Another parliament of owls........

There are a lot more completed projects to show you this week, beginning with this parliament of adorable tiny felt owls made by Christine Speller and donated as tombola prizes.

Christine also finished her table runner which last week she admitted to miscalculating the amount of binding she needed, and made enough to make at least another runner!  And this was after she mis-read the cutting instructions so the runner has come out smaller than expected, well despite these little "errors, the finished project looks lovely Christine!

as do these little seasonal wall hangings

When members saw Christine's quilting verse above, they suggested we get a Spanish version made to hang with the one above at the exhibition.  I'm not sure though if anyone has volunteered to make it yet!

Helen Hulm showed us this very realistic looking  cross stitch she has finished and will be framing

and Louise too showed us her completed cross stitch picture she will be framing 

Jenny has added another felt piece to her Island Theme, this one uses her hand made and dyed felt with her hand made and dyed silk paper, which she then embellished with her space-dyed threads 

Jenny seen above with Katherine, Pam and Ann are working with their overlockers this session.  Pam is pleased to have solved the problems she was experiencing with her machine, which turned out to be a switch wrongly set, not a fault with the machine, so after dozens of frustrating hours of trial and error, she can put all that behind her and begin to use the machine to it's full potential.  Ann is also learning how to make the best use of her machine.

Flushed with her first successful attempt at "in-the-hoop" embroidery last week, Pam has been doing more experiments and is very pleased with the results.  She has made a few more gift tags and intends making more to go with them and donating them as tombola prizes.  Pam also mastered the Japanese folded  gift bags and will be making more of these for charity.

Jan has been busy too, making this Real Madrid emblem wall hanging for Alan her husband who is an anything-Real-fanatic!!

William Morris themed designs have caught Jan´s eye too and she's made an appliqued fire screen, chair seat, and matching cushion.

These two silk ribbon pictures have been made by Jan too, the one above she completed in Elle's Silk Ribbon workshop earlier this year

The picture above is Vanessa's completed project from the same workshop

Sandy and Shirley enjoy a chat, while Vanessa quilts a baby quilt and Catherine and Elizabeth chat whilst making patchwork and knitting

Jan talks "exhibition" with Christine while Helen and Cath look on and Sheila knits quietly

 Chris, above is stitching the tabs on  her cat and dog verse wall hanging and bought a very nice wrought iron hanger do display it from.

 Marilyn is teaching Elle to make bobbin lace and has loaned Elle a pillow and bobbins so she can make a start on a practice piece of lace.  I don't know where Elle is going to find the time to do this as she has two hand appliqued and quilted quilts to finish before the exhibition!

  Vanessa is quilting her project by machine while Catherine works on her Kaffe Fassett project by hand.

Jan gathers everyone around for a quick chat about the progress being made for our exhibition plans above, and Gladys below, is adding machine quilting to her table runner and says she's enjoying the project in which Pam has been guiding her in it's making.

That's us caught up again, and this is the last blog entry until the Group meets in full again in September, just a few weeks before our exhibition.   Don' forget to head over to the Group website to have a look at members Gallery updates regularly during the summer.  Pam is our next "Stitching Corner" member, so come back to see her lovely new work space and read a bit about her stitching background, and Frank has a whole bank of photos waiting to be added each week throughout the summer even though we won't be meeting up in the hall. 

 I am off to England for a few weeks, the first two days of which I am spending at The Cotton Patch, taking a course in machine quilting with Handi-Quilter's teacher Debbie Brown.  I hope to come back with a few more stitches under my belt to replace the meandering stipple stitch which I put on everything at the moment!!  I know many other members are travelling themselves or having visitors out to visit them, so I hope you all have a fabulous summer, and I look forward to seeing you all in September.  Rachel 

Almost the end of term........

