Pulling things together

15th September
The local WI craft group is beginning to get quite excited as it nears completion of the new tablecloth. Members spent the afternoon elbow to elbow sewing the borders and attaching the remaining panels and although we are obviously biassed we think it looks pretty good. We hope to conduct an unveiling ceremony at the October WI meeting. Three of the needlewomen from the group are making arrangements to visit a neighbouring WI to run a workshop on making and covering padded boxes. Our people will be cutting out the cardboard in advance in order to save time and to avoid the risk of inexperienced cutters damaging themselves or someone's diningroom table.Also the cuts have to be 100% accurate or the mistakes breed more as the work progresses.

10th September
This entry will not be posted on the blog until after the result of the referendum on Scottish Independence is announced. The discussion group discussed devolution this evening and so came the nearest yet to discussing party politics which (as you know) all good WI members are forbidden to mention. What did come out of the talk was just how inter-related we all are with the people living north of the border: nearly everyone present had a bit of Scot's blood in their family somewhere. None of us had a vote of course but no one wanted to lose Scotland from the United Kingdom because each thought it would weaken the UK, not just economically but in the eyes of the world. Better together for better or worse.The national WI operates separately from similar women's groups in Scotland and Northern Ireland whereas Wales and the Channel Islands are very much part of the NFWI so like many other organisations there are different ways of setting up and sharing the things that make for a happy and successful community.