Olympic athletes competing at the 2012 Olympics in London could be presented with pennants made by craft groups in Melksham.

Craft Coffee and Chat and Bowerhill Busy Bees, two groups who meet at Bowerhill Village Hall, have got involved with a national initiative to make 12,000 pennants for the London Olympics through a website called Quilts4London.

The website was launched by Irene Heathcote and Catherine Hill, from Hemel Hempstead, who are asking people to make pennants to be used in exhibitions leading up to the Olympics, as well as being presented to each athlete as a personal gift.

Jenny Butcher, 59, who runs Craft Coffee and Chat, said: "It's quite an exciting thing to do because it means people that wouldn't necessarily have anything to do with the Olympics can.

“I was saying the other day that I would never get a chance to do something like this because it's not likely they will be held in this country again anytime soon.

“I am addicted to making them. I have made about 12 or 13 and I am still going. I made the one with the Wiltshire flag and the White Horse and another with plastic milk bottle tops covered in material.

“I think it’s a once-in-a- lifetime thing.

“You don’t need to be a whizz at sewing to make one of these pennants, you can put one together with glue and fabric paints, so children at local schools could easily do something too.”

Mrs Butcher has run Craft Coffee and Chat, which meets every fortnight, with Marilyn Williams since 2007.

She said some of the other ladies who attend (about 28 regulars, but 40 overall), aged from their mid-40s to their mid-80s have really taken to making the pennants.

As well as the two Bowerhill groups, the Bromham Stitchers, Denese Quilters in Melksham and Broughton Gifford Piecemakers are also involved, thanks to the Wiltshire co-ordinator Liz Norris, who lives in Foresters Park Road, Melksham.

She said: “We have until December 2011 to make all the pennants we want and then they will be transported to London.

“I want to thank Mike Prior from Bath Midway Litho in Trowbridge, who has been printing out all the instructions for the ladies who don’t have access to internet.”

The website can be found via the link below.