Indo-Canadian Pieceniks

Anybody remember this pic?

This pic was splashed on DQ and after the initial excitement, there were no more talk about it. Talks have been going on backstage and there's a lot to reveal, but we shall do that in stages.

For those who don't know/remember, thats the representatives of 'Desi Quilters' from India (me,Tina) and 'Quilting Corners Guild' from Ontario, Canada (Irmgard Jacob), discussing possibilities of linking up as SISTER GUILDS.

I've been wanting to do a nice blogpost about our meeting but looks like the stars are not in its favour yet :-). Thought no point keeping everyone hanging forever in the hopes of writing that elusive blogpost, so here's a copy of the summary I sent Irmgard after the coffee meet...

- Irmgard gives her guild's charter, pin and some lovely FQ packs for a contest and outlines that they would love to work with a sister guild in India and explore possibilities of doing so.

- Tina, on behalf of Desi Quilters, a virtual pan-Indian guild, coveys willingness to the same.

- The following possibilities of working together were discussed:

1. A joint BOM, where responsibility for posting the Block of the Month (BOM) instructions are alternated between the two guilds, participating members follow the instructions and make blocks for themselves and post pictures in a common forum of the individual blocks every month, as well as the finished quilt at the end of 12 months.

2.A block swap, where every month we choose one queen from the Canadian side and one queen from the Indian side. Then the participating Indians make and send blocks to the Canadian queen and the Canadians make and send blocks to the Indian queen. The duration of swap depends on the number of participating members. The number should be equal from both sides. At the end of the swap, everybody has blocks made by their sister guild counterparts.

3.A secret swap, where from an equal number of participating members, the admins randomly pair up each member with a secret partner from the sister guild. Everybody posts a little bit about their favourite colours or styles or what inspires them. Their secret partner, taking inspiration from that, makes them a small doll quilt/mug rug and send it across. The names of the secret partners are revealed in the end. This is a one time swap event.

4.A supplies swap - Since quilting tools/notions are not available in India, we would be happy to swap with you guys in return for Indian fabric. Here also, each participating member is randomly paired with a sister-guild counterpart (not secret tho) and they swap these items and everyone's happy. The admins can decide beforehand what sort of items can be swapped and the maximum value. 

5. Since a common forum is needed for communication to be open and effective and also to provide a platform for sharing pictures, ideas and thoughts, it was decided that Facebook is superior to Flickr in terms of ease of usage as well as potential. So, a Facebook Group page can be opened and participating members can join.

Phew! Done !

Do let me know what your guild members think. We can start off with any one activity and then take it from there.

Best wishes

Tina

After the serious discussions, I took Irmgard to my favourite place in all of Chennai - cotton street ! :-)

We also visited a fabric store. I should have warned Irmgard about the mind boggling variety of fabric available in India. She was a bit overwhelmed I think. The happy kind of overwhelmed :-).

So, watch this space for further developments. Its gonna be exciting for sure.