October Meeting Notices

Embroiderers’ Guild Birmingham Branch: Meeting Notices October 15

Welcome to a busy evening; our AGM to begin the evening and then a talk from Bren Broadman, who will be sharing some of her wonderful work.

As you know it is membership renewal time. Please see Anne Haigh or Jeanette if you have yet to renew your membership – I only got around to doing it a couple of days ago, but am now safely re-joined and looking forward to a full and exciting year. A thank you on behalf of all of us to all of the committee for their hard work last year.

Some of us went to the regional AGM and had a good day with great soup! You should have received information from the National Guild by email with important documents about the future structures of the guild and the national consultation. Please read them carefully and think about your reply. It is your personal view they are looking for but the committee will discuss this when we meet on 23^rd November and will feedback any useful information and reflections by the Christmas meeting.

Clare continues to be our link person for the Capability Brown Project which is progressing. We had some feedback at the regional AGM. If you would like to participate please start thinking about the subject and what you might like to do and let Clare know. There is another meeting of the planning group at the end of the month, so Clare should have clear instructions by the next meeting. There is some further information and some photographs on the blog and if you are able to visit Charlecote Park don’t forget it is free entry with your guild membership card till the end of the year.

We also have a chance to exhibit some of our own work at the Makit and Lacit Exhibition in Solihull the weekend on 5^th December pieces can be hung or free standing. We need 3 volunteers to steward and volunteers to set up on the Friday afternoon. We need around 8 pieces of work to be brought to the November meeting and maybe some travelling books. Again Clare is liaising (what would we do without her) so have a word with her if you need further information. It would be helpful if you could let her know tonight if you have a piece you would like to include. Please label your pieces carefully with your name and contact details and package them in a way that you are sure will allow their safe transport. Make sure both the packaging and the piece are labelled so they can be reunited at the end. Clare will be organising volunteer names at the November branch meeting. The fair is held at Cranmore Park, Cranmore Avenue, Shirley, Solihull B90 4LE. There is a web site for the venue and for the Makit Fairs. Tickets are £7.50 but if you order in advance and buy two tickets, they are £6.50 there is free parking.

The travelling books are continuing to be a great success and we hope you are all enjoying participating. A reminder that if you have any anxieties about the process or about how to include your piece in the book securely have a word with Heather or another committee member. At the end of this cycle we will be reviewing how things have gone and will ask for your feedback then in the meantime we hope you keep on enjoying the project.

We are aware that car parking is an issue. There isn’t an easy answer but we would encourage you to park as best you can but be ready to move your car quickly at the end of the meeting if you are blocking anyone in. We also want to encourage as much car sharing as we can and Meriel is going to organise a car pool so that individuals can be put in touch with others in their area who might want to travel with them.

Clare, Betty and Elizabeth, building on their wonderful work for the Staffordshire Hoard Exhibition, are planning something based on that for a meeting next year. Watch this space! It should be a great opportunity and particularly useful for anyone inexperienced with hand stitching.

Washboard Health Group. The first meeting went well as we explored ideas on how to bring the work together into a hanging with Qulsom and her research assistant, Jo. There were only 2 women attending the group, however Qulsom is going to various things on Friday to encourage others to come back or to join the group. The idea is to dye some curtain lining, print it with motifs/designs created by the group and then to apply their existing work to the background, using stitch to add detail to some of the existing work as well as a means of attaching to the background. Thank you to June and Liz who attended the first meeting and brought some great ideas to the morning. We have a plan for the next meeting, and then we’ll see where that leads to. There may be a chance for more to get involved one Saturday as they are thinking of running a community day to have people add stitch to the back ground. I’ll let people know if that is arranged so they can drop in if they want to.

We have been lucky enough to be able to buy Angie Atwoods’ wonderful kits and a discount at meetings. We would like to extend this possibility to any branch members who would like to sell their work. If they are commercial pieces like Angie’s we would ask for a members discount; there is no charge for selling at the meeting. If you want to sell pieces for charity there is no charge and no expectation of a discount. We will have a space in the lobby set aside and will see how it goes for the next few months

As you know some of us were lucky enough to go to Westhope in September and had a wonderful time. We have booked again in two years’ time. The weekend of 8^th to 10^th September 2017. More details nearer the time.

Thank you to our tea and coffee makers tonight and thank you for your continuing support for the raffle. Novembers colour is Silver and the November meeting is a wonderful opportunity to hear Pat Trott talk about Mountmellick work. I sadly can’t make that meeting I am very disappointed, but work has got in the way. Heather will be standing in and I hope you have a wonderful evening.

Bernadette Wilkinson on behalf of the committee.