Saturday Quilting - December

Well our last quilting meeting for 2011 - and it really does only seem like five minutes since we last met!!!  Another fun filled day of laughter, eating and of course a bit of sewing!


All the QQ where in attendance for our last quilting meet - CB had put the Christmas decorations up to get everyone in the Christmas spirit - now don't tell anyone but the decorations where put up at the end of November!!!  Well we all know when you work full time and have a time consuming hobby  - when you have an hour free you need to utilise that hour to full capacity - no one will ever know that that hour was a November hour and not a December hour!!!


                                                      



















Chatting, quilting and signing along to our Christmas CD's were in abundance today ....

CB working on a Christmas Gift for In-laws

AB working on Christmas Dec's

CD working on a banner for the town twinning exhibition meeting http://sutton-town-twinning-quilters.blogspot.com/

HT continuing with a baby quilt started at the last meeting

EL working on hand quilting

HW continuing with some hand applique

                                    
               
A large lunch was consumed - even though we had vowed to cut down our consumption at lunch time!

                               Homemade Bread                            Chicken, winter veg and barley soup

  

                            

                           Homemade Christmas Pudding         Homemade Key lime Cheesecake

With dates set for all our 2012 meetings and shows we skipped off home happy for another week.  One more meeting before Christmas but a non quilting evening - watch this space to see what else we get up too.....

Saturday 19th November - monthly catch up

It feels like ages since we had a proper catch up so there was much eager anticipation for this particular gathering of the quirkies.  Doubly so as it was the closest meeting we had to CB's birthday, so there was the usual flurry of emails to confirm time & venue ( 9:30 for 10 at CBs) and the additional flurry to work out who was doing what for lunch and could we manage to rustle up lunch between us so CB could have a week off cooking and could we organise a card and a birthday pressie too.  What on earth would quirkies do without e-mail?


CB and HW were still buzzing with excitement from their Jennie Rayment course so after the first cups of tea there was a quick show & tell of things previously made inspired by Jennie or made at one of her workshops....
  

HT Twisty plant mat

 

CD Suduko

 

Come on HW - there's a binding needs adding





CB Zingy sudoku & buttons



There was much ooohing and aaahing at the other finished projects coming out for show and tell...... advent calenders

Lovely table runner

 

book marks and wrist bands for the Carew manor craft sale the following day....

and a Crochet flower cushion....

Then Wow!! Whizz!! bang !!

2 Visitors arrived - HT 's lovely daughter V and grandson F.

After a quick scramble to ensure all rotary cutters, pins needles and other sharps were above little finger height we were able to relax and enjoy the inquisitiveness of the newly arrived and very confident young person as he set about exploring the patio, the edges of the fish pond, the Jennie Rayment books ( good for stomping on) and trying to access DBs model car collection.  Poor old Bob the builder was completely ignored...

Then whiz! bang! and he was off in his buggy to explore the local park before joining uncles, aunts and cousins for an afternoon of football.
Quirkies settled down to a mornings work, and in no time at all it was time for lunch...

Yummy sweet potato & Chorizo soup, fresh bread,cheeses, olives, and yummy yummy  key lime pie......
nom nom nom.


And how amazing that the sun came out and we all wished we had sunglasses...... such a shame we had to close the curtains and block the sun out - however it proved to be handy for CB who found a new way to organise strips before sewing them together.....



Then on with the afternoon's work!!
No rest for the quirkys........

There are chickens to be stuffed

There are squares to be cut

and yet more chickens to be stuffed....

All in all a very productive afternoon's work was done and was only briefly interrupted at 3pm by tea and lemon curd cake to celebrate CBs birthday.... and didn't she do well!!

But the really great thing is that we only have to wait till 3rd December till we can do it all again!!

Hills, Slippers, Quilting and Laughter

A number of years ago the QQ discovered Farncombe Estate in the Cotswolds.  www.farncombeestate.co.uk.  An amazing place running weekend courses of all kinds.  We were luckily enough to attend a Saturday course by Barbara Chainey - and have been on the look out for another course – time allowing – to enjoy ever since!  With the 2011 course list advertised we found a whole weekend course - Texture in Sudoku – by Jennie Rayment.  So having booked at the beginning of the year the course has been pushed to the back of our minds until a few weeks ago when we got our material list.

