Next Quarterly Meeting                     Tuesday 5th October 2010

Church House, Kent Gardens, Birchington, Kent. CT7 9RS

Speaker - Carolyn Forster                                                                Show & tell//Library/Raffle/Refreshments

The Great Northern Quilt Show                                        Details for those travelling with us are:

The Yorkshire Hotel, Prospect Place, Harrogate HG1 1LA.                         Tel: 0844-855-9114
Pick up places and times:
Westgate Somerlands: 8.00 am
Birchington Square: 8.10 am
Minster Old School: 8.20 am
Whitstable Sainsbury Carpark 8.45 am
M2 Services: 9.15 am
South Mimms Services: 10.30 am
Please pass this info on to anyone not online thank you.                     (There are still a couple vacancies if interested contact me) Shirley Gibbons   Tel. 01843-843344   

THEMES FOR STITCHES AND STEMS   In the last newsletter it was nnounced that we would be joining the Margate Flower Society in another joint quilt/flower exhibition in Summer 2011.  We are looking for twenty entries, ten for each of the following themes:
Traditional Quilt/Wall hanging: 
SUN, SEA AND SAND
Art Quilt/Wall hanging: 
EAST MEETS WEST
The quilts can be of made with any technique, any colour, hand or machine pieced and must measure approximately one metre by one metre and a half, either portrait or landscape. The quilts must be completed by Spring 2011 so they can be photographed.  These will then be sent to the Society so that the ladies can plan their floral displays well in advance.  We may also ask for fabric samples to be sent with the photographs so please save some scraps. There will be a prize of £100 for the best quilt in either section as judged by a nationally known quilter.  Please call Kay Horne or any of the committee members for an entry form. Anyone can enter! We look forward to hearing from you!

Attention Young Quilters. The Quilters Guild has decided to give FREE membership to all young quilters in this next year. They will be given a starter pack as well as the normal quilter magazine. They will be given free membership after attending a Guild run YQ workshop. So if you have a number of children in your area who are already sewing and would like us to run a workshop for them please let me know. Chris. Contact details on message board.

REPORT ON OUR FREE WORKSHOP DAY ON 26th JUNE
What a smashing day! Such a success that we are going to repeat the event sometime in September.  Twenty two enthusiastic ladies turned up to be shown how to put together a fantastic convergence quilt or  to make a beautiful but easy to  construct  shoulder bag from  those colourful leftover fabrics we all have.  
Many took the opportunity to use for the very first time some of the automatic stitches on their machines to embellish their bags with delightful results. Many also tried free machining with excellent results for first timers. Dropping the feed dogs will never again have the same fear for these brave quilters.
Meanwhile the Convergence ladies were busy cutting and stitching and planning soft edge appliqué on their quilts.  We even managed to get an escaped tiger behind bars!?  How?  Well come to our next meeting in October and during the show and tell Julie will demonstrate with her convergence quilt how she did it!  In fact all the quilts and bags will be there for you to see!
More quilters joined us at lunchtime with their UFO’s  in time to see an impromptu show and tell.
WATCH THIS SPACE for the date and venue of the next FREE workshop when projects will include

• How to jazz up a plain T-shirt with appliqué of your own design using colourful mixture of textured fabrics and threads!
•  Another easy to construct and embellish bag for the autumn.
•  Embellished glitzy purses ideal for handbag or to tuck away surprise gifts.

SEE YOU THERE!!

A project being launched to make quilts for each country participating in the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games as a momento of the event.                            (For details click here )           

STOP PRESS

A number of quilts have already been completed and delivered in time for Christmas to Vicky Hitchcock, Nurse Manager at the Hospice.  The remainder will be completed and delivered before the end of March when the Hospice will arrange a publicity event for all those involved in making the quilts.   Special thanks goes to Cathy Northcutt for her invaluable help and Margaret Evans (from Deal) for doing most of the binding.      ( See photo album 1 for examples )