February 2026

 February sees us with several new members to swell our little community. We take this opportunity to welcome you all and hope you enjoy the coming months projects.

We start 2026 with a Kwandi project. You can be as adventurous as you like with this technique. Participants started with a small mat or a 'Boro' style bag. 

Kawandi lap quilt MW, bag CD

MW had made a lap quilt and supplied some samples to demonstrate the technique. Marion is currently working on the bag pattern. CD had also made some small examples and a bag. While this technique is traditionally done by hand, it is possible to stitch it by machine. Instructions.

WIP - Kawandi mats TD, ME, DG, CD and AB

WIP - Kawandi bags MW, HM

Some participants were working on knitting projects hats and teddy bears. 

Baby hat SO

These are some hexagons for making up into a picnic rug for her grandchildren MS.

Picnic rug MS

We had some lovely show and tell quilts. This quilt by AP started life as a log cabin quilt, but the first block was put together wrongly and it morphed into a striking Bargello.

Striking Bargello quilt from AP

This colourful string quilt from HM, shows how little fabric need go to waste.

Colourful string quilt HM

This lovely star quilt from one of our newer group members LB, is having the binding stitched down.

Star quilt by LB

Lastly some Linus quilts made from fabric donations. Instructions for the Strip quilt can be found here.

 4 quilts for Linus by CD

December 2025

 This is our last meeting for 2025, as we have done for many years we have some Christmas nibbles and show our challenge blocks along with anything else we may have been, or are still, working on. The challenge was very well supported with some excellent seaside themed blocks. There are a few more to come from members who were not available to attend today.

Seaside challenge blocks

This was a fun challenge and demonstrates our members creativity in choosing fabrics and designs for a theme. They are destined to become a Linus quilt or two.

Next are some WIP and some finished projects.

'Cabin in the Corner' blocks SO

 

Woodland blocks making up by quilt as you go method MW

Foundation pieced Christmas tree nearly complete MD

Angel decorations TD

Foundation pieced trees and a hooped picture IM

Knitting is also popular with our members.

Prem baby cardigan JN

Two tiny prem baby cardigans AP

Dressing gown for a well dressed mouse AD 

A couple of members were working on embroidery projects.

An interesting sashiko style panel, the pattern is tiny holes rather than drawn. It makes for very neat stitching. A

A French hen from the 12 days of Christmas MM

We had some very nice Table runners, quilts and tree skirts to look at too.

Table runners, made as presents for friends AP

Memory quilt from grand child's clothes HM

Flying geese quilt being hand quilted HM

A lantern and two woodland quilts for Linus CD

A couple of festive tree skirts, one a gift and for personal use AP

An finally two personal projects,

 

A tree decoration for a grandchild 

One of a series of pinwheel blocks DG

 Wishing you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

August 2025

 August saw us making zippy purses, these are very useful as gifts for friends and family, the size can often be adjusted to make them bigger (easy) or smaller (not so easy). There were two designs to try, a simple zipped purse and a slightly more challenging pyramid purse. Both are suitable for hand or machine sewing. Instructions.

Both patterns were enthusiastically received with participants choosing to try one of the patterns. Some just cut out and decided to sew at home by machine, others went on to sew by hand.

A selection of zippy purses by MW, DG, AB and SO

A selection of pyramid purses by MM, IM, HM

Other patterns with zips can be found on the 'Patterns and Favorite books' page under 'Fundraising projects', 'Circular zipped box' and 'Inserting a zip' on the same page may also be of interest.

One member continued to stitch some hexagons, an ongoing project with no deadline to finish, some mindful sewing.

AP hexagons

There were some Show and Tell quilts, the first from CE made from the QGBI block 4 patch variation. The shirting checks set off the design very nicely. Instructions here.

Another from AP, very nice green sampler quilt with impressive machine quilting.

Finally two simple Linus quilts from CD. These can be made in a weekend as pieced by machine, backed with fleece and machine quilted in the ditch, what could be easier. Instructions here.

July 2024

A very nice lady called Sara P contacted us to ask if we would be interested in taking on some of her mothers fabric stash and equipment, as she was no longer able to quilt. As quilters we all like a rummage, so Sara brought along some fabric and haberdashery for which we are very grateful. I hope to see some projects from the fabrics at future meetings. Thank you to Sara and her mum.

This month our BOM theme was bugs. We had three applique patterns to work from, ladybird, bee and dragonflies. These could be hand or machined sewn. The examples were all machine sewn. Instructions.

Work went underway choosing fabric and cutting out shapes. There more members working on them than pictures taken.

We also had some finished blocks from previous meetings, showing some lovely quilts in the making.

CH - machine sewn and quilted as you go

HM - hand sewn and quilted as you go

JN machine pieced and appliqued

CD machine pieced

As you may have noticed some of the blocks have been added by participants because they liked them and it fitted the theme.

One member worked on some hexagons.

AP

Lastly here are two quilts made or finished by MW for Linus. These shirting fabric squares and purple blocks were from other quilters who, for whatever reason, never got round to finishing them.

November 2023 - Country Hearts

 This month we tried our hand at Country Hearts. The original pattern was by Julia Gahagan. It has been slightly modified to make three different sized hearts.

Here are some works in progress;

CH

MM

AB

LW

HM

We also had two pretty needle cases made from the results of last months origami project from IM.