 

Friday - Excitement had been steadily growing and like small children at Christmas two very excited QQ set off early Friday morning.   We allowed the whole day to travel as our last trip turned into a bit of a nightmare – taking four hours to travel a small section of the M25 rather than four hours for the whole journey.  But the journey was a joy this time – stopping at a small town - Witney - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Witney - for a spot of lunch and a good stroll around the shop to stretch the legs.   

One in four eh?? Should we worry about 6 QQs??

   

After a good couple of hours we travelled nearer our destination with a small stop at Burford - www.burfordcotswolds.co.uk/map/map.html.  The reason for stopping at Burford on route was to make a special visit to the local quilting shop www.cupcakecottons.co.uk .  The highlight of the day, however, was finding a needlecraft shop in the heart of Burford http://www.needlework.co.uk/index.html – what a find – more an Aladdin's cave of sewing delights than a simple shop - kept us entertained for some time – room after room with things you never new you wanted but just had to have!!!


Credit cards safely back in purses Farncombe welcomed us.....

Arriving in very good time we off loaded our sewing machines and all our other sewing stuff – met Jennie and then checked in.  After a quick unpack we headed to the bar (well it would have been wrong not to!).  Having armed ourselves with a large glass of wine we made ourselves comfortable on a large sofa.  It was all quite odd how the ‘quilters’ managed to spot each other in a room full of mediators, evensong singers, pet painters, canal boat artists and historians– we managed to find nearly all the quilters in the bar even before the course had started!!!!

   

Now the thing with Farncombe is that you will never go hungry.  With a three course meal offered at lunch and dinner and a full english at breakfast we had to remind ourselves at each meal that we were sitting on our bums for two days!!!

With dinner over our first evening session started and although only one block was due for completion we actually constructed the first two.... to be fully twiddled the following day!!

  

Saturday – After good nights sleep and a very hearty breakfast the next stage of block construction started.  We were both incredibly impressed by those students completing two sets of blocks during the course against our one set.  HW had been sensible in packing her slippers to sew in but CB being not so sensible spent the day in her ‘happy’ socks!!

Much progress was made before lunch – stopping only briefly for a cup of tea (and begged for biscuits – as if we really needed them) – and it was a very welcomed break.   Having eaten a two course lunch HW and CB set off for a brisk stroll around the grounds to get the circulation moving.  The hills were much bigger than they looked!!  Returning slightly out of breath (well actually very much out of breath for CB!!) we both felt ready to hit the machines again!

The afternoon was much of a repeat of the morning – completing more blocks – much admiring of other people’s works and lots of ooohing and arhhhing!!  CB did have minor break down on the Origami Twist  - Declaring when JR demonstrated - that was (JR) really sure that the block was that easy???  The doubting was taken very well and reassurance given that is was that easy – and do you know what - it was – it really was that easy!!!  Fantastic another quilter said – bloody fantastic declared a joyous CB!!! I guess that why we are the students and JR is the teacher!!

 

   

  

Dinner came and went (another two courses – both being very good not to hit the three courses!).  Evening session arrived – easy folding for the final session of the day – sixteen very happy but tired students hit the bar at 10pm (ish) that evening for a very well earned ‘large’ (as in not small) glass of wine.  It was most interesting chatting away to other group members who were staying over – so many interesting stories.  We did learn that a selection of the girls who had come together to do the course were taught on a weekly basis by Ferret.  http://www.ferfab.co.uk  Can you image Ferret as your weekly tutor – how very exciting!

Sunday – Breakfast, Packing and a very quick walk before starting this morning session.  CB was able to display her flowers (given to her by JR because they matched yesterday's socks!).  HW and CB were both very impressed that they had completed all the blocks and even more impressed that not only border one and two had been attached but they actually managed to back the piece as well – what a bonus to have completed so much.

     

And a final show and tell of some of the others.....

    

And we are done...... Thanks Jennie for a great weekend!