Several of our members joined the Village Group trip to Yorkshire at the end of June. We visited Saltaire and had time to wander around the unique village of Saltaire – a world UNESCO site built by Titus Salt to house the workers for his woollen mills. The old mill now houses a permanant display of works by Bradford born artist David Hockney. An added bonus was the 1940’s festival taking place in the village with a tea dance at Victoria Hall and people dressed in 1940’s fashions. For those of us who walked over the river Aire to Roberts…

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Most of our subgroups took a break this month – a popular time for holidays! The Baking Beauties did meet to share their ‘Something Fruity’ bakes.

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The theme for this year’s show was ‘The Olympics’. Despite a reduced space/number of classes this year Whitley WI still submitted a number of entries as well as providing helpers for refreshments and stewarding. Our main ‘team’ entry was in the ‘Teams’ section. The Craft group have been working hard for months on their entry – to depict ‘Team GB’. We included a range of items representing each of the 4 countries, with the items for judging being Whisky Marmalade for Scotland, a needle punched shamrock for Northern Ireland, a knitted guardsman and sentry box for Engand and a Bara…

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In June we held our traditional joint meeting with Dutton WI, it was great to welcome back old friends Our President, Melanie, opened the meeting with pictures of her visit to the NFWI Annual Meeting at the Royal Albert Hall as representative of a few WIs in our area. It was her first National meeting and she really appreciated the opportunity to attend Click to read Melanie’s report on the event Our speaker for the evening was Tina Saunders with ‘An Embroiderer’s Tale’. She studied at The Royal School of Needlework and she showed us many of the amazing pieces…

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Twelve of our members competed for the Adelaide Hough Shield on Monday 10th June. Adelaide was a leading member of our bowls team for some years until ill-health prevented her from continuing. She donated this Sheild in 1991, and this was the 34th year the competition has been held – last year we had to abandon it because of torrential rain. This year, despite a very bad forecast, we were lucky with the weather with only one short spell of fairly light rain. It was particularly good to welcome Ann C and Eileen – who haven’t played bowls before –…

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The Book Club discussed The Christie Affair by Nina de Gramont. Walking group had an amble around Marbury. Craft group listened to a fascinating talk by Liz Leech about the history of quilting in her family, and showed us lots of beautiful finished and unfinished quilts. Baking Beauties made an assortment of savoury delicacies. Craft Group – Liz Leech from Dutton WI told us about her ‘Life through quilts’. She started off with a beautiful hexagonal pieced quilt made by her grandmother, now worn thin through wear, then progressed through various designs including some made from tea towels bought on…

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On April 24th Annette and Sue R joined a Cheshire Federation (CFWI) trip to explore the Mersey Gateway. We were welcomed to the Catalyst Museum in Widnes by our ex President Sue Bentley, now Chairman of the CWFI Public Affairs Committee. The day began with a fascinating talk from an excellent speaker who was one of the 3 members of staff of the Mersey Gateway Environmental Trust. The Trust was set up to monitor the wildlife on, in and around the River Mersey from the new bridge up to Warrington – before, after and while the new bridge was being…

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Our speaker was William Woods talking about ‘Growing Herbs for Health and Wellbeing’. He runs Blackbrook Herb Gardens near Stockport and his love of herbs was evident from the start. He told us about how herbs have been and still are very useful for medicinal purposes (and which can be dangerous too). He also explained the culinary uses for them. He had brought along a wide range of herbs, many of them unusual but all looking very healthy and strong. He picked them up in turn and told us the name, some cultivation advice and what they can be used…

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Our Village Group, consisting of 6 or our local WIs, held their traditional Spring Lunch on Thursday 18th April. About 70 ladies attended, with an excellent turn out from Whitley. We enjoyed a delicious hotpot and a range of deserts made by the different WIs. The usual ‘Bags and Scarves’ was replaced by a Bring & Buy and all of the proceeds were donated to St Luke’s Hospice. A group of our members wore the corsages we had made the previous day at the Whitley Craft group meeting – they were much admired by other WIs, one of whom plans…

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Julie McGuire, a friend of Annette’s, showed 14 of our members how to make fresh flower corsages. Julie and Annette had brought along lots of fresh flowers/foliage (much of it from Annette’s garden). Julie kept things simple for us and first showed us how to wire individual flowers/leaves so that they kept their shape. She then showed us how to plan our ‘buttonhole’ , using a variety of colours/textures of flower and leaf, and then used floristry tape to hold them together and make a beautiful corsage finished with a ribbon bow. There was soon a buzz of activity as…

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