Diary Dates

• Wednesday 24 March – CANCELLED
• Wednesday 28 April – Hopefully !
• Exhibition TBA – Ledbury Rugby Club.

Covid-19 Helping others

There are a couple of projects that you can get involved with. If you do either (or both) please could you let me know how many you have donated so that I can keep a tally of our involvement.

Firstly – supporting Herefordshire W.I. Scrubs Bags

A request from Hereford County Hospital for us to make laundry bags: these bags are to be used by nurses and doctors, who need them to put in their used/contaminated scrubs at the end of a shift, so that they can safely take them home where they put the whole lot, bag and all, into the washing machine. 

The only problem with this is that they need 1,000 and have been given 100 only so far. This is more than our group can do on our own if the Hospital is to receive them in time, which is as soon as possible. I am hoping that your WI ladies, who are renowned for rising to such a challenge and who I know would do a good job, will join us in this effort? We have at least one other order for gowns and some of our people will also be busy with that. 

The bags need to be produced to these specifications:

• The fabric must be of cotton of cotton mix and be launderable at 60 degrees at least. It mustn’t be so thick as to impede washing but close woven enough to form some sort of barrier between the contents and the outside world ie. not flimsy.   Prewash either your fabric or your completed bag in hot water to ensure the dyes do not run.
• The finished bag should be 60cm X 44cm (add seam allowance of 3cm per seam and allow 5cm at top (to be folded over for tape to be threaded through)).
• Opening at narrow end.
• Seams need to be well finished, either French seams or zig-zagged as well as straight sewn, so that they do not come apart.
• Drawstrings – can be cord or twill tape or long shoelace. If making own tapes fold strips of fabric over and zig zag length.  DO NOT USE RIBBON as it will fray. Tapes must be long enough to open bag fully to get the scrubs clean but not so long that they get tangled.

Hopefully most people will have some spare fabric, sheeting, old curtains hanging around that they are willing to donate. We need to get sewing and we need people to get busy with this as soon as possible.  I think if we all pull together we can do this thing for our Hospital and our NHS at this time and I think it is the least that we can do to back up our NHS workers.
Thank you

Completed bags can either be delivered to W.I House 90 St Owens St, Hereford HR1 2QD tel 01432 272268 on a Tuesday – ring to check times

Or they can be dropped off at Anne Lucas, 72 Bridge Street, Ledbury or

Marion Leslie 9 Wye View, Ledbury HR8 2FP (on the New Mills Estate). 01531 631232/07767385721

Both of these people will arrange to get them to the WI.

Secondly – Pairs of Hearts

Carol Wright has commited to sending 30 pairs of hearts to the care home in Eastnor. If anyone feels they could support this and feel like making something small. They can be collected by her husband if you are in Ledbury or delivered to 3 Ledbury Park. The old folks will be so touched by this gesture I know, having run a care home for 25 yrs I just know how much a little thing like a heart will bring a smile (and tears) Thanks

They can be knitted, crochet or sewn, the main thing is 2 the same.This picture is from the nurse who started it, they are quite small

Meetings Cancelled

In the light of government advice about the Coronavirus, the committee have reluctantly decided to cancel all our meetings until further notice.

Hopefully you will all have enough fabric to keep you busy for several life times.

Stay healthy.

February Meeting

Ledbury Quilters Meeting – 26th February 2020

The next meeting of Ledbury Quilters will be held on Wednesday 26th February 2020 at the Baptist Church Upstairs Hall beginning at the usual time of 7.30.  
PLEASE NOTE, we will be in the larger upstairs room, which can be accessed from the hall we usually use.  Members of the committee will be on hand to show you where to go.
Janet T and Audrey will be in charge of refreshments. 
The meeting will be an interactive talk by Jenny on “being a Quilt Judge”.  Not only will she talk about the training needed but she will judge some members quilts.  if you would like to be critiqued, in public, please bring your quilt to the meting. (It must be finished!)

Summer Exhibition
Less than 5 months to go until our exhibition (11/12 July) so please remember to bring to the meeting any items (pin cushions, needle cases and book covers) you have made for the tombola.
We will have an availability sheet for you sign so that we can ensure that there are enough people for the various roles over the 2 days.
We would also like items for the sales table, any unwanted sewing related items e.g. books, magazine, notions or fabric that you wish to donate, you can bring them to this and all future meetings.  If the items are heavy or bulky, please don’t bring them but talk to one of the committee and we will arrange for them to be collected or delivered to Bobbie who is kindly storing everything.
The exhibition will be an opportunity for us to show the work we have done since the last exhibition and its success depends on as many of you as possible entering items.  We have a bigger hall than last time, so please, help us make sure that it is full!.  Entry forms will be available at the meeting or can be downloaded from the website.
We have entered the Challenge quilt into Quilts UK at Malvern in May.  It will be in the “Charity Quilts” section and funds raised will be donated to Walsingham Support

Future Events
28 February – a reminder of Jill Exell’s Winter Warmer – next Friday, 10.30 – 3.30. Guild members £4, non members £5, to include refreshments on arrival, soup lunch. Sit & Stitch, Show & Tell, Raffle, Bring & Buy.  Please let Jill know if you would like to attend  01531 632131

Sit and Sew Day -14 March -Wellington Heath
This is full, please let me know either if you can’t make it or would like to go on the waiting list.

