What a day! Today 8 Pewsham Belles met at Diane I's to attach our share of the poppies we made last year to the joint Chippenham WI cascade ready to go on display next month. One member said it had really helped to keep her going through Lockdown.
We had a lovely relaxing day spread over 2 sessions and by the end had added 309 poppies to the total! Luckily the other three WIs (Hardenhuish, Lockside and Pewsham) had left room for our contribution.
We decided to drape the display over Diane's settee and chairs instead of over her table, which made it much easier to work both above and below the camouflage netting backing. Quick repairs were made to some of the poppies already on the display and we were also able to add black centres where they were missing as Susan E had sent some along with her poppy contribution. A quick check of our own poppies also revealed we needed to add long tails to a few of them so we could tie on all our poppies securely. The 'bowl of spaghetti' in the picture shows all the ends we cut off after tying the poppies on - these will be used later for toy stuffing, a good way of using up all those tiny odd bits of wool!
We were fueled by some wonderful cake and biscuits originally made for Wednesday's John Aubrey Group meeting, which were a real treat that went down well with everyone - thanks Fiona P, Ros, Sarah and Jenny's granddaughter, you are our star bakers!
Who knew when we started the project in March at Rivo Lounge last year ready for May's VE75 commemoration, poppy making would power us through the first lockdown and into 2021 over 18 months later instead? This year marks the centenary of Chippenham's war memorial, so our make is still an apt one to mark our remembrance.
Thanks to poppy makers/attachers Carolyn, Diane I, Michelle C and Ursula for your efforts this morning, followed by Fiona B, Gill, Jenny, Pauline, Diane and Michelle this afternoon. Thanks also to Ann, Fiona P, Susan E and Wendy for getting your contributions to us so we could make sure you were included! We also hope to add those made by Teresa and Caroline at some point. It's been great to see such a wonderful team effort both remotely and in-person, plus the sharing of knitting and crochet skills from our more experienced makers with the beginners on the project.
If you're wondering why there are some purple poppies in the cascade, these are in remembrance of the many animals that were the victims of war.
Look out for an Our Town visit to see the display next month.
You may also like:
The start of our contribution to the poppy project at Rivo Lounge last year - includes links to the various patterns we used, plus our hints and tips gleaned from using them
Our alternative 'Poppy Parade' when the live VE75 commemoration was cancelled last year
The inclusion of our Poppy Parade in Chippenham's virtual VE75 commemoration
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