Birstwith Creative Crafts
(Links to photos at the bottom of this page)
Birstwith Creative Crafts started at the end of 1998 under the auspices of the Help the Aged Millennium Project. It meets weekly in the Church Hall. See the Magazine for details.We were provided with a grant to establish an embroidery class in the village, catering for anyone, of any age, who was interested in needlework. The grant enabled us to hire a teacher and the church hall for fortnightly meetings. We were also able to buy materials and equipment, in order to make a memento for Millennium Year, bringing disparate people together to work on a common project. The first piece of work envisaged was to be a millennium banner to hang in the church hail, as this is the only sizeable meeting place in the village and is used for both religious and secular purposes.
The grant also enabled us to work on a set of new hassocks for the church, together with several further banners for Birstwith Band, Armistice Day, and the Sunday School. This involved many more people, who were interested in making an enduring contribution for Millennium Year, though some were unable to come to the meetings, including several of the Sunday School children who helped to make their own banner. In this way the conditions of the grant were fulfilled. It was then decided that we should continue and at that point we became a "Church Society" meeting in the Church Hall, our teacher becoming a valued member of the group.
We planned further projects. A Christmas Banner was completed for Christmas 2000. New altar frontal, burse, veil and alms bags are in the process of being embroidered now.
Since the grant money expired, more finance has become available in the form of several memorial donations, which are paying for the altar frontal and several extra memorial kneelers.
Donations of materials and trimmings have also being forthcoming and our long term work will include a Chasuble and preaching stole as well as a Pentecostal banner and further memorial kneelers. Several of our members had no previous experience in canvas work or church embroidery but over the previous two years we have all learned something new and, hopefully, have become more proficient, as well as having enjoyed our meetings as social occasions.
A couple of our husbands have become involved in the mounting of the banners and the making of finials for them and will also make the frame for the altar frontal, but as yet we have no male volunteers to do any needlework!
Photographs of some of their work are on this web site and may be see by "clicking" on the list below. Use your back arrow on your browser to return to this page.(Brenda Eastland)
| Kneelers 1 Kneelers 2 Kneelers 3 Kneelers 4 Kneelers 5 Wedding Kneeler |
Banner for Remembrance Day Childrens Banner Banner for Epiphany Millennium Banner Orchestra Banner Pulpit Drape |
