The Icing on the Cake

What a wonderful meeting we had on Saturday, April 21st with our guest speaker Maggie Grey.  ( do visit Maggie’s blog ) http://magstitch.blogspot.co.uk/

What a lovely lady who charmed and ‘WoW’ed us all with her talk  ‘Mixed Media for Stitch’.   Maggie brought an amazing collection of pieces of her work and was more than happy for us to pick them up and look very closely at them.   She talked us through numerous techniques to demonstrate how many of the textures and effects had been created and introduced us to many products that we may have heard of but never actually used. I am sue that many of us couldn’t wait to get home to start using the materials that we have put away somewhere that we bought at a show because we had seen it being used but them promptly confined it to a cupboard never to see light of day again!

I for one am going to start using the Kozo paper that has been lingering in a box for a couple of years and I am definitely going to be purchasing some soluble paper! I am also on the hunt now for a pasta machine and I am no doubt as our chairman said in her vote of thanks to Maggie that Ebay will have been very busy this weekend with people from our Region all trying to buy one!
What an inspiration Maggie is.

By good fortune Maggie’s new book has just arrived this week and we were able to clear her out of the stock that she brought with her.

In total we had about 50 people at the meeting, a good number of our own members and members from many branches in close proximity to Blackpool.  The whole place was buzzing. We serve tea and cakes and no one seemed in any kind of hurry to leave once Maggie had finished her talk.
We were also joined by Christine Poole, Chairman of the Guild.
                                    
I for one won’t forget the lovely time we had with Maggie and her able assistant  Clive.  What a treasure he is. He did a great job working the slideshow from the laptop and then selling books.
I almost forgot to say that Maggie managed all of this with a lovely smile on her face the whole time despite her right hand still being in pain and out of action. She handled it all brilliantly. A big thank you Maggie from all of us.
                     
                      
                      
                       
                        

National AGM

The National AGM too place at the Southport Convention Centre at the end of March. Several of our members attended and we were delighted to see all of the postcards for ‘The Sporting Nations of the World’.  They were an awesome sight.

The AGM meeting was led very professionally by our two new presidents Jan Beany and Jean Littlejohn.

During this part of the day our own Kathryn Thompson was presented with an award by Jan Beany.

            
This was an acknowledgement for her all her hard work not only for the North West Region but also for organising the AGM. A well deserved award.  Well done Kathryn.

The raffle prizes were handmade bags filled with lots of goodies, just like our bags on Regional Day last year.

The afternoon speakers were excellent. Linda Barton was the first speaker ‘Spinning a Golden Yarn’ her account of the history of the Stephen Simpsons Goldwork  Company that used to be in Preston. She was most informative and very amusing.
The second Speaker was Bridget Guest who spoke about the Quaker Tapestry. Also  a very interesting, informative and amusing speaker.

I am sure that I speak for our members and say that it all went very well and was thoroughly enjoyable. I only went on the Saturday but I am reliably told that the Friday was also very enjoyable too!

Just a selection of postcards – there were too many boards and some were very difficult to photograph because of the space and the angle. Ours our there – can you spot them?

 
     
               

Liz Almond–Blackwork

In March our speaker was Liz Almond who brought the most stunning display of Blackwork with her.  She told us all about her very interesting and inspiring ‘Blackwork Journey’   You can read much more about it here  http://www.blackworkjourney.co.uk/

She talked us through many of her pieces and handed them round for us to look at more closely. We learnt a lot about her sources of inspiration and the influences that brought her work to where it is today.  We were hoping to have a workshop in May with Liz but we are having to re-schedule as not enough members will be available to the date booked.   Hopefully she will be back with us in the very near future.

               
               
               
               
What a very talented and prolific lady she is!