If you have any questions, please present them to the Secretary,
Vicki Honeywood, or email them to her prior to the meeting
Chairman’s
report to AGM Layers of Stitch Embroiderers’ Guild Grantham September 6th
2016
Another
busy year for Layers of Stitch, and still in the light, bright environment of
Grantham Tennis Club. We continue to enjoy their cafe in the main Tennis Club
building, no longer run by Mencap, but still producing enjoyable lunches and
cake!
After
last year’s AGM, we had an excellent talk by Jeanette Jackson, who brought some
of her lovely textile pieces to show us; and later in November, we enjoyed a
workshop, Sculpting with Silk Paper, with Linda Rudkin, a sticky experience,
but the end produce was very interesting.
At
the end of November, we contributed to the St Wulfram’s (Grantham Parish
Church) Christmas Tree Festival, where there was also a skating rink, which
attracted a large number of people. Our tree was dressed with a variety of
hand-made decorations, produced by a lot of our members, and was one of 106
trees in the church.
Instead
of the usual raffle in our December meeting, Jenny suggested a ‘Bauble Swap’,
which proved to be very popular, so we plan to do it again this year.
We
have again just been involved in the National Celebration Day of Stitch in
early August, which was very successful at Belton House, both in the Stables
and in front of the Orangery, where the sun was just as hot as last year. We
also tried it in St Wulfram’s Church in the town this year, but although a
lovely, light environment to be in, we did not attract many stitchers.
Our
exhibition, ‘Landscapes and Gardens at Belton House’, helping to commemorate the
300th anniversary of the death of landscape gardener Capability
Brown, has been a huge success and has attracted many interested people. Having
been in planning since the new year, and nearly faltered when we realised that
we had to ‘build our own set’ on which to exhibit, we met the challenge and
have been very pleased with the result.
In
my group emails and on the blog, I have thanked the people who had so much involvement
in this project, and who helped to make it all possible, and would like to
thank them all again, as several have had involvement above and beyond the call
of duty, and I have been amazed by the level of positive support, which brought
the exhibition to fruition.
A
lot of the work shown at Belton now goes to Grantham Museum, where at this time
last year we were putting up our very first exhibition as a branch.
What
a lot we have achieved in a year!
Added
to that, despite one or two hiccups, we have had some lovely workshops during
the year, mainly in-house, but extra ones as well as on normal working days,
again demonstrating the levels of skill and expertise we have in our group, not
to mention variety.
We
have also enjoyed a talk from Suella Postles, entitled New from Old: Making Eco
Garments. We enjoyed a Casalguidi workshop with Brenda Scarman, and a wonderful
talk on Indian textiles from Mary Sleigh, both of whom have become annual
‘fixtures’ in our calendar, and are always very welcome.
If
members have any ideas about what workshops or speakers they would like in the
future, please let us know – we are always looking out for new ideas for you.
Plans
for next year will hopefully include a stall at the Lincolnshire Show in June,
and once we have more details, we shall use the February meeting workshops to
start making small items to sell towards raising money for this venture, which
should include all of the Lincolnshire branches of the Embroiderers’ Guild.
We
are also hoping to have access to Belton’s Textile Archive, which can be found
on their website, and which may be the inspiration for another exhibition in
the future.
The
Travelling Books continue to be an enjoyable part of our monthly ‘doings’ and
some members are on the way to starting a second book because theirs is full!
The books have attracted great interest at Belton, and children as well as
adults have been intrigued with the variety of designs and techniques in them.
The
collaborative ‘tree’ has also attracted interest, with at least one teacher
thinking something similar could be done with primary school pupils. As the ‘tree’
was our starting point for the Capability Brown exhibitions, I feel that we
have come a long way since we started it almost a year ago, so congratulations
for another year of growing self-confidence in ability for some, and
achievement for all.
Do
keep telling us what you need.
Treasurers Report Layers of Stitch
September
2015 – August 31st 2016
Layers of
Stitch Embroideries Guild Grantham have had a very successful and steady
financial year .
Income has
been steady , we have monies received from several sources regular attendance
from members and visitors to our meetings .And also extra workshops which the
group have available to members of the Embroideres Guild .We also receive money
from our monthly raffle and sales table and donations for refreshments .
Our
expenditure throughout the year is from the hire of the hall for regular
meetings and extra workshops, cost of refreshments, costs from lectures and
committee members costs i.e materials used in group meetings .Also the cost of
our recent exhibition at Belton which is and has been very successful .
Our income
to date for the year {unrestricted} is £2,784.150
And our
expenditure is £2,526.00. [unrestricted] for the above year .
Our bank
balance at the time of this report is £1,489.57.