January meeting.

Well here we are at the beginning of 2012 and may I send you all good wishes for the coming year - we are in for a busy one!!!!!!

When you have gotten over the shock of me actually posting to the Blog on the day of our meeting you will be pleased to know that I have carried out my threat to invite more people to contribute to the Blog. I have asked members of the committtee to join me so that we can keep you up to date more readily this year as we are having the exhibition, Kaffe Fassett's talk and the prize draw for the Baltimore Quilt.

We had a excellent meeting today - the Speaker was Michelle Horton of Duttons for Buttons.
Michelle has came to speak to us last year when she gave us the first part of her excellent history of buttons (up to the end of the 17th century) and she continued from then up until the present day today.
I enjoyed both talks very much as Michelle has a wealth of historical knowledge combined with some very quirky facts which made her talk informative but yet remained entertaining.
Michelle started today by telling us about Dorset buttons which many of us will have made - the originals were surprisingly small and this cottage industry expanded very rapidly until the middle of 19th century when mechanisation came to the button industry wiping out the hand made element but introducing a much wider variety of materials from which buttons could be made.
Horn, Tortoiseshell, vegetable ivory(tagua nuts), glass, ceramic, rubber, silver, linen, Celluloid, mother of pearl, fabric and Bakelite were some of the materials used for the making of buttons during the 19th and 20th centuries.  She explained how fashion and changes thereof are reflected in the button industry and also how buttons reflect social history - finishing with a poem whose final line was If only a button was alive and could speak.......
Good talk which I enjoyed and I hope you did too.

Notices
Exhibition is to be held in the Guildhall Friday 22nd, Saturday 23rd and Sunday 24th June 2012 - to help and support members an Exhibition table will be present at every meeting from now on, manned by Chris Beavers, to disemminate information and give help and advice to members. Please come and ask any questions you have  - I can't help if I don't know what your problems are  - good I am telepathic I am not!!!!
At the February meeting I will be starting my stewarding list, giving out entry forms, asking for people to take publicity material to various areas and answering any questions you may have.

I would like to reiterate Shirley's words today that the majority of our exhibition will consist of work, be it contemporary or traditional, done by our members during the last three years which will reflect the skills and imagination within our branch - the York Postcards, the Regal Competition and the Member's Challenge are there as additional interest for our visitors and yourselves.
I should like you to consider my ambition to have a piece of work from every member in our exhibition - this has not yet been acheived but I am optomistic that it could happen!!

Tickets for Kaffe Fassett were on sale today for members only at £10 per ticket as they will be for the next two meetings and then they will be offered to friends and family and others at £12 per ticket.

Books of tickets for the Prize Draw were also available today and we are asking members to sell as many tickets as they reasonably can.

Two workshops were opened today - one to be led by Cluny on inspiration for the York postcards - these will be small 6"X4" pieces of work - any technique: subject matter to be based on any aspect of York. This workshop will be held on Sunday 5th February 10 - 4 (sorry I did not take any notice of the venue but I am sure someone will fill in that information)
The second workshop is one led by Tracy Franklin  - again I am sure someone will fill in the details.

The Beading group which meets each month has been renamed the very imaginative 2nd Wednesday in the Month group  and anyone is welcome to come along to do whatever they are working on - next meeting is this Wednesday 11th January from 1.30 onwards until Sheila has to go for her fish and chips!!!

Quilting Bee
We continue to work hard on the quilting of the Baltimore Quilt and this month it is residing at my house and it will be available Mondays and Fridays from 10 onwards for stitching starting Friday 13th January - please let me know if you intend coming either by phone or through the comments section on the Blog. It will also be available one Sunday 29th January for those of you who work through the week but would like to contribute.

If there is any information which I have got wrong please feel free to tell me or correct it if you have access to the Blog - apologies if I have missed anything.
Here ends my first missive of 2012 heres hoping that I can keep it up.  Chris B