Summer School 2011

Last Thursday, Elizabeth, Jennifer and Sandra went to Summer School at Alston Hall. There was a choice of three courses, stitched books, 3D crewel work and a stitched collage.
All three of our members had chosen to make a stitched book with Frances Pickering.
Frances brought with her many of her stitched books which were inspirational as you can see from the pictures below.

Members working hard on designing and making their own books on subjects personal to them.

The covers were made from pelmet vilene which was coloured with transfer dyes. The pages were also coloured with dyes and then stitched to the cover to make a book. The pages were then ready to draw on and stitch into about a subject of the members choice.

Elizabeth completed her cover and stitched in the pages. She began working on the pages, including some of her own photographs taken on a recent holiday in Scotland. The book will be about the machair found in the Hebrides.

Jennifer finished the cover and made a bookmark for her book. She sewed in the pages and took it home to complete.It will be a book on memories.

Sandra completed the cover and sewed in the pages. She then started working on the pages and has nearly covered 4. Only 36 pages to go!

The crewel work group produced beautiful embroidery with a modern slant on 3D crewel work, including a pea pod, a hare a butterfly and flowers with a rabbit.

These are just a few of the vibrant and cheery stitched collages created with Liliane Taylor.

All three of our members enjoyed their time at Alston Hall and hope to return next year.

Landscape picture and wall quilt

Jennifer has put the finishing touches to her wall quilt dyed and started at Summer School.

A few weeks ago she also completed a picture from pieces of her dyed fabric and a portion of dyed plastic bag.Lots of hand stitching and she added french knots for the flowers.

This picture was accepted at the Ulverston selection night.

Well Done Jennifer! They both look bright and cheerful

Venetian Flowers

Sandra has now finished her wall hanging that she started at Summer School. The gold and red reminded her of Venetian glass and so she added a Venetian style carnival mask to complete the hanging.

Silk Bowls and Tassels

The other two courses were silk bowls and tassel making and here you can see some of the finished work.

It was a very enjoyable Summer School and the members learned some new techniques and had an enjoyable social time and are looking forward to next year!.

Nearly completed projects

The members then chose some of their dyed cloth to work with and considering they all started with white cotton everyone of the projects was very different.

They took them home as samples or to finish.

Dyed Cloth

The members did an awful lot of rinsing and ironing but the colours and patterns were amazing!

Cotton material before and after dyeing

The members took with them six metres of cotton material which they cut up into pieces and dyed with Dyrect Dyes in bags in a microwave!

They had a wonderful time watching all the different colours and shades emerge as you can see on the washing line.

Quilts by Annette Morgan

This year four of our members, Elizabeth,Anne, Jennifer and Sandra, went to Summer School. All four decided to do the dyeing and stitching with Annette Morgan.Annette brought samples including some of her quilts and you can see them in the above photographs.