Jennie Rayment

We were indeed fortunate to secure Jennie as our February speaker, as not only is she an inspiration with her wealth of ideas for adding texture to quilts, she's also a hilarious speaker and very much a character. She has a reputation for being a bit racey, and those who had heard this, were not disappointed!

Here she is, in a pose chosen by herself. In this country she is called the 'Calico Queen' after her fondness for using creamy calico to showcase her folds and tucks, but in the USA she goes by the name of the 'Muslin Mistress': I wonder which describes her best?!

Here is her Sudoku Quilt, where nine different textural techniques are used in place of the nine different numbers usually to be found on sudoku puzzles. Jennie kept us both amused (Beverley said she hadn't laughed so much for ages!) and entertained, while also managing to find time to demonstrate her Dazzling Fandangos (no, that's not another name for nipple tassels, although she showed those as well!) in French, no less. Ooh, la la!

She was going to be a difficult act to follow, but the show and tell was up to the usual standard (al

though strangely lacking in quantity this month).

Several people had been to Jenny Almond's drunkard's path workshop, and showed their finished items. It's always interesting to see how different people make up the same pattern.

Ruth had been given a bag of scraps from the Bramble Patch to send to the charity shop for rags. She was amazed to find large pieces of fabric in the bag, including enough fabric to make half a cot quilt, make the centre of this Linus quilt and a piece of black binding already joined and folded which was long enough to bind the quilt too! Obviously some people have a different idea of what constitutes a scrap!Nik's husband had surprised her by announcing that they would be going to a christening in a couple of week's time, but she still found time to make this lovely cot quilt as a present. Lucky baby!

Ann caused some merriment by producing this beautiful hexagon quilt. Much to Jennie's embarassment, she had earlier made a comment about 'boring hexagon' quilts, which Ann quoted back to her, but no offence had been meant or taken, and Jennie was fulsome in her praise of this stunning quilt. Since show and tell was unusually short, this gave the committee chance to start to prepare the room for Jennie's workshop tomorrow - of which more later!

January meeting

I can't believe it's nearly time for the February meeting, and I haven't managed to write about the January events! It's not because it wasn't interesting or enjoyable, it's just that life got in the way! (I imagine you know what I mean.)

Jenny Almond was our speaker, and although she has been our speaker before (once memorably helping us out when another speaker let us down at the last minute for no good reason!) she is always a joy. She is so down to earth and unassuming, yet her work is beautiful and varied.

Here she is, no doubt sharing a clever tip with Beth. She brought lots of quilts to share with us, mainly traditional, of the kind where you think to yourself, 'I could make that,' leaving us all feeling inspired and confident, rather than daunted. Her talk was amusing and gave us all a good laugh. Thanks, Jenny.

Show and Tell was excellent, as ever. It started, appropriately, with a couple of quilts which had been made at one of Jenny's workshops.

Bunty made hers in Christmas colours, as she thought the stars were suitable for Christmas, but didn't mean the quilt had to be put away after the festive season, but could be used all winter. Good idea.It's hard to believe that Andrea used the same pattern, but her colour choices have brought out completely different areas of the design, and making the stars really hard to find!Eileen and Jenny made these stained glass 'windows' in a Gail Lawther workshop, and again, they have turned out very differently. Chris and Muriel have been stripping at the Bramble Patch. No, not that kind of stripping, just using strips (Jelly Rolls, actually) to make quilts. This quilt of Chris's is a log cabin, arranged in a straight furrows set.

Ann prefers to hand piece and hand quilt, and here is her latest quilt, which she has kindly donated to Project Linus. It's simple but very effective, and beautifully quilted.

Here is some more hand work, a fabulous sampler of different applique blocks. The bright colours looked vibrant in actuality.

You may be interested to know that 29 people are taking part in this year's group quilt, and I look forward to seeing their first blocks completed at the next meeting.