November Meeting - by Ann De
My goodness, what a difference a plumber makes! Having been in the church itself for the October meeting we returned to the hall for our November meeting, which was lovely and warm after the works had been carried out on the central heating…..we had to open a couple of windows to allow fresh air in! It was toasty warm.
It was good to see Claire again “in the flesh” so to speak, and she started the meeting off with information on a number of events, which members might be interested in attending. These included: 1) the Beckenham Quilters exhibition on Saturday 20th Nov from 10:00 – 16:00 (£5 entry, free for children and students) in the Beckenham Methodist Church. 2) A zoom course by Deborah Boschart on 20th November. There are also many other events and courses members might be interested in on The Quilter’s Guild website. It was lovely to hear that the ‘Wear it Pink’ donations for Breast Cancer raised £125.00 at the last meeting, which is a great effort. We were also told that Deirdre had agreed to join the committee, which is fantastic. Claire thanked everyone for their great efforts in making many quilts using the blocks created in lockdown and others which had been donated. There was a request from the committee that when quilts are handed in that they are fully completed (properly stitched, quilted and well bound around the edge) – it was stressed that the vast majority are completed beautifully, but that some had only been partially completed, and as they go to various charities in our name we want them to be of the highest standard…so thank you.
This meeting was our ‘Christmas Make’ and was presented and facilitated by the wonderful Kate. Wow did I enjoy it, and judging by the buzz in the room I know everyone else was having fun too. Committee members had provided a number of machines for us to use and there were irons available too. Prior to this meeting we had been sent some instructions on what to make before the evening so that we could complete the ‘Make’ on the night. Well for me, and I know some other members, that in itself was a fun challenge as I have never made a log cabin block before…so that experience added another quilting skill to my repertoire, and I shall definitely make more! Claire had showed us the finished item at the start of the meeting (a Santa cover for a bottle) and then Kate circulated around the room to talk each table group through the next steps. Many other committee members had also made examples of the Santa cover, so we had lots of help and inspiration. Goodness knows where the time went but, between sewing, ironing, embroidery moments and a break to get some refreshments, it flew by!
Everyone is always so friendly and welcoming and I really enjoyed chatting to everyone on our table and others in the room. The finished Santas were held up for all to see at the end and there was a wonderful variety of looks, depending on the different Christmas fabrics which folk had used….Thank you so much Kate for a wonderful evening and be assured that I for one shall be making many more in different sizes and fabrics!
It was a lovely evening and I am so looking forward to the December meeting, which is the SQ Christmas celebration evening (so don’t forget to wear your Christmas tops), and will involve the Showing of the Cluedo challenge Quilts which was set at the start of the year! I have a strong feeling that it is going to be an inspirational and entertaining evening!