National Celebration of Stitch Day Saturday 6th August 2016

We deliberately staged our textile exhibition to cover the National Day of Stitch on Saturday 6th August so that attention was already focussed on stitch.
On the Saturday we had shared the day between members as we took it in turns  at the library with leaves in a variety of colours waiting to be stitched.

Leaves waiting to be stitched

 

 

 Two very enthusiastic ladies turned up and were keen to have a go! They said that they would both like to do more with stitching and learn more techniques and they seemed to enjoy their leaf stitching.

The ladies took their leaves home as a reminder of their stitching.
In the afternoon we took our leaves outside to the Ornamental Gardens but it was so quiet we had no takers so I will leave you with a few pictures of the gardens and a thank you to our members for helping. 

 

Library Exhibition Grange over Sands Library August2016

During July our members were collecting or finishing off textile pieces ready for our exhibition of work in  Grange library.
Some of the committee collected the pieces together, made labels and signs and then displayed them in the library for three weeks. 

Our members had managed to cover the full range of textile work from traditional stitching, patchwork,encaustic wax, mixed media, goldwork, felt making etc. showing there is something to appeal to everyone in textile work.

Some of the pieces had been started in our workshops e.g. lichens,stumpwork butterflies etc.. Other pieces were following members own interests e.g. patchwork, encaustic wax, blackwork.

 
 Some very positive and generous comments have been passed to me by people who had looked at the exhibition so thank you to all our members for their hard work, persistence and creativity.
 

Circles Sandra Kendall July meeting 2016

Our workshop this month was based on circles and led by one of our own members Sandra Kendall.
Sandra reminded us of patterns we had made as children using circles and the many artists including Kandinsky and Hundertwasser who had also used circles in their work. 
Sandra  brought samples of hand stitched circles to show us that had been made by stamping, shiva through a stencil, or applique as the basis for the embroidery.
Most members chose the prepared circle they wanted to work on and then chose the stitches and colours they wished to use. A few members had designed their own pattern.

 Sandra suggested various stitches that would give certain effects e.g. line stitches, circle stitches and even suggested using just one stitch worked in different threads.
Members started stitching immediately and patterns began to emerge.

 Once the stitching had been completed members were shown how they could embellish their circle further by using buttons, beads, shisha glass, dorset buttons etc..
Most members took their half finished circle home to finish off and develop  ideas to make their piece unique. 
Sandra believes thet circle patterns could be explored some more and this is only the beginning.
Thank you Sandra for an interesting day.