Our AGM was well attended on a cold and dark evening. Teresa, our chairperson, stepped down with many thanks after two years' sterling service. Ena was elected our new chair and Vivien S joined the committee. In addition to our usual activities of show and tell and the raffle, we had a bring and buy, a welcome opportunity to add to our stashes. Caroline launched this year's Christmas Challenge, to make a Christmas bauble, with thanks to Yvonne at Village Fabrics for the idea. She demonstrated the method and generously gave everyone prepared packs of what they needed.

Show and Tell had a number of lovely quilts this month:

We also had a good number of premmie quilts donated this month:

Sara Sullivan gave her talk "Sex, Spies and Sexism" to tonight's meeting. There will be a report on her talk in the next newsletter, due out soon.

It seems a lot of us have had a summer break from much quilt making, as this month we had only one quilt in Show and Tell and one premmie quilt for donation.

Tonight we had a visitor, Alex from the Embroiderers' Guild, who had brought along donated fabric to sell. There were lots of bargains to be had and members took the opportunity to add to their stashes. In addition, members had brought along their own items to sell at our annual Bring and Buy sale. However, the main focus of the meeting was the delicious food and drink which members had contributed for our Summer Social. It was a very enjoyable evening.

MSQ will be represented for the first time in the Education Tent at the Newbury Show on September 19th/20th. We will be able to showcase what we do and to exhibit some of our quilts. It should be a worthwhile event and worth attending if you can.

In Show and Tell this month there was only one quilt, but members had made several quilts for the premature babies at Basingstoke Hospital, which can be seen below:

Fortunately we were able to go ahead with this month's meeting, following the cancellation of June's meeting due to the extreme heat. Members were treated to a talk by Jenny Goss, who has made items from used tea bags, including a hand embroidered quilt made from tea bags which won a sustainability award at last year's Festival of Quilts. A full report of the talk and a photo of the quilt will appear in the Autumn newsletter.

In the meantime, MSQ are planning for our first inclusion in the Education tent at the Newbury Show in September. More details will be posted in the report on the August meeting.

We had some lovely work in Show and Tell:

On a beautiful May evening it was lovely to see so many members in summer dresses. After the normal club business, Caroline gave us a talk on "Crazy Patchwork", explaining its history and the different interpretations of its styles. She had prepared packs of fabric scraps for us to try out the technique and it was suggested that the resulting pieces of finished crazy patchwork could be sewn together to make a charity quilt. One of the items Caroline brought to illustrate her talk was this lovely crazy patchwork waistcoat:

We had a few quilts and other items in Show and Tell today:

Finally, three Premmie quilts today:

A well attended meeting; good to be able to come out in the light after the long days of winter. After the business of the meeting, Sally P showed us how to make a thread catcher. She had brought everything needed and members were able to make the catchers then and there. I am sure there will be some on display at the next Show and Tell.

As usual, some lovely work in Show and Tell:

We also had a good selection of premmie quilts this month:

Unfortunately, our speaker for tonight's meeting was unavailable through illness, so members took the opportunity to share ideas, show work in progress, work on their own project and take advantage of the time to chat to each other.

We had some lovely work in Show and Tell:

Two premmie quilts this month:

Tonight we had a fascinating talk by Harriet Riddell, who travels with her sewing machine. She has travelled extensively and through her free motion embroidery she captures the people and places. There will be a fuller report and some photos in the next newsletter, available at the beginning of April. In the meantime you can find out more by visiting Harriet's website www.institchyou.com

Some items of work shown this month:

We also had a good number of premmie quits to donate to the hospital this evening:

We had 30 members at our first meeting of the year. Cat launched the "Lincolnshire Posy" block of the month programme with a showing of the completed quilt top (yet to be quilted) as well as a demonstration of appliqué.

Geraldine and Gail gave us a brief account of their January quilting cruise "Chasing the Northern Lights" up the coast of Norway. They showed us the blocks which they had hand pieced using a variety of techniques. Here are some of the blocks they made:

We had some impressive work in Show and Tell this month:

Sarah T of Blue Cat Quilting displayed quilts as part of the Newbury Advent Calendar at the beginning of December, raising money for 3 local charities. Here is the work she displayed:

Finally, some Premmie quilts for donation to Basingstoke Hospital:

Twenty nine members enjoyed the Christmas Festivities at December's meeting with lovely food and drink and a game of book swap. Everyone took home a book on crafting at the end of the evening.

There was some lovely work in Show and Tell:

Just two little quilts for premature babies this month:

Finally, our Christmas Challenge this year was to make crowns from a pattern called "Crowning Glory" by Waves and Wild or any other type of hat members wished. We had 20 hats on display and on heads:

Rita's hat, made for her by Gail, which she forgot to bring!