• Welcome to the stitching blog

  11th August 2026

  We've had a quiet few months due to working and holidays but we had 6 members attending in August along with Danni a new member (Welcome Danni). It was so good to see what has been produced since we last met and have a really good chatter.

  

  Some members of the stitching group at the August meeting

  Sandy has completed her part of the group squares, just a title and the backing to finish it. We hope to have it ready so we can display the banner at the AGM in October. Sandy is also making a crochet cardigan but I forgot to take a photo (too busy talking!)

  

  

  Danni has joined us for the first time. She is a skilled needlewoman. She brought along some very tiny exquisite animal figures that she has stitched She also does embroidery , knitting and many other crafts.

  

  

  Joy is still knitting. After a winter of Scarves she wanted a change and turned to loo roll covers. She's made lots and given each one a wacky theme. They all have names which have us in Stitches! eg Bog Marley, Lady Armatage Shanks, WC Fields, Flushed with Pride, Bum Notes, The outhouse etc. After ideas ran out she is now making hats including one in Grimsby colours.

  

  

  

  Beryl is taking a summer break from knitting. She is making some applique wall hangings from various bits of haberdashery. She has just started a yellow one. They look very effective. She has the most amazing knitting project lined up for the cooler weather. Watch this space.

  

  

  Pat has tried several things. An Autumn Jumper. A sun visor, a Fairisle baby jacket (never agin, all those ends to sew in), And recently a patchwork quilt. It is made of applique flowerbud squares joined together with intricate pathways. So far 5 bud squares completed. It may be a long project!

  

  

  

  

  10th February 2026

  A small select meeting again, but we all enjoyed chatting whilst we worked. Margaret was starting a new crotchet project and found it hard to concentrate on her stitching whilst talking, so decided to talk! Pat too, was unable to follow knitting pattern whilst talking, so did some basic mending. Joy is now knitting a goth Scarf, -blacks and purples and Beryl now has ownership of the gardening banner square and is adding her pennyworth. This is taking longer than we hoped as it is passed between stitchers and sometime one of us in unavailable.

  

  

  

  

  11th November 2025

  We had a small select gathering this month. Firstly we admire, but we d the miniature town scene that Beryl has knitted. The detail is amazing. Unsurprisingly it took months to perfect. It has been a labour of love, but it needs a good home. We didn't come up with any good suggestions it needs to be displayed and appreciated. Joy has also previously knitted similar characters.

  

  

  

  We then started work on the Garden group square for the banner. We cut out felt shapes that Joy had provided templates for. As we are good at multitasking we had plenty of opportunity to righten the wrongs of the world. We took the felt shapes home to work on embellishing them.

  

  

  Pat has now completed the throw and had to attack her finger tips with a pumice stone after hand stitching the quilting, so she could be fingerprinted at the EU border. Latest project is to make some beaded baubles with names.

  

  

  

  16th October 2025

  This month's meeting was rearranged due to holidays, so it was good to get together to catch up. We discussed Margaret's mystery book voucher that she was given for her 90th birthday last month, but we were unable to identify the kind donor. We've all kept in close contact via WhatsApp so it was good to see each other's progress in reality.

  These are the scarves that Joy has made this month. She's now made 15 altogether (rows of 300 stitches) and she gives them away for donations of £25 to charity. She's having a break from scarves and is working on a hat at the moment. She's also designed a square for the garden group to go on the u3a banner. We will start on that soon.

  

  

  

  

  

  

  Margaret is working on granny squares to make a bag, Beryl is knitting minute fiddly pastries to fit on a knitted stall and Sandy has worked out how to crotchet the flowers to edge the cardigan she has made. Ann is knitting strips to make another blanket for prem babies at the hospital. They need to be big enough to wrap around the mum, the baby and all the medical bits attached.

  

  

  

  

Pat has now made 122 granny squares for the throw pictured last month. 160 needed in total. She has completed the patchwork part of the quilt which contains over 1000 pieces, and now has to attach the padding and backing without use of a longarm machine! She also made a new multipocketed pouch as her old one was too small.

9th September 2025

We are updating the u3a banner which has squares representing each interest group. We are making one for our own group. Joy designed one that we could all take part in and the letters of STITCHING have all been stitched in different ways, by knitting crotchet, and various embroidery techniques.

Sandy has taken them all home to machine sew them onto a backing. We hope to be able to show it here next month.