Event Reviews On:August Meeting by Ann
Barbara Weeks Workshop by Hannah Birmingham or Bust (Festival of Quilts) by Neredah Event Reviews 2007 February's Meeting Choosing and Using Colour December Meeting by Eileen Letter from Barbara - June 2008 Needles and Notions October Meeting by Jan Outings by Barbara November Meeting by Lillian September visit from Creative Quilting by Linda Shirley Quilters' Exhibition by Barbara Shirley Quilters' Exhibition by Jenny Spring Regional Day by Barbara The A.G.M. by Angela Transforming Vintage Fabric by Neredah The Christmas meeting was very lively. The main theme of the evening was the card swap. In September, anyone who wished to take part, was given a card ount with aperture. The idea being to create a card using any technique, not necessarily patchwork and not having to have a Christmas theme. All cards were put in envelopes and them in a basket which was duly circulated for contributors to take one “blind”. Sounds of oohs and aahs sounded around the hall and it would be true to say that no-one was disappointed. The cards were then displayed for closer inspection by all and of course to be photographed. These can be viewed on the Quilt Show page of the website. Whether these cards will ever be sent, or just kept to treasure I would not like to say. A Christmas raffle was held with some lovely prizes. Brenda was lucky enough to hold two winning tickets but generously declined the second. Five happy people went home the richer with sewing related raffle prizes. The Programme for 2009 was distributed which covers a wide range of topics and can now be downloaded in pdf format from the What’s On Page of the website. Thanks to the “catering team” who brought along some delicious biscuits and Christmas treats. Linda brought along her laptop and had a Power Point presentation running throughout the evening, so that anyone who does not have access to a computer was able to see what the Shirley Quilters website looks like.With Christmas wishes the meeting came to a close, everyone looking forward to another year at Shirley Quilters. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- November Meeting - by Lillian Several months ago, I moved from
Hertfordshire to The members meet once a month and share my
passion for quilting. November’s meeting
was ‘Show and Tell’ and it soon became apparent that I am amongst a pretty
talented bunch.
The exhibits included examples of the traditional form of quilt and that of
contemporary textile art. Barbara made the ‘Waterwheel’ with a
fellow member. As there was no
traditional waterwheel pattern, the quilters came up with the design
themselves. Barbara said it was a lot of
fun to quilt with someone else and they didn’t argue once! Eileen's quilt was made up of
fabric that she won at a raffle. Eileen
won a carrier bag of blocks and made the quilt up from the blocks. The result is beautiful. The purple quilt may become a quillow and
is to be sold in the Church Christmas sale. Get there early as this will be a
bargain. The next quilt was made up from fabric that
came from New Zealand. The fabric was
used to make shirts for tourists – hence their wild colours. The quilt is made up of the magic squares
design – the most difficult part being how to make the points match. Bernadette’s beach quilt was made as part of another
group meeting. Four or five members meet
as a small group once a month and swap a ‘bag of stash’ fabrics. The quilt is made up of blocks of beach scenes
including my favourite seahorses to buckets and spades. Bernadette’s great niece has already put her
name on the quilt! Ann’s quilt came out of a necessity to
empty drawers that were so full of fabric that the drawer fronts were falling
off. Ann didn’t need to buy anything to
make her lovely quilt – again, of magic square design. Her daughter rearranged the colour block
design. Sharon’s jungle quilt was made by
her pupils at It’s great to know that future generations
are learning the skills of quilting. Neredarh is a contemporary textile
artist who showed three pieces of textile art.
The first was made up of bonded stitched panels, complete with beading
and gold colouring. The second was
labelled ‘Mattie’. The third, ‘Under the Sea’ made a
contemporary sea scene with purple fabrics that had been foiled and stitched
with bondaweb and beading. Whilst not
quilts that you could fold around yourself to keep warm, they created a
different kind of warmth. Before this week’s meeting, many of the
members had attended Barbara Weeks’ workshop on mosaic quilts and some had
brought their work to the meeting. Both Ann and Brenda had made fish scene
placemats. They drew their design on
freezer paper which they cut into smaller shapes. They then chose their fabric which were
bondawebbed onto the design. Invisible
stitching was used to ‘catch’ the appliquéd fabric and outline the design. Angela and Janet H. both made
Xmas tree designs – Angela even printing her design to make a Christmas card. Thus proving that the mosaic workshop was
truly inspirational and any design could be made! After great admiration of the quilts on
display, our Chair introduced a quilting quiz where the results ranged from ‘don’t run with scissors’ to ‘bet you could sew a ¼ inch seam with your
eyes closed’. And for the first time
in my life, I won a prize for getting the highest result between 30 and 39
points! We left the meeting, full of tea and
biscuits and clutching a blank card.
