Christmas meeting 2014

December saw another well attended meeting with lots of activity. Several finished and in progress Christmas wall hangings were on show.

KP completed wall hangings

MM work in progress

RF work in progress

BM completed Wobbly tree

BM Rudolph in progress

CD completed tree

CD completed Rudolph

Hopefully other members are having a go at these two lovely Anne Baxter projects. They are such fun to make and give lots of opportunity to use all those buttons, beads and charms we are all tempted to buy at quilt shows and shops. Thank you to Anne for permission to use her patterns.

These were not the only Christmas themed projects on show. We had trees, bells and angels from workshops attended by members.

Stuffed tree and bells from LE

Abstract tree wall hanging from LE

Angel ornament from TD

Last but not least on a Christmas theme, was a beautiful quilt in progress which we laid out on the floor, so that we could audition the blocks and number them for making up into the quilt top. The Dresden plates are hand stitched and appliqued, the roundels and tree are bonded and hand stitched applique.

Christmas quilt from ML, picture does not do it justice

Other members had finished name badges. There has been a lot of talent shown in the production of these small items, with members using their imagination to make some very nice miniature works of art. That gives me an idea for a future challenge.

Two more finished name badges. See the gallery for others.

And as if all that was not activity enough, we had members working on several other projects too.

JH hand quilting a Celtic design on silk fabric

Works in progress

 We have no meeting in January, but we are holding a workshop with Jennie Rayment, Texture into Sudoku. I look forward to sharing the results with you next year.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

6th November Activities

This month was scheduled as Show and Tell from the Julia Gahagan mini quilt workshop we held recently. Three participants brought in finished work that included examples of both of the techniques Julia covered with us, shadow work and foundation piecing.

Julia Gahagan workshop - some finished pieces by Christine, Tanya and Irena

Other members also brought in work for the Show and Tell.There were two lovely quilts from Raywen, one in red, white and blue made from scraps and the other, for her daughter, an adapted pattern using the backing fabric as inspiration. 

Scrap quilt by Raywen

House quilt by Raywen

Maggie brought in a cushion she had made in a Sally Holman workshop at The Knitting and Stitching show at 'Ally Pally' last month.

Cushion by Maggie

With the appearance of Christmas decorations in the shops it seemed like a good time to start making our own, for those of us who like that sort of project, apparently not everyone does! This time last year, Anne Baxter set a lovely project for the Young Quilters in Region 2 of QGBI. It was for a Wibbly Wobbly Christmas tree hanging. This was so much admired by our young at heart quilters, that we decided to asked her permission to use it for our group this year. She kindly agreed and also offered a Reindeer hanging pattern. We decided to make a start on them this month, as the closer you get the Christmas, the less time you may be able to find to sew.

Work under way

Adaptation required

Everyone seems to be busy with a project of some sort, not necessarily quilting but always crafty.

Busy bees

Knitting and crochet is also popular with our members

Thursday 2nd October

This month we made some name badges. We started with a few scraps of fabric, a piece of felt and some fusible web.

Hard at work

As expected, the results were varied and very interesting. For instructions click this link, Name badges.

A good evenings work

A closer look

Regional Day Exhibition

On Saturday 20th September, Region 2 of the Quilters Guild held a Surrey Regional day in the Old Barn Hall at Bookham. They had asked our group if we would like to put on an exhibition of our work. The Committee thought this a wonderful opportunity to show our skills. We asked members to submit pieces of work for the exhibition and two of our members volunteered to hang and chat about the quilts on the day. We are a small group that has only been formally meeting for a year. This meant that a lot of the work pre-dated the group, We did manage to show some results from the two workshops we have held so far, some still works in progress.

Les Etoiles Vert by Val Grange

Julia Gahagan Workshop- Little Village scenes

 Helen Tagg,Tanya Clarke, Christine Dally

Jane Austen Blues by Maggs Sandilands

The Griffen Myth by Christine Dally, Scrappy Zappy Do by Helen Worwood, Blue Night Time by Kanta Patel

Work by Maggs Sandilands, Sally Weir, Helen Worwood and Christine Dally

Work by Carole Baker, Marion Welch, Helen Worwood, Sally Weir and Marcia Turner

Thousand Vine by Liz Powderham

Maggs and Sally enjoyed the day, and I hope that their experience will encourage more of our members to engage with this sort of opportunity in the future.

Julia Gahagan workshop

On Saturday 6th September 2014 we held a workshop with Julia Gahagan to make mini quilts. The techniques used were shadow applique and quilting. These were great fun and economical for quilters with scraps, as the largest pieces of fabric were roughly the size of an A4 sheet of paper, the rest literally scraps. 

Works in progress

Julia was helpful with fabric choices, explaining the principles of using light,medium and dark tones in your design to get a good contrast. This lead to some small changes with better definition. It was a satisfying workshop, as you had the majority of the work done by the end of the day, with a bit of finishing off when you got it home. Each one is a unique miniature work of art. If you can bear to part with it, it would make a lovely gift. If not you could make a few more for giving.

End of day results

Everyone seemed to have a good time. The Trinity Centre is a lovely venue for workshops, with natural light and good facilities. We were well looked after by Judy who was on duty that day.

Beavering away

Editors notes: Some finished examples from the workshop.

Shadow applique and foundation piecing - work by Christine, Tanya and Irena