February Meeting

Am a bit late doing this, it will soon be our March meeting but better late than never.

We were all very shocked and saddened at the sudden death of Barbara Douglas, one of our original members.  She was very supportive of the group and hardly ever missed a meeting.  Her work was beautiful and she embraced modern techniques as well as traditional embroidery.  Our thoughts are with the family.
Another quiet day still getting over Christmas and the wild weather we have been subjected to.  It didn't stop everyone beavering away at their work.  We have started a new stitch to work with and this time it is straight stitch.  Hoping to see lots of different ways of working with that.

Jan dyed her fabric by standing tea bags on it to dry and so creating these lovely patterns

This was one of Anne's dried leaves that she painted and touched with gold then waxed to keep it flexible.

Another Ann was tacking together this lovely quilt.

Diane has done this lovely depiction of the Victoria Falls

I think this was Christine's work.  Love the eyelashes!

January Meeting

We all had a lovely meal together just before Christmas at our December meeting and after the festivities we were all back in January ready for the new year.
Some people are starting on their Africa projects and some are working on other things such as postcards so we were all busy today.  We didn't have any demonstrations but here is some of the work that was being produced.

Some couching practice going on here

These are Ann's pieces.  They are lovely small squares of stitch and fabrics

I think this was Diane's work

Some lovely canvas work here

Christina was doing her couching samples as well.

November Meeting

We had to park in the next street this month as the men were tarmacing the road outside the hall main entrance and we had to use the back door.  This meant a walk across the wet playing field so we were limited to the amount of bags we could bring this time.  However, most people made it and managed to still do quite a bit of work.  Several brought their Artists Trading Cards from the workshop earlier this month with Pauline Twyman and some had done some more at home.

As you can see, some of us decided to try moving into coloured cards.

We have chosen our next stitch to work on and Couching was drawn from the hat so several people started work straight away while others did their own work.

These are lovely sheep that I think belonged to Mavis

Susan is working on some bags using Japanese fabrics that she had left from making quilts.

Barbara is working this lovely sea piece.  The fishes are trapped behind organza and she is stitching through the layers.

Workshop with Pauline Twyman

We had a lovely day on Saturday with Pauline doing Artists Trading Cards.  What was special about these was that they are done only in neutral colours - no turquoise!  It can be difficult to restrict yourself to such a tight palette, especially if like me, you use a lot of colour.  Everybody made at least two cards and most did three, even those who did hand sewing.  At the end we chose one of our cards to leave on the table and took away one belonging to someone else so that we had done a trade.  Pauline had made a lovely book to hold hers in and I am tempted to make one myself.

Here is our show and tell table at the end of the day:

At the end of the day I went home and finished my 4th card and did a couple more (one of which isn't neutral but grey and cream).

October Meeting

A quiet meeting this month as several people had to leave early and we were just doing our sewing.  One or two have already started on their Africa project and some were finishing off their landscapes they did with Kate Slaughter.  Otherwise a quiet day but some nice work being done.  Looking forward to our workshop with Pauline Twyman.

Some fabric manipulation going on here

This beadwork will become a christmas decoration. (Spellbound pattern if you would like to know)

This design is destined for the side of a bag.

September Meeting

We had a nice display of finished landscapes from out meeting last month.  I had finished mine but forgot to take them in.

We have now sorted out our topic for the next exhibition in 2021.  It will be AFRICA.  Lots of ideas there and not forgetting that Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia and Egypt are all in Africa.  We tend to only think of the southern countries that have the national parks with all the wild life and the flowers of the far south.  I can see lots of printing of patterns and beadwork designs coming on.
This month Christina gave us a demonstration of marbling using shaving foam.  She had learnt this on a workshop this summer and while quite messy it is quicker than the normal way of doing it and is quite effective.  We printed a couple of pieces of cotton fabric and then did a piece of white felt which we made into small baskets when they had dried.  They still smell of men's shaving foam even though it was supposed to be perfume free but it should fade with time.  Think I'll put mine out in the garden while the weather is fine.

Looking forward to seeing what everyone has done with their pieces next month.

August Meeting

I seem to have missed posting July's meeting but it was fairly quiet with everyone doing their own work. August however was a different matter with an excellent workshop with Kate Slaughter.  We made mini landscapes which everyone enjoyed doing.  It is amazing how the same topic can be done so differently by eighteen people.  Of course, everyone also enjoyed the boxes of Kate's lovely threads to buy.

Some of the lovely landscapes that were produced on the day.