Before the next meeting in December, we will make a patchwork insert for
the card to give to another member as a Christmas card. This really is a group where ‘New Members
Welcome’ is truly meant. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Barbara Weeks Mosaics in Fabric Workshop - by Hannah Barbara teaches textiles and craft at Studio 39 and C&G courses at Missenden Abbey, Hertfordshire. She also runs two-day residential courses at Missenden Abbey. {Could this be a SQ weekend workshop, anyone interested?} Barbara has had two solo exhibitions and her work has been shown in touring international quilts shows. After her demonstration we had to make a sample leaf in mosaics just to get the feel of it, and then we had to design our own projects. Barbara gave a lot of advice on how we should set up our project and discussed the use of colour and the best fabric to use. She was very complimentary on the varied projects we were doing from landscapes, fish,birds, letters and very seasonal Christmas trees. Jackie said a big thank you to Barbara for such enjoyable day. -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------The meeting was very well attended. Over thirty people turned up, including several new members. Linda started the meeting by giving out some notices. She reminded us of the Barbara Weeks workshop coming up – there are still some places left. In February we look forward to a workshop with Jo Baddeley from Puddleducks using Jellyrolls. Gwen asked if we could have a new list of members’ addresses and contact details. After some discussion about implications of the Data Protection Act it was agreed to compile a list of members after permission had been obtained. Jan showed a quilt and some table runners made using the Magic Square technique we learned for our recent raffle block. Then it was down
to the main business of the vening. One of our former members,
Charlotte Monckton, has progressed to other interests and has decided
to sell her STASH!!! Boxes and boxes of beautiful materials were
laid out for our perusal and purchase. We couldn't wait to get
our hands on the goods. Alas, the choice was so great that it was
really difficult to decide but I think most of us went home with our
purses considerably lighter. There was a lot of chat going on and
exchange of ideas. Linda had hoped that we would be industriously
sewing our cards for the Christmas meeting but there wsas no sign of
any sewing. All in all
it was an enjoyable evening and I am still stroking my newly obtained fabrics
and thinking with regret of all theother fabrics I could not afford. As always when we try to use up some of our
stash, -- ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- September visit from Creative Quilting - by Linda An evening chatting with quilting friends and plenty of shopping opportunities – what more could a girl want? Izzy from Creative Quilting brought a wonderful array of fabrics, threads and other quilting ‘must haves’ to entice us. She showed us some of the latest products to have arrived at her shop and had plenty of Christmas fabrics and books with gift ideas to inspire us. It did not take long to get everyone busy looking over the selection, although making a decision on which of the lovely fat quarters to buy took a little longer. The fabrics were all delicious and included ranges that we had not seen before locally. By the end of the evening the chat over tea or coffee was about the plans and projects we had in mind for our purchases. -- ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Last year Barbara, Karolina, Judy and I did a day trip to the Festival of Quilts held at the NEC in Birmingham every August, but after delays on the train journey on the way up, found ourselves with only a few hours to take in the show, which was rather overwhelming. This year Barbara and I decided to try an overnight trip, to give us more time to take it all in. We were still overwhelmed but had a wonderfully indulgent couple of days!
Selection of Button Up Quilts. Shirley Quilters is the "pink" quilt near the right hand edge.
We managed to take photos of Shirley Quilters Button up Quilt, which was displayed along with hundreds of others all around the large area called the European Cafe. Groups from around the country had obviously pulled the stops out to join in the project as there were literally hundreds of quilts running round 3 sides of what was quite a vast space. The Festival of Quilts is an international show, into which any member of the Quilters' Guild can enter work and there are categories to suit all tastes. It is a huge event and the quality and variety of work on show is exceptional. Added to this were the galleries of work showcasing professional textile artists from Britain and abroad, which left us both peering endlessly at pieces of work and saying 'I would like to try this technique when I get home etc. etc.' In fact, by the time we got home our heads were spinning and we have had to have a total break from sewing to recover! We chatted to people over coffee each day, who were at the Festival for the whole 4 days and taking part in some of the workshops. In fact, there is almost too much on offer (when you also take into account the number of traders and the need for a bit of retail therapy) so we had to be selective about what we could take in, even with a day and a half at the show. After we burnt ourselves on the first afternoon, we went back on the Friday with a slightly more casual approach to looking but not examining every minute detail of each quilt we saw! We still didn't manage to get round the whole show but we took loads of photos to remind us of what we did see and feel inspired now to produce some masterpieces of our own! Our August meeting was billed as learning free machine
quilting. The requirements were our
sewing machines, a quilt “sandwich”, cottons that would show up clearly on the
“sandwich” material and most important of all the machine darning foot. The preliminaries came first; Linda had put up a new notice board
displaying the results of our recent survey of members. Last month we were asked to complete a survey
on our likes and dislikes. We were also
asked for suggestions on things we would like our programme to cover going
forward and also the events we would like to hold or attend. Next came a Show and Tell session. One of our regular visitors displayed a quilt
she had made for her grandson, the colours of which were striking and
complemented each other well. At our
July meeting we had brought along blocks made for a Block Raffle. The block was very easy to assemble and used
up some of the oddments, which make up the quilters stash. So successful was the pattern that several
members made more than one block; one
lady even went into double figures. As
we had a large number we divided the blocks and two people won them. Eileen was one of the lucky winners and at
this meeting she showed her blocks already made up into a quilt, all
beautifully stitched and finished off.
