Great November meeting

The November meeting was very busy and very successful. We had the talented Susan Briscoe as a speaker, several interesting demos and the reveal of our challenge fabric competition.  And I missed it!  I was gadding about London with my family celebrating my husbands birthday, but I wished I could have done both! 

Julie and Caroline kindly took some photos of the quilts.  There were 50 kits of two half yards of fabric and a cot wadding taken, and 37 quilts came back.  Susan Briscoe was so impressed with the display that she said it would be worth contacting Grosvenor exhibitions, as she thought they would like a collection like this to display at one of their shows!  I'm sure people would be fascinated to see the variety of responses to the same fabric. 

We had the clever idea of using skirt hangers to display the quilts along the corridor, which worked a treat. 

It allowed people to see the quilts with ease. 

The variety of the quilts was fabulous! 

And the quality of the work was amazing. 

Some of the quilts were hung on the wall bars.  

Here are a few close ups of individual quilts. 

Cute little owls. 

Some crazy patchwork here. 

Flaking leaves. 

And the winner is Jacquie's beautiful quilt.  Well done to all the entrants!  

September meeting

Now the summer is over, thoughts turn away from the garden towards quilting!  We had a lovely day at the Crescent School and we're very impressed at their renovations!  The hall was bright and cheerful, and the new lighting system was almost too bright!  We were concerned that we might be struggling for tables, but despite several pasting tables being dug out from garages and sheds, we managed very well! 

We had Mo demonstrating a very effective slice and dice block.  This one is perfect for leftover squares and scraps. 

Gwyneth and Madeline showed how to do patchwork of the crosses, first made by Lucy Boston, and ideal for those who like English paper piecing.  This is also a great opportunity for fussy cutting!  

We had 50 sets of free fabric and a cot wadding for our latest competition.  There are two different half yards of fabric for you to make up into a quilt top.  You have to add fabric of your own and bring it back to the November meeting.  There will be prizes for the ones liked best by the members.  It will also be a master class on how many different ways there are to use the same fabric!  I already have plans for mine! 

There were also two sales tables.  Julie had gorgeous fabric bundles for sale, 

And Jacquie had books to sell for her charity. 

The main event was the talk on Baltimore quilts by Sandie Lush. She told us how American women used expensive imported fabric to make Broderick Perse quilts, which were then emulated by the middle classes using cheaper plain fabrics to make similar results.  She had lots of slides and then some examples, including an antique block with beautiful small stitches.  She was an interesting and amusing speaker.  Thank you very much, Sandie! 

Lots of stitches

.Our May meeting was full on!  We had our ever popular sales table, followed by a workshop for everyone to participate in, coupled with opportunities to buy fabulous hand dyed threads and fabrics, then our usual raffle, show and tell and speaker(s)!  We barely had time to eat our cake! 

Here are the lovely Hazel and Terri from InStitches in front of Hazel's City and Guilds final piece.  These ladies were full of inspiration and encouragement and showed both their responses to challenges from the Quilters Guild Contemporary Quilt Group, of which they are both members.  It's always fascinating to see different outcomes from the same starting point.  I particularly liked seeing their journal quilts, made month by month for a year.  Neither of them had managed to last beyond April!  Sounds so familiar! 

Here they are at the start of their workshop, setting off to inspire.  I must admit, that hand embroidery isn't my preferred medium, but I thoroughly enjoyed having a dabble.  Some people took squares for Linus, and here are the results of some of them. 

I will join these up to make a pretty Linus quilt.  

Here are people having fun choosing from the luscious threads and fabrics on offer.  The day was another lovely one, and we look forward to seeing Hazel and Terri at the Festival of Quilts in August. 

One small point about the sales tables.  One member bought a dress pattern recently, and was disappointed to find that not all the pieces were in the packet when she started to cut it out.  Please can you try and check items for sale are complete, or mark them as incomplete so any prospective buyer is warned.  Thank you. 

See you in July! 

