Last meeting of 2022

 Well, Piecemakers certainly ended the year on a high!  Although it was a filthy, wet evening, we had a good audience for our speaker, Nancy Adamek, from Lina Patchwork.  She sells English Paper Piecing shapes, and brought with her a fabulous group of quilts for us to enjoy.  Her imagination seems to have no bounds, and her colour sense is stunning! 

Here she is with a few of her designs.  People were particularly taken with the Inner City (the turquoise one on the right) and the tumbling blocks, which she is holding.  

She also brought along lots of different EPP shapes and kits.  Ideal hand sewing projects for winter nights.

Di and Madeline produced tempting Christmas parcels as raffle prizes.  (I was lucky enough to win one!) 

The Inspiration Challenge prizes were also awarded.  Twenty two people had completed their challenge of six items brought to show and tell, and they were all fabric wrapped in Japanese furoshiki style.  There are lots of ways of using fabric to wrap parcels of all shapes and sizes.  A good way to cut down on waste paper. 

And then to show and tell.  A lovely disappearing 9-path made by Gaynor. 

A slightly fuzzy photo of Di’s sexy peg bag. 

A lovely Christmas quilt made by Jacquie. 

This BOM has been in the making for quite a while. Glad you finished it, Janet. 

This quilt is essentially a Dresden Place block, with fun embellishments.  

It took me a while to see this cute Highland cow!  Very clever. 

I love this quilt.  It’s so colourful. Vicki used the design to practise her feather quilting.  You’ve cracked it, Vicki! 

This is a lovely Christmas wall hanging. 

This disappearing 9patch quilt is actually square, but I can’t seem to make the photo return to its original shape!  Gaynor made it from a Linus kit. 

Another fuzzy photo.  This was made at a retreat.  Great colour choices. 

Di shocked us all by saying that this play mat was for a baby she was expecting!  She quickly qualified it by adding, that she was expecting the baby to arrive at a relative’s house!  

Vicki made this great bag which has lots of zipped compartments inside.  Perfect for holidays or quilting retreats. 

Piecemakers will not be meeting again until February 2023, so we wish everyone a happy Christmas and a healthy new year! 

 

Big Textile Show

 We were very excited to be allocated a stand at The Big Textile Show this year!  This is a fabulous local show which encompasses all textiles, from beading to felting and lacework to quilting!  It’s a great opportunity to meet up with friends and local groups and get a broad perspective on fabric arts.  

Here is our stall, beautifully set out by Lynne and Chris.  It showcases lots of aspects of our interests.  Unfortunately Covid-19 laid our helpers low, but Madeline and I, and Maria and Janet were able to step into the breach.  Thank you all.  

Maria and Janet are using a lull to have a catch-up. 

The stall attracted quite a bit of interest, so let’s hope we can welcome some new members! 

AGM

 October is the month we hold our AGM, which is usually a quick affair, mainly for people to have the chance to voice their opinions.  This time was slightly different.  Like most other groups we have lost members over the last few years, and this loss of revenue has impacted on our funds.  We actually made a loss of £3,000 this year.  This is partly because we didn’t collect membership fees and ran a free coach to Malvern and other birthday treats, but mainly the cost of speakers.  These costs are likely to increase in future, so there was plenty of discussion about what could be done.  In the end, the 20 members who were there voted to increase the membership fees to £30 per year, and cancel our January meeting.  This means that each meeting will cost £3, which is roughly the same as a cup of coffee!  Refreshments will be increased to 50p (another bargain) and any proceeds will go to group funds.  Publicity was also discussed, both physical and virtual.  We were sorry to see Chris Hunt leave the committee, but delighted to welcome Pam Kirkpatrick, Julie Chaplin and Lesley Seymour onto the committee.  The whole AGM took 40 minutes, which is double its usual length! 

We had a sales table, and some people got bargains there, along with three demonstrations, of how to make circles using foil, binding tips and a disappearing nine-patch pattern.  Di and Madeline have taken on the raffle, and are running it as June used to, with a theme each month. 

I bet you can guess this month’s theme!  Can you see the little skull chocolates peeping out? 

Lesley had finally got round to assembling her group quilt, Hope Stars.  I love it, especially the original setting. 

After the fun I had making my Apple Quilt, I decided to do another in the same style.  This time, it’s Pears. 

Here is a beauty for Linus.  I like the intertwined sashing. 

Here is a disappearing nine patch. 

Jan hasn’t been well lately, but that hasn’t stopped her from making a couple of Linus quilts. This one has child friendly centres in the churn dashes. 

This one has transport images on it.  Perfect. 

Here is another colourful disappearing nine patch.  (I don’t know what’s made Ann laugh, but I wish she’d share it!) 

And last but not least, Chris’s bag.  Next month we have a speaker, Nancy Adamek, and the prizes for our inspiration challenge.  

Fun with precuts

 Our September meeting was very well supported.  Maybe it was after the holiday season, or maybe it was our speaker, Carolyn Forster who was the attraction!  Carolyn gave us an excellent talk about using precuts, from charm squares to layer cakes, with jelly rolls on the way! 

This quilt is one using up ends of jelly roll strips and other scraps making flowers.  Very pretty.  

There was no raffle this time, but Madeline and Di will be taking on this responsibility from the next meeting.  We are hoping to maximise charity profits by using donated items as prizes.  If you have any surplus fat quarters, patterns or other quilty goodies they would be very pleased to receive them. 

People seem to have embraced the Inspiration Challenge.  Show and tell was exceptional this month. 

Here is a beauty from the Jennie Rayment workshop. 

This is a clever pattern of stars and Xs.  Great colours too. 

Lots of hourglass blocks here making a stunning design. 

Lots of bright colours here. 

This cute quilt is for an 18 year old! It’s a special keepsake made by Sue from the recipient’s baby clothes. 

This photo is a bit blurred, but is a cottage wall hanging. 

This is a quilt made from some drunkards path blocks which have been waiting for a while to fulfil their potential.  With a few borders, they make a very acceptable Linus quilt. 

Here is a challenge item made from purple fabric.  Fine embroidery. 

This is an embroidered item.  It’s a mixture of quilting fabric and wool.  Beautiful. 

A very pleasing scrap quilt. 

This quilt is made from one simple block which rotates alternately.  It can be a real brain ache to put together! 

Paula took these yellow blocks which were made at the Linus evening and has put them together beautifully. 

This lovely sheep hexagon quilt was also made by Paula.  The yellow makes it look so fresh. 

Jan used scraps to make this clever shapes quilt.  Ideal for a budding mathematician. 

What a clever design!  The black and white fabrics really make it pop. 

Another finish from Paula.  Clever use of 2.5” squares. 

Gwyneth took a bag of assorted farm scraps, and by adding her own tractors, has made them into a fabulous Linus quilt. 

Lovely toning fabrics here. 

The beautiful colours and design remind me of a Ricky Timms Convergence quilt. 

Rail fence is always a classic. 

A panel to delight 5he heart of any car fan. 

This is (apparently) a purple quilt - or as near as this person could manage! 

Pat made this very pleasing quilt at a retreat. 

Maria is ahead of the game and has her Christmas quilt all ready! 

This mosaic quilt is hand pieced.  Great scalloped binding. 

The next meeting will be the AGM and we will also have a members’ sales table.  If you have anything you would like to sell, bring it along with a label with your name and the price you want and we will do our best to sell it for you.  Also, it is the last opportunity to complete your Inspiration Challenge.  The prizes are all ready!