about colour (warm vs cool), about design and of course chatter and instruction about machine quilting. These workshops are such good opportunities for quilters to learn new techniques but also to validate that we are a skilled group also! A bit of a confidence boost to our Guild and members.

I highly recommend the classes with Krista as she is easy going, friendly and laid back in her teaching and approach to workshops. Plus, in a workshop with 8 participants we all got a lot of teaching time with her. And… Krista seemed to love our little community. She came the same weekend as our annual Muskrat Jamboree and she approached everything with an open mind and curiosity. She is welcome back any time!