Dates for your Diary, May to December 2024

 Monthly Meetings 2024

May 15th: A talk about Annie Horniman, Theatrical Impressario, with Geraldine Beskin

June 19th:  Needle felting and talk about shepherding with Emma Harrison

July 17th: Votes for Women! Guided walk with Herstorical Tours. Pre-booking essential for this one, please email us to reserve your spot.

August : TBC

September : Sort My Stuff Out! with professional organiser Katherine Blackler

October : Commonwealth War Graves Commission: architecture and its conservation with Alistair Higgins

November : TBC

December: Christmas social:

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British Museum Exhibition Previews
We hope to attend more exhibition previews this year - in previous years we've been to most major exhibitions before they open to the public. This year we have already visited Legion: Life in the Roman Army, Michelangelo The Last Decades, and more

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Cake Sales

We aim to have at least one cake and craft sale a year. This year we will be having 2 stalls at the annual Soho Fete on Sunday 21st July. Bakers, Crafters and sellers always required. All money raised goes towards maintainin LWEWI's programme full of interesting speakers

May Monthly Meeting

Our next meeting is Wednesday May 15th, at 6.30pm in the Upper Vestry Hall of St. George's Bloomsbury

Our speaker this month is Geraldine Beskin, and she will be speaking to us about Annie Horniman, Theatrical Impresario and Her Chums.

Annie Horniman was a Victorian spinster with flaming red hair and a temper to match. She used her irritation with situations to change the world of the Theatre forever. She was rich, knew the poet W B Yeats for a lifetime, George Bernard Shaw - another redhead - author of very successful plays such as Pygmalion or My Fair Lady as the film was called, and Dame Ellen Terry the actress who was a National Treasure a bit like Judy Dench is now. These are a few of the big names in her address book, she had lots of other friends who were differently important.

Our Speaker

Geraldine Beskin runs The Atlantis Bookshop with her daughter Bali and they are very proud that their business is 102 years old. Geraldine should have been born a Victorian as she loves the creative people who were around then. Instead she had the fun of being able to be a Hippy and listen to great music and enjoy other benefits of being a mid-century baby!

Open to all our members, and to any interested women - you're all welcome as visitors. Email us on londonwestendwi@gmail.com if you'd like more info, or just turn up.

March meeting

Our March meeting, on Wednesday 20th, will be our AGM followed by a short session of practical sashiko embroidery, inspired by our February speaker, Rob Jones. We'll supply all the materials, and the instructions - and as you can see from the example below, it's nice and straightforward, and easy to complete a small piece in a short time.

Non-members are welcome to attend but will be unable to vote for committee members in the AGM.

Want to be on the committee? Let us know ahead of the meeting via email, and also get in touch if you've got any questions about what being on the committee means in terms of responsibilities or time commitments.

Sashiko - what we'll be trying in March

Our speaker in February, Rob Jones

We meet at 6.30pm in the Upper Vestry Hall of St George's, Bloomsbury (entrance on Little Russell Street). Visitors are always welcome, you can email us for more info or just turn up on the evening.

Shop online? Click this link or scan the QR code before you shop and LWEWI will recieve a small donation, at no cost to you, for every transaction you make.

February 2024 Meeting: Japanese Textiles Talk

Our next meeting is on Wednesday 21st February at 6.30pm when we'll be learning about Japanese textiles.

Rob Jones, a textile designer, will give us a talk about Japanese textiles crafts, discussing the origins and history and daily usage of the following crafts:

• Shibori resist dyeing
• Katagami stencilling
• Sashiko embroidery
• Boro
• Kogin counted thread Sashiko
• Kasuri weaving

Rob will bring examples of all these vintage textiles for us to see, including examples of his own work. He will explain how he came to be a Japanese textiles designer/maker and teacher and tell us a few tales of his trips to Japan to learn with his sensei and internationally renowned Japanese textiles artist, Bryan Whitehead.

There will be time for questions at the end.

At the event he also bring along a small selection of his own work to sell alongside books on some of the crafts and some kits with needles, threads and patches.

See his website, https://www.romordesigns.com/ for more information about Rob and his work.

We meet at 6.30pm in the Upper Vestry Hall of St George's, Bloomsbury (entrance on Little Russell Street). Visitors are always welcome, you can email us for more info or just turn up on the evening!

November meeting - the Biology of Christmas

This month's talk is on Wednesday 15th November at 6.30pm and our topic is the biology of Christmas. 

Have you ever wondered about the stories behind our favourite Christmas plants and animals? Come along to our November meeting and find out about robins, reindeer, Christmas trees and the rest with our returning speaker, Jane McLauchlin.

We meet at 6.30pm in the Upper Vestry Hall of St George's, Bloomsbury. See our 'about us' page for a map and more info. Guests are welcome and your first meeting is free - we welcome all women aged 18 and over. If you haven't been before and want more info, you can email us on londonwestendwi@gmail.com