Hello everyone and welcome to the October newsletter.  I hope you have enjoyed hearing from our committee members over the past 6 months and feel that you now know a little bit more about them and the work they do for AQ.  I am delighted to welcome our new committee member, Jill Bowman, from Wellington.  Jill will be joining us at our face-to-face meeting in Hamilton at the beginning of November and will be immersed into the workings of Aotearoa Quilters.

By now those of you that attended symposium will have unpacked, put things away and no doubt be reflecting on what you did, what you learnt and what you might do in the future.  I think that Alison and her team need to be congratulated for organising the event, for their constantly smiling faces and the friendly way they went about making things happen. Nothing seemed to be a problem for them, so a big thank you from all of us in Aotearoa Quilters. It was a most enjoyable 5 days.

I spent quite a lot of time on the AQ stand with other committee members explaining what AQ does and talking about the quilts we had on exhibition. It was very busy and a big thank you to those members that were able to help us at the table, it was most appreciated. It was also great putting some faces to names that I have seen on entry forms and catching up with so many of our members. We managed to sign up 32 new members so welcome to you all and we hope you enjoy being part of the organisation.

I did participate in a workshop, Collagraphs with Merrilyn George. Something very different for me and hopefully something I might pursue in the future. Having made a book in our regional group workshop on Book Binding, I have now got an idea of what I could put in it. A lot more practice needed, but I am keen to get started. I also attended some lunch time lectures and the one I really enjoyed was with Bethanne Nemish, ‘The Art of Yarn Couching’. I went to Bernina and had a lesson on how to couch, bought a couching foot and have been practising and playing since I got home.  A lot to learn but great fun!

Regards Valda Sutton, President