August 2024 Meeting

On a lovely warm evening, members came together to enjoy a talk by Trish Grammer, who runs Fabrica Trading Station, importing beautiful and colourful Shweshwe fabrics from South Africa. Trish explained how she came to make her first quilt, which she displayed at the meeting, and a little about the history of Shweshwe fabrics in SA. She had brought along a good selection of fabrics for purchase, as well as other items she sells.

Trish's first quilt, using the Shweshwe fabrics
Some of the metre pieces of fabric on her stall.

We also shared a supper, our usual way of celebrating the end of the summer holidays together, with members having brought a huge selection of delicious food, both savoury and sweet.

There were also some lovely quilts in Show and Tell:

"Indigo Splash", a BoTM from New Threads, made by Tina
Another BoTM quilt made by Tina
Sue L's quilt made of many tiny squares
Sue C's lovely baby quilt
Gail's striking quilt, made on a course
Geraldine attended the same course, but her quilting is totally different
Wholecloth quilt hand quilted by Pat B
Elephant quilt made by Tina

Club Meeting July 24th 2024

Our meeting on a lovely, warm summer's evening was well attended. Gail, aided by Rita, did a demonstration of how to use Apliquick, which method they have both used for their fine applique work.

Rita brought along her unfinished quilt which features a lot of applique using Appliquick.

Gail brought her beautiful appliqued flowers quilt, which had been our block of the month a few years ago. Both quilts show how the Apliquick method can be used to achieve quite detailed results.

Although not featured in Show and Tell this month, because the quilt had already been gifted, I had to share Sarah's beautifully made and apt quilt for Linda, Food Technology teacher from St Bartholomew's School, who retired this summer. A stunning piece of work.

As usual, we had a good collection of premmie quilts. Sue, our Chair, reported that we have donated 60 quilts so far this year. Members were reminded that the Christmas Challenge for 2024 is to make a premmie quilt using Christmas fabrics. These quilts need to be ready for September or October at the latest so they can be sent to the hospital in good time for Christmas.

Here is a selection of this month's donations.

Here is Gill's miniature quilt, made at Julia Gahagan's workshop in June.
Gill's large lilies quilt, design from "Annie's Big Blocks", and longarm quilted by New Threads
Gail's beautiful Cowslip quilt, designed by Jo Colewell
Hazel's perfectly fitted quilted jacket.

Meeting on June 26th 2024

On a lovely warm evening, we had good attendance at the club meeting, welcoming a new member and a visitor. Show and tell included some of the small picture quilts made at the workshop with Julia Gahagan on June 8th. All agreed that this was a successful and enjoyable workshop. We are looking forward to the next workshop with Kate Findlay on October 12th.

The main part of the evening was a very informative talk about threads, needles and wadding by Yvonne from Village Fabrics, details of which are included in the Summer Newsletter, accessed via the link above. Village Fabrics have moved to Herefordshire but their phone number has remained the same as when they had the shop in Wallingford. Yvonne also brought along a small shop and many members took the opportunity to top up their stashes! Even if you had been sewing, patchworking and quilting for many years, there was much to learn from the talk.

We have given a large number of Premmie quilts to Basingstoke Hospital this year and a few more were donated at the meeting.

In 2025 it will be 25 years since Market Square Quilters was formed. We welcome ideas of how we can celebrate our Silver Anniversary.

Meeting on 22nd May 2024

At tonight's meeting, we had feedback and questions about the Block of the Month programme, led by Cat. We are now on month 5, with 4 blocks still to go. Sharing of finished quilts is scheduled for January 2025

The group is hoping to run a coach to the Festival of Quilts at the NEC, but we need the coach to be full. With a full coach the cost will be £37.50 and £47.50 for non-members. Entrance and parking are expensive for this exhibition, hence the cost. Anyone who would like to sign up please email MSQ or contact Teresa to be added to the list.

There were some lovely pieces of work in Show and Tell, including more premmie quilts.

Two cheerful premmie quilts by Alison
And two by Penny

Art Quilt by Kirsty
A quilt for a child by Cat
Wall hanging by Julie W
A large quilt by Pat B, a kit from Village Fabrics
A bag by Teresa
Same design, bag in use by Mary
A stunning quilt designed by Janet Clare and made by Linda, with her own appliqué birds, a gift for her husband
Jan's premmie quilt
An eye-catching quilt by Kirsty

April 2024 Meeting

Another well attended meeting with lots to Show and Tell. The focus of the later part of the meeting was Gizmos and Gadgets. Many members brought along items which they found very helpful and useful, or in one or two cases, not! It was an interesting time to share ideas and perhaps show gadgets which people may never have come across.

