Christmas Meeting

We held our Christmas meeting this week and, as we'd all been good, Secret Santa called in. Everyone was delighted with their gift - a scissor keeper, a needle case, a thread catcher or a mug carrier - all useful sewing accessories. It was lovely to see so many variations.

Before Santa arrived, we held a show-and-tell, always a popular activity. Here are some of the lovely makes, not all patchwork and/or quilting though, and some ideas for future workshops. 

Denise's Christmas wallhanging.












Followed by three framed pieces by Wendy.

 

These are t-shirt blocks that Heather's preparing for a memory quilt.

 

And these are Pam's work, a cushion and a brushed cotton quilt.

 
Michele's Christmas decorations.

 




Vera's been busy too.

 

As have Gillian and Lesley.

 



Wendy brought with her fabrics etc that a good friend of hers wanted to find a new home and for which a fabulous £87 was raised for charity.


And, finally, we demolished this lovely spread which everyone contributed to.

Wishing you all a very Happy Christmas.

More Wreaths

And here are a few more, all looking fabulous and all so very different.

    

Sewing Therapy Workshop

Free format,  no templates, no patterns etc.... just bring your scraps, go with the flow and see what happens.

Keeping the projects small, this is what happened today.

Card toppers:

A piece for a cover for a journal: 

The beginnings of a table centre:

A piece for a table mat:

And a Mondrian-inspired, fused appliqué piece destined to be mounted on an artist's canvas:

Fabulous!

And another couple

And here are:

Tina's wreath blinged with red and gold berries:

and Maria's making another. This one's  a work-in-progress decorated with poinsettia decorations so far:

An evening's work, the wreaths take a couple of hours to make once you have assembled all the bits and cut the fabrics into squares. A little addictive and great fun to make.

Some more wreaths

Here are a few more finished Christmas wreaths.

Miriam's in red and green,

Gemma's with added bling (glitter) 

and one made by Maria's daughter (not a group member) who liked her mum's wreath so much she wanted to make one as well but in 'icy' colours. This one is also blinged with wired silver beads and a string of 'glass' beads.

October's meeting

Wednesday's mini tutorial was a fabric Christmas wreath using a polystyrene former. Quite of few of us chose to make the wreath and came prepared with lots of 2.5" squares pre-cut. However, the rings, albeit the smaller size, still take quite a bit of 'stuffing' and no-one actually completed their project on the night, although quite a few were almost there.

Here's the first finish, the whole thing and a close-up of the 'berries'.

 

Next month, we're making a raggy wreath using a wire floristry ring and fabric strips.

Coffee Evening

Our September meeting was always planned as a show-and-tell so it was an ideal opportunity to offer to host a coffee evening on behalf of Region 8 of the Quilters Guild. Coffee mornings have been running for a while now across the region and are becoming increasingly well attended as word spreads. Wednesday saw the first coffee evening aimed at those who work during the day who can't get to the coffee mornings.

11 people had contacted us to say they intended coming long and 8 did on what, weather-wise, was a cold and very wet night. So, almost 30 people's fabulous work to have a look at during show-and-tell, and some new ideas for the group's future programme.

Here are a few photos:

Quilts by Gillian, Jenny and Pam.

 

Bags by Jenny and Rosemary.

 

One of Heather's t-shirt blocks and Barbara's finished cushion:

 


Vera's finished gold work sample, Lesley's embroidery, Wendy's gold work.

 

And, from one of our guests, these 3D beaded decorations.



There were a number of other quilts, including a Jelly Roll Race quilt, but these weren't photographed.

Many thanks to everyone who supported our coffee evening, including everyone who provided a cake and volunteered to organise the teas and coffees.