All this rain and lack of sunshine is very miserable, but ideally suitable weather for some guilt free stitching! No point in venturing out to do any gardening or sightseeing, so our Living Threads members will be planning and preparing work for next year’s Exhibition instead. Our general theme is Gardens and we will be refining the parameters and titles over the next few weeks. Hopefully the waters will abate soon, the soggy ground will dry out and Spring will be firmly on its way. We do hope that none of you have been too badly affected by flooding.

We had a wonderful day in February celebrating 40 years of the Living Threads Group! We held an Afternoon Tea for members past and present, in which we gave thanks for our wonderful heritage of textile work and acknowledged the input of our Founder Members.

Our Spring workshop programme is almost upon us, almost all classes are full and we put on some extra dates to accommodate their popularity. Our thoughts are now turning to the Summer workshops which will run between late July and mid-August. The programme will be launched at the beginning of April, so do check the website and your email inbox. Early booking is recommended as some of the classes sold out very quickly last time.

We will be holding a “Summer Preview Day” on Saturday 4th April at Risely Village Memorial Hall, 10am – 2pm, where most of our tutors will have their workshop projects on show and bookings can be taken. Because we are changing our booking system and planning to take only online bookings, PayPal and BACs payments in future, the Preview Day is ideal for those who want to pay by cash or cheque, so please plan to attend if that is your preferred payment method.
N.B. When we have our new software up and fully running, all bookings will have to be made via online methods, so future bookings will only be available for cash or cheques on our Preview Days. We are sorry to make these restrictions, but managing the bookings is an onerous task and made much easier and safer by e-commerce software, with all its secure data and payment protection.

Also, in April, we will be having a Living Threads stand at the British Quilt and Stitch Village at the Uttoxeter Racecourse, April 17-19th. We will be showing some of our future workshop samples and a small exhibition of the Living Threads Study group’s work based on inspiration from 11am. Do come by and say hello, relieve us for a coffee or loo break or whatever!

The Living Threads Group are to be one of several local Groups showing their skills at the East Midlands Embroiderers’ Guild’s Regional Day on Sunday May 17th, 2020 at The Becket School, Becket Way, Wilford Lane, West Bridgford, NG2 7QY.   Nottingham Bobbin Lace Society and Derbyshire Spinners, Weavers and Dyers, along with a display of Members’ work from numerous Branches within the Region, Taster Sessions and several Traders, will also be part of the day. Our “Madeira” Lecture in the afternoon is by Michael Brennand-Wood, entitled “Pretty Deadly”.
This is not just for members – non-members are most welcome to come and join in for the day.
Tickets for a Full Day are £10.00 if bought beforehand, or £12.50 on the door.
Morning only £5.50; or for the afternoon Lecture only – £7.50.
Further details can be found on the Embroiderers Guild website:  www.emreg.org.uk
and Tickets purchased from:  sandydeacon@hotmail.com

Remember to check the Living Threads website  http://www.livingthreadstextileartists.com in early April or attend the Preview Day on 4th April 10am – 2pm if you are interested in joining the Summer workshops. We’d love to see you!

We hope you are enjoying regular updates on the Living Threads Group. You can follow us on the Facebook page and our website. We welcome feedback. To this end there is a dedicated Living Threads email address: livingthreadsgroup@gmail.com

Thank you for all the positive feedback received so far on receiving this newsletter. If you wish to unsubscribe you can do so, but please be aware this will also mean you will not receive the workshop programme mailings.

Until April,
Cheers
Gilli Theokritoff, Newsletter Editor