Quilters' Guild Area Day

 At Fleggburgh.
That's in East Norfolk, for you foreigners..
 A jolly good time was had by all.. 40 people (mostly not Guild members, but that's how you recruit new ones, surely),  made modern Cross blocks with Heather, then Noughts (spots and circles) with me,  interpolated with lunch, teas, coffees, cream cakes, soup, sandwiches, raffles, and a competition..
We don't have a speaker, too static, and pretty costly for the amount of amusement derived..
We also displayed Modern and Contemporary quilts, including the Journal Quilts above

 And shopping, of course

 Working hard before lunch..
We provide soup-and-sandwiches lunch, not least because I think it's sad to see quilters eating soggy sandwiches from crumpled paper bags during the lunch break.. I think it's nice to feed people, and it's surprisingly cheap..

More hard work.. Sadly, I didn't get to make an image of the finished products, but I know all had a great time and went home with new skills....

Quilters Guild Region 9 Area Day

Quilters’ Guild Norfolk Area Day

Well, it may have been raining outside, but at Fleggburgh Village Hall all was sunny inside.. Forty quilters of all ages and stages had a sociable and satisfying day at the Norfolk Quilters’ Guild Area Day

We started with tea, and Star Blocks, and there was much puzzling over and sorting-out of the kits cut by Heather Hasthorpe.. Each had three carefully-selected fabrics in ready-cut pieces, and an instruction sheet.. By lunchtime, there were a whole set of delightful Star Blocks, each a little different from the last

After soups and sandwiches, we reconvened for a little hand-stitching.. Helen  Howes’ colourful hand-dyed wool pieces, with multicoloured threads, beads, buttons and bits, made brooches as individual as the makers..
The afternoon was only interrupted by lashings of cake and more tea, a seriously good raffle, and the Competition winner (Sewing Sundries) which was a very close-run vote, as the entries were so excellent..


Our trader (Rob, from Sew and Sos in Bungay) was busy most of the day, and several biggish piles of fabric went home for next month’s projects

And the Guild has gained a new member, so that’s a result, too..


Heather and I are planning another Area Day in the spring, with a Contemporary Quilt theme..

Reaching Out..

For someone who absolutely detests committees, I seem to see a lot of them

I joined the Quilters Guild Region 9 committee, with Heather Hasthorpe.. Norfolk has had a great shortage of representation in this part of the region, with the result that much happens in the West (Cambridgeshire and Huntingdon) and little in the East (Norfolk)  I'm also just on the Suffolk border, so I want to reach out towards that Region 8 population too..

Now, I am also very interested in making quilting and piecing and other textile mysteries accessable and interesting to the younger generation.. I've been sewing since I was knee-high to a skirtmarker, and I am as obsessed as anyone - a day without stitch and cloth is not whole for me.  And I remember how fantastic it was to discover the wonderful new stuff that was happening when I was a young adult and just starting out in the textile world..

I don't mean children.. Kids do pretty much what their parents allow them to, and it takes a strong-minded child to ask to do something that is truly outside the parents' ambit. Children with keen parents may still not continue as they head for their teens.  Nor  do I think of the college-students.. The ones doing creative subjects are not in need of me, and the others are too busy, too iPad, too Google (nothing wrong with that)..   I am thinking more of the young mums, the ones with jobs and lives who nonetheless need to find or nourish a creative streak that is fulfilling, energising, and satisfying..
Not excluding or wishing to discourage the males of the species, but the number I have taught in 10 years would all fit on a smallish sofa.   With room for cushions..

When I was a young parent, I made clothes (as a living, i was a dressmaker) and for myself and my children.. I made household goods, curtains, toys.  I learned every textile craft I could find, weaving, embroidery, bobbin lacemaking, macrame, knitting, crochet, you name it..
I was and am a kite maker of great skill and reputation..  It's all sewing..

Nowadays, it's foolish to make any but the most special clothes - the new ones are ludicrously cheap and the High Street is full of charity shops which are also cheap..

So, sewing has to be for pleasure and for soothing the complex and stressful lives most of us lead.

I've set up a Modern Quilt Guild group for East and South Norfolk and North Suffolk (Broadland) and I want to encourage the QGBI Contemporary Quilt members in this region to make a group for working together and possibly exhibiting..

And I want to reach out to those people out there who might just enjoy what we do..

Image from the Thetford salvation Army citadel - I looked in vain for the door marked "Old Farts"