IT'S been another successful and very busy year for Penarth and District Quilters, and at their AGM at the end of November the group's chairman, Jane Wells, was able to report that as a result of all their hard work over the past 12 months, PDQ would be donating more than £2,000 to local charities.

The year had got off to a flying start when they received the Gold award for their entry in the group category of the 2013 Festival of Trees at St Augustine's Church, and they are looking forward to exhibiting again this year.

Then at their January meeting a quilting bee was organised at the church hall where they met and spent a very productive day measuring, marking, cutting, stitching and finally assembling a quilt they were all proud to be part of. The quilt was to raise funds for Down's Syndrome Cymru in memory of Elin Davies, a much-loved friend and member of PDQ who spent her life teaching children with special needs.

Elin's Quilt was supervised and coordinated by professional quilter Sonia Fox and it raised £1,000, the winning raffle ticket being drawn at the AGM by one of Elin's former pupils, Jen Coleman from Dinas Powis.

This year the group actually supported two main charities, the second being Noah's Road2Recovery, a fund established to help a little boy from Barry who lost a leg after contracting meningitis at the age of just eight months. They shall be presenting the cheque to Noah's Mum at their January meeting. Smaller donations have also been made to the RNLI and to a number of other charities based specifically in the town.

To all their friends who bought raffle tickets for Elin's Quilt and who supported their summer exhibition, may they once again thank you for your loyal support and encouragement and for giving them the opportunity to share with you their love of quilting.

It is only the generosity of local (and sometimes not so local people) that makes it possible for them to give something back to this wonderful little town that they live in.