It’s only two months until the end of the year but there are still plenty of things that have been happening this month and also to look forward to. We had our attractive and informative entry in the WI Centenary Exhibition at Gloucester Cathedrail with the theme “My WI Your WI” and there are photographs of it on our facebook page, some members attended the WI Centenary Service, again at the Cathedral and we were the hosts of the Group Meeting with the theme of the 1960s.

Our October speaker, Sheila Henderson with her talk entitled “Tax, Care and Toy Boys” was more about Estate Planning than eligible young men but was still very informative and made us think about Inheritance Tax, Care Home Fees, Wills, Family Trusts, Powers of Attorney and Funeral Plans. In November it is our AGM and Social Evening and December is a Christmas American Supper with entertainment and a competition for a home made puppet.

If anyone would like to come along to any of our meetings as a visitor or new member they will be made very welcome. We meet at 7.30pm on the second Wednesday of every month at Quedgeley Village Hall.

Our President, Pat Watts,  introduced Mandy Whitfield who talked about the Butterfly Loom.

Mandy bought a company producing these hand held looms and now sources them herself. The system is similar to crocheting squares and weaving wool around the wooden loom and decorating the squares etc. with knots. Mandy explained how to make the different patterns and join them together to make blankets, bags, cushions etc. An interesting new craft for us to enjoy. Una Steer gave the vote of thanks.

Mandy judged the competition for an Autumn craft 1st Kim Wilson, 2nd Mary Herbert, 3rd Pat Spiller.

If anyone would like to come along to any of our meetings as a visitor or new member they will be made very welcome. We meet at 7.30pm on the second Wednesday of every month at Quedgeley Village Hall.

Half way through the year already and July was another busy month. Some of our members were at the Gloucestershire Federation WI Village Fair and Picnic at Cirencester when we had a stall and raised over £100 and also caught sight of Nick Knowles! We had another stall planned for the Quedgeley Show and at our July meeting we heard from Liz Griffiths and her talk about the history and resurrection of 12th century Llanthony Secunda. After the dissolution of the monasteries it was owned by several different people and was used for many things including a scrap yard and turkey farm! July ended with a fundraising day at Rikenel Car Park. August for Quedgeley WI always means our Annual Outing so there is no meeting at Quedgeley Village Hall but this year is a visit to Denman College in Oxfordshire that includes a demonstration of floristry. It will be back to normal in September when we will be hearing from Mandy Whitfield and an Introduction to the Butterfly Loom and there will be a competition “An Autumn Craft Item”. In October there are still plenty of things to look forward to as well as our meeting with a talk on Tax, Care and Toyboys! We will be hosting the WI Robinswood Group Party with a theme of the 1960s, there is a Centenary Exhibiton in the Cathedral when we will have a display and a Centenary Service, also in the Cathedral. If anyone would like to come along to a meeting, either as a visitor or new member they will be made very welcome. You can find more details on our website www.quedgeleywi.co.uk

After our May meeting where we voted on Resolutions, followed by soft drinks, nibbles and
a quiz we were back to normal in June when we discussed fund raising, our August outing,
the Group Meeting with a 60’s theme and the WI Centenary Exhibition in the Cathedral. Our
speaker was Barbara Lorna Hudson with her very amusing talk entitled Can you turn your
life around at 60? and she certainly did! After taking retirement she had the idea of writing a
novel – a best seller – but the writing came later. We heard about the ups and downs of
evening classes and the internet dating she tried in her search for a companion and it was
these encounters that helped with the writing of her book Timed Out. As well as this she has
written the more serious “Makeover”, “Click to Click, tales of internet dating” and the
curiously entitled “The Woman Who Slept With a Monkey”, just some of the many stories
and publications by this amusing and entertaining author. Our speaker in July will be telling
us about Llanthony Secunda Priory – Re-formation and if anyone would like to come along
to a meeting, either as a visitor or new member they will be made very welcome. We meet on
the second Wednesday of every month at 7.30pm in Quedgeley Village Hall. More
information can be found on our website www.quedgeleywi.co.uk or
facebook.com/quedgeleywi.

