QNAG has had a busy year. Quinte is a growing Guild. We have had four new members this year, who bring their unique talents to our group.

We have continued our commitment as a teaching guild, with several members teaching workshops. The results of Joan Reive's one stitch challenge have been remarkable. This was a challenge to draw the name of a stitch from an envelope and then use that stitch only to create a piece of work. Some of the stitches were obscure and took some research, but the finished pieces showed great ingenuity. Other fall workshops included Sue Thomas' fun class in beaded scissor fobs, and Joanne Gatenby's Hardanger class.

We are now in the process of putting together our latest themed book. A year ago January, members were asked to create a piece of work using any embroidery technique they chose on the theme of architecture. The pieces had to have a finished design area of no larger than 7.5 by 10 inches.

Once finished, the pieces are mounted on Timtex with backing provided by the guild, and then are assembled into a stand-up book. Faggot stitching is used to join the pages so that they can be easily folded.

13 pages have been turned in so far with more to come. The designs varied from a local church to homes, the Eiffel Tower, birdhouses, barns and a stained glass window.

Techniques were cross stitch, surface embroidery, and white-on-white work. Some of the designs were originals while others were adaptations of existing commercial patterns.

This is the third themed book we have done. The previous two had the themes of flowers and leaves. These books are a wonderful tool to demonstrate a wide variety of techniques and we have used them for promotional displays.

Our winter projects for 2012 included 'fascinator' headpieces, led by Fran Vidal, and Tanja Berlin's Habsburg Lace and Shadow work pieces. Tanja kindly gave us permission to use her pieces as workshops, as long as a minimum number of members participated. Joanne Gatenby led the workshops.

Upcoming in our spring sessions will be Montmellik, taught by Anne Adams, and trapunto work taught by Joanne Reive.