How is that for speed! Gwen,
using the same block pattern made a smaller quilt for her new grandson. I myself am making a large quilt using the
same block, as it is a wonderful way to use up all that material I have hoarded
for so long. Finally we had a demonstration by Linda on the
techniques of free machine quilting.
Using the darning foot we were shown how a quilt could be manoeuvred
quite freely under the needle by holding your material and moving your hands to
make patterns. This is a method used to
fill areas of your quilt to give different effects. Coloured cottons can be used to make a wide
variety of pleasing finishes. It took a
little practice but very soon quilters were getting to grips and getting very
good results. For those among the group who had already discovered
the free quilting method or wished to do something else there was work to be
done on the three quilted banners. As
always our meeting was very enjoyable. -- ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Choosing and Using Colour - by Judy Another good evening! After the usual preliminaries and a presentation to Hannah, whose quilt won the popular vote at our recent exhibition, Linda introduced the evening’s theme – Colour. She de-mystified the colour wheel, explaining about primary and secondary colours, tints, shades, complementary and analagous colours. All this illustrated with hand-dyed fabrics and threads. Very interesting! Then it was our turn to do some work. One group looked at the balance of colours in two advertisements, another group made an extended colour wheel using scraps of paper cut from magazines and the third group used squares of fabric to investigate the effect of scale when designing quilts. As the meeting was very well attended, including several prospective new members, the noise level was quite something! Great fun, and I’m sure we all learned from the exercise. Thanks Linda. -- ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Letter from Barbara Dear Shirley Quilters,
A few lines to thank you all for the lovely flowers, book tokens and card - all very much appreciated. I have had a wonderful time as Chairman of the Group and feel quite sad, in some respects, that I have resigned. However, as some of you know, I have some new ventures in hand and whilst remaining a staunch SQ member, I shall enjoy having the time to try new things. You now have Linda Mercer as your new Chairman and I know she will be brilliant in this position, putting her own stamp on the Group with lots of new ideas. I wish her well and promise her my full support. I offer my thanks to the Committee - Linda, Eileen, Brenda and Jackie for all their help and advice over the years and of course to all of you for your friendship and support. Barbara -- ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Shirley Quilters' 4th Quilt Show - Saturday 7th June 2008, by Barbara Organising a show takes a lot of planning. Satisfied we had it all
covered, on Friday 6th June, over a period of 4 hours, the Committee
set the exhibition up. By 10 pm three halls contained quilts, a sales
table and areas for traders, together with a room for serving
refreshments. Our raffle quilt 'In the Pink' hung near the entrance to
tempt our visitors.
At 10 am the next day, with the sun shining brightly, we awaited our usual steady flow of visitors. Sadly the number of people expected to cross our doors never materialised. The visitors who did come enjoyed the show, visited the traders and finished their visit with tea, coffee and home made cake. As they left we received many lovely comments about our quilts and the whole show. The raffle quilt was won by a visitor and Hannah Andrews quilt was the visitors' favourite. This was a Baltimore quilt in autumnal colours - a beautiful creation and Hannah was a worthy winner. We try to select a good date when planning a show, but this time we found we had competitors: The Derby, Biggin Hill Air Show, Region 1 Day - all worthy adversaries! However, it WAS a good day and everyone who came along had a great time. Congratulations to all the exhibitors and to those who worked so hard behind the scenes - well done! -- ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- On Saturday 7th June, I had the pleasure of visiting Shirley
Quilters' latest exhibition, held in the Methodist Church Hall, Eldon
Way.
Speaking as one who can barely piece together a Fence Rail cushion
cover (and then only by hand, after a lifetime of personality clashes
with sewing machines!), I can only marvel at the skilfull talent of
these industrious ladies. The breathtaking range of beautifully
scrumptious fabrics and myriad designs is always impressive and makes
for very enjoyable viewing.
