Christmas is coming

Firstly, we welcomed to the group two new members, Lesley and Elaine, taking our numbers to a wonderful 16.

This month saw the start of our Christmas projects, but before that take a little look at these gorgeous bags, last month's project.

Tina's bag

Anne's bag

Karen's bag

Tina and Anne have both made their flower embellishment, and Karen is now looking forward to the next village jumble sale and hoping to find some more vintage buttons and brooches!! There should be some bag photos next month too as there are still a couple in progress.

As well as the bags, there are several other projects underway; Gill's now hand quilting her quilt, Gemma's making fabric storage boxes, Rosemary's taking a break from patchwork and having fun making fabric mice, Tina's cutting out blocks for her raggy quilt and new members Lesley and Elaine are, respectively, working on a traditional quilt using English paper piecing and a quilted barrel bag. Oh, and Laura's baby will be arriving any day now.

We had lots to talk about this month, especially as several of the group had been to the Festival of Quilts, some for the first time. Wendy and Pam had also been on a workshop and brought to 'show and tell' the trapunto pieces they made and Maria brought to show the group the results of a round robin mystery block quilt she'd taken part in at another group, and now has to turn into a finished quilt. The group's programme for 2014 is also taking shape with a few more ideas to follow up on, including talks and workshops.

Anyway, back to this month's project, the first of the Christmas projects, an appliquéd Christmas tree skirt. The photo is of one made by Maria; it's only a little skirt as Maria's Christmas tree isn't much more than a large table decoration and usually sits on the sideboard. Quite a few of the group prefer a large, tall tree so we're looking forward to seeing their finished tree skirts in due course.

Everyone's looking forward to the other Christmas projects planned too - a table runner, a wall hanging, a table decoration and our first Christmas meal. 

We are still able to take new members so if you've been reading this blog and thinking of joining, do get in touch - details on the 'contact' tab.