Who invented the sewing machine ?

January saw us having a really interesting talk by Sue Sercombe on the history of the sewing machine. We had all assumed that it was Singer but actually the design of the sewing machine was developed over quite a long period by a number of different people. Sue treated us to an amusing and informative talk and even brought along her collected of pre 1900 sewing machines - although we were slightly concerned that the table might give was under the weight !!!

Christmas Cheer

Our December meeting was a fun packed evening full of christmas cheer. We had two competitions- one was to bring in the oldest piece of embroidery you had made and the other was to make a christmas card. We were amazed at how people had kept items they had embroidered at school and it just goes to show how treasured our 'works of art' are. Members were asked to vote for the piece they liked best and the runaway winner was Bernadette with her lovely dolls. Bernadette was awarded the small rose bowl as her prize.
We also had to vote for the christmas cards we had made and brought in and Elsa's card got the most votes.
We spent the rest of the evening participating in a 'hands on session' where we all made a christmas card.