About us - current
news
Shirley
Quilters meets from 7.30 p.m. until 9.30 p.m. on the third Tuesday of
every
month at Shirley Methodist Church, Eldon Avenue, Shirley, Croydon,
Surrey, CR0 8SD. As of May 2011 Shirley Quilters became a
'members only' group, although non member visitors are more than
welcome for guest speakers and exhibitions
If you would like further information please email us at enquiries @
shirleyquilters.co.uk
(please remove spaces).
Saturday
workshops are held on a regular basis. Guest speakers
present talks and demonstrations on various aspects of patchwork,
quilting and associated topics. Mini workshops are part of
the programme and
are often
held during the monthly evening meetings. The
annual programme
commences in January and the year ahead promises to be both a fun and
busy year for the Group.
The
Mini Exhibition held in November attracted a good number of visitors
whose positive comments were a great encouragement. Please
visit
our Quilt Show to view
some of the
exhibits. We plan to change the photographs over the coming
months to reflect the variety of projects produced by the
members.
AGM 2011 Chair's Report
Whew – what a year! As a group we have
accomplished an incredible amount. The programme for
the year was varied, with workshops both for beginners and more experienced
quilters. Our speakers too
were very varied. Christine Restall brought lots of her contemporary art quilts
and gave us an interesting insight into her work. Carolyn Forster makes much
more traditional pieces and she was a witty speaker and shared lots of hints
and tips, increasing our confidence and desire to try some of her designs. We
were also visited by Paula Ozier, a fabric designer, fairly new to the quilting
circuit, who told us some of the steps from design to finished fabric. Her
fabrics were very different from any others on the market and of course, we just
could not resist buying a few fat quarters. For two days In
September, we had a demonstration table at the Quilters’Guild Region 2 annual
exhibition at Hever
Castle. It proved a great
success, both in advertising our own upcoming exhibition and also in sales of
‘mini makes’ on behalf of our charity, the Baby Café in Addiscombe. The biennial
exhibition held in October was a great success. Many people exhibited their
work, which ranged from very large double bed quilts, down to bags, cushions
and small hangings. We were fortunate to
have good weather and attracted lots of visitors, who were full of compliments.
The group quilt, a beautiful double quilt, begun earlier in the year and the
bag tombola helped raise a further significant amount for the Baby Café. Sadly the deep snow
in December meant we had to cancel the meeting that month. This made the
January meeting even busier than usual. Firstly, there was a ‘show and tell’ of
the Christmas bell decorations made at the October meeting and a surprise belated
present for everyone as a ‘thank you’ for all the hard work of the previous
year. Then it was down to the three challenges for this New Year. An Ugly
Fabric Dare, Chinese whispers, and a block of the month quilt.
I have been so
pleased with the response to all the projects we have put to you through the
year. Already there have been many completed Ugly Fabric Dare pieces and the
Chinese Whispers are progressing well. The imagination that went into the mini
makes was amazing and we had lots of volunteers to help man the demonstration
table. Many thanks too, to the number of people who not only exhibited at our
exhibition but who helped hang all the exhibits, who baked cakes, served
refreshments, acted as stewards, manned the various stalls and then helped to
take everything down. I think Shirley
Quilters are a great group of people who are friendly and welcoming and very
willing to share expertise. It is great to see so many getting involved with
helping in every aspect of the group. I really do believe that by actively
participating in a group, you get so much more out of it and I do hope that you
will continue to be an active and fun group. As I come to the
end of my term as chair, I would like to say some personal words of thanks. Thank you to Jan,
Janet and Angela for their time looking after the refreshments for us and thank
you in advance to Jackie (S)who is taking on this role.
Thank you to Jackie
(B) who not only keeps track of our finances, but also has words of wisdom at our
committee meetings. Thank you to Jan,
who I co-opted onto the committee. She has been a great help as she has been
quilting for a long time and has been very willing to teach mini workshops and
is now overseeing the Olympic quilt project Thank you to Brenda
who has served as Events co-ordinator. She is very well organised and has made
sure that our speakers and visitors know where to come and has written to thank
them after each evening. She was also great at getting free publicity for our
exhibitions in quilting magazines. Thank you to Eileen,
our Secretary. Eileen too is incredibly well organised and as well as taking
minutes, she tries her hardest to keep up to date with all your contact
details, and makes sure you get reminder emails. It is Eileen we have to thank
as well for our website and for keeping the information on it current. She is
also great at spotting unusual raffle prizes and looks after the library. With
a list of tasks this long, I know she would welcome any offers of help – in
particular, looking after the library.
So finally, thank
you to all the committee for all their input, inspiration and support over the
past year and thank you to all of you who make the group the success that it
is. I am sure that you
will support the new committee and that the group will continue to thrive.
About us - how we
began
Shirley
Quilters was born out of an idea of
like-minded ladies who, having taken beginner and intermediate evening
classes
for patchwork and quilting, then found there was no advanced
course. They enjoyed sewing and chatting and decided
to hold a meeting to discuss the way forward.
On forming Shirley Quilters it was decided our aims would be
to: promote, encourage and increase ability, skill
and appreciation of patchwork and quilting and to organise teaching
events and
bi-annual exhibitions. Advertisements
were put in a local residents association magazine and local libraries
in the
hope of attracting people to come and find out more about the Group.
The first
meeting of Shirley Quilters was held on 18th
January 2000, when 45
people
turned up, a very large percentage of them having no experience of
quilting at
all! In that first
year absolute
beginners were taught a block a month, which was a heavy burden for
those
leading the group. In
the first two
years numbers fluctuated and at one point dropped to 16 people. We now have a steady
membership of 30, plus a
few who come as and when they can.
2001 saw us
settling down as a Group and we began to
invite well-known quilters to come along and share their ideas and show
us
different aspects of patchwork and quilting.
At the same time we started to organise workshops: some led by outside
teachers, others by
members of our Group. We
have learnt we
can be self-reliant and do not always need to look outside our group to
have a
fun and productive day.
2002 saw us put
our name on the quilt map with our own
exhibition. We were
able to demonstrate
to quilters and non-quilters alike what a creative and productive bunch
of
people we are!
Please
come back and visit our site again, we plan to change our Quilt Show on a regular
basis.
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