• 2023 – The First Year of CQ Surrey

    Wow, what a year it was! At Festival of Quilts 2022 a conversation took place bemoaning the lack of a contemporary quilt group in the Surrey and Sussex area, so Annie Henderson-Begg, Sue Norgrove-Moore, Deena Goff and Janine Pound got together that autumn to begin to turn the idea into reality. A constitution was written,…

  • Using TEXT in TEXTiles with Alison Livesley

    9th August 2025 Alison led a workshop based on her learning at a Claire Benn workshop held at InStitches (with Claire’s permission). A lot of us have admired the use of text in quilts and thought it was something we didn’t have the skill to do. I for one have very untidy handwriting at the…

  • Paper and Fabric Bead Making with Jenny Parker

    12 July 2025 We gathered in a hot day in July (grateful for the effective fans in our venue!) to share another day of fabric fun. Our first session was the revealing of our earlier challenge to produce a piece of work based on the theme ‘Close to Home’ – a piece with a sense…

  • Permission to Stop! Working with Maps workshop with Vanessa Rolf

    14 June 2025 Vanessa Rolf is a local lady who went to school in Bookham and has fond memories of the Barn Hall where we meet each month. She studied fabric and textiles in Birmingham before working in the fashion industry. For a self-confessed ‘free spirit’ the repeat production of butterflies and chrysanthemums proved uninspiring…

  • Image transfer onto paper and fabric

    10 May 2025 On Saturday we learnt many ways of transferring images to paper and fabric with Chris Marchant. This included the different results of an inkjet or toner printed image, using 100% acetone or acrylic paint or medium, transferring onto tissue, cartridge, art papers and fabric. Also making prints onto freezer paper (the gloss…

  • Back to school with paper and coloured pencils; and Mary McIntosh

    12 April 2025 A Design and Colour Workshop with Vicki Worth What a fun morning we had at this meeting. Member-led workshops are always entertaining and with often surprising outcomes! We were asked simply to bring an A4 picture of a landscape and coloured pencils (took some finding, lurking in the back of a cupboard…

  • Wet Felting and AGM

    8 March 2025 Enormous thanks to Yvonne M and Buffy who provided a brilliant day of wet felting for almost 30 people. It was a great introduction for those who had not tried it before and a brilliant reminder to those who had previously dabbled, to get their wool tops back out. Our show and…

  • Claire Benn, Kawandi and the Recycling Challenge reveal

    8 February 2025 Our February meeting was filled with excitement and we all had a most enjoyable day. We started with a talk by renowned textile artist Claire Benn who told us about her life, starting as a traditional quilter and moving to dying fabrics using acrylic paint with natural dyes and then soya milk…

  • In-house workshop – Gelli plate printing

    11 January 2025 A wonderful turn out of over 30 members for our first meeting of 2025. Sharon and Deborah led a session on printing on paper and fabric with Gelli plates. Some of us had tried this before; many of us had brand new Gelli plates languishing in cupboards that we were keen to…

  • CQ Surrey Retreat

    4-8 November 2024 As a new group who were only formed 23 months ago, we seem to have packed a lot in our time together. We’ve enjoyed workshops, visiting speakers, trips, sewing sessions, challenges, exhibitions and so much more. Many of our members have exhibited their work in a variety of venues and shows, and…

  • In-house workshop – Thinking about Texture

    9 November 2024 We were treated to a veritable cornucopia of ideas and inspiration by Sue N-M, who brought in an astonishing amount of her own work as well as some beautiful pieces of stitching and beadwork collected from charity shops, including an exquisite Indian embroidered dress.  She explained the many techniques she had used…