December Meeting

Most of this meeting was spent in the restaurant having a lovely christmas lunch.  Most of the members present in the morning are also members of the Embroiderers Guild and they were busy finishing their birds for the exhibition next year.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to everyone who looks at this site.

November meeting

A big sigh now the exhibition is over, although we are trying to get it displayed in another venue, as all that work deserves to be seen for more than two days.

Everyone was keen to know what the next topic will be so I had put together three choices for everyone to choose from, the most votes was the winner.  Choices were - 'A Foreign Affair', 'Under the Canopy', and 'Home Sweet Home'.  Barbara had put in a late suggestion of using a single colour to work from.  After some thought and discussion, everyone liked the idea of working with a single colour but didn't feel that it would be easy to display along with workbooks and also with the type of boards that we use to hang work on.  In the end, 'Under the Canopy' was the choice for the main topic, postcards will be done again starting now with your personal choice of card and also we are doing a small piece of work each in the colour blue.  So more work than I was originally asking!
Jackie has been on an interesting workshop painting papers in black and grey, to which she has added a dash of red.  She is going to source some paper and give us a workshop next year.

Moira brought in some of her sketchbooks with some lovely work inside them.

We seemed to have a busy day and everyone had completed the work they brought in well before the end of the day so that was very satisfying.

October Meeting and Exhibition

We had all the postcards together at the meeting on Thursday last week, all mounted onto canvas strips with two hanging options and they look wonderful.  Many different interpretations of each card were produced.

Here are just a few of them.

I think there are about 50 of them altogether, I haven't actually counted them.  Everyone has enjoyed this activity so we will be doing it again next year.

The exhibition went really well.  We didn't have quite as many exhibits as last time and neither did we have as many visitors but those who came were very appreciative of the work.  I have had a few enquiries from people wanting to join us so that is good as a couple are leaving this year. So here are some photographs of the work that you missed if you couldn't make the exhibition.  Remember, these were all based on the topic 'Warriors'.

September Meeting

Having just told you last month that our exhibition will be on the 10th and 11th October, I have now to inform you that I have made a real **** up of it all and I have actually booked the hall for the 24th & 25th October.  So that is when our exhibition will be, 24th and 25th October at Ayton Village Hall, admission free but there will be tea and cake available.
We brought most of the postcards to today's meeting and of course I forgot my camera.  I am going to photograph them at home when I lay them all out ready to be put onto tapes for displaying but I can assure you that they are amazing.  Lots of ideas from everybody and what is even better, everybody enjoyed doing it and they all want to do it again next year.
Will add to the post when I have got the photographs done.

August meeting

I have used the picture shown last month of Christine's embroidery on our flyer for the exhibition in October.  For those of you reading this blog that don't know yet, we are having our exhibition on the 'Warriors' topic on the 10th and 11th of October at Ayton Village Hall, Scarborough, YO13 9HY from 10am to 4pm.  Hope you can all join us.

There weren't very many of us this month but that was an advantage in a way as two people were felting, Moira was cutting large amounts of fabric and Liz had her sewing machine out so we had room to spread out.  Most people have now finished their postcards and we are getting them all together next month to see the best way of displaying them.  I think they are going to look really good.

Only a couple of photographs this month.  The first is Ann's lutradur with a markel stick design shaded onto it.  The second is Christina's designs taken from the elephant armour at the Royal Armouries.

July Meeting

A few people missing today as it is the start of the holidays for many.  However we still had an interesting day with nearly everyone doing work towards their Warrior pieces. Christina and Anita reported on the Summer Schools they had attended and showed the work they had done.  Here is some more of the work in progress at Ayton.

Christine's Aztec warrior is looking amazing.

Jackie is doing a reliquary box which would have been carried by the troops to bring good luck.

Jane is also working on Aztec's and these Angelina feathers will be going into an Aztec head-dress.

