Catching up

I'm really sorry that I haven't been keeping the blog up to date, but here are the last two meetings.
In May we had the pleasure of the company of Diane Gaffney who brought lots of examples of 'Clothes for Ceremonies'.

 Here is Dianne, ready for her talk.

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 Here is Di, who is slim enough to model this fabulous outfit!  She looks so elegant!  Diane dressed several people up in outfits, showing us how they are worn, and allowing the audience to examine the details of the fabrics and the embellishments. 

This skirt was richly embroidered and appliquéd, and was a real masterpiece! 

Diane brought goodies for sale.  There was jewellery and lots of different fabrics. 

This picture is out of sequence, but shows people busy sewing, knitting or chatting before the talk. It's always a treat to see what everyone is up to! 

Then in July, our speaker had a family emergency and had to cancel at short notice.  Luckily our own Jacquie stepped into the breech and brought just a few of her quilts to show us.  We all love seeing quilts, so we were delighted!  She is one talented lady and kept us entertained with her chat. 

Here are the quilts before she started her talk!  Thank you so much for bailing us out so capably, Jacquie.  You are a star! 

March Winds

It was a very breezy day for our recent meeting, but then, it was March!  There was a good turnout, as usual, and people were keen not only to meet our speaker, Linda Forey, but to bag some bargains from the table top sale. 

We never quite know what we will find in the hall when we arrive, and this time there was a raised area in the centre.  Since we had no demos this month, we decided to put some of the tables on this dias.  It attracted plenty of buyers.

There were also tables in the library, as usual, so lots to spend your money on.

Then, after lunch we welcomed our speaker, Linda Forey.  I first met Linda at a party at my brother's house, and my husband introduced us, 'This is Linda, and she's a quilter, and this is Lynda and she's a quilter!'  We had a lot in common to talk about!  Her work is much more accomplished then mine and she has won lots of prizes for her quilts, quite rightly. She was also an amusing and inspiring speaker, with plenty of quilts to show.

It's a shame the table is in front of this quilt, as it was stunning.

Linda's quilts ranged from the traditional to art.  Here is one with sand and sea. 

This masterpiece was all hand pieced over papers.  It was a travel project.  Fabulous!

Thank you for coming and sharing your work with us, Linda. 

Hilary Jackson

January is our AGM month, but although it is necessary for insurance purposes and to make sure members get their chance to comment on the way the group is run, we don’t make it long or tedious.  Jacquie said that the hall fees were being raised, and although we have a healthy bank balance, the committee had decided to put the meeting fee up to £5.  This is the first increase in nineteen years, so is wholly justified.  Our charity for last year, theMyton Hospice, will receive a cheque for £400, and we have two charities for 2019, Rugby Alzheimer’s Support and Coventry and Warwickshire Mind. 

Our speaker was Hilary Jackson, and she was lovely.  She had brought plenty of quilts to show us, starting with some traditional ones, moving on to modern quilts and finally her art pieces.  Something for everyone!  Here she is with one of her modern quilts.  I love the green in it! 

She brought some of her recent pieces and displayed them for us all to enjoy.  At the left is her coal quilt, then three English trees and finally a quilt inspired by a recent visit to India.  She was an engaging and interesting speaker, and very generous at sharing her techniques.  Thank you, Hilary, for such a lovely day. 

November meeting

Just realised I didn't manage to put an account of our November meeting on the blog!  Still, better late than never!  

We had a lovely meeting, filled with inspiration. 

There was a bumper turnout, as people were keen to complete their UFO challenges! 

People always enjoy getting together to socialise and see what projects other people were engaged in. 

Our speaker was the lovely Nancy Adamek, from Lina Patchwork.  She specialises in supplying papers for English paper piecing, and had brought lots of her stock for people to browse or buy.  She had samples made from the various shapes, so you could get an idea of what kinds of things you could do with them.  

Her little Christmas project kits were gorgeous, and very popular. 

She showed lots of EPP quilts she had made, and it made for great eye candy and inspiration! 

The UFO Challenge show and tell was wonderful as usual, and a total of 34 people completed the challenge, and gave us all a treat. 

Here are the prizes, little preserve jars full of sewing goodies and topped with fancy beaded pins.  A real gift!  I hope everyone had a happy Christmas and a great New Year. 

Another fabulous meeting!

Rocheberie meetings are always worth going to, and although some speakers are better than others, we seem to be on a roll!  John Cole-Morgan was wonderful, and so was Moira Neal!  Both were very laid back and relaxed about their work, making us fall in love with our quilting all over again! 

Moira's work couldn't have been more different to John's, but they were both excellent speakers, full of fun and delight.  Moira brought two of her prize winning quilts to show us, with her 'Quilter's Garden' being one. 

Here you can see the other one, which was a doggy beach scene.  She had cards and patterns to sell, which were very popular. 

The day was well supported, and most people had a productive and enjoyable morning. We had a table top sale and three demonstrations, by Alison, Brenda and Kath apart from the cake and the chat! 

The show and tell was amazing, with all kinds of UFOs getting completed.  Next meeting is the deadline for completion of the UFO Challenge, so get busy if you want to qualify for a prize! 

Fabulous meeting!

Our July meeting had to be brought forward slightly to June 30th, as our venue will be having building works during the school holidays.  This meant that some people were on holiday, but we still had a very good turn out. 

We were very pleased to have The Sewing Cafe from Hinckley as our trader.  They brought some lovely unusual fabrics and a great selection of plains.  I hope they had a good time. 

In the morning we had three demos.  Paula showed how to make quilted hexagons, all ready to join together for a quilt or placemat.  She has made hers into a gorgeous quilted jacket, but I didn't manage to get a photo of it. 

Julie showed how to join the ends of your binding. 

I'd always wanted to get o grips with this mitred method, and now feel confident enough to try it. 

Caroline showed disappearing four patch. 

She had all the stages carefully prepared, plus a small one she had made into a coaster.  A great technique. 

And the main event was our speaker, John Cole-Morgan.  He came into the hall around lunchtime, and immediately made himself at home. 

He had brought his hexagons to work on, just in case there was time, and indeed there was!  He is using a lot of Stuart Hillard fabric, and so far it is looking great.

He really did us proud by bring loads of quilts for us to see.  His recent fad for wanting a front and a back was intriguing. 

Here is John with a cushion block he has designed.  He was a fabulous speaker, thought provoking, inspiring and hilarious.  He showed us the 25 quilt tops he made in 28 days, his BOMs and (this is secret) his entries for the Festival of Quilts.  He also warned us about some of the pitfalls of posting photos on the Internet and showed his FUGLY quilt!  We didn't think it was too bad, but had to agree that his more recent work was much better!  He runs a Facebook group called The Beginner's Quilt Support Group, which is well worth joining.  Most of the members aren't beginners, but we can all learn from each other, and John is so encouraging and dynamic. He is running a retreat later in the year which should be great fun.  We look forward to running into him at the FOQ and having him as a speaker again very soon.  

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!