April Meeting

The Friends Meeting House, Keswick

Unfortunately, our speaker for this meeting had to cancel , so instead  of the planned 'Knotting',  members brought along their own work to do. As it turned out, our business meeting took much longer than it would, normally, and we found lots of things to discuss before we got down to any work!

We made final plans for our day out, which this year will be to The Gracefield Centre in Dumfries.  Dumfries Embroiderers Guild   have an exhibition, shared with Spinners, Dyers and Weavers, and  SolwayQuilters.  It takes place every three years, and we were all so impressed by what we saw last time that we are very keen to go back. again. We are travelling in members' cars, and meeting at Gracefield at 10 o'clock.

People were working on................

Zena's Teddy

 Gloria's goldwork, started on a recent workshop at Appleby branch

Sally's Crewel work

FES 2012 Final instalment!

It's over a week now, since the Fashion Embroidery and stitch Show 2012, and I have the final lot of pictures here...................

One of the things I like about this show, is that the workshops are free.  This means, of course, that you only get the chance to join one of the very popular sessions if you are there really early on that particular day. I was fortunate enough to get my name down for a place on Kim Thittichai's workshop, using old newspapers, bondaweb, and assorted glitters to make jewellery.It was great to be able to sit down and transform these unlikely materials into what will eventually be brooches/cards/whatever.

Kim is an excellent tutor, and given the short time we had, everyone came away with a  good little bag of bits that just need to be finished off, a brooch back added, etc. Here are my 'bits', ready for the final stages....

They were cut using a Sissix 'Bigshot' machine.

I always like to look at the W.I. stand, at their textile ideas, and was, as ever, impressed with the quilts made from their easy instructions..............

 

And, the work on show from The University of Cumbria 's talented students.........................

Finally, a glimpse at my 'loot'.....some planned, some not, some freebies, mostly not, some already given away as gifts, (well, one item), lots ready for future projects.....

Click on pictures to see in more detail.

More from 'Fashion Embroidery and Stitch '12'........

I must be one of very few people who didn't watch 'Downton Abbey', but the collection of costumes at The Fashion Embroidery and Stitch show was very impressive............lovely hats!

and , for those of us who have recent experience of making postcards, what about this collection made by West Country  Embroiderers?
(click to see them better, close-up)

I loved this one!!!!!

Mabon Arts, featured in 'Stitch magazine recently..........positively encouraging photographs of exciting embroidery, inspired by tribal textiles.....

Entries in the'Glimpses of Blighty' competition...

 

                                                                 (The lopsided look is the fault of the photographer, not the artist!)

Fashion Embroidery and Stitch 2012

It's that time of year again, and I spent two days at the NEC this week, trying to get round all the exhibitions and stalls. I think I saw most of what I wanted to , but it is so big that when I look at other peoples' blogs, there'll  surely be some things I missed. I have a new camera; I practised with it before I went, so, lots of photos, hopefully, to be posted over the next few days.

This year, I was fascinated by the Lace displays...........................

                                     ...and loved the 'Night at the Opera' creations.........

              To see the pictures in more detail. click on them individually. More, later..................

March Meeting and Newsletter

We held our  March meeting in Threlkeld Village Hall, because we planned to experiment with dyes, and paints, and felt very worried about the potential for messy accidents at the Friends meeting House! Also, it offered us space to spread out. Which we did..............

The idea was that we would bring the paints and dyes that we had at home, often bought in an excess of zeal at shows, and then put away. Members could try out techniques and materials we might not have seen or used. Several of the group had not been able to be at the meeting when Jackie Cardy showed us teabag dyeing, so this was an opportunity to use up the dyes and papers she left with us that day. Great fun was had, making up lovely, individual papers.

Transfer paints and crayons were successful, too, and there was time for members to recall what they'd done in other workshops, and try variations of what they knew.

Lots of interesting fabrics/papers were taken home at the end of the day.........what will they be used for? watch this space!  

No pictures; my camera is not working. Someone did take photos, which I'll post as and when I get them.

Also, Zena's Newsletter...............................

Keg Newsletter

 March 2012

Next meeting will be Vivienne Brown’s talk and mini workshop “Let’s Get Knotting” on Thursday 19^th April.

Requirements are: Tatting Shuttle (Pat is getting some shuttles), cotton perle thread, scissors, needles, strong thread, beads, feathers or other frippery.

Bring something to do in the morning and lunch or buy some at Booths.

Committee members there will be a committee meeting at some point on 19^th April

On May 3^rd we will be going on our outing to Dumfries to see the Textile Exhibition.

There will be a list circulating on 19^th April for this.

May 17^th ‘s meeting will be do your own work or make cards for our exhibition on 6th July at the Moot Hall in Keswick.

June 21^st will be a Make a box workshop with Lesley Rutherford.

And lastly, do you have any ideas for next year’s programme 2012/13?

Any queries Zena Smedley 016973 71023

February Meeting.....Playtime!

Good old Bondaweb!


For our meeting this month, we had  planned to experiment briefly with some backgrounds for stitch, and to develop our free- machine embroidery skills to stitch into them. However, Lyn, who was to teach the machine part of the workshop was laid low with flu at the last minute.


Instead, we spent the day 'playing' with painted Bondaweb  (discovering en-route that Heat and Bond does not work in the same way), ironing this on to a variety of different fabrics, and layering  with sheers, metallics, tiny sequins, gold powders, threads, and small scraps of fabric, to produce what turned out to be exciting new backgrounds for machine embroidery, either free-motion, or using the automatic patterns most of us have on our machines.


Some of the effects are quite stunning, and will make lovely bases for brooches, cards, books and boxes once stitched into.   Sadly, the fabrics have not photographed well, and I suspect this is because of the high 'glitz' factor! Either that , or my camera is not functioning properly.  Hopefully, the results will be shown as part of our exhibition in July.

Some of our members chose instead to continue with their Wessex Stitch work from our last meeting, which they have found fascinating.  There has been a resurgence of interest in this technique recently, as I can tell by the number of 'hits' on this blog which have come from a search for Wessex Stitch Embroidery.  I found this link    

http://maryjoanstitching.blogspot.com/2011/08/wessex-wonders.html    Nearly all the links about this subject show the same examples of work, because they are from the same book, but this stitcher has gone a bit further with her own designs.  She also includes a link to another site, with even more information and pictures.  Well worth a look!


Lyn, I'm sure, will lead her machine embroidery workshop sometime in the future

February Informal... a day out!

We met at Rheged for our informal meeting this month, to look at their current exhibition, WOW! Wonder of Wool.
It's a fascinating collection of work, some traditional, but mostly innovative, clever, witty pieces using this versatile material in all kinds of ways. Knitted benches, sculptural pieces, and my favourites, the knitted houses, representing the buildings where horrific poisonings took place!. The houses themselves are beautifully made, and it was quite a shock to read the details of what went on inside these addresses!

 It was one of those bright, crisp, lovely days we get in Cumbria, if we are lucky, and it was really pleasant to relax over lunch after the exhibition.

No photographs allowed, I'm afraid, but this link will take you to the Wonder of Wool site, where you can get a glimpse of what is on offer.

We planned another visit, for today. We intended to meet in Carlisle at Tullie House for the 'Little Black Dress' exhibition.  This time the weather defeated us,so maybe another time..................