May meeting newsletter

At the last meeting there were quite a few people who hadn't received the newsletter.  Julie sends them out in groups, so maybe a group had failed for some reason. So it was decided that I would put the newsletter information on the blog, just in case.
Unfortunately I'm having some computer problems, so I can't work out how to copy the newsletter, but I'll do my best.
The next meeting will be on May 6th where there will be a members sales table.  Bring along your items for sale marked with your name and the price, and we'll do our best to sell them for you.  The sales table will be open from 10 am. Hazel Ryder will be giving the talk, 'The Story Behind the Quilt'.  In the morning at 11am there will be a free workshop for everyone, called Take Two Stitches. You will need to bring a 10" - 12" piece of wadded and backed fabric which is a hand dye, tone on tone or plain.  Plus embroidery or fancy threads to either contrast to tone and embroidery needles.  Hazel will bring a few threads which you can buy on the day.  If you fancy having a go but don't want the responsibility of starting something new, you can bring the stuff and donate to Project Linus or Lynda will bring fabric etc for you to have a play on the day and hand the result back to her.
Any questions, email Lynda on lyndahill39@gmail.com
See you there!

Block of the Month Meeting

The March meeting was a celebration of Blocks of the Month.  Last year we ran a BOM programme, which lots of people enjoyed, so we hoped lots of people would bring their quilts or tops to the meeting so we could admire them, and then choose ones we liked best.  Here are the quilts.

This is a bright cheerful one, made for Project Linus by Paula. 

Sorry this picture is so dark.  I drew the curtain to cut out the light, but the quilt was so long, I couldn't avoid it. This was made by Nik, and beautifully quilted. 

Another bright and cheerful quilt, with lovely lemon sashing. 

This one has sophisticated colours set off by dark blue sashing. 

These blocks are united by a controlled colour scheme, and I love how they all float in their sashing. 

This arrangement has a clever striped sashing to add some extra interest to the setting. 

This one was made by Di, and the pink and white blocks are sashed in pink and blue.  Can you see how the pink is on alternate sides of the blocks? 

Every quilt was voted as someone's favourite, which was quite right and proper. 

But the winners are ...............

In joint second place, 

This on point arrangement made by Lynda in different reds, and 

This fabulous set linked by lots of blue fabric, and enhanced by a central underwater scene, made by Liz. 

And first place went to 

Gaynor's quilt, which was 100" square, which she has made for her impending Golden Wedding Anniversary!  She usually hand quilts, but this one was so big, and the anniversary is coming soon, so she made it in nine parts, by quilt as you go. Sorry I couldn't get it all in, but it was so big, we had to fold it over at the bottom to stop it dragging on the floor!  A worthy winner! 

Jan brought six small quilts which she had made using a repeated block.  I didn't take photos of them, but the secondary patterns were amazing. 

And the speaker was Lynda Hill, who talked about BOMs, blocks of the week and blocks of the day, with quilts to illustrate each.  

Here she is with her Happy Days BOM quilt, designed by Sarah Fielke.  I think people enjoyed the talk, but at least nobody fell asleep, so it must have been alright! 

January 2017

Happy new year to you all, and it was lovely to get back on track at January's meeting and have a bit of quilty fun!  I kept my eye on the weather, and despite a covering of snow on Friday, it melted away very conveniently for Saturday.  I remember too well a few years ago when we had to cancel the January meeting due to deep snow!  If there's ever any question about the weather in your mind, just look at the website, as I'll post on there if we're not meeting!

Here is a view of the room during lunch.  We had trader Jeannie from Quilteez in Ratby.  She brought some lovely fabrics, including the ever delectable Oakshot colours.  We had three demo tables, Julie with continuous prairie points, Gaynor with Apple Core and June, who always has some clever ideas up her sleeve.
Our speaker was Teresinha Roberts, who had been recommended to me by a member.

Her talk was about silk, and was absolutely fascinating.  I can thoroughly recommend her as a speaker, and she has quite a few different talks, mainly on fabrics and dyes.  We'll definitely invite her back again.  Here she is with a silk moth in a box and some tussah silk in a skein.  She brought lots of things for us to look at, but her tale of rearing silkworms in her kitchen had us all agog.  I'm not sure I could fancy it, although she assured us that they are completely domesticated!

Here you can see some of the items Teresinha had brought with her, and the interest shown by her audience.  

Next meeting, in March, will be a Block of the Month day.  Please bring your 2016 blocks with you, and any which are all twelve blocks made into a top or quilt will be eligible for a cash prize!  We'd love to see as many of the blocks as possible, joined together or not, so get sewing!