A somewhat belated welcome to 2025. I’m not sure how January passed by so quickly!

The programme of speakers for our meetings and accompanying workshops has been finalised and you can find the details on our programme page. As we go through the year we continue to develop the mini workshops that we are running alongside our Bourne Stitchers group and the dates and details will be promoted in our newsletter and at meetings. Similarly as the programme for our young quilters emerges, details will be available in the newsletter.

This month we are launching our ‘Block of the Month’ and are starting with the lovely Puss in the Middle. Instructions were emailed out to all members with their newsletter. There will be nine blocks over the course of the year followed by ideas for sashing, quilting and binding to finish off the quilt.

Bourne Quilters are very pleased to introduce our first Young Quilters Workshop. Please contact Karen if you would like to attend or know more about Young Quilters. We look forward to seeing you there.

You can download a copy of the flyer here

On Monday evening Joy Harber told us all about her quilting journey and showed us some of her quilts ranging from very small mini log cabins up to full size quilts made using the same small blocks. A number of us joined her on Tuesday at Emsworth Community Centre as she showed us how to make teeny tiny log cabin blocks. Whilst some of us may have come across log cabins before, they were nothing like these ones. We were sewing with 3/4″ strips and the central square of the blocks was only 1/4″. By the end of the day we all had an exquisite small piece to show for it and had enjoyed learning an new technique

What a fantastic day it has been. The quilts on display were a feast for the eye. They range from stunning mini quilts to magnificent beasts that could cover the largest of beds, and everything in between! There was machine piecing, hand piecing, EPP (English paper piecing), foundation piecing, appliqué, and just about every technique and style imaginable. The colours varied from monochrome to scrappy and the most vivid and zingy colours that really popped. There were examples of hand quilting, FMQ (free motion quilting), Longarm quilting, sashiko, rulers and demonstrations of simple hand crank machines as well as an embroidery machine that seemed almost capable of operating independently.

Lots of enthusiasts turned up to enjoy all that BQ members had to offer – including the coffee and cakes. At one point the queue for this was almost out the door and we wondered if we would have enough.

Thank you to everyone who turned up today and if you couldn’t make it we look forward to seeing tomorrow for day 2. PS don’t worry – we’ve been baking more cake so there will be enough to go round.