May Meeting 2013" My Crafty Life" Dorothy Pearce

At the morning part of our meeting Dorothy Pearce, one of our members, told us about her "crafty life" over a number of years. She illustrated her talk with an extensive and breathtaking display of examples of her work including the most delicate pieces of lace. There were plenty of oohs and aahs as Dorothy produced pieces from boxes like a magician!

Dorothy with a lace bridal bouquet which she helped to make

Her examples included every type of textile work but particularly lace and hardanger. Some of her pieces can be seen below.

A friend of Dorothy's in Canada introduced her to making these decorated eggs with their beautifully intricate patterns!

After Dorothy had finished talking we were able to look more closely at the pieces and there were so many that it took another hour to view them all!
We have all been inspired by Dorothy to aim higher with our textile work and make sure we finish pieces!
Thank you Dorothy for a beautiful, interesting and inspirational morning.  

Stitches

After lunch we broke into 4 small groups with each group led by one of our members to explore 4 different stitches varying the thread, style, size and type of each stitch.

Examples of Chain Stitch

The first group was led by Anne Covell and involved chain stitch.

The Second group was Bullion Stitch  led by Brenda Pearson.

Examples of Bullion Knots

The third group was buttonhole stitch led by Margaret Hunter.

An example of Buttonhole Stitch

The fourth group was Sorbello Stitch and led by Sandra Kendall

Examples of Sorbello Stitch

Everyone seemed to enjoy the stitching even those who are veteran stitchers as we often just use our favourite stitch and forget all the others we know until reminded again.
Thank you to our 4 members Anne, Margaret, Brenda and Sandra for working the samples and leading the groups.

Chris has just finished her Stump work Kingfisher and he looks beautiful. As you look at him below it is hard to believe that this is Chris's first attempt at embroidery. Well Done Chris!

Regional Day 27th April 2013

Yesterday almost half our members were able to attend Regional Day as it was fairly near to us at Kirkby Lonsdale.
We were welcomed with tea/coffee and we were informed drinks would be on tap all day. 
There was a variety of exhibitions and demonstrations including patchwork, smocking and lacemaking.Anyone who wished to buy material or threads to add to their stash was able to go to the Trade Stands.
The host branches of Kirkby Lonsdale and Appleby had mounted a beautiful display of their work and we were particularly taken with the boxes.

The raffle prizes of filled bags were set out in one of the rooms and looked very appealing but all of our members were unlucky!

 The competition pieces were displayed in another room.

 One of our own members, Sandra Kendall, won the Rosebowl with a piece entitled King Cotton. Well Done Sandra!

We were well looked after at lunch time with a nice meal and particularly tasty puddings.
After lunch we all settled down in the hall to listen to a very interesting talk by Jacqui Carey on Elizabethan Stitching.
It was a very enjoyable day and all thanks must go to the host branches.

April meeting Tie Challenge followed by a talk on Indian Embroidery By Liz Matthews

In the morning of this month's meeting we made a start on making flowers from the ties we had been given by the regional committee for the "Tie Challenge".

  Some of our members had already made a flower at home, some had half finished ones and some were still at the design stage. You can see the beginning of our efforts below!

We have yet to decide how we are going to display them!


In the afternoon we had a very interesting talk on Indian Embroidery by Liz Matthews but there are no pictures because my camera batteries went flat! Sorry about that!

A few more members brought their completed stump work animals and they look super.

Well Done Everybody!