Welcome to London West End WI

Tuesday 29 November 2016

Bakers Needed for Monday 5th December

Might it be possible for any of our members to assist with the refreshments for St Mary's Intensive Care Unit's carol concert? The concert is happening on Monday 5th December, in the evening. Refreshments are needed just before the concert begins.

They approached us a few weeks ago as their nearest WI. They are the charity which had all the Christmas presents which were about to be given to sick children stolen along with the Christmas decorations and Santa outfit from the Hospital Ward in the last day or so (see photo for more details) - it was in the news and the papers yesterday.



Claude is going to bake and we are hoping one or two of you might also be able to bake?

If you can bake, and would like to attend the concert at St Matthew's Church in Bayswater, please email us at londonwestendwi@gmail.com and we will request they reserve a ticket for you for the concert. They have said that all refreshment providers can have tickets, they just need to know how many are needed.

The church is:
St Matthew's Church in Bayswater
29 St Petersburgh Place
Bayswater
London W2 4LA

With regards to baked goods for the event, the things they usually serve are cakes, biscuits, mince pies etc - nice nibbles really. Please could they be delivered to the venue for around 4 to 5pm as the event starts at 7pm. More information about the carol concert can be found here.

Wednesday 23 November 2016

Review of November Meeting


In our November meeting Alix led us in a felt bauble making session, teaching us how to take wool (or alpaca) fibres and turn them into round balls with some soapy water and patience! We also had a go at decorating our creations, ready for the Christmas tree.








Wednesday 16 November 2016

Monthly Meeting Tonight

Wednesday 16th November 2016, 6.30pm

Upper Vestry Hall, St George's Bloomsbury, Little Russell Street

Christmas bauble making

This month we're getting festive - we'll be making and embellishing felt baubles for your Christmas trees. Alix will bring some that are already made to embellish and all the wool fibres to make the felt. If anyone has any needles, sequins, sparkly thread or anything they'd like to embellish their felt balls with, please bring them along! 


Monday 14 November 2016

A few bits of news...

Update following on from the last newsletter:

We will be visiting the British Museum on Saturday 3rd December at 7.40pm for another chance to see the South Africa - Art of a Nation exhibition. Please email us at londonwestendwi@gmail.com if you'd like a ticket.


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We have received the email below: If anyone is interested in helping out, please email Emily at Emily.Hughes@imperial.nhs.uk and cc in LWEWI at the usual address.

My name is Emily Hughes; I’m the Fundraising & Communications Executive here at COSMIC (Children of St Mary’s Intensive Care) which is the charity that supports the Children’s Intensive Care Unit at St Mary’s Hospital in Paddington. We support the patients and their families by providing accommodation so that parents can be near their critically ill child whilst they are in hospital as well as purchasing state-of-the-art equipment and organising training for the doctors and nurses. We take children from all over London, the Home Counties, Oxford and the South East, but can have children admitted from as far afield as Birmingham and even Scotland. We are also the main children’s trauma centre for West and North London. 

Every year we organise a carol concert for all of the families who have been on the Unit as well as staff and current occupants on the ward. It provides a unique experience for parents who have been through the often traumatic and isolating experience of having a child in intensive care to share experiences and stories. It also means that the doctors and nurses who treated those, once critically ill children, are able to see their former patients, happy and healthy, looking forward to spending Christmas with their family. 

This year’s event is happening on at 7:00pm, Monday the 5th of December at St Matthew’s Church in Bayswater. We have three amazing choirs as well as the children from Chelsea Quavers Music School performing a mixture of traditional and contemporary carols and readings. We also have a very special guest compare at this year's event; actor Patrick Ryecart who you might have seen on BBC's Poldark as Sir Hugh Bodrugan, as Lord Wigram in the Oscar Award winning film The King's Speech and he is currently starring as Duke of Norfolk in the newest Netflix drama 'The Crown'. 

After the service we have a little celebration with all of our guests with a spread of festive treats and a glass of bubbly. There is also an amazing raffle with brilliant prizes to win in our raffle - a 'golden ticket' for the Roald Dahl Museum, a family pass for the London Eye, vouchers for Bill's Restaurant and Cote Brasserie as well as tickets to the Little Angel Theatre in Islington and a whole host of toys and goodies up for grabs! We will also be having a special kids corner where Father Christmas will visit and open his post box to the North Pole for the children to post their Christmas lists into. 

Overall, the annual Carol Concert is a wonderful family orientated event, raising essential funds for critically ill children in London. We were wondering whether the London West End Women’s Institute might be interested in joining us at this year’s event by donating or baking some Christmas treats for our guests to enjoy after the service? If anyone from your Institute would be interested in contributing to our event we would be delighted to offer them complimentary tickets to the carol concert. 

For any information about ticket prices and the venue please see our Eventbrite online ticketing site here: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/cosmic-carols-by-candlelight-tickets-27300640952

Monday 7 November 2016

What we did last month...

October was another busy month for us, with Craft Club, a fab talk about the Royal College of Arts, and a visit to the British Museum to the preview of the new South Africa exhibition. 

October Craft Club:
At the October meeting we had a go at making cards using the lacé paper-cutting method, with some very successful results (and no bloodshed, always a bonus when using sharp knives!).





October Monthly Meeting
At our regular meeting we had a fabulous and well-attended illustrated talk by Cathy Johns (sister of WI stalward Nicky) all about the history of the Royal College of Art and in particular the fashion and textiles departments there.



November Craft Club
As I'm a little late on reporting back this month, the November craft club has already been and gone. This month we were card-making again, sewing stars onto card and paper to make beautiful Christmas Cards.



Coming Soon
Join us for our November meeting which will be Christmas bauble making, and for December's craft club when we'll be turrning old jam jars and drinks glasses into festive candleholders.