By December 1999, everyone in the village knew about the banners, and by February 2000 at least eight banners were completed. On 28th March we held our last workshop, with everyone's banners finished, all pinned up round the Hall.
In April, we were given more than enough of the fabric we needed to mount the banners on, and were offered the beaters' room in the Sub-Tropical Gardens as a place to store them until May. We asked everyone to bring their banners to Wheelwrights on Monday 27th April and to the village hall on the following day. We had two machines going full pelt stitching the banners to the fabric, and at 2.00pm precisely ... we were finished !
There's only enough room here for one row of the 60 kneelers but, of course, you can see the originals in the parish church, which is always open in daylight hours.
All Abbotsbury life is there ~ ammonites, birds, trees and flowers, village buildings, signposts for the walkers ~ all hand-stitched on panels individually coloured with transfer paint. By the late spring of 2002, the quilt was ready. The Hall committee, who had printed 3000 tickets for the raffle soon had to print 3000 more! By the end of May, every single ticket had been sold, £1200 had been raised for the repair fund, and the quilt now hangs in Blandford, in a healing room for cancer sufferers.
We bought fabric for the black background in Dorchester, and went further afield for the colours ~ to Poole, Sturminster Newton, and Southall for the sheers. Beads, sequins and ribbons were bought wherever we saw little gems. We went on the internet for little bells, and eventually found them ... in America. It was amazing how quickly everyone finished their squares, but it wasn't until we started stitching beads and sequins on to the designs that we all realised how they enriched the work and turned the squares into individual works of art.
At the end of January 2006, with most of the squares completed, we started on the edges, made tassels and strung them on to ribbon with beads and bells. We assembled the whole of the cover on Saturday 11th March, a very special day, filled with laughter.
A week later we had a private view in the church, with the cover on the piano for the first time. With families and friends we all enjoyed an evening of looking at the finished work of art ~ it was delightful.
We also write books ~
"ABBOTSBURY, Sketched in Mist & Sunlight" is the first book about Abbotsbury village for nearly 20 years, and the only one to cover its history from the earliest days right up to the celebrations for the Millennium. We have the last few copies on sale here for £3.50. "ABBOTSBURY ~ the "Appreciation" revisited" is a photographic record of every building in Abbotsbury, following in the steps of the 1973 "Appreciation of Abbotsbury", showing just how much the village has changed in the last 30 years. Thanks to a lottery grant, we have copies on sale for only £1.75. "CRAFTS FOR ALL ABILITIES" ~ Written from her experience of running craft groups in residential homes, Sue's book includes projects that can easily be tackled inside an hour by anyone, regardless of their skills or any limitations to their abilities. After 10 successful years, Sue's book is now out of print, and we're one of the few places still stocking it, at £7.95 a copy.