Workshop with Amanda Wright – 4 April Wellington Heath
This workshop will be doing a pieced block, known as Square Dance or Twister, which is much easier to construct than it looks!
There will be a sign up sheet available at the meeting, although there are only a few places left.

Shipton Quilters  Saturday 4 and Sunday 5 April
14th Exhibition on Saturday 4th April 2020 (10 am – 5 pm) and Sunday 5th April 2020 (10 am – 4 pm).  Venue: Rendcomb College, Rendcomb, Cirencester GL7 7HA.  Admission £4 – under 16’s free. Parking free.  Disabled access. There will be quilt displays, demonstrations, traders and sales table, and more!.  Refreshments are available.  This year their raffle is in aid of Maggie’s, Medical Detection Dogs and Hearing Dogs for Deaf People. For further information e-mail: shiptonquilterssecretary@outlook.com

LisaWalton
In June this year we have international textile artist, Lisa Walton coming to give us a talk on Wednesday 24 June and she will be doing a workshop the following day THURSDAY 25 June.  There will be sign up sheets to indicate if you are coming to the talk (so we can gauge the size of hall needed) and for the workshop, 

January Meeting

The next meeting of Ledbury Quilters will be held on Wednesday 22nd January 2020 at the Baptist Church Hall beginning at the usual time of 7.30.

Fiona and Ann B will be in charge of refreshments. 

The meeting will be an opportunity to view and discuss the Quilters Guild Miniature Quilt Collection, led by Bobbie and Linda.

Summer Exhibition
Less than 6 months to go until our exhibition (11/12 July) so please remember to bring to the meeting any items (pin cushions, needle cases and book covers) you have made for the tombola – hopefully you had a productive Christmas break!
We would also like items for the sales table, any unwanted sewing related items e.g. books, magazine, notions or fabric that you wish to donate, you can bring them to this and all future meetings.  If the items are heavy or bulky, please don’t bring them but talk to one of the committee and we will arrange for them to be collected or delivered to Bobbie who is kindly storing everything.
The exhibition will be an opportunity for us to show the work we have done since the last exhibition and its success depends on as many of you as possible entering items.  We have a bigger hall than last time, so please, help us make sure that it is full!  Entry forms will be available at the meeting.
We are entering the Challenge quilt into Quilts UK at Malvern in May.  We would like the entry to be accepted in the “Charity Quilts” section but for that we need to decide which charity should receive the money raised by the raffle of the quilt.  Details of a shortlist of local charities will be presented at the meeting so that a decision can be made in plenty of time.

Sit and Sew Day -14 March -Wellington Heath
This is the first sit and sew day of the year, we will be arranging a project for the day, details nearer the time, or you can work on one of your own projects.
There will be a sign up sheet available at the meeting.

Workshop with Amanda Wright – 4 April Wellington Heath
This workshop will be doing a pieced block, known as Square Dance or Twister, which is much easier to construct than it looks!
There will be a sign up sheet available at the meeting.

December Meeting

The next meeting of Ledbury Quilters will be held on Wednesday 11th December 2019 at the Baptist Church Hall beginning at the usual time of 7.30pm.  

All the food/drink will be provided by the committee and Anne L and Marion will be assisting for the evening. 

One of the evening activities will be a ‘Chinese Raffle’.  This is being brought back from last year as it was so popular!

If you want to take part, please bring a quirky gift, so well wrapped that it hides its identity!  No boring smellies or chocolates please!  The gift should cost no more than £5 and does not have to be sewing related.

There will also be a Show and Tell, of your favourite quilting item that you would take to your ‘Desert Island’, with a brief explanation as to why it is so special to you.

The meeting will conclude with some festive refreshments and an extended social time.

November Meeting

 

The next meeting of Ledbury Quilters will be held on Wednesday 27 November 2019 at the Baptist Church Hall beginning at the usual time of 7.30pm.

Catherine and Sîan are in charge of refreshments.

The meeting will consist of “4 corners” – Four members will be demonstrating how to make some Christmas Decorations.  You will see them being made and there will be instructions to take away with you.

Those of you who went to the workshop on Saturday with Anja Townrow, please remember to bring your work, even if its not finished (- yet -) to show the rest of the group. (see below)

Please bring any completed pin cushions, needle cases and book covers to the meeting for the Tombola.  

