I have been attending the Calgary Guild of Needle and Fibre Arts for over 25 years now and I realized recently that this is long enough to have turned me into one of "the old girls"! When I joined it was customary for each new member to find in their membership package a square of muslin with instructions to use it for the needlework of their choice and then hand it back in so it could be added to the guild banner. Somehow or other, the banners seemed to have been shifted aside over the years and I suddenly realized this year that I hadn't seen them in awhile. Since I'm one of "the old girls" now I started nagging away, wondering where they were and why there weren't displayed anymore at meetings.
Well, at least one of the powers that be must have been listening because, lo and behold, they made an appearance at our Christmas party this week! I was so delighted to see them again! There are so many different techniques represented here as well as so many stitchers I have had the pleasure of knowing over the years. Some of the ladies are still members like I am, some have moved on to who knows where and some, sadly, have passed away. But their work remains and stands up for them in the guild banners - to me they say "I was here".
It was these banners that first interested my mother and I in joining the Calgary guild. We saw the banners on display at an event and they were an immediate conversation starter. We found ourselves talking with the guild members present about this technique and that, which ones we had also tried, which ones we would like to learn, which ones were new to us, and before you know it we found ourselves at the next meeting joining this wonderful group of stitchers.
I took some photos to share with you because I thought you might enjoy seeing them as well and all the work done on them. My favourite has always been the one in the bottom left hand corner of this last banner. It has tatting motifs and a bit of knitting cleverly done on curler pins. It was over twenty years ago that I fell in love with that square - I could never have guessed that all this time later I would be obsessed with tatted motifs for my crazy quilting and venturing into the realm of miniature needlework! Funny how things turn out, isn't it?!
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