On arrival members were able to take a Christmas name badge (kindly made by Rosie), and settle down for an eventful day. When everyone had arrived and had a tea or a coffee, the notices were given and then the party began.
There were lots of different word games on the tables for us to complete throughout the course of the morning, whilst we tried to guess what was in the 'feely' bags made by Sandie, pinned the bobble on Santa's hat and complete a Christmas quiz provided by Liz. Ann kindly organised an alphabet game, whereby we had to think of several sewing related items for each letter of the alphabet that Ann shouted out. There were lots of prizes to be won along the way.
Towards the end of the meal, our 'Secret Santa's' were distributed, and then it was time for a tea or coffee and the raffle. Kath had kindly made a raffle bag and the committee members filled it with sewing related items for the top prize.
Rachel began to tell us all about a lady called Rachel Kay-Shuttleworth who was the founder of Gawthorpe Textiles Collection, on how and why she went about collecting some of the key items in the collection.
We were shown some beautiful photographs of some of the pieces from the collection, which can be seen below.

Another piece that was mentioned was an Early 18th century double sided colifichet embroidery showing St Aloysius of Gonzala, brought by Rachel in Italy around 1910, that she fell in love with.
Merry Christmas everyone.
C.P.