A delicate needle with a fine thread weaves in and out of beautiful colours and patterns, revealing the brilliant patch-worked tapestry of a quilted masterpiece.

Each Monday the Papamoa Patchers meet up to get creative and craft wonderful quilted treasures. It's not just quilts for the bed that the group makes either. 'There's lots of quilty items that we'll make,” says Papamoa Patchers' president Angela Robins. 'We'll make table runners, covered boxes, bags are quite popular too…so there's lots of different things.”

The group is made up of ladies of lots of different ages too. 'We cover a very broad range of ages and everybody just gets along and we've all got quilting as our interest. We've got one member who's 95 and another one who's 91; then they trickle down and we've got a couple in their 50s.”

Angela enjoys how friendly the group is. 'The way everybody supports each other and the friendships, and I think they're a lovely friendly group of women, they're very welcoming

'Since we've come back from Covid-19 it's been really interesting because it's become a real support group for some of those women who live on their own and I think we're fulfilling a really vital role in that community.”

With Christmas just around the corner, the group is doing the 'ugly fat quarter” challenge this year. The challenge involves swapping a one-quarter metre of fabric that you think is ugly, with someone else's fabric and make something new from it. 'At Christmas they have to bring them back and show us what they've made with their ugly piece of fabric because you know one person's ugly could be another person's beautiful, so it'll be interesting to see what people have made.”

Elizabeth Althuizen with a lovely patch work piece. Photo: Bob Tulloch.

Papamoa Patchers meet at St Andrew's Church Hall, corner of Dee St and Ranch Rd, Mount Maunganui 9.30am-2.30pm on the first and third Monday, and 9.30am-12.30pm on the second and fourth Monday each month. 'We welcome new members…come along and check us out!”