Thursday 22 December 2011

November meeting

The November meeting functions as our Christmas party, as we don't meet in December, and this year's party was very successful. We decided to have a Faith Supper - where everyone brings something to eat, and you have to have faith that not everyone's contribution will be sausage rolls! As you can see, there was a fabulous variety of foods, and lots of choice for everyone. There was a free raffle with lots of beautifully wrapped parcels, and the Christmas theme was continued by Gill, who demonstrated how to make some lovely Christmas decorations. Lots of people made them on the day, and others took the pattern home to make at their leisure. The show and tell was varied. Beth showed this brightly coloured quilt made from strips. Gill had made this ball for a new baby. Di had been on a Mary Mayne workshop and made this winter scene inside a churn dash block. Ruth had also been on a workshop about making coiled fabric bowls. She had really enjoyed it, and made some lovely items.Do you remember the Half Square Challenge we had earlier this year? The resultant HSTs have been used to make Linus quilts, of which this is one. The blocks are Dutchman's Puzzle, and Di put it together and quilted it beautifully. This is a clever arrangement for just 5 blocks. Another way of making a small piece of fabric go further is to frame the blocks. Ruth has made a piece of fabric with cars on it into this wonderful quilt. How clever is that!










Here is another example of clever framing of motifs Only six little blocks plus frames have made a cute little quilt.
Gaynor had been to New Zealand and brought back lots of novelty fabrics with fauna and flora on them. She designed this way of displaying them all, while bringing them together at the same time. The background fabric is perfect for the job! Sometimes a fabric combination calls to you, but when you've made the quilt, you wonder what you're going to do with it? Well, this was true for Chris's quilt. It's stunning, but not a very useful size. It would be perfect for Linus, but the colours aren't very child-friendly. Chris quilted traffic images on the back, and hey presto! it's perfect for Linus. In fact it's already gone to a child in one of the Leicestershire refuges. I'm sure it will be treasured. Another quilt to treasure is this Twisted Log Cabin. What fabulous colours!
Doreen had started this quilt some time ago, but never finished it. Liz kindly offered to finish it for her, and here it is! The quilting is superb, as you can just see in the borders.
Blocks on point always look good, and these cute flower and birdhouse blocks are no exception. The scrappy blocks inbetween look like windmills, don't they. These aren't items from the buffet, but little embroidered truffles made by Gaynor. They're so realistic that one of her grandaughters tried to eat one!
And finally, the Birds Raffle Quilt. It was won by Betty, who, as a talented quilter, really didn't feel she could appreciate it as it deserved. She had heard Nik's Nan saying how gorgeous it was, and generously decided to offer it to her instead. As you can see, Nan is delighted to have the quilt on her bed. A great outcome for all!

Sunday 13 November 2011

November meeting

The next meeting of Piecemakers will be the Christmas Party! There won't be any games, balloons or jelly, but there will be food, drink and a little project to get you in the festive spirit.



For the project - Gill Baildon's Christmas decoration - you will need a 12" square of Christmas fabric and usual sewing kit.

If your fabric is a bit more traditional than this fabulous Alexander Henry print, don't worry! It will be fine.

To help the washer uppers, also bring a plate

and a glass.And most importantly, a dish of nibbles, sweet or savoury, to share with everyone.At the meeting all the details of the exhibition will be shared, the finances and the Visitors' Choice results. Don't forget your show and tell, and I'll see you there!

Monday 24 October 2011

Sew Fabulous!



Our October meeting was the AGM (28 minutes flat - must be the ideal length for an AGM!) and 'The Good, the Bad and the Ugly'. Members brought items they could recommend (the Good), such as a bias tape maker, using a pipecleaner to clear the fluff out of your machine, Sewer's Aid-a miracle silicon-based liquid, a magnet on an extendable rod for picking pins up, a magnetic bowl for pins and other useful gadgets; things they hated (the Bad) such as a half square triangle sewer, a circle cutter, a handle turner, bias bars and other things so useless I've forgotten them! and the Ugly, some pretty unusual fabrics piled up, although most of them (and the Bads) were left by their owners to go on the sales table at our forthcoming exhibition (and they were all sold!)

