DECEMBER and foundation piecing Santa

I hope you all enjoyed the December meeting and sewing the lovely Santa's that Wendy prepared for us.  Some of us spent rather too much time talking and eating all the lovely treats everyone brought in!

Please comment and post a photo of your Santa!

Have a very Happy Christmas and New Year!

Next month -See you in January for 4-corners.  Also, Lucy will be here with her fab fabrics, so bring plenty of money!

Speaker evening - November 2nd

Kim Porter - "Worn and Washed"

Kim gave us a really interesting talk about how her business started and has grown over the last 13 years.  We also were privy to how Aldi's soap powder can not only clean the shirts Kim buys from Charity shop waste fabrics but how it can also clean a sink!  Kim explained the process of buying the shirts, laundering them (again and again and again!) and then the painstaking task of cutting them all into strips.  All the left-over fabric is given to a childrens' play scheme so, absolutely nothing is wasted.

If you would like to know more, you can find Kim's website here:- http://www.wornandwashedfabrics.com

and her Facebook page here: https://www.facebook.com/worn-and-washed-fabrics

It would be great to see any pieces you have made from Kims's fabrics on here or on our 

Facebook page  "Mimram Quilters"

Next month - Christmas party and project kit.  You won't need to bring anything other than
your usual sewing items as we will provide a kit (oh, and also some yummy food, so don't
fill up before hand!)

OCTOBER AGM and Journal Covers

Well, I hope you were all awake during the AGM?  There will be a quiz later......

We didn't remember to accept the Committee but I hope everyone is happy with those members remaining:- Sally (Chairman/lady), Patricia (Treasurer - oh boy, I'm glad someone else is doing that job!), Christine (Membership Secretary), Heather (Secretary), Wendy and Penny (Programme and Projects Secretary - why do a whole job when you can get away with half a job....?).  We said a fond farewell to Estelle and Carole for their so efficient tea-making and more importantly, their great presence in the group.  I'm confident to wish them both well on the group's behalf and hope to see them whenever they are able to get to one of the meetings. So sad to not be seeing them as often as we have previously.  Good luck and our very best wishes, ladies.

Then we made the journal covers.  Let us know what you think of the projects we have arranged and ones that you would like to see or do.  Both Wendy and I would love to have more ideas from you!  There will be another page on here, with the instructions and patterns for the projects we make on our sewing evenings (eventually!), so that you can make more but, please just for personal use.  Talk about only doing half a job........

Next month (NOVEMBER 2nd):  Kim Porter "Worn and Washed fabrics.

Kim will be bringing her lovely shirt fabrics and now also, Liberty fabrics.  Kim will talk about how she managed to turn an engrossing hobby into a thriving business.  I do hope you will be able to make it.

Speaker evening - September 5th 2015

This evening, we will be welcoming the fabulous Paula Doyle, who will be giving a talk about 'Colour'.  Something we all need to be a little more confident with and I am sure this evening will be very informative.  You may know Paula from her 'Mini Mosaics' book which shows how to make just a handful of different blocks to put together in an ingenious way to make gorgeously complicated looking patchwork.

You can find out more about Paula on her website:-  www.greenmountainquilts.com

Please drop by for what promises to be a really good evening!

AFTER THE MEETING

If you weren't able to make it to this meeting, you really missed a treat!  The comments afterwards were all glowing about how Paula's talk was so interesting and informative.She even gave a choice of one of her patterns to each of the people who held up her work during the talk - very generous.  Paula also sells these through patternspot.com, which is a site set up for independent sellers to sell their patterns and books.

Paula had so many tips to give us to including using a quilting thread a couple of shades darker than your background fabric, to make the quilting really stand out and to make the pieces in a block that you want to stand out the most, in the darkest shades.  But, there were many,  many more tips covering how to choose your colourways for fabrics, tips for buying fabrics and many piecing tips.  It was fascinating to see how to apply all her different colour choice methods in actual quilts.  This evening was so useful and enjoyable - the hall was buzzing!

July 2015

We spent a brilliant evening sewing trapunto hearts with Wendy!  You can find the pattern and instructions on our 'Practical Evenings' page.

Naturally, the evening wouldn't be complete without our usual summer party which this year was 'Afternoon Tea'.  We had a range of yummy sandwiches and a huge variety of homemade cakes by our members.  Truly delicious!