May Meeting - Claire Spooner

Today's talk had been billed as 'In miniature' but it turned out that it should have read 'Millinery in Miniature' as our speaker today, Claire Spooner makes bespoke millinery.
She also has an extensive collection of historical hats and it was a 'miniature' look at the history of hat making and styles that was the subject of the talk.

Claire with some of the many hats from her collection

Claire brought hats from the mid 19th century to the late 20th century and explained how the style of hat changed over time as the overall body silhouette changed with new fashions. As a practising milliner she was also extremely knowledgeable on construction techniques used within the hats and how this then helped the hat 'sit' correctly on the wearer's head. We learned (among many other interesting things) that Plumassier was a real word and was a skilled profession. This was a really informative yet light-hearted talk with Claire modelling many of the hats she had brought along.

Other announcements
The date of the branch AGM has been moved to the October meeting and will now take place at 1.30pm on Saturday 4th October 2014. (This is so important it also has its own separate blog post!)

The branch library is being rehoused into a new storage space at the Folk Hall. While this changeover is in progress, please keep any books you have borrowed at home.

Sue gave a report of the Embroiderers' Guild AGM at Wyboston and Kath gave a report of her recent meeting with Terry Murphy. Both these reports should be available to read if required.

The beach scene is progressing very nicely. Beach huts are nearly finished, but more people are needed. As a guide to scale, the logo on front of the branch programme should be used as the size of the head of the stitched people.

Sue is organising tickets for Regional day. This clashes with our June meeting. If you would like a ticket, contact Sue (phone number on the printed programme).

Stitch Club, our morning workshop will, from September, run alongside two more formal classes.
The first is a 5 session introduction to goldwork, the second is a series of masterclasses of crewel work filling stitches. Sheila G has further details.

If you want to knit a bike for the Tour de France coming through Yorkshire, the next meeting is at the bike shop in Micklegate 2-4pm on 10th May.

Textile Experimental Group has an exhibition at West Ayton Village Hall 10th and 11th May.