Saturday 22nd and Sunday 23rd October saw our biannual exhibition at Walcote Village Hall. The banner looks good here, but the wind took its toll, and by the end of the weekend, it was sorely in need of repair. We had over 200 visitors over the two days, and all the comments I heard were very positive. One man said that coming into the hall felt like 'a breath of fresh air' compared to the entrance to the Festival of Quilts. I'm not quite sure what he meant, but it must be a compliment!
The hall is spacious, and the lovely wooden floors set off the quilts to perfection.On the right you can see Stephanie's king size quilt - our hangers were amazed at how big it was.The variety of different quilt styles was very pleasing. There were applique, abstract, scrap piecing, curves, traditional blocks, strippies, blocks of the month and original designs. Something for everyone.Some quilts repaid careful close scrutiny, while others looked their best at arm's length.



Some had been hand pieced, such as Sylvia's wonderful Patchwork of the Crosses, made for her grandaughter's wedding, while most had been machine pieced.No British quilt show would be complete without a few hexagons, and Ann's blue and white quilt is simple yet perfect.







We wanted to appeal to people's aesthetic senses, but were aware that some had travelled some distance, and would need sustenance. Refeshments at a quilt show aren't right without an array of tempting home-made cakes. These proved to be very popular amongst all our visitors, old and young alike. The refreshments area gave visitors and stewards a chance for a sit down and a restoring cuppa! Another big draw was the sales table, featuring everything from fabric, kits books and patterns, through home-made items of all descriptions to the unwanted Bads and Uglies from the AGM! And of course, since quilters are such generous people here is our charity corner, showing Quilts for Injured Servicemen, donated to our brave boys and girls at Headley Court, and Project Linus Quilts, for children in need of a hug.



What a great exhibition, and a great weekend. It gave us great pleasure to stage this community event and give entertainment to so many people. Hope you enjoyed it too!

Wednesday 21 September 2011

July meeting

Oh, no! I've just realised that although Liz kindly took photos at the July meeting while I was rehearsing 'A Midsummer Night's Dream', I haven't managed to write the blog! Many apologies, and here it is.Philippa Naylor was our speaker, and I was very disappointed to miss her talk, and look at her lovely quilts. Jane and Jenny seem to be having a lovely chat with her though.












Here is some of her work - fabulous colours!

It was obviously worth a close examination!

The group quilt is now a top! Ruth, Paula and I have arranged and appliqued all the birds ready for a layering and quilting session.

Three lucky grandaughters had a quilt each. One is here and

two, and three are yet to come!


Muriel made this quilt from a jelly roll - I love the cool colours!

This quilt was inspired by New Zealand - you could have guessed that!


Ann's Log Cabin quilt has lots of movement in the blocks.

This design is simple, but so effective.
I have more photos to show, but Blogger is messing me about (plus my husband has needed my help trimming the back of his hair!) and I have run out of time. I will put the rest of the photos on asap. Watch this space!

































Wednesday 22 June 2011

June meeting

I wasn't able to get to the June meeting as I was sunning myself in the Aegean! I was sorry to miss the evening, although luckily Liz kindly took photos for us. (She apologised for not having all the details as she was concentrating on getting good shots without things sticking out of people's heads - bit of a change from the usual quality of photos then!)








This quilt looks like one made at a Ferret 'quilt in a day' workshop. What gorgeous bright colours!
This one was made from little pictures, and the off-set frames make it fun and quirky!


Muriel made two quilts, a brown one and a blue one from the same jelly roll. Can you see that the quilts are actually identical, but with different coloured borders? It's the border colour which changes the whole look of the quilt. How clever is that?

Another clever quilt from Muriel. These blocks have dark fabrics behind then which make them look 3D. Very effective.

Chris made this fabulous sampler quilt as a wedding gift for her son. He has married an American, so she chose blocks with names suitable for the occasion.

This pretty appliqued quilt is delicate and fresh.Here is Ann peeping over the top of a charming scrappy Irish Chain quilt. I bet she's hand pieced and quilted this beauty!And last but not least, Liz is holding a quilt she made for her son. She says it was quite taxing to draft, but the results are well worth the head scratching! Keep sewing and I'll hope to make the next meeting myself!