Change of plan

I can only apologise to those people who came to our May meeting hoping to hear a talk by John James needles.  Unfortunately, they had to cancel as they no longer have anyone who can do talks, so we had to find another speaker.  I tried five different possibilities, but fortunately sixth time was lucky and I was able to book Amanda Hall from Monkey Buttons. 

Here she is, busy pleasing those who were buying her fabrics and patterns.  She specialises in Japanese taupe fabrics, but had plenty to tempt everyone.  She is particularly known for her bag patterns - at one time she designed one every month!- but makes wall hangings and quilts too.  

This is a photo I've borrowed from her Facebook page, as it shows the range of her work.  I couldn't resist buying a gorgeous bag pattern based on African baskets.  Amanda's talk was a trip through her life as a designer.  She showed lots of examples of her bags, with lots of tips about their construction, and ways to make handles and insert zips.  Her quilts were a mixture of appliqué, foundation piecing and piecing, and were mainly traditional, which is just what we like!  Thank you for stepping into the breach, Amanda!  We thoroughly enjoyed your talk. 

The hall was very busy for the meeting, and we had just one demo, a zippy bag with a plastic front and our ever popular sales table. 

Here is Hilary with the raffle table.  Proceeds from the raffle go to our charity.  

One member drew our attention to the charity TWAM.  This is Tools With A Mission.  They need all kinds of working tools to help people overseas to start their own businesses.  Go over to their website to see the kind of things they want, but particularly relevant to us is their need for sewing machines, knitting machines, sewing equipment and haberdashery.  It would be great to feel that an old sewing machine could help someone to support their family!  

Now a return to the subject of technology.  Julie has successfully transferred our newsletter to the new  company, but some peoples' computers think that the emails are spam, as there are a couple of hundred sent out at one go!  If you didn't get a newsletter on May 4th, check your spam folder and let your computer know that the newsletter is suitable for your inbox.  If it's not in your spam folder, I suggest you go to sites.google.com/site/rocheberiequilters and sign in using the box at the top of the page.  If all else fails, I try to keep the web page up to date, so check there for current developments!  See you in June!