May meetings at a WI mean Resolutions. Every year WI members have the chance to put forward issues that they want to see the WI’s National body campaign on and this year the subjects were “A call against the decline in local bus services” and the second Resolution was “Don’t fear the smear”. Before we voted on these we went through the usual business when we heard about our skittles team, our quiz team, croquet taster days and a WI Centenary Event to be held at John Lewis in July.

When all the business and voting was finished we enjoyed wine, soft drinks and nibbles along with a Song Quiz which stretched our memories back several decades trying to remember some fairly obscure and long forgotten songs and some of us were more successful than others. Next month we will hear Barbara Hudson asking “Can you turn your life around at 60?”about Internet dating and writing a book, which should be interesting and perhaps give us some ideas to act on. There is a competition for a memento from the 1960s and hopefully some of us will have something we can bring.

If anyone would like to come to a meeting, either as a visitor or new member they will be made very welcome. We meet at 7.30pm on the second Wednesday of every month at Quedgeley Village Hall and further information can be found on our website www.quedgeleywi.co.uk or facebook.com/quedgeleywi

Our April meeting began with the usual business that included plans for a china painting session at Dixie Dot Crafts, ideas for future competitions and hearing about the mixed fortunes of some of the members who had attended the Cheltenham Gold Cup racing. We are looking forward to attending the GFWI Centenary Village Show at Cirencester Park in July and our plans for an exhibit at the Centenary Exhibition at the Cathedral in October are well underway. This month’s speaker was Reverend Nicholas Henderson with another of his amusing talks with slides entitled Fulfilment and Farce, about Jane Seymour and Anne of Cleeves who were the third and fourth wives of Henry VIII. This was a follow up to his talk last year when he told us about Henry’s first two wives. We heard about the Blessing of the Bridal Bed, weddings, beheadings and even George IV’s pantaloons! Once again there were many fascinating facts to keep us interested and we all know a lot more about Henry VIII and his wives. Next month will be Resolutions followed by a quiz, wine and nibbles. Resolutions in the WI World is when members vote on important issues that they want the WI’s National body to campaign on . The two Resolutions this year will be Don’t Fear the Smear and a call against the decline of local bus services. The talk in June will be “Can you Turn Your Life Around at 60 – Internet dating and writing a book” and in July we will hear about Llanthony Seconda Reformation. If anyone would like to come to any meetings they will be made very welcome. We meet on the second Wednesday of every month at 7.30pm at Quedgeley Village Hall. Further information can be found on our website www.quedgeleywi.co.uk or facebook.com/quedgeleywi.

The Village Hall was full for our March meeting which was due in part to the attendance of more new members and visitors and we look forward to even more in the future. We have a team for the forthcoming GFWI Quiz so they must get their brains into gear for that, our monthly Coffee Morning at The Roastery is coming up soon and we are still collecting books and jigsaw puzzles for the Centenary Village Show at Cirencester Park in July. Planning our exhibit for the Centenary Exhibition at the Cathedral in October has started and as the Group Party, also in October, has a 1960s theme hopefully some of us may still have something from that era hiding in our wardrobes! We welcomed Tracey from Dixie Dot Crafts in Kingsway with her craft demonstration but that was only a small part of her talk. After always being told at school that she was no good at sewing and hating it, some time later she began to really enjoy it, as well as other crafts she tried. Tracey told us about the many ups and downs in her life, which finally led to running her own successful craft shop. She likes to get involved with the local community and wants to nurture the creative side of children and adults and holds craft workshops at her premises in Kingsway. Some of her classes include pottery painting, decopatch (that’s sticking little pieces of decorative paper onto anything from boxes to giraffes), box frames, wood art, sewing and crochet. She demonstrated some block printing onto a tea towel which is yet another of the crafts she teaches. This was a very entertaining talk which is sure to encourage some people to take up one of her crafts. Our speaker for April will be Reverend Nicholas Henderson with his second talk entitled Fulfilment & Farce about Jane Seymour and Anne of Cleeves, two of Henry VIII’s forgotten wives. We had already heard his first talk about another two wives when we learned many fascinating facts so this is sure to be just as amusing and entertaining. Other talks coming up include Internet dating and writing a book, Llanthony Secunda Reformation and something called Tax, Care and Toyboys! If any of these sound interesting then why not come along? We meet at Quedgeley Village Hall on the second Wednesday of every month

