What now seems like forever, several years since, I joined a weekend workshop with Sheena Roberts (Green Man Quilts) at the Jane White Sewing Studios.   These are at the Ropewalk in Barton on Humber, an arts and crafts hub with a very tasty deli-style cafe where an eclectic mix of crafters can be found.    We learnt how to create circles, a new technique for me that is really simple once you know how.    The best part of the workshop was meeting my fellow workshoppers – lifelong sewing friends were formed over the space of two days.

Jeannie and I did this together.  We have known each other since we started senior school and supported each other throughout our lives, our divorces, remarriages, our children and in every crisis and pleasure that life has given to us.  I do wonder sometimes how many people who were at school together still speak to each other almost every day.  It was natural that we chose to try out a workshop for the first time, together.

We made these quilts.  The blue one is mine and the orange one is Jeannie’s   That’s us in the middle with another of the workshoppers ..  If you get a chance to join one of Sheena’s workshops I thoroughly recommend them.  You will find her on FB and once you meet her will recognise her as one of the key people at the Festival of Quilts too.

What came from that day was a legacy of enjoyment, and the recognition of how much fun sewing together in a group could be – learning and laughing together.   The lunch was good too!   Jeannie and I put our heads together and decided to start the sewing group Our Quilty Pleasures.   It’s local with some of our members travelling from as far afield as Bradford – we even have virtual members in Bournemouth and Corby.   In better times we meet every second Saturday, and since April have aimed to have a ‘second Saturday sew day’ and post virtually in our Facebook Group.

Last year we planned an exhibition. Our first. On 13th June 2020.  It was to be in a wonderful arts centre in Scunthorpe .. Cafe Indie, whose ceiling is a riot of colourful umbrellas and seating a hotchpotch of recycled furniture.  There’s almost always someone strumming a guitar or playing the piano spontaneously, a play space for the kids, books to read and a great deli cafe.  It’s a brilliant music venue for our town day and night. Art covers the walls and there are even a Tardis, Dalek and a couple of very large penguins.

Well  – that didn’t happen!  2020 has not been great for public gatherings really has it!

So we went virtual.   It was amazing.   Our group’s Facebook Group is private, but we wanted to share our makes and quilts with you anyway.    We had all contributed a block to create a fabulous, joint quilt that Jeannie put together and Sandra quilted and which we plan to raffle eventually for our charity efforts and group funds.   Isn’t it fabulous!

Jeannie and I created a joint quilt – problem with that is who looks after it now – we are still working on that conundrum.  Jeannie started off with the perfect Storm at Sea and I made the compass.   It was lightly quilted in a wavy pattern and bubbles around the compass.   This quilt is all about the patchwork this time.

Most of us were posting on and off all day – here’s just a selection of them.

Lesley’s selection featured her very first baby quilt and we loved the way she added soft toys to them too.

Elaine showed these to us – the dresdens were shown off perfectly with the framing.

Caroline’s Quilts – she creates such a lot of beautiful makes, so there’s just three here to see, and they are enormous too!  She likes to go big.

Yolly showed off a quilt she made for a celebrity some of us might recognise and anyone who knows here would expect to see the purple one in there.

Helen’s makes included some lovely bags alongside her quilts (we allowed the cats on quilts hehe). The grey and yellow one was her first full-size quilt.

Carol’s creations included her charity makes  – fidgets are such fun to make aren’t they.  She is one of this website’s bloggers and an ambassador for Panicos in Stockton.

Joan’s one of our virtual members and joined in with this lovely quilt she had made for a special friend.   The Cardinal birds are very special to that person.

Julia and her Mum Edna showed us these – a mother and daughter effort.   Edna doesn’t ‘do’ FB, so Julia posted on her behalf (the HST were Edna’s lovely pointy points).

Jeannie posted a quilt that she made from a pattern by Abbie Searle – Deco Days and included some lovely details in her pictures too.   You can find the pattern to this and lots more from Abbie here

I have been making the Abbie Searle Deco Days too, but it’s still unfinished. I showed these, the Big Dream Panel is my FMQ practice on my Simply Sixteen Longarm machine and frame and the fidget was donated to a local care home that Carol had been asked to help.

Karen Elizabeth had a small model for one of her makes, and a beautiful view as well.

Sandra is one of our newest members, joining us this year, but she showed us these.  We first met at a tutorial day with Lynda Jackson to learn our LA skills.

Deborah had been finishing and gifting before she could show us this one, a fitting end with all the rainbows popping up in windows everywhere.  Lovely prairie points around the edging.

I really do encourage anyone missing the camaraderie of sewing together to join a sewing group, online or in person once we are allowed out again. Quilters are friendly folk aren’t we so just take a deep breath and go along.  Setting OQP up was easy really, although there was a time we didn’t think it would really happen.  We meet at the local college, who have been kind enough to let us have a cupboard to store things in.   Over time we have used the funds to buy mats, cutters and rulers to help everyone, and usually have a couple of spare machines for anyone to use.    We have been sewing together forever now it seems and have progressed from that hesitant first meeting, when no one really knew what to expect, to a great band of patchworking quilters, sharing patterns, helping each other out, showing new techniques to each other and more and once a year try to have a road trip.   We often band together to make quilts for local charities or needy groups  We collect quilts, hearts, and now masks, for our local NICU, donate fidgets to care homes and our local social services asked if we would create lap quilts to donate to their young people leaving care.  There’s never any pressure to join in with anything, and often we chat (did someone mention gossip hehe) more than sew, or we work together on a project – like if someone needs a quilt sandwiching. My favourite time is when someone asks for help hand binding – I love an old fashioned sewing bee chat – if you have never done this I heartily recommend it.

Exhibitions are great, and probably a lot less stressful online.  Facebook is wonderful for showing things off, whether in the group’s private FB group or just simply showing the quilts to everyone in UK Quilters United.    Likes and comments are really helpful and motivate us all to make more.    But more than anything, its the joining in that is such great fun.