Meet Our New President: Melanie Williams

Welcoming our new President, Melanie Williams. Let's find out a little bit about her....

Hello!

I hope you're all getting a chance to enjoy some summer sun and maybe taking a little peaceful stitching outside – mindful playtime that we all deserve! I’m delighted to be able to say hello to you all as President and tell you something of where my love of quilting and stitching came from. Like many of us, I have only vague childhood memories of my first stitches. My mother and grandmother viewed stitching largely as necessary needlework rather than for pleasure, but I was very fortunate to have a Great Aunt Elsie who, as an active member of WI and Townswomen’s Guild, also had real passion and exceptional talent for all crafts. On summer holidays, I was encouraged to rifle through riches - boxes, buttons, threads, tools, fabrics, samples and antique fashions she had accumulated over a lifetime, including such treasures as gowns worn at elaborate Raj balls in India and beautiful scraps from her 1930s and 40s sewing. I remember holding the skeins of wool for her to wind, seeing her tapestries develop, tooled leather work, silver and pewter work, beautiful patchwork and exquisite corded quilting in satin, including a full-length ivory housecoat which I remember as very glamorous! And there was also an enormous library of books on every skill. Truly an Aladdin’s cave to a child! She was my role model and inspiration. She triggered in me a lifetime’s love of and fascination with textiles, the colours, textures and, most of all, their provenance, their social anthropology. Where had they come from, who had worn them, and what had they now become in her skilful hands? Why am I telling you the story of my Auntie Elsie? It is because I want everyone new to quilting and textile art to have the opportunity to engage with a role model, someone whose enthusiasm and passion are irresistible, who can engage others through their infectious love of patchwork and quilting. As President, I want the Quilters Guild to become known as the go-to place anyone can come to learn about every aspect of quilting and patchwork, to experience the friendship and enthusiasm of other members and to grow the love of textiles that we already know can offer so much pleasure and fulfilment. And it is you, our members, who are our very best ambassadors, so my rallying cry as President would be to challenge ourselves to share our enthusiasm, to be seen with our stitching, and to encourage new members to join – one from each of us would make an enormous difference to the Quilters Guild! I would love to hear about your thoughts and ideas for the Guild, so please get in touch via my email - [email protected]. If anyone has sent me an email since the AGM but had no response, we had a technical glitch which led to my emails not being received, so please do resend and I will get back to you as soon as possible. And in the future, wouldn’t it be fascinating to hear about members’ memories of their early stitching?  Doll’s clothes, or maybe the first magical experience of stitching layers together, may very well have been a blanket for a well-loved teddy. What are your treasures, maybe worn fragments, often unfinished but with your handmade stitches, your signature, and what are the stories they tell?