When my WI celebrated our 90th anniversary at Gatcombe Park last Summer as guests of HRH The Princess Royal, she admired the bunting we’d hung in her barn, casually saying that she’d be quite happy if we “forgot” to take it down.

Well, we didn’t forget to take our bunting home with us, but neither did we forget her comment and decided that making HRH a set of her own bunting would be fun and a sweet means of replaying her kindness in inviting us to her estate for our celebration. This morning, eleven of us got together at the Social Club to get to work.

We had a fair bit of fabric left over from our own bunting and received more donations of fabric from various stashes around the village, so material was no problem. We decided to stick to green and cream which looks so good with the Cotswold stone walls.

Everybody found their most comfortable role, some cutting the pieces out ready for sewing.

Eight of us had brought sewing machines, so the hum and clatter of machinery accompanied the chatter.

I had taken my first sewing machine, the mechanical Bernina that weighs a ton, has no bells and whistles but which sews like a dream even though it’s not seen the light of day in several years. To think, I used to take this machine to classes and workshops frequently, carrying it across town without a thought! As we finished each piece, we turned it right way out and placed on a pile for collection.

The ironing fairy came along and gathered the finished triangles and was kept busy pressing them straight. One or two were a bit wonky - would the Princess notice that, we wondered?

We doubted it!

Notice the essential item by every sewing machine?

The kettle is always hot if the WI are involved and the tea and coffee flowed freely all morning.

And that means there’s washing up to be done too. (Just make sure you use the WI washing up liquid Pat! 😉)

In just a couple of hours we’d got a great collection of bunting pieces ready to join onto the tapes. Helen had noted that each of our four strings were 24ft long and contained 53 pieces each, which means there’s just about enough here to complete HRH’s set. Helen will take it all home and distribute the patterns and tones evenly as she sews it all together.

We’d agreed to bring and share lunch, so as usual there was enough to feed the five thousand set out on the bar. Events such as these are such fun - everyone does their bit and no-one is at a loose end.

When we’d finished, not only will HRH have her bunting but all the scraps will be passed on to the rag rug artist in the village - nothing wasted.

Working in a group of friends like this is always a delight - making the bunting was a great excuse to do it.