I have to choose a picture to go on our flyer for the exhibition and these are some of the ones I have got to choose from.  Would like to make it an embroidery if possible.

June Meeting

Another good day with eighteen out of twenty members present and lots of work being done.  Most people were just working on their Warriors pieces or just getting on with things they needed to finish.  Here are some of the projects under way.

This is a piece Ann was doing.  It is black velvet (an old pair of trousers) with a design stamped on in gold.  She is embellishing it with chiffon and beads.

Christina is continuing her norman theme with the shields on fabric and net.

Christine is stitching this wonderful blackwork piece, based on a picture she saw in a book.

Jenny has been using her jellyplate to produce this lovely fabric and then using a stamp and stitch to work into it.

Colleen has been having fun making these face cupcakes in felt.

This was another piece Jenny was doing, painting a piece of tyvek and scrim that she produced last month.

May Meeting

I can't believe it is now over two weeks since our meeting and I haven't got the blog done yet.  Time has run away with me what with the bank holiday and everything else.

A few of us joined the Stitching in the Dales workshops which are run each year by the Grassington Branch of the Embroiderers' Guild.  We had an excellent time with Lynda Monk, very hectic but very inspiring.  For photographs of the work done see the Ryedale branch blog on ryedaleg.blogspot.com.  We had a small demonstration running of one of the techniques that Lynda showed us and several people had a go.  Roma was busy demonstrating felt making to Ann who had never done it before.  Moira was making machine cords and Ann also had her sewing machine out finishing off samples from the Lynda Monk workshop.

This is one of Colleen's pieces that I think she calls 'Yorkshire Nuggits'.  The hand is also Colleen's work, as she says 'You can design with anything'.

Here was Ann's work being arranged as samples.

Marilyn was working with buttons and found objects in this piece.

Jackie was trying out one of Lynda's techniques to make snowflakes.

April Meeting

We had a visit from the PAT testing man today, all of us getting our machines checked out ready for the residential workshop season.   Because they had their machines with them, some ladies decided it was a good opportunity to get some machine sewing done, so two were quilting and one was making machine cords.
Most people were busy with their Warriors work as October is now looming up and a sense of urgency is beginning to take hold.
Below are some of the papers we all made last month with Niki Hampson of Pulpitations.  Of course, Colleen has made hers into a lovely book with a poem she has written about becoming 'beige'.

Roma has been busy felting for her Warriors. Tea is always at the ready.

Colleen has done a one day workshop with Chris Gray and was finishing off her piece of work.  Several of us are doing the Regional Summer School with the Embroiderers' Guild and will have a 3 day workshop with Chris so hope it is as good as this looks.

Royal Armouries Exhibition

Five members of the group have contributed to the exhibition at the Royal Armouries called Threads of War.  The exhibition was the idea of Annie Parkinson who started people working on quilts, hangings and embroideries and who now has over 100 items in the collection.  She started displaying the work in local libraries and small venues and a large portion of the work is now in the Armouries.  It will stay there until 21st June when it will then move to the Armouries other venue in Portsmouth.  The amount of work Annie has put into this has been tremendous and we all thank her.  The opening preview of the exhibition was on Friday 27th March so I went along and took these photographs.  They aren't very good because the lighting was low.
This poster is in the entrance to the armouries.

This panel is outside the gallery along with a video of the Leavening Embroiderers at work.

This is the start of our part of the exhibition.

This small side area of the gallery was devoted to the Leavening Embroiderers work.

There were a number of workbooks on display.

More of our groups work.  My blog is mixing up the pictures and it is difficult to move them without making a complete mess of it.

Each piece of work is accompanied by one of these notices.

It is well worth a visit as the armouries is free to go in and there is lots there for children to enjoy.

Just wanted to add this picture of an embroidery done by the Ladies of Leavening village which now hangs in their church.  It was what started the Leavening Embroiderers group and it is beautifully stitched.  All the central panel is split stitch and each picture shows an activity done in the village.