We would also like items for the sales table, any unwanted sewing related items e.g. books, magazine, notions or fabric that you wish to donate, you can bring them to this and all future meetings.  If the items are heavy or bulky, please don’t bring them but talk to one of the committee and we will arrange for them to be collected or delivered to Bobbie who is kindly storing everything.

Some work from Saturday’s workshop, hopefully you will get to see of them for real on Wednesday!

October Meeting

The next meeting of Ledbury Quilters will be held on Wednesday 23 October 2019 at the Baptist Church Hall beginning at the usual time of 7.30pm.  

Cheryl and Liz are in charge of refreshments. 

The speaker at the meeting is Sally Stevens who loves to design and quilt!  Once the editor of two multinational patchwork and quilting magazines, Sally is also a long-standing member of “The Quilters Guild” and spent five years as the editor of their Region 11 newsletter.  Sally regularly writes patterns for “Today’s Quilter” and “Love Patchwork and Quilting” and you can watch her on Sewing Quarter on Sky 678, Freeview 73, online at sewingquarter.com or on YouTube.  She will also be bringing some items to have a look at.  We will have a question and answer session so please come with some prepared questions to ask.  If you don’t want to ask them yourself, please send them to me and one of the committee will ask on your behalf.

Membership subscriptions are due this month – the annual fee remains at £12.  As a member you benefit from reduced rates for meetings and workshops.

Just a reminder that at our Exhibition (- 11/12 July 2020 -) there will be sales table, so if you have any unwanted sewing related items e.g. books, magazine, notions or fabric that you wish to donate, you can bring them to this and all future meetings.  

If the items are heavy or bulky, please don’t bring them but talk to one of the committee and we will arrange for them to be collected or delivered to Bobbie who is kindly storing everything.

If you were wondering why we have moved the date and venue of our exhibition it is because the hall at Tarrington wasn’t really big enough.  Having chosen the Rugby Club, the date then had to avoid their playing season as well as the main holiday month of August – hence we chose July.  It has the added advantage of coinciding with the Poetry Festival, so we could have even more visitors!

Future Events

18 – 20 October 

Autumn Quilt Show, Malvern Three Counties Showground

21 -27 October – Daily 10.00 – 4.00

Stitch in the Middle presents ‘Sacred Spaces’, an exhibition of Contemporary Quilts at Weavers Gallery, Church Lane, Ledbury.

Tuesday 12 November

Torrington Craft Group Open Day, 11 am – 3 pm at Lady Emily Community Hall, Torrington, HR1 4EX

There will be an exhibition of members work (some of whom are Ledbury Quilters) and small items for sale, Tom-bola, refreshments and demonstrations.  All proceeds to St Michael’s Hospice.

Saturday 16 November – Anja Townrow Workshop – the workshop is now full, so if you know you can’t now come, please let me know.  If you don’t attend on the day without letting me know, you will still need to pay your £10 deposit.  Also, let me know if you would like to go on the waiting list.

September Meeting

The next meeting of Ledbury Quilters will be held on 25 Wednesday 2019 at the Baptist Church Hall beginning at the usual time of 7.30pm.  

Deryn and Janet Taylor are in charge of refreshments.  Please could you sign up on the rota sheet to do the refreshments if you haven’t already done so.  As a reminder to any newer members, all the coffee, tea, milk, biscuits are provided – all you need to do is make the tea and coffee and wash up afterwards.

It will be our AGM where there will be the normal business of the club, including election of officers and reports from the Chairman and the Treasurer.  If you have any matters arising or Any Other Business, please let me know.

As always, you have your chance to put forward any suggestions to the committee.  Please remember that Ledbury Quilters is your club and the committee is always keen to hear your ideas to make the club what you want it to be.

The business of the AGM does not normally take long and we hope as many members as possible will come along to support the committee.

After the AGM business, Cheryl will be talking about and showing us some ‘Contemporary Quilts’.  

Just a reminder that at our Exhibition (- 11/12 July 2020 -) there will be sales table, so if you have any unwanted sewing related items e.g. books, magazine, notions or fabric that you wish to donate, you can bring them to this and all future meetings.

Future Events

5 October 2019

Quilters Guild Regional Day, Trinity Centre, Mill Street, Sutton Coldfield B72 1TF.  The speaker, Judith Dursley, will be talking about Miniature Quilts and there will be the usual selection of traders, raffle and refreshments.

Wednesday 16 October

Quilters Guild Region 11 Lunch, Britannia Hotel, Birmingham Road, Bromsgrove B61 0JB.  The speaker is Moira Neal – “Latinoides Stupids”

18 – 20 October 

Autumn Quilt Show, Malvern Three Counties Showground

Saturday 16 November – Anja Townrow Worksop – learning how to do machine appliqué.  There are four designs to chose from, please tick on the sign up sheet which one you want to do.