April Meeting by Freddi 

Numbers were down, due in part to the Easter break and to illness. Unfortunately Claire had Covid and did not attend. Eileen gave the following notices: 

• Sandown Quilt Show from Thurs 28th April until Saturday 30th April. Details on the Grosvenor Shows website. 

• Doughty’s will be at Beckenham Quilters, Beckenham Methodist Church, from 10.30 to 2.30 Saturday 7th May. Free entry. Refreshments will be available.

• Nicola Walton from Daisy and Grace will be at Orpington Quilters, Crofton Halls, Crofton Road from 7p.m to 9.30 Thursday 12th May. She will give a demonstration and show some of her beautiful work. There will be a pop up shop. Entrance £5.00 

(Eileen’s follow up email on 20 April expands on some of the above items)

 Thank you to everyone who has paid their subs.

 A reminder that the ‘Give Us a Clue’ challenge needs to be completed by September.

 A gentle request: Planning for the October Exhibition will start soon. As well as the current challenge the committee need to know which other items we will contribute including the 20 Year challenge, Ugly Fabrics and Cluedo challenges plus items made from the lockdown Block of the Week & our own lockdown projects. We were asked to please give this some thought.

 And now, onto the main event: ‘Housewife:’ A Sewing Tidy. 

Grace, who organised and led the session, promised us an exciting time with a great outcome and that is just what we got. 

We learnt that a ‘housewife’ or ‘hussif’ was a term meaning ‘sewing tidy’ dating back to the mid-18th century. During the 2nd world war soldiers were given a ‘housewife’ (a white cotton pouch with ties) in order to repair their clothing. The contents were a thimble, two balls of grey darning wool for socks, 50 yards of linen thread, needles, brass dish buttons for battle dress and plastic buttons for shirts. The term also appears in one of Jane Austen’s novels.

We chose to make either a traditional housewife that finished as a pouch or a sewing kit that was a rolled up, modern version. Grace kindly provided basic kits for those who needed it. We were given printed instructions but our best source of advice was Grace who worked tirelessly all evening demonstrating and guiding us through the process. Her enthusiasm was infectious. Members of the committee showed us versions that they had already made and were also another source of guidance.   

The outcomes were really lovely, all so unique and attractive. They say that time flies when you are having fun. Well, this evening whizzed by. We were all so happy with our results, Thank you SO much Grace and your team for a truly fun and productive time. 



I, for one, will enjoy using my kit.