There was a lot of lovely work on show:

A beautiful quilt for Lorna, a garden lover, made by Sue.

A striking quilt made by Jane
Flying Geese quilt by Barbara
Another quilt by Barbara
A very colourful floral quilt by Barbara
A lovely wall hanging, designed and made by Julie
You are Cherished by Sheridan
Pretty Jelly Roll quilt by Mary
A second quilt by Mary, made to be given as a Linus quilt
A large bed quilt entitled "Vintage Bouquet:, designed by Jo Colwill and made by Tina
Another large quilt made by Tina
Two Lewis and Irene panel cushions, designed by Delphine Brooks and made by Cat
Hazel's lovely sampler quilt
Premmie quilt by Allison
Another one by Janice
Premmie quilts by Jan H
Three more Premmie quilts

March 2024 Meeting

A very well attended March club meeting saw a good selection of lovely work for Show and Tell. Some of the quilts and other items can be seen below.

There is a new Newsletter available to read - please follow the link on the Newsletter tab.

Next month's meeting will be focused on Gizmos and Gadgets - what doesn't work as well as what does. Hopefully we will all have some advice on what to spend our money on and when to avoid wasting it on items which don't work or are of limited use!

Lesley's "Hares" quilt
Kirsty's Fabric book
"Circles" designed by Lily's Quilts and beautifully made by Kirsty.
Sue P's striking Log Cabin quilt - Hippy, Happy, -Yurt Quilt
A selection of Premmie and Linus quilts made by Tina and Julie
Patchwork clocks made on a course by Mary

Following Show and Tell, we had a very interesting, engaging and energetic talk by Christine Green, accompanied by slides. She explained how she reuses and recycles fabric, such as old curtains, oddments and even jeans into some striking and original quilts. She also told us about Gee's Bend Quilts, USA, a whole other talk on its own. She doesn't use a quarter inch seam or allow any rules to restrict her creativity. Below are some photos of Christine with a few of her many creations:

Look out for this quilt at the Malverns!

Janet Clare Workshop

On March 2nd, 16 members attended a one day workshop entitled "Free-Motion Stitching and Fusible Appliqué" given by Janet Clare. We learned how to write our names, draw faces, penguins and chairs before finally sewing a scene with trees, flowers and appliqué cottages. Janet gave us plenty of help and advice and by the end of the workshop we had all produced scenes, in addition to gaining a lot more confidence in free-motion sewing.

Brimpton Hall with everyone beavering away
A selection of scenes
More scenes and even a dinosaur
Jan's cottage complete with smoking chimney and giant bunnies!

Meeting February 2024

Another well attended meeting, at which Caroline gave a very interesting talk, illustrated by pictures and slides, about hand quilting. She explained the history of quilting, the types of quilts typical of different places and techniques of sewing. There were also lots of lovely premmie quilts in Show and Tell:

There were also some Linus quilts donated by Penny and Heather

Sue has finished her "Zappy Dappy Do"
She also created this pineapple block quilt

Some more work shown at the meeting:

January 2024 Meeting

This must have been our best ever attended meeting, with 38 members and guests present. Cat launched the "Perfectly Pieced" Block of the Month programme, showing the completed 9 block quilt top which was designed to use up scraps, along with a "base" fabric to unify. The blocks are easy enough to be attempted by everyone, but the challenge is to get all the points correct, no mean feat.

There was also some lovely work in "Show and Tell"

This stunning quilt was a BOTM project from "Sew and Quilt", completed by Mary and longarm quilted by Midsomer Quilters
A sweet little premmie quilt, one of two by Barbara
Anthea's table runner
Jan H's very striking quilt with pops of blue
Rita's amazing "Mystery Quilt" by Yoko Saito.
Teresa's colourful bag
Sonia's denim bag
A square bag by Sue

December 2023 Meeting

December's meeting is traditionally a social event with a "pot luck" supper. The Christmas Challenge Sketchbooks were on display:

There were also Show and Tell items:

Mary's panel made at the Jenny Rayment workshop in October
Another panel, made by Catlyn
Sue L's bright quilt
Kirsty's colourwash quilt
Gail's "Seas the Day" quilt with a nautical theme
Heather's baby quilt
Pauline's blue and white batik fabric quilt with appliquéd gulls
Finally, a display of the Christmas angels from last month's workshop