Branch meeting Thursday 20th February 2014

Although it is always enjoyable to do a workshop or listen to a visiting speaker it is always  special time when we are just members all together as in this meeting.

Three members did a Show and Tell

Jan Mellor related her experiences with a 'travelling' book, a concept that was introduced to all branches by headquarters. Jan has a wonderful book called 'A Woman's Touch' which is a result of its 'travels' round another group to which she belongs, When the regional day is over it may be that some of our members would like to join such a group within the branch.

Jean Handley brought along her unnamed teddy. Jean had deconstructed some men's ties and remade them into a very delightful teddy. She explained its provenance and life experiences but told us that he was, so far, nameless.
Very swiftly came the suggestion of Tyrone, so now he is Tyrone Teddy.

Laura Brown was at first reluctant to show us her wonderful knitted bag but then warmed to the idea. The bag was made from a kit that she purchased in Canada. The whole idea was to knit the bag and then felt it in a washing machine. Floral decoration was made and added separately.

I am hoping to get these three people to bring along their objects to the next meeting.
I had forgotten to take a camera to the meeting and I know pictures of the objects would greatly enhance the blog.


Anne Whaley had brought along some wonderful pictures of all the things that are to be put in the raffle bags on regional bag.  They were SO impressive and a wonderful reflection of the goodwill, skills and generosity of our members.

Many of us chose the basic pattern for the doodle pictures for the April meeting workshop which has been planned and prepared by Barbara Bauckham. Barbara is planning to join all our efforts together as another collated record of the skills and imagination of our members.

Thanks to all of these people for their contributions.

The rest of the meeting was spent in social stitching or having a chat and catching up with other members.

Before our next meeting we are to enjoy our annual lunch outing at the Church Inn, 

Rochdale Branch Meeting Jan  2014

Our first meeting of 2014 was a talk, and what a talk. I had been lucky enough to hear Linda Barton speak on this subject before ( at the AGM in Southport) but she is certainly worth hearing again.
Her subject was the Stephen Simpson's gold thread works in Preston.

The  processes in the production of gold thread/wire are quite amazing  and Linda bought home to us the wide use of the braids and threads produced at the works.

She traced the rise and fall of the works in some detail and illustrated it all with some excellent photographs.

The use of gold thread on naval uniforms is illustrated here. The days when the gold was used are sadly over we learned and nowadays lurex threads are used.  This is not always popular with some high ranking people we learned!

 Here are some of the samples of wire that Linda brought along. We learned of the long, skilled and highly complicated process of producing the wires and threads

  A gold tassel. You can see the thickness of the individual strands used in the tassel.

The freemasons and other organisations used 

Simpson's and their skilled embroiderers and machinists to produce  banners and emblems.

Although the facts and pictures were, on their own, interesting , the whole subject was brought alive by the manner in which it was presented. Linda's enthusiasm for her subject shines through and her delivery is well paced and vibrant.

Linda told us that she has been so busy giving talks that her personal life has been curtailed and she feels that it is time to have some time to pursue other things.

How lucky we were to have booked her for this talk before that happens!

NW Regional Day. Sunday April 27th 2014

The preparations are well under way now. We have done everything as much as we can  but continue with some fine tuning.

The imponderables are :-

How many tickets will be sold?

How many people will enter the competitions?

How many young embroiderers will come along?

Theses are things that cannot be pre-organised 

Time will tell!

February Meeting 

Is show and tell and social stitching.

Don't forget to hand in the survey so that they can be sent off to be studied and have contents analysed.

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