Once again we were lucky with the weather, as it was a dry though rather cloudy day. Tim and Mike kindly volunteered their assistance with setting out the chairs and tables, which was greatly appreciated by us girls on the Committee!! It takes some time to set out all the rooms ready to give a warm welcome to all those attending.

Altogether we had over 120 ladies attending this January meeting, who were warmly welcomed by Ann as she outlined the arrangements for the day. This time we had a change to the normal routine, as the Committee had decided to dedicate the day to the theme of “Recycling”. With that in mind, we held our own version of a table-top sale where ten tables were rented by members selling all manner of fabric, books and other crafty bits and pieces. We all had a grand day rummaging through the bargains that were available!!

As always, our raffle was very well supported with some great prizes, organised by Wendy and Claire. Following our theme of “Recycling” our trade stand for this meeting was Worn & Washed Fabrics from Olney who had a wonderful selection of goodies on offer and we do hope that they will be joining us again in the future.

The work tables were also popular and well attended – Lynn Watts demonstrated her crafty Magic Needlecases, Sharon Soloman showed us a nifty way of recycling cotton reels & buttons, and Ann Vincent explained how to do half square triangle magic.

Thank you to all the ladies who knitted teddies in response to our appeal. We received a phenomenal 124 teddies, which formed a cheerful display on the front stage. These will be forwarded to the Teddies for Tragedies Charity to be passed on to children all over the world in need of a teddy to hug.

After lunch there were lovely quilts and wall hangings displayed during Show and Tell by Jean Baines, Maureen Kirk, Helen Spence, Wendy le Maistre and Ann Harris. And, in the spirit of recycling, we were also shown the colourful rag rugs made by Pat Thew, Jan Webb and Julie Morriss and a denim bag made by Ann Harris.

This all led up to our afternoon speaker, Edwina MacKinnon, who had come all the way from Droitwich to show us a selection of her quilts, both traditional and contemporary. It was an extremely interesting and stimulating presentation with a vast array of very different quilts and techniques, which was greatly enjoyed by us all.

The meeting drew to a close around 3.15 p.m. and we do hope that everyone enjoyed themselves and that you will join us again in the future. The next meeting will be held on 12th May 2012, and our speaker will be Susie Corke who will be showing and talking about her involvement in quilt making over the past 20 years. She has completed many quilts both large and small and has gained many awards for her work. We look forward to welcoming Susie and being able to have a closer look at her beautiful hand quilted quilts, and hopefully pick up some tips about hand quilting as it something that many of us struggle with!