June Meeting

Another well-attended meeting of our Institute.  After the AGM last month, there are some new faces on the committee which now numbers twelve - almost too many to fit into the Committee Room.

During the business part of the meeting, members heard reports on the AGM, the Charity Coffee Morning and the relay of the NFWI Centenary Meeting at the Albert Hall. 

The Charity Coffee Morning went very well and raised around £500 for the charity Caring for Harlow Carers.  President Diane Hatt thanked all those who had helped and supported the event.  A few items were still available for sale, so there may be a little more income to add to the total.

The Centenary Meeting streaming at Church Langley WI proved rather disappointing as both sound and pictures were subject to intermittent distortion.  There was very little that could be done about this locally, as even the Albert Hall was experiencing some problems.  We are told that much of the meeting is still available to view online.

The speaker today was Sheila Gunson, who is a county advisor and on the Board of Trustees.  Her topic, "The Bag Lady", was well-chosen as she produced more and ever-more bags to display to the audience.  And what a variety of bags there was!  Produced in many different ways, from items of unwanted clothing, scrap material, curtaining, ribbons, ties, old jewellery, even zips.  Nothing proved unusable to the Bag Lady.  Many of the techniques used had been learnt by Sheila on courses at Denman College, and by the end of her talk even the non-craft-minded amongst us was itching to get out the old sewing machine and experiment.  She was thanked by Rene Hoad for a first-class inspiring talk.

After tea, the raffle was drawn, birthday flowers were presented, and the competition (for an interesting bag) was judged by, of course, the Bag Lady herself.  Brigitte Garnett was the winner with a useful and attractive bag to pack a travel iron in (pictured below).  Lined with heat-resistant fabric, it also opened out flat to provide a convenient surface for pressing your creased holiday clothes.

 

The President reminded members of the forthcoming Strawberry Tea on Wednesday 1 July at 2.30pm in the WI Hall.  Tickets are on sale at £3.

 

Tickets will be available next month for the Fish & Chip Lunch on Wednesday 5 August at 1pm.

 

The Play-reading Group meets tomorrow (Thursday 11th) at 2pm, and the Book Group meets the following Thursday (18th June) also at 2pm.  Both in the WI Hall.