We’ve had a somewhat wet summer here in Northern Ireland, fortunately we can always find plenty to do as we are gallop towards our first 2017 – 18 Guild meeting on Saturday 2nd September.
August is Craft Month and we have been enjoying many exhibitions, workshops and talks all over Northern Ireland – too many wonderful projects to mention and there’s still a wee bit of time in the month to catch something else.
Days of blue skies and fluffy clouds and sunshine. as evidenced thanks to an Instagram photo from @alkisti_hou, have been punctuated with rain, as of just now, at the time of writing, the rain is pouring down, or ‘bucketing’ as we call it.
Luckily there is no shortage of things to do, including the odd excursion to one of the many establishments serving refreshments. Such as “The Dark Horse” near the Cathedral Quarter and the tenth establishment to receive one of the special Game of Throne’s doors.
Not that everyone in Northern Ireland is “Game of Thrones” mad, though it may appear that way and if you follow on, you will see why it is being mentioned in connection with the first Guild meeting of our season.
It is impossible to live in Northern Ireland and not be aware of GoT and it is so exciting to see the many visitors coming to here to visit GoT film locations and we hope enjoy our hospitality.
What are the Game of Throne doors?
One of the most iconic scenes and most visited site is the Dark Hedges, aka Kingsway to GoT fans. Locals have always known and loved this avenue. The beech trees are 300 years old, so no surprise to hear that some were felled during fierce storms. A sad demise for such proud trees, and a dilemma of what to do with them. Someone came up with the idea of using the fallen trees to carve out scenes from each of the GoT series. Ten in total.
These, such as the one above, have been placed in different locations throughout Northern Ireland. In April 2017 Tourism NI launched a “Journey of Doors passport” – visit the 10 Game of Thrones Doors across Northern Ireland and collect a unique stamp at each of the locations.
Why all this talk of GoT? During the summer some of our members have been engaged, under Valerie Wilson’s direction, in embroidering the Game of Thrones tapestry now hanging in the Ulster Museum.
Jayne McClenaghan is the link between GoT and our forthcoming programme, about which, we are very excited; a varied and interesting series of talks and workshops.
Indeed our 2017 – 18 season kicks off on Saturday 2nd September, with the aforementioned, Jayne who with others, has spent some of her summer embroidering the GoT tapestries. [Seamless, if long winded link?]
Jayne’s talk is entitled ‘Improving lives through craft’, intriguing? Find out more about her at her blog One Day At a Time. This gives you a glimpse into her life: in addition to working part time as a nurse, embroidering GoT, and teaching patchwork and quilting, she volunteers at the National Trust property Mount Stewart . Where she finds the time for all her activities is a puzzle. Jayne certainly proves the truth of the old adage: “if you want something done give it to a busy person”. 
The committee has been working hard to make the programme current, varied and related to NIPG interests and activities. There will be a mixture of talks, short afternoon workshops, and all day workshops. Also a few Friday workshops which proved so popular last year.
We apologise for the delay in posting our forthcoming programme. In addition to confirming speakers, venues have to be confirmed. Though we are indeed fortunate to have our base in the Ulster Folk and Transport Museum, at times they need the space we use for events they are organising. We will be posting our programme very soon so keep your eyes peeled and enjoy the last few weeks of summer.
Happy Sewing
NB Header photo shows a few of the quilts seen in situ on the beds in various cottages in the Folk and Transport Museum at Cultra.
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