News

Monday 3rd August 2026

A warm welcome was given to eleven members of our group when we went to join the New Forest Quilt Group at one of their regular meetings.

The group had invited us to do a ‘Show and Tell’ of our work as part of their meeting. After a brief introduction to their history and the work they do for various charities some of their members showed us the items they had made at various workshops, producing some very interesting pieces used for quilts, wall hangings etc.

This was followed by a short break where we all had a chance to talk to each other and buy fabric from Karen from Krafty Korner shop in New Milton who had come along to the meeting. Krafty Korner also provided some packs of fabric as prizes for the raffle.

Our group had taken along a variety of work including a large double, queen size, single and lap quilts, wall hangings and bags along with framed cross stitch pictures made by one of our members between making quilts! All these items were talked about and left for people to look at and ask questions.

This was followed by more of the New Forest Quilt group showing their lovely work. It is hoped that they will be able to come to visit us and show more of our members their work.

We all came away enthused by their work and one of our group even won one of the fabric packs in the raffle.

On Monday 23rd March 2026 we welcomed Teresa Blakey from Age Concern  New Forest, our chosen charity for 2025, when we presented her with a cheque for £600 collected by the group over the year.

Teresa told us that one of the quilts we had given them raised over £108, the wall hanging was sold for £15 and the second quilt will be raffled off at their volunteer party in June. She thanked us for all the work we did to raise so much to support them.

 Pictured above are Carol Hathaway, who nominated the charity for last year, Teresa and Wendy Axton chair of the group’s committee. 

Once more we had a wide variety of projects being undertaken during our Saturday sewing day.
We had mug caddies, a lovely Christmas stocking, quilts being backed, large and small, backing for a king size quilt being made plus cushion covers and a bag.
Our thanks went to Alison once more for organising the day and we all look forward to the next  ‘Away Day’ in the new year.

As a result of our 2025 group project we were able to present two lovely 48” square quilts to the representative of our charity for the year, Age Concern New Forest.

On 12th October we welcomed Carol Marley, the charity’s Information and Advice Coordinator, to our meeting where she was given the quilts, plus a wall hanging donated by Anne Wellington one of our members.

Carol was very pleased to receive the quilts, thanking us and saying the charity will look into the best way of using them to raise funds and ‘to do justice to the time and effort the group have put in to producing the works of art’.

Age Concern New Forest is an independent local charity providing support for older people 55+ years, their families and carers in the New Forest.

For 25 years, Age Concern New Forest has provided a range of services, from information and advice, ear and foot care, lunch clubs and more!

The charity receives no government funding and raises its income through its charity shops, contribution payments for some of its charitable activities, donations, legacies, grants and other fundraising.

More information about them can be found on their website: www.ageconcernnewforest.org.uk.

Pictured above is Judy Elson, who put the quilts together, Carol and Wendy, our group committee chair.