A while back, in August I joined the Embroiderers’ Guild of Queensland. I found out about them at the Abbey Medieval Festival and was quite excited to learn something different than my good ol’ cross stitch. The other thing that intrigued me was the library. Not a surprise here for anyone, I suppose. But I wasn’t interested only from the pure librarian perspective, in this case it was more of the promise of many inspirations contained in the magazines and books held there.

First, I attended the course for new members: Embroidery basics, where I learnt new stitches. I met some people there and, I was surprised by the fact there was someone younger than me. I know, you might say: you’re not so young anymore (it is actually a true story, I did hear it from a student…), but still I expected to be rather unique there.

On that Saturday I visited the library for the first time. It was a walk down memory lane. They are still using the old ways: you have a due date slip in the book and a slip with the book title that is taken out of book with your name written on it, and filed at the librarian’s desk. It took me back to my local library which I visited as a kid and a teenager. The librarian wasn’t there on that day so unfortunately I didn’t have a chat but had a look around the collection and have to say there are some interesting books there.

Overall I’m happy I’ve joined but still feel intimated by the fact that the average age of the members would be around 50. I must say that elderly ladies have this strange sense of humour, a bit like Nanny Ogg. It is quite funny when you read it, but when you have a couple of ladies like that sitting around and singing not-so-innocent nursery rhymes, you start to wonder…

I will definitely use their library and attend as many courses as I can, but you probably won’t find me sitting there with the ladies and needling our time away. Not my style.

But I’ll never say never.