One day I sat down to try spinning and liked it. I joined the Guild later that year. At first I was just a paper member. I attended no meetings and only read the publications. I used my spare time by joining the Burwood Spinners and Weavers where I met Audrey Miller, Mirella Percossi, Daphne Mulholland and Henny Matthysen. We were the only Guild members in the group. Then bad times came for wheat and sheep farmers. My sister and her husband sold up and moved into the business of building roads, etc. All her black sheep were sold. She no longer spins and weaves. I kept on with spinning, knitting and weaving. I also tried many other crafts.

Then I read that the Guild needed a Secretary. I gave it a lot of thought and remembered that it wasn't necessarily what it seemed to be. The reason I thought very hard about it was, that prior to moving to Sydney, I was secretary for the Gold Coast Theatre Group whilst living and teaching at Surfers Paradise. When John Bell came down to direct our version of Tom Jones, I found myself an extra job as Wardrobe Mistress. As there were no British Redcoats in our wardrobe, two of us had to make the coats. Many covered buttonholes later, the play went on with only one disaster. The double bed which was on a mezzanine floor was much in use when the supports of the mezzanine floor gave way. No one was hurt and there was much hilarity from cast and patrons. Bearing this in mind I offered myself as secretary.

Since that time I have been Secretary, Guild News Editor [twice], President, Treasurer for six months and finally Membership Secretary. As well I have set up our stands at Darling Harbour and the Panthers. With Tua Jorgensen and Kathy Frost I organised the workshops for our 1997 Birthday Exhibition and two Fibre Festivals the last of which was converted to a Summer Festival.

I have enjoyed my time in the Guild. Since returning to full time work I do not have as much time to spend on my hobbies. I have spun a lot of wool which I am now knitting into garments for my entire family. Whilst my children were growing up I did a lot of machine knitting. My mother taught me the ins and outs of machine knitting whilst I was growing up. When I bought my Singer Memomatic I did the excellent hand flat knitting course offered by the old Strathfield TAFE.

My weaving is in linen and wool and I make very long belts for my daughter who is a member of the Sydney Society for Creative Anachronism. I also weave scarves from wool I have spun and then died randomly. The last weaving workshop I attended was Anne Field's Collapse Weave.

I have tried many crafts. My father taught me to weave and plait leather. Dad learnt this while he was recuperating from wounds received at Milne Bay. I have braided and plaited many things. A visiting braider introduced me to braids from other countries. Dad taught me how to build boxes as well. I still have the first box I made to carry all my stuff from teaching post to teaching post. Now it is full of material as I have been a sewer since 1960, when our High School required that the Academic students had to take a Home Science or a Wood/Metal option as well. This has served me well and saved me lots of money along the way.

I love felting and lining boxes with my own felt which may be hand or machine embroidered. At present I am embroidering a felted wall hanging. I always do felting with the children at school making small useful items. I also use beading techniques to decorate scarves made using nuno felting on chiffon (a Pat Surace workshop) or velvet scarves patterned with burn out techniques (a Loomcraft workshop).

I learnt basketry at Primary school and went to a very interesting workshop (Loomcraft again) where hand decorated paper was cut into strips with a pasta maker and used instead of the usual basketry materials. I still have lots of emu feathers to make a basket or bag. I remember and emu skin rug by my bed when I was growing up.

My story continues. I hope for another thirty useful years.