North west Region A.G.M. Garstang October 2016

 Circle display from last year's AGM afternoon stitching activity.

On Saturday 22nd October  the North West Region AGM was held at Garstang and most branches try to send representatives so they can report back any news and developments to their branches.
AGMs are necessary but can be a bit dry so Val has tried to make ours more interesting by encouraging displays of group work from the branches and having an afternoon stitching session. 
You can see some of the circles from last year above and the enthusiasm, creativity and ingenuity of our members shows no bounds.

Pictured below is some of the work from last year's Summer School.
If you have never been it is well worth taking the chance to immerse yourself in textiles for a couple of days.

A collaborative piece from one of the branches

 Some members have already made their piece for the Chair's Challenge of a continuous landscape. It is on our programme for the April Meeting.

The afternoon stitching session was led by one of our members and it was entitled "what can you do with 4 lines?"

Samples of what can be done with 4 lines

Members were provided with a piece of hand dyed material with 4 intersecting lines. Some samples were shown and suggestions were made but our members are full of their own creative ideas and set off with enthusiasm to stitch their piece making it their own. 
Some pieces were near completion and they were taken home to finish off at the end of the session and to be brought back next year for a new display.
A thank you to everyone for responding so enthusiastically.

Goldwork Mary Seaman October Meeting 2016

Our workshop this month on Gold Work was taken by one of our own members Mary Seaman. This technique requires precision and patience and is not for everyone but looks stunning when it has been done properly as you can see from Mary's samples and work pictured below.

Mary gave us a choice of either embroidering an ammonite or an initial and most of our members chose the ammonite. We were provided with a pattern which we had to transfer to our supported framed silk.
Members then applied the felt shapes one at a time and added the gold work or applied all the felt first.

 

Pattern transferred to silk and leather applied over the felt on the first chamber

 

Felt applied to the background

Leather applied over felt padding

 

 

 

One of our members  decided to have a go at embroidering a bee and here you can see the felt padding attached to the background.

Members took home their ammonite/initial to finish off at home with metallic leather and various gold threads. When they are finished they will look very rich and beautiful.
A big thank you to Mary for her preparation and patience in encouraging us to have a go at this unique style of embroidery.