The Crafty Chin-Waggers - Newsletter

Written by Administrator

The Crafty Chin-Waggers Newsletter April 2010. All mended and ready to go! Many thanks to our dynamic duo Shirley and Christine who showed us their tricks and shared their tips on mending and making do. A very topical subject for this time when we are all having to watch our pennies and tighten our belts! With buttons re-attached, socks darned and hems raised we are all ready to rock and roll !!! Thank you also to Dee who also showed us how she had made some of cards and to Wendy and Diane who shared their experiences with the new sewing machines. We all do this for fun and without you kind help we could not do this. All we ask is that when our members are running a craft project or addressing the group could we keep the Chin-Wagging to a minimum until they have finished speaking as it can be very distracting. If there is something you wish to share with the group you are welcome to include it in one of our newsletters or tell the group at the beginning of the meeting. If you do not wish to take part in the monthly project please remember to bring along your latest crafting project to do during the evening and share tips about. Tina also would like to thank all of you for helping her set up and put away as she could not have managed without your help. Lynne did the raffle for us this month and we managed to raise £21 which was fantastic. Also we would like to welcome our new member Joy. Spring Craft Fair Thank you to everyone who either helped us on the day, ran a stall, entered our competition or donated chocolate or cake or any other way we may have missed. We were especially thankful to all the family members that also gave up their time to help us. We all worked well together and the hall looked very spring like and professional. The good quality of our crafts was repeatedly commented on. Despite the low numbers who came along we still managed to raise £154.64 and we will use some of this money to help us celebrate our first birthday at our next meeting. Many apologies to Diane Evans who made some lovely scarves which we sold for her on our joint table and we failed to give her the money we took on her behalf so this will come out of the above total. The winner of the best decorated egg competition was Lynne Simper and Helen Wadey won the best decorated basket. Both winners were picked by Alec. If anyone has an egg or basket that did not get decorated in time can they return them so we can use them again as they were bought using our funds. The most important thing is it was a fun, relaxed day and we hope you all enjoyed yourselves. ‘Challenge Alec’ Alec rose to our challenge and made some more fantastic cup cakes. If you have any more ideas please let us know so we can again ‘Challenge Alec!’ Lending Library It has been suggested that we all join together to form our very own lending book library. If you would like to lend your books to others please can you let us know what books you have so we can create a lending list. Anyone wishing to borrow your book will deal with you directly and we will help you keep tags of who has your book. Our new member Joy has kindly come forward to help us monitor our lending library. Thank you Joy. Membership Fee As previously discussed and due to the increase in the hiring of the hall we will be charging a yearly £5 membership fee which will be on top of the £1 charged for attending a monthly meeting. This figure was one of the suggestions made by a number of our members on our questionnaire. This membership fee will be due at our April meeting and will be charged pro rata for new members who join midyear at 50p per month. We are not allowed to use the funding money we have been given to pay for hall hire so this membership fee will help us ensure we have enough to maintain our costs as well as us providing free refreshments at each meeting and a monthly newsletter. This membership will also give you free access to the items in our crafting trolley which will be continually updated. We will regularly review this charge and keep you all fully informed. New members can attend two meetings before they make any commitment to our group and pay their membership. Next meeting 20th April 2010 At our next meeting we will have to share the hall with the Parish Council. As before they will use the small hall and we will use our larger hall. This will cause a problem with parking spaces so it may be an idea to either arrive early or where possible car share. To ensure we do not interrupt the council members we will have one person making the teas and coffees. Any volunteer for tea duty would be welcome. Aprils craft project will be making greetings cards for our men folk!. Wendy and Dee have kindly volunteered to run the session. They will put together packs which will include all you need to make a card and there will be a small charge for each pack of no more that £1 per pack. Most will be subsidised by our funds. It will also be our first year celebration and we will have birthday cake and maybe a small glass of wine available. We will be launching our Summer ‘grow a sunflower’ competition. Seeds and full instructions will be available for a fee of £1 Congratulations We would all like to congratulate Alison who has recently become a Grandmother for the first time. She has a beautiful Granddaughter who is doing really well. Glamorous grandmother or what!!! Ideas for the Future We have been asked to provide a team of volunteers to assist Diane Varco in providing Cream Teas in Mereworth Church on Sunday 29th August. This is Bank Holiday weekend and is also the same time as the flower festival which we hope to participate in. Anyone wishing to help on the day or offers of baking cakes please let us know as soon as possible. It is a fun day and all for the church funds. We need your views on whether or not we will hold an Autumn craft fair. Diane Varco is presently negotiating the hire of a larger venue in the village if we all decide to go ahead with another fair. If we do we will have a fair committee. An idea has been put forward that we do a Summer boot fair as a way to continue to raise funds. Any ideas or suggestions would be welcome. Our name has been put forward for taking part in the Christmas Tree Festival in Mereworth Church. This would include us decorating a Christmas tree and displaying it in the Church. Further details to follow. Whats On 1)    Art Show 1st – 3rd May 10am to 6pm Mereworth Church. 2)    Textile workshop with Margaret Beale 8th May 2010 Aylesford run by the embroiderers’ guild. Contact Angela for full details either by emailing her on This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or through Crafty Chin-Waggers. 3)    Tuesday evening 27th April or 4th May are possible dates for our crafty outing to Heavenly Glaze East Peckham. Once fully confirmed details will follow. 4)    Tuesday 27th April we have been invited to send a representative the Mereworth Annual Parish Meeting to provide a yearly report on our group. This has been a busy month with lots of news to tell you. The most important thing is that we would like to wish you all a Very Happy Easter and hope you all get to share the time with your families and eat lots of chocolate! Look forward to seeing you all at the April meeting. Future Tuesday meeting dates for 2010: 19th January 20th July 16th February 17th August 16th March 21st September 20th April 19th October 18th May 16th November 15th June 21st December

Last Updated on Thursday, 15 April 2010 21:07