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!