February is always a month for us to look forward to because it is when we celebrate our WI’s birthday and this year it was our 94 th. We had our usual Birthday Supper that always consists of some lovely food and several scrumptious puddings but we had to wait a little while as we had the usual business to go through first. We welcomed one visitor and one new member and heard that skittle players are wanted to form a team, hopefully some expert ones! We hold several competitions throughout the year and the winners were announced with Iris Bates, Brenda Drinkwater and Pat Spiller runners up to me, Christine Bentley. We all received cash prizes and I had the honour of taking home the silver trophy for another year. At our March meeting we will have a talk by Tracey from Dixie Dot crafts shop in Kingsway and there will be a competition to reflect this – make a greeting card. Throughout the year we will be charity collecting for Marie Curie, having monthly Coffee Mornings, attending the WI Centenary Village Show in Cirencester, exhibiting at a Centenary Exhibition at Gloucester Cathedral as well as hosting a Group Party with a 60’s theme so we will be kept very busy but are sure to enjoy it all. If anyone would like to come along to a meeting on the second Wednesday of every month at Quedgeley Village Hall they will be made very welcome. Further details can be found on our website www.quedgeleywi.co.uk or on facebook.com/quedgeleywi.

A new year with lots to look forward to. Our January meeting always means paying our subscriptions and knowing that we are sure to have some interesting speakers over the next few months. The suggestion in December to donate money to a charity instead of exchanging Christmas cards raised over £25 and is sure to be something we will want to do next time. We entered two teams in the Quedgeley Community Trust Quiz and those competing agreed that this year’s was hard! We have plenty of things going on this year, with a book and jigsaw stall at the Gloucestershire Federation of Womens’ Institutes Centenary Village Fair at Cirencester Park in July and a Centenary Exhibition in Gloucester Cathedral in October and any members who are artists or photographers have been invited to submit entries. With skittles and another quiz and the Robinswood Group Party to host we will certainly be kept very busy. Our January meeting didn’t so much have speakers but singers when we heard Jeff and Elaine Gillet with their Introduction to William Blake’s Songs of Innocence and Experience. Accompanying themselves on various instruments with music that Jeff had written himself and slides showing pictures from Blake’s books we heard quite a variety of songs covering the lighter and darker aspects from Songs of Innocence and Experience. A very musical start to the year. Next month will be our 94th Birthday Supper when we will enjoy food, drinks and presentations to our 2018 competition winners. In March it’s a crafty meeting as we will have Tracey from Dixie Dot Arts and Crafts shop in Kingsway with perhaps some new crafts for us to try. If anyone would like to come along to a meeting they will be made very welcome. You can find all our details, including a full list of all our speakers for this year, on our website www.quedgeleywi.co.uk or facebook.com/quedgeleywi

The end of the year was just as busy as the previous months with our Christmas meal at Owlpen Manor, the WI Carol Concert and the December meeting, an evening of mulled wine, American Supper and entertainment from the choir Christmas Ensemble with their excellent singing of carols and Christmas songs. Members had the opportunity to enter one of our occasional competitions which was to write in no more than ten words about “My Ideal Man” and there were several entries. In 2019 we have some more interesting talks lined up that include the half-forgotten wives of Henry VIII, the historic Llanthony Secunda and an introduction to the butterfly loom, perhaps a new handicraft that some of our members may be interested in trying. At our January meeting we will be hearing “ An Introduction to William Blake’s Songs of Innocence and Experience”. He, of course, wrote the poem Jerusalem which was set to music by Hubert Parry and is what we sing at every meeting. If anyone would like to join Quedgeley WI or just come along as a visitor they will always be made very welcome. We meet at 7.30pm on the second Wednesday of every month at Quedgeley Village Hall.