Horowhenua Embroiderers Guild

History

Written by Yvonne Symonds:

The Horowhenua Embroiderers Guild was established in Levin, on the 15th April 1989 by Mrs Judy Lund and Mrs Vivienne Burling. An interim committee of ten members were elected to arrange dates and times of meetings. Discussion also took place re financial structure and a fee of $20 was suggested, over the years this has increased as has been $30 since February 2004. All Guilds belong to the Association of New Zealand Embroiderers Guild and there are 62 throughout the country.

The committee decided on the third Wednesday of each month for the meetings, and the fee to be $20 as it was a part year, until the Annual General Meeting when it would be $25 per year. Saturdays would be used for workshops. The Annual General Meeting is to be held at the end of the year in December, and 30 November is the end of the financial year. The first AGM was held on a Saturday with a luncheon to follow and was later changed to a Pot Luck Dinner on the first Wednesday in December. Mrs Betty Guy, Mayoress agreed to be Patron of the Guild on 15 December 1990, a position held until 1998.

The first meeting took place on the 17th May, from 7.30 – 9.30pm at Thompson House. The interim office holders were President, Judy Lund; Secretary, Christine Townsend; Treasurer, Yvonne Symonds; Librarian, Margaret Challies; Sales Table, Beryl Sutherland and Barbara Price; Newsletter and in charge of Supper, Kathy Hopkins; Rosalind Thompson and Beverley Sinclair. In 1990 we changed our meetings to the Red Cross Rooms where have been ever since,

We became an Incorporated Society on 14 June 1990.

A Special meeting was held to formulate the Constitution on 19 February 1990. This was completed and handed out to members in October 1990.

The first Newsletter was produced at the first meeting and to be printed two-monthly.

A stall selling Christmas decorations and cake was arranged for the beginning of December was held to raise funds for the Club.

Our first picnic was held in January 1990 at Kathy Hopkins home at Tatum Park and has been held every year at this time at one of the member’s homes.

The first workshop was a Hardanger Table Scarf taken by Tutor Patsy Greig and many other workshops have been taken over the years. In 1990 we started workshops on the first Saturday of the month from March to November. Since then we have continued to hold many workshops teaching different aspects of embroidery.

Designs for our Logo were asked to be in by February 1991 and the chosen design for our Logo was accepted on 7 December 1991 at the Annual General Meeting designed by Mr Tony Medhurst, husband of one of our members. It was a stylised Kotuku, based on the embroiderers stork scissors, on the lake. The badges were made using four colours and were ready for sale in July 1992 priced at $7 each. As every Guild has a banner it was designed on the Logo and Mrs Nancy Maxwell, a member, offered to embroider and sew the banner, which was presented to the Club on 20 April 1994.

Our first Exhibition was held in April 1994 at Thompson House and have continued to hold one every two years since that date. In 2000 the committee decided to hold the Exhibitions bi-annually in alternate years to the National Conference.

We produced a Recipe book, which was printed in November 1993 and we celebrated our fifth birthday in May 1994.

We started giving an annual donation to a community group in 1994 and have continued this every year. The Association of New Zealand Embroiderers Guilds undertook the Galleria Project, a large embroidery hanging to be hung in the Parliament Buildings. Our Guild received a section to embroider which we received in August 1994 and had three months to complete.

In June 1994 we started having a Tuesday afternoon stitch in, which is still very popular and was increased to twice a month in February 1997.

In March 1995 we held our first Stitch-In inviting the other Guilds in our region to join us at the Intermediate School. This was very successful and has continued each year. We officially changed the name to Intastitch in 1999 and always the first Saturday in August and have had several different venues over this time.

We had a challenge to embroider a hanging in 2004 and twelve members volunteered who were each given a one section of a picture, plus a piece of fabric 15 x 12 cm to embroider in any medium they desired. When all the pieces of embroidery were completed they were joined together to make the finished hanging, which was presented to the Masonic Home where it hangs in their entrance foyer.

The following members have been Presidents : Judy Lund, Vivienne Burling x 2, Agnes Williams, Alison Cull x 2, Daphne Barrett, Betty van der Mespel, Yvonne Symonds and Enid Low.

The Guild’s meeting is held on the third Wednesday in the Red Cross Rooms, Queen Street, Levin at 7.30pm and we welcome new members and visitors.


This is up to 12 March 2008

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