Olympic Pennants

Last week we had a day making pennants for the Olympic Games. Below are some pictures of the ladies hard at work. We all brought along a dish and we stopped for a lovely long lunch.

We used the big hall so there was plenty of room to spread out.

No pictures of the finished pennants yet- they are to follow.

Pearlies

On Thursday we had a really interesting talk about Pearly Kings and Queens- appropriate as it was the eve of the Royal Wedding. We heard about the history of the Pearlies which  was begun in 1875, by Henry Croft. Today they raise thousands of pounds every year for charity.

 This is the wonderful costume of the Pearly Queen of Clapton, Theresa Watts who has sewn 3600 buttons on to complete the decoration. The design is her own and is unique.

Theresa is pictured here with her mother Jackie who is the Pearly Queen of Hackney. Again she has made her own costume and the designs on it are unique to her. We were able to look at the costumes closely and handle them. They are extremely heavy and must be uncomfortable to wear.

The hats are made with dyed ostrich feathers and decorated with buttons.

Theresa brought along her son Alfie who is a Pearly Prince, but he managed to avoid having his photograph taken!

We had a very informative evening and finished off with a true Cockney sing-song.

Welcome

Welcome to the new blog for Ferrers Quilters Patchwork Group from South Woodham Ferrers in Essex.
The group meets in South Woodham Village Hall on the 2nd and 4th Thursdays of the month from 7.30pm to 10pm.
Our next meeting on Thursday 28th April is an open meeting when we will be having a talk by Pearly Queen Teresa Watts ,and will be held in the Village Hall in the upstairs bar. Visitors welcome.

Below are some pictures of a recent workshop we had with Richard Box.

We almost managed to finish our poppy pictures in the day- finishing touches were needed at home!