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! 

March meeting

We had some extreme weather at the beginning of March, with temperatures in the minus range and a certain amount of snow.  Fortunately, by our meeting date, all was resolved and the temperatures - in double figures!- seemed positively balmy!  We certainly had to open quite a few windows in the hall, to keep us all comfortable.  We arrived to find a stage area in the middle of one side of the hall, which made us have to put out the tables in a different arrangement.  It certainly made the hall look more spacious, and didn't seem to affect people's comfort.  If the stage is a permanent fixture, we'll certainly do this again.

Here you can see the space!  We didn't have any demos this time, so I suppose that gave us a bit of extra space, but it was lovely!  (Please consider volunteering to do a demo, as what seems old hat to you will be a revelation to any newer quilters.  Plus, you get free entry and a fiver for your trouble!) 

It was table top sale time, and there were four people selling stuff at bargain prices.  I couldn't resist adding to my stash! 

And the highlight of the day was our lovely speaker, Gilli Theokritoff, who had come down from Nottingham.  Not only was she an interesting and entertaining speaker, but the majority of her work was traditional, which we all like seeing.  Add to that her recent foray into pixel quilts, exemplified by her fabulous 'David' which you can see behind her.  Everyone enjoyed her talk, and one member commented that we needed to book more boring speakers, as in the last two meetings she hasn't been able to have her afternoon nap!  She was joking of course, and she was not alone in her praise of Gilli. 

Our UFO Challenge is a great success, not only in clearing out UFOs from cupboards and boxes (the oldest one so far was 35 years old!) but in providing us with lots of show and tell.  Many thanks to all the people who took part in this, and keep up the good work. 

Our changeover to the new newsletter deliverer went very smoothly.  The only problem was that some computers thought the group email was dodgy and put it into spam folders!  If you didn't get a newsletter this time, check your spam folder as I bet it's hiding in there!  See you in May. 

New year 2018!

It was lovely to get back to a Rocheberie meeting and have the weather cooperate with us!  I remember a few years ago when the snow was so bad, Laura and I cancelled the meeting, as no one could get their cars out of their drives!  Nobody had any trouble attending (even though it was the AGM) and they were rewarded by a fabulous meeting. 

We were delighted to welcome Willy Goldschmidt, chair of the Friends of Saint Cross, our charity for 2017, and husband of our late committee member and friend, Muriel.  He was presented with a cheque for £600 and gave us a brief outline of all the activities of the Friends.  Thank you very much for coming Willy.  You are an inspiration! 

Our speaker this time was the talented Anja Townrow.  She gave us a talk called Private Collection, which consisted of many of her personal quilts and samples.  She brought a stunning collection of quilts to display and share, and was a fabulous speaker, as usual.  She even tolerated our microphone headset which had been squashed, I think, and kept slipping about irritatingly.  What a star! 

Here is the interest of the members after her talk.  Wonderful. 

We also had a challenge for the year.  You have to find five UFOs (that's UnFinished Objects) from your workroom, be they quilts, wall hangings, runners, bags, cross stitcheries or whatever, and agree to bring a finished UFO to each meeting this year.  Everyone who does this will get a prize!  The aim is to have fun, finish some stuff and increase the show and tell.  Email Lynda on lyndahill39@gmail.com if you missed it and want to be added to the list.