With only one more "official" meeting till the Group's summer break, preparations are ongoing for our exhibition in October.  While many members are making small items for Tombola prizes, others are finishing off work which they intend to exhibit.
Although we "officially" break up for a couple of the hottest months of the year here, there will be a group of members who have chosen to continue meeting on Tuesdays and additionally, Pam will be leading a further group of members in making small items and gifts for donating to charity, who will meet on Wednesdays beginning July 9.
Jan and Kath went round the group at this week's meeting asking for volunteers for various tasks to do with the exhibition, and they were pleased with the good response they received from members present.  Some husbands were volunteered too, to help hang the exhibits on the day and prepare the hall a couple of weeks before hand.

Asking for volunteers from Shirley, Sandy and Eleanor

Reviewing the list of jobs to be done

Despite the heat there are thoughts of the end of the year and many more seasonal hangings are being produced.

Pam tried out the automatic embroidery attachment at last on her new machine and produced this jolly little snowman  gift tag which was stitched out in-the-hoop.

While Ann continues the theme with seasonal wall hangings

Ann with her work in progress above and below

Pam has been teaching Gladys and Margaret how to make the table runners that have been popular with two or three other members, Margaret is also keeping with the seasonal theme.

Pam with Gladys

Margaret's table runner

Kath above, and Gwen below, are making items for the show and tombola,

and Yvonne, who still can't find her pattern detailing how she designed her quilt project, plows through another of it's components.  Judging by the huge pile of cut fabric and wadding she showed us today, she has plenty of time to come across it!

Pam is trying to get to grips with some tiny Japanese folded bags, but getting frustrated with poorly translated instructions.  Pam did manage to get one finished by the end of the session, but wants to iron out the construction wrinkles before I photograph it!

One or two members have been finishing off projects, there is another lovely example of  a Row-by-Row project, this one from Chris.

Christine has been working on this quilt on and off in between other projects for two years, and decided she really must finish it in time for the exhibition.

Christine has also made a start on a new asymmetrical quilt project, which she has been asked to teach, and intends leading a class once the exhibition is over. If you are interested in working along with Christine, please contact her.  The photo below shows the top section, giving you a taster of the project which has a country style to it with it's over-sized and simplified tree and flowers.  I look forward to seeing the next section Christine.

Chris is also finishing off projects started  a while ago.  The project below is from the Mystery quilt workshop.  Chris didn't like the effect of the border on the original project so she's removed that and now plans to add an applique dove to the centre medallion, before layering up the quilt and adding quilting to it, another quilt to be ready for the exhibition.

Chris is also working on a small kit project she found in the US when visiting her daughter, it reads Dogs have Owners, Cats have Staff!

HelenH worked at her cross stitch project, while HelenP who goes back to the UK for a couple of months continued with her mini log cabin project.

Sue is getting on well with her silk ribbon picture, helped by Elle, while Jacqueline's bobbin lace bookmark is growing in length

And a little later in the morning, I spotted Elle at Marilyn's cushion, adding a few stitches under Marilyn's guidance, but Elle was making it look very easy so I wonder if she's done this before.

Behind the scenes, Frank and I have been working on the hanging display for the exhibition, and I can say it's a tight squeeze to get everything in our new venue!  I'm meeting with Kath and Jan on Monday to discuss what we have so far, then it will be over to them to arrange where everything else will be displayed, on tables  or draped over various  props.  We have also made a flyer which will be available next week for anyone wishing to sell raffle tickets to friends and family.  Hopefully that helps explain why I am late with this week's blog again!

In case  you don't already know, you can get the blog automatically into your email inbox as soon I post it, by subscribing at the top right hand side of this page.  

Don't forget to pop over to our website after the weekend to see members' Gallery updates.  Pam and Ann have new table runners in their galleries, along with a small quilt for Pam, and Helen Hulm has a gallery page for her Row-by-Row project.  There will also be a new video from award winning quilter Sharon Schamber.  Sharon gives step by step detailed explanation on how to add curved binding to a quilt and the video is well worth a watch.

I think we have caught up again, so until next week thanks for stopping by.  Rachel