October meeting - AGM and members' talks

The first part of our meeting today was the AGM. Sue and Shirley are standing down as joint chairs after many years of service. Currently there have been no nominations for their successor. If as a branch member you are in a position to consider taking on this vital role, please speak to any committee member.

Shirley and Sue have presented to the branch a banner and stand to advertise our presence at the external events we visit.

Shirley and Maria with the new publicity banners

The new programme for 2019/2020 was unveiled with many interesting speakers. See the Programme page for details of what is to come.

After the AGM, we had a series of talks from our members.
First up was our secretary Ingrid. She was a previous recipient of our bursary, and has just completed her MA, and is working towards a PhD.

Ingrid's visual diary

As part of her MA she spent this summer in Italy and kept a stitched visual diary of her time there.

Maria then talked about her time on the committee building a social media presence. She has also started up a Monthly stitch club at The Trafalgar Bay pub on Nunnery Lane in York. They meet on the second Monday of the month from 7:00pm onwards and all are welcome (not just branch members). Maria has also created our facebook presence, including making this visible to those not on Facebook. Click here to see it. The facebook page shows all upcoming events relating to the branch, and other related events and notices.

Moira talked about her development as a textile artist over the years; she studied Fashion and Embroidery in Edinburgh, and then became a teacher. In later years she became a founder member of the Ebor Group.

A detail from one of Moira's folding books

Moira particularly likes creating folding books where the whole image is only revealed slowly by the turning of the pages.

Celia rounded off the afternoon with a show and tell of her extensive collection of fans, explaining not just the materials used, but also the purposes of the fans - many were made as a vehicle for advertisements.

Some of Celia's fans

An interesting afternoon, and a change to our usual routine of having just one speaker.

In other things . . .

Do consider coming on to the committee. This is our 40th Anniversary year and it would be nice to see the branch go from strength to strength.

The Bowes museum trip has had to be postponed. Further details at a later date.

The Christmas meeting will begin with a lunch (which needs to be ordered in advance), followed by an afternoon making a Christmas wreath. Everything will be provided except the ribbon to wrap the wreath - please bring something along with you! The Christmas competition is for a Christmas card.

Several members have visited the Ropewalk Gallery in Barton on Humber to see the exhibition by Sue Stone. This is apparently well worth a visit. The exhibition continues until 20th October 2019.

York Textile Artists have an exhibition at the Marriott hotel on Tadcaster Road York, until the 21st October.