Surrey Regional Day - Quilters Guild - Saturday 22nd October 2011

The Quilters Guilds holds a whole range of events during the year.  http://www.quiltersguild.org.uk/.  One of which is the regional day for Surrey (our area).  The day is yet another excuse for us all to meet and chat and enjoy the company of like mined people. Another chance to drink tea, eat cake and listen to some amazing people and tales of their quilting life!

This year we had Eva Thomas - From Stockholm to Sussex - http://www.devotedtextileart.co.uk/.  Eva displayed some amazing quilts she had produced over the years - many of which contained fabric she had dyed herself.  She had completed the City and Guilds Patchwork and Quilting course fairly early on in her quilting life with a tutor called Janet Twinn http://www.janettwinn.co.uk/artist.html- both CB (three year course) and HT (one year course) have completed courses with Janet more recently and you could see the influence of this tutor in the work completed by CB and HT as well as Eva. 

A quick stretch of the legs at lunch through Ashtead high street and a quick lunch set us up for the afternoon session.

In the afternoon we had Jenny Barlow - Quilts & More - http://www.quilt-with-jenny.co.uk/.  She gave a wonderful talk on her history of her sewing and growing up - which was accompanied with many quilts from Jenny's own collection dating as far back as the late part of the 1800's.  It was a real thrill to see up close so many old quilts - and to see that quilting really hasn't changed that much over the years - only maybe the products we use.  It was also a great follow up from the hand quilting course we had completed with Jenny at the beginning of the year.

Luckily for us this year the lights remained on during the afternoon session - I think the snoring during previous years slide shows had put the organisers off dimming the light again!!!

The raffle was held just before the day finished and our little group was very lucky again this year - with HT ticket coming out of the hat first - her choice was a Jenny Barlow DVD - excellent viewing - one for a Saturday meet hopefully!!   AB also had a winning ticket ( having won first prize last year of a wonderful quilt) and decided on a Yankie Candle Defuser for her Living Room!

We were also lucky to meet up the our Project Linus co-ordinater and hand over our completed quilts - details on making them at the previous blog http://quirkyquilters.blogspot.com/2011_07_01_archive.html 

       

        

I have to say when we laid them out ready to hand over - we were all surprised at how good they all looked and how many we had managed to donate (eight in total - well done girls! - that eight happy children).  Project Linus will be attending the Royal Marsden at the beginning of November and handing over a batch of quilts to the children there - and ours will be going too.  We hope the quilts will be happy with their new owners!!

Saturday Quilting - October

As all of us work we tend to sit down at the beginning of the year and book dates once a month for the whole year so we get a day quilting somewhere.  Of course booking so far in advance does sometimes clash later on with other events.  This means sometimes we don't have a full house!  This Saturday was one such day.

HT had prior commitments with her daughter and grandson.  EL was offered some work she could not turn down! And HW nipped off to Birmingham to join her Mum's quilting group for the weekend - Walsall Patch & Quilt - for their Charity Open Day (a blog about the day should follow soon).

So it was left to CD, AB and CB to enjoy a day of quilting (and of course a hearty lunch and cake).  We all had new (ish) projects to work on since the previous month - but I'm sure none of us had completed the projects we had been working on!!  It goes like that sometime - we all have a pile of UFO - some us have bigger piles than the others!

CD - enjoyed telling us about a dying day she had completed - hoping a blog section will follow later because the fabric produced was just amazing!  She was also getting on with her homework from the evening class she attends.

        

Have to say I personally can't wait to see this one finished - the colour combination used just looks amazing!!  CB is very good at completing her work so should not have to wait too long!

AB continued with some hand quilting on a fabric panel she is quilting.

Not long before the binding can go on this one and another finished quilt for her portfolio!!

CB was starting a new quilt (in fact the first of three) for her friends children - two girls and a boy!  Mum has requested pink and lilacs for the girls quilts - and this takes me slightly out of my comfort zone with colours but its always good to try something different.

With the weather now a bit colder the Salad bowl has been put away and the soup pan put back out.  Vegetable soup with home made bread followed by Rhubarb pie and Custard - yum yum!!!

    

PS. HW - we left you this  with our love......