10th September World Textile Day

On Saturday 10th September World Textile Day will be taking over Mundford once again.

This annual event is one of seven Days which take place each year around the country. Mundford Village Hall is host to the East day.

In case you have never been to one before here's what its all about.

World Textile Day was started in 2008 by Diane Gaffney of Textile Traders and Magie Relph of African Fabric Shop as an antidote to the big Textile Shows. It's a small, specialised, friendly and inexpensive show (depending on how much temptation you can withstand!)

Diane says" We wanted to get together with our very small peer group of dedicated world textile lovers, traders and collectors and put on a show we ourselves would love to go to. We started in Wales, spread to Scotland and then Norfolk and now organise 7 World Textile Days a year. We choose venues where we can spread into two big halls, have easy parking and have a local group who will help out with home made cakes and refreshments. In Norfolk we have the inestimable Alveva Quilters.

Every year we choose a theme, put on an exhibition and organise a couple of talks sessions. Entrance is free and we just ask a small charge of £2 for a talk. This year's theme is "Rites of Passage - Births, Marriages and Deaths in Textiles". At Mundford we are very lucky to have Chris Spring as our guest speaker. Chris is the curator of the British Museum's African collection and we are really looking forward to hearing him talk about the wonderful textiles he'll be bringing along.

Chris will be speaking at 11 am and in the afternoon at 2 pm we'll have a session consisting of two short and snappy talks, leaving time for a world textile "Show and Tell" This is your chance to bring along something which you would like to tell us about or ask us about!

We have a very dedicated band of textile lovers who enjoy World Textile Day so much some call it their "favourite day of the year"! So come and enjoy shopping with traders who provide a direct, personal relationship between the maker and the customer and really know what they're talking about, enjoy meeting up with friends, find out about places you never knew existed and not least enjoy cake and a good cup of tea."

World Textile Day starts at 10am and finishes at 4.30pm. More details are on the website www.worldtextileday.co.uk or on the World Textile Day Facebook page.

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