During
my own extremely amateur forrays into the art of patchwork
and quilting, I have found myself daunted by the pinpoint
accuracy required for the measuring and cutting, not to mention a
distinct lack of natural ability for matching
fabrics - and an eye for colour which
seems to have deserted the sinking ship!! Not so the ladies of
Shirley Quilters. How do they do it? Mere mortals like myself can
only wonder.
Well done to everyone who displayed an item of work and
congratulations on such an imaginative array of pieces. Thank you,
too, for the wide variety of items on sale - always a winner with
ladies with an interest in arts and crafts!
One question remains........ just how many hours are there in an average Shirley Quilter's day?! ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The meeting started with notices about other quilt group's forthcoming exhibitions and then moved swiftly on to arrangements for our Exhibition on June 7th. Reminders were given to get our entry forms in as soon as possible to Linda, to sign up for assisting with catering, baking cakes and for a sit and sew demonstration. Exhibits are to go to the Committee beforehand or to the Church Hall between 6 and 7 p.m. on Friday 6th June. The A.G.M. then followed with the usual reports from the Treasurer and Chairperson, reminding us of all the year’s speakers and activities. Karolina was thanked for the work she had done whilst on the committee. Regretfully Barbara felt that she needed more time and so has resigned as Chairperson, so we need to get our thinking hats on to find a replacement – a hard act to follow – thank you, Barbara for all your hard work! On then to Brenda, with details of our next raffle block “Magic Squares” – these are due back at the July meeting. The evening was rounded off with coffee, a raffle and fabric bargaining time. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Transforming Vintage Fabric - By Neredah Lauren works in an instinctive way, making fabric collages out of vintage and recycled fabrics which she cuts into small pieces, motifs, strips or whatever suits her purpose, then appliqués them onto another background fabric to create a totally new textile. This recycling approach to her work is also her philosophy towards life and people often donate old fabrics, once they are aware of her passion, which means that Lauren rarely buys new fabric. Her work is always free embroidered by machine to hold the pieces in place and occasionally embellished further with hand embroidery and beads. She also uses old pieces of embroidered fabric in her collage so it isn’t always easy to tell what is new stitching and what is recycled and all types of fabric are used, including velvets, satins and silks. Lauren even finds a use for some fabrics that other people might find less appealing, by overlaying them with chiffon and silk organzas to give a new, more muted appearance. The collages are then used to make clothes which are very much ‘special occasion’ garments and often beautifully flamboyant, although she has produced more muted ranges, based on inspiration from nature. Lauren’s slide show gave us an insight
into the development of her style over the years and the inspiration behind her
work, which often comes through travel.
Lauren is planning to open a new shop in ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Spring Regional Day - by Barbara On the 15th March I attended the Spring Regional Day for Region 1 of the Quilters' Guild. As I did not see any of you there I thought you might like to read about Neredah's talk "Touching the Past: A Nostalgic Journey". Many of you will recall that at our last Exhibition in 2006 Neredah displayed the start of her 'journey' - working with an inherited quilt. The quilt is very old and was left to her by her friend Mattie. A simple hexagon quilt, some of the fabric has suffered over the years, but Neredah was able to finish it and the quilt is lovely to look at. The pieces are placed randomly and has obviously had more than one person working on it in the past. From this simple quilt Neredah has constructed some inspirational work, using her expert knowledge of mixed media and love of neutral colours. One piece of work is a simple, large hexagon rosette, cream fibres with touches of Mattie's fabrics. The hexagons are thick and make one think of a sheep's coat - you just want reach out and touch! Some of the original papers used to back the hexagons have been mounted and framed and make interesting reading. Beside other work Neredah is now constructing blocks to make her own quilt. Using her computer she has reproduced some of the old quilt's fabrics and is using these to surround snippets of the originals. I am hoping the quilt will be finished for all of you to see and enjoy at our next Exhibition - 7th June. In her usual gentle way Neredah told her story of her friend Mattie and her quilt: she displayed the quilt itself, showed slides to support the work she is doing which was set out for people to study. The audience were enthralled and many were so smitten with the work done using just the simple hexagon, they requested it be used in the next challenge!
After being surrounded by people and dealing with the many questions,
Neredah then went on to sell the top quality merchandise of The Thread
Shed - the business owned by her and Judy Makoff . Their stall raised
yet more interest and trading was brisk.
