Our January Meeting

When we planned the Bake Natter and Roll programme for 2018 we thought that January would be the perfect time to think about patchwork quilts - what better time than a dark, chilly evening to appreciate a warm, handmade quilt? And our first WI meeting of the year did not disappoint as our speaker Brigitte Gillespie showed us her beautiful patchwork quilts and conjured up images of cosy evenings snuggled up on the sofa, as well as impressed us with how intricate the designs were.

The hall looked lovely decorated with gorgeous quilts! Brigitte was interesting and funny, and answered lots of questions from members.

Inspired by this display we're planning a possible project and hope to get lots of members involved in creating a Bake Natter and Roll patchwork quilt which we can use as a WI tablecloth for our monthly meetings!

It was also our 2nd birthday! We celebrated with a yummy cake made by our President Cat.

Treasurer Miriam was kept busy receiving subs, and lots of members signed up for upcoming events.

At the end of the evening we considered the 5 resolutions shortlisted for consideration as national WI campaigns and each selected the one we would most like to see go forward.

It was a lovely start to our 2018 meetings, and now we're looking forward to trying some creative writing next month!

A new beginning....

Hello and welcome to the Bake, Natter & Roll blog!

We are a brand new Women's Institute (WI) group based in Farnham, Surrey who meet on the third Thursday of every month. This Thursday night was our first official meeting and we welcomed 69 new members - which is amazing!

Bake, Natter & Roll - The Farnham WI Committee

But before we tell you about our new adventures, why don't we share a little of our history with you....because you can't just start a WI. 

Our journey began last year when our co-founders Cat and Kate decided that Farnham was missing a group where women could make new friends, learn new skills and share experiences. They liked the idea of joining a WI group, but couldn't find one locally that suited the experience they wanted....so they decided to start their own!

Cat started a Facebook page to gauge interest in a group like this and was overwhelmed by the amount of ladies who responded. An initial meeting was arranged with a WI Adviser to talk about the idea some more and to see if there were enough willing volunteers to form a committee. Interest in the group was mounting all this time and in November 2015 we held a preliminary meeting so everyone could find out a little more and vote on a name for the group!

We expected about 40 ladies to turn up at the preliminary meeting.....and were totally amazed when we welcome about 60 into the hall for an evening of natter and cakes! 

It was great to meet so many like-minded ladies.

Bake, Natter & Roll Preliminary Meeting - October 2015

On the night we voted to start the new WI group and also voted on the name.....

Bake, Natter & Roll (Farnham WI) was born!

Fast forward to the 21st January and a committee of seven ladies were waiting nervously to see how many people would actually turn up to the first meeting and would want to join us...but we shouldn't have worried....

Bake, Natter & Roll (Farnham WI) first meeting - January 2016

Over 70 ladies joined us for cake and speed crafting! 

But we will save that for another blog post.

We're a WI Group for the young and the young at heart.....our provisional programme for 2016 includes, among other things, an introduction to mindfulness, a talk on social media and a wine tasting evening....but don't worry there will be plenty of crafts, cakes and the odd bit of jam making too!

There will be cakes....

.....and some crafts!

The Committee is made up of:

Cat - President

Laura - Secretary

Miriam - Treasurer

Kate - Vice President

Lydia - Vice President

Rachel - Vice President

Judith - Membership Rep

Take a peek at what we all look like in the photos on the sidebar! If you see us at a meeting or in Farnham don't forget to say hi!

We hope you will follow us on our adventures on the blog....you can join us on Facebook and Twitter too! We'd love to hear from you, so please get in touch!

Thank you for popping by today,

the Bake, Natter & Roll Committee