This is the beautiful Christmas tree decorated by Daphne Abbott and Laura Brown for the event at St Chad's parish church, Rochdale  on the first weekend in December.

An invitation to take part in this event was sent out to many groups throughout Rochdale and met with a good response. The groups were from many aspects of life in the town and many age groups were represented.

Daphne and Laura agreed to take on the task of decorating the tree, on behalf of the branch.

Members were asked to bring in suitable items for decorating the tree, many of which had resulted from workshops over the years. The items were 'catalogued' by our willing pair, an onerous task in itself . The quality and variety of the items submitted were stunning and well reflected the talents of the members.

We all know how time-consuming decorating a Christmas tree for the home can be so can imagine  the hard work that was put into this work of art

Visitors to the church were asked to vote for the tree they liked best and The Embroiderers' Guild tree won by a considerably margin.

Thanks to all for bringing along the result of your labours and a huge thank you to Daphne and Laura

( Another pleasing aspect of this is that all of the leaflets which publicise the branch and its activities were taken by visitors. This means that many more people now know of the existence of the branch and its activities)

The December Meeting

The Japanese art of Gift wrapping with fabric--- Furoshiki

Katie Chaplin, who has previously visited the branch to speak about the Japanese tea ceremony , led this fascinating workshop at our last meeting of 2013

Members worked in pairs to create beautiful wrappings like the one shown. Many had lovely names like Flower Wrap Four Petal knot and Watermelon wrap. A very different skill indeed .

 I wonder how many members will be giving their loved ones a fabric wrapped gift for Christmas?

Katie also had some beautiful Japanese materials and kits for making some fascinating  Japanese type objects. One lucky member purchased a beautiful kimono ( ME!!)

Our tea break was a bit special and Christmas cake and mince pies with brandy butter were amongst the things on offer ( thanks Marie for enabling that)

2013 has provided us with some great workshops, interesting talks and the challenge of staging the Regional Day in 2014

Time now for relaxing and having a very Merry Christmas and Happy and Peaceful New Year

See you in 2014

November 

The November meeting was an opportunity to do a workshop to produce a beaded cracker. The members who chose to do this were kept very busy by Jane England who had planned the workshop and was assisted by Kathryn Butterworth and Lindsey Pickles. Other members did social stitching.

We were pleased to have two visitors and to finally present Jean Mallone with her new members pack.

Many of the members went to the Knit and Stitch show at Harrogate. A coach went from the branch and was delayed because of re-routing due to problems with traffic but most people managed to find time to buy a few treats and see the exhibits.

As usual there was a wonderful selection of 'goodies' to buy and exhibits to view.

THE CORSET UNLACED

Todays meeting opened with a wonderful talk and presentation by Gill Roberts.
What Gill doesn't know about corsets isn't worth knowing. Many members were astounded by some of the photographs of ladies with unbelievably small waists and some of the fetishes which have grown about  corsets ( not quite like the ones my mother used to wear !!!!)

After tea there was a lively discussion about the branch and its future and members put forward a lot of ideas for the committee to consider.

On Saturday nine of the members attended the North West AGM At Garstang Golf club.

Because our branch are hosting the 2014 North West regional day the members were invited to send or bring along entries for the Broderers' cup. The winner has their work displayed on the North West journal for the next edition (2014).
The branch was well represented with works of many types filling the tables that were set aside.

At the December meeting we will re-present Joyce Bargh with her trophy as she was unable to be with us at the November meeting. Well done, Joyce

Joyce Bargh with winning entry in Broderers' cup

THE GUILD AT ROCHDALE

Welcome to this brand new blog which will start off as a simple mention of our branch and will then, I hope, grow to a frequently updated source of information about our programme, events and members.

Rochdale guild meets every third Thursday of the month at 1.15pm until 4.15pm
 We meet at Norden Methodist church, on Edenfield Road