Congratulations to Neredah on a successful day - so well deserved. I hope all the Shirley Quilters will see your work for themselves in the near future, they have a treat in store. PS. By the way, to top the day off both of us walked off with prizes from the Region 1 Raffle! February's Meeting by Bernadette A few months ago members were asked to contribute
fabric in shades of pink and red for the Quilters Guild Challenge entitled
'Button Up Quilt'. At last month's meeting volunteers were each given a
packet of pre-selected fabrics from which they were each to make up 5 blocks in
the 'stack, slash and sew' method - of which, Linda gave a short
demonstration.
Unfortunately, Linda was unable to attend the February meeting, so Barbara called upon everybody for input in choosing a design for the quilt. The blocks were duly laid out and most members took a turn in 'playing around' with the blocks until we were satisfied with a pleasing arrangement. Brenda pinned the blocks onto a piece of fabric ready for the assembly stage! I'm not sure who 'volunteered' to sew it together but we all look forward to seeing the assembled top at next month's meeting. Whilst many of the group were busy with the Button Up Quilt, other members were preparing giant letters for Shirley Quilters second banner advertising our biennual quilt show. All the required letters were made and placed on calico, ready for Gwen to work wonders with her zig-zag stitch! After such a busy evening the chocolate digestives were much appreciated at coffee time! Outings By Barbara With Christmas over, the first spate of
exhibitions crop up. Eager for new ideas, many of us cram these shows
in until we are creative-blind! Here's a brief run down on those I
visited.
Designer Crafts, Mall Galleries, London. An exhibition of designer crafts including among many other, textiles. I saw an amazing variety of crafts and contemporary work. If you have never visited this show do try next time around - it is well worth seeing and apart from the wow factor, you will get some new ideas I'm sure. Journey is simple: train to Charing Cross, turn left and walk across Trafalgar Square. The lovely Gallery (fine for wheelchairs) is at the top of the Mall on the right hand side. Next - the Make-it Card Show, Farnborough. Situated on the aerodrome, it's a bit of a hike up flights of steps and parking lots to get to the show if you have difficulty walking! However, once there the show was, as usual, very interesting. I always find items I MUST have! Don't make cards? Neither does my daughter, but she always finds art supplies for her and the children. These supplies are sometimes hard to find and expensive in Croydon. On we go to Sandown Creative Stitch
Show. A smaller version of Alexander Palace (with the usual lack of
seating!). If you are short of supplies this show is worth going to -
not a lot of fabrics but what there was I thought interesting and
reasonably priced. Helen Ross (one of our newest members) and I sat
and watched a demo on how to make a brooch with beads, shisha, buttons
etc. Make a brooch? No, not me! But...you may see the ideas gained in
a future piece of work.
Ardingly followed on and I visited this with Lynn Hill. I will not dwell on this show, as most of you have been there at some time or the other. Thank goodness - no power cut this year! Plenty of supplies to spend your money on, from fabrics to rulers. The quilt show was lovely - and how refreshing to see a man's work, Terrance Gilbert. His quilts ran around the outer wall and I loved a lot of his sometimes pithy comments! Near the end of my journeying and getting weary now, I visited the Hanging Together VI exhibition at the Greenstede Galleries, Chequers Mead. The exhibitions here are always small, but you will always see top class work and gain many ideas. Some of the artists are usually in attendance and are happy to talk about their work. The joy of this show is that being near to Ardingly one can blow one's mind and visit both in one day. If like me you struggled with your 'Sandra Grusd' piece, Sandra had some lovely work on show which gave me a chance to see where I went wrong! PS. The cafe is well worth a visit - try the cakes! Finally, I staggered back to the Mall Galleries for the Opus School of Textile Arts 'Opus' exhibition. What a talented bunch of people. Not just fabrics, these students produce work in paper, glass, metal, wood, felt etc. etc. This a free show and I think you will be amazed if you visit the next one. You will come home buzzing with ideas. Well, I have only given you a brief write up but if you are interested in any of the above - come and ask me questions!!
Email: enquiries@shirleyquilters.co.uk ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Needles and Notions by Brenda Jenny, from the Croydon branch of Bromley Sewing Machines, came to tell
us about needles and notions. She brought along a selection plus some
lovely fat quarters, so naturally we shopped.
Well, it seems there's a needle for every occasion. Machine needles range from 60 - 110, with 80 being the most useful for general sewing. Then there are needles for denim (very sharp), topstitch (big eye), quilting (tapered point), leather work,stretch fabric, embroidery, titanium needles (very strong), magic basting needles (I like the sound of those), self threading, twin and even triple needles. Jenny also recommended using a new needle frequently, something many of us forget to do. So my New Year's resolution is to think needles and hopefully my work will improve -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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