December Meeting - Carols at St George's

Wednesday 21st December 2016, 6.30pm

St George's Bloomsbury Carol Service

There is no formal meeting of LWEWI in December, as the church holds its annual carol service on the evening we'd usually meet.

All members are invited to join the congregation of St George's for this seasonal service. 

LWEWI will be providing mince pies for the congregation after the service, as well as serving mulled wine. If you're able to provide some pies, or are willing to help serve and clear up, do email us at londonwestendwi@gmail.com

St Mary's Hospital Carol Concert

On Monday 5th December LWEWI helped provide refreshments for COSMIC, the intensive care unit at St Mary's Hospital in Paddington, who held a Carol Concert at St Matthew's Church in Bayswater, in aid of the charity.

Thank you so much to everyone who baked and attended.

The food all went down a storm. They were very happy and said the refreshments were so much nicer than they normally were.

See below for a copy of the cover sheet and page of thanks from the service booklet.

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.

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.

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! 

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.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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 5^th 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

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.

Dates for your Diary - October

19th October is our Monthly Meeting, where we'll be learning about the history and work of the Textiles and Fashion dept at the Royal College of Art.

On Sunday 23rd October, why not join us for the Community Preview of the South Africa: Art of a Nation exhibition at the British Museum? Time to be confirmed, probably early afternoon. Email us if you'd like to reserve a ticket.

September Round Up

September has been a busy month, what with our craft club, monthly meeting and a plethora of cake stalls! We also welcomed some new members, and first-time visitors to our talks. Hope to see you all again in October!

We began with Craft Club where we knitted hats for Innocent Smoothies, and managed to make quite a few. Thanks to all knitters, we'll be sending the hats to Innocent soon.

At our September meeting, our dear friend and host of Craft Club, Geraldine Beskin from Atlantis Books, gave us a fascinating illustrated talk about the somewhat glamorous and eccentric Contessa Luisa Casati. Not only that, but to illustrate the folly of fashion, she brought along some rather wonderful shoes for us to admire (but not walk in!)

There were cake stalls this month at both Phoenix Gardens and St George's (for Open House). We sold a lot of cake, and got the word out to potential new members. Thanks to all who baked, sold or bought cakes!

What's Happening In September

Quite a lot of things actually! So let's begin at the beginning, as it were...

Tuesday 6th September
Craft Club

This month we're knitting little hats for Innocent Smoothie bottles - when they're sold, money goes to charity. See our Craft Club page for more details, and check out these wonderful hats that Fiona has already knitted as part of our contribution!

Saturday 10th September
Phoenix Gardens Agricultural Fair

It's the annual Agricultural Fair and as ever we'll be in need of cake bakers and sellers (and buyers!). Drop us an email at the usual address if you're able to help.

Saturday 17th and Sunday 18th September
Open House, St George's Bloomsbury

http://listings.openhouselondon.org.uk/listing/st-georges-bloomsbury/
We'll be providing refreshments in the Upper Vestry Hall as usual, and again we're in need of assistance. Email if you can help, please!

Wednesday 21st September
Monthly Meeting - Local History

At last, it's our monthly meeting, and this month Geraldine from Atlantis Books returns with more history, this time all about Marchesa Luisa Casati - see our 'this month' page for more information.

August Meeting

Wednesday 17th August 2016, 6.30pm

Protecting your information online.

Our speaker Vikram will be giving an overview of safeguarding your personal information when using social media or apps to prevent identify fraud, or individuals or gangs hacking into your accounts. 

Vikram will start with registering for accounts, what information you should provide and what you should not; then move on to managing your information whilst using social media or apps, and what do to if someone is trying to harvest personal information from your or one of your relatives; and finally, and importantly, removing or deregistering information from apps or websites you may have forgotten you were registered with.

This should be a most timely and useful meeting for us all. Please feel free to invite acquaintances who might also benefit from hearing this information. Remember the first meeting is free for guests.

Vikram has promised us games and lots of interaction during this talk. You can find out more about digital security on his blog, here: http://disc-digitalsecurity.blogspot.co.uk/

July Round-Up

As well as the two bake sales this month (see last post), where we made over £500 towards our funds, we had our regular meetings.

Craft Club
At craft club in July members used old pieces of foam (such as pizza bases) to make unique personalised ink stamps!

Monthly Meeting
Our main meeting was a change from the usual talk or activity at St George's, as we headed out on a lovely sunny Wednesday evening for a guided walk of some of the City of London gardens. The evening was a definite success, and we agreed we really should get out more!

Cake Stalls!

Queen Square
A number of us attended Queen Square on 2nd July. Thank you so much to Laura, Alix, Ruth, Neelo, Clair, Helena and Claude for baking and for looking after the table at various points during the day. 
It was a great day - a brilliant atmosphere and music, and (miraculously!) no rain. And we made a whopping £345 to support our work and events throughout the year!

Denmark Street Festival
On July 23rd some of our members attended the Denmark Street festival, to sell more of our baked goodies. Thanks to Helena, Ruth, Claude, Clair, Pat and anyone I've missed for baking and helping to woman the stall. Final figure coming soon!

UPCOMING CAKE STALLS

We still have two bake sales coming up, both in September. Do let us know if you can help in any way!

Phoenix Gardens 10 September 
Phoenix Garden Grand Agricultural show for this year, to be held on Saturday Sept 10th  in the heart of Soho. We usually do quite well at Phoenix. We have two tables and the same spot we occupied last year.

Open House 17 & 18 September
Open House this year is the weekend of 17th/18th of September. St Georges have once again asked us if we might provide refreshments. If a few people could help out on each day, and also bake for us, that would be great!

July Meeting, Wed 20th

It's almost time for our July meeting, on the evening of Wednesday 20th July, and this month we're getting out and about on a guided tour of the gardens of the City of London. 

For all the information you need, see our 'This Month' page.

Note that we are meeting near the Guildhall in the City of London, NOT at St George's Church.

Bakers and Sellers Needed!

Cake Bakers! Cake Sellers! Cake Eaters...?

Bake sales are one of the main ways (alongside your membership fees) we raise funds to pay for rent of the hall, speakers, materials etc and keep your WI running. We've got two bake sales coming up in July:

Saturday 2nd July: Queen Square Fair (12-5pm)
Saturday 23rd July: Denmark Street Fair

Are you able to bake sweet or savoury goodies for us to sell (all your costs can be reimbursed), or able to help staff the stall for an hour or two? Email us on londonwestendwi@gmail.com for more details or to volunteer.

Even if you're unable to help out, do drop by and buy a treat for yourself - and don't forget to tell your friends too!

June Round-Up

June's not quite over, but all LWEWI's activites for the month are, so here's a quick summary of what we've been up to. Join us in July for craft club on the 5th, our monthly meeting on the 20th, which this month will be a walking tour, and 2 cake stalls (more about that in a later post)

June Craft Club

We started the month with our regular craft club, where Nicky taught us more of the mysterious art of paper folding, and we were able to use our creations (fish, shirts and butterflies) to create hand made cards.

June Monthly Meeting

We were joined this month by Keely, one of the Boobettes from Coppafeel, who gave us an inspiring talk all about breast cancer - not the most uplifting of subjects you'd think, but as a breast cancer survivor after her diagnosis at the age of 29, Keely gave an amazingly inspirational talk, as well as reminding us all of the need to get to know your boobs and go to your GP as soon as you think something's not right.