That Darn Stitch! Patricia Barrett Storey Gallery

Five of our members travelled to Lancaster to take part in a darning workshop with Pat Barrett at the Storey, Lancaster, as part of the activities surrounding the Tied by Stitch Exhibition.
Darning does not do justice to what Pat does with darning as a colourful and textural embroidery stitch. See elephant below

Pat showed us some delightful pictures which we might like to use for inspiration and her enthusiasm was very infectious when it came to her "darning" and "threads".
To get started we made a sketch on our background material of our ideas.
Then Pat demonstrated how to lay the warp thread in small patches on our quick sketches and then weave the weft thread through them varying colours and shades.

The technique was very addictive and I think it will not be long before all of these are finished!
All thanks go to Pat for a most enjoyable day and introducing us to using darning as a creative embroidery stitch.

All wired up Priscilla Jones June Meeting 2014

This month we were lucky to have Priscilla Jones take our June workshop. Whenever we think of Priscilla we think of tea cups and saucers imbibed with her own delicate charm. She is now moving on to working in porcelain with found pieces of interest. Some of her pieces are below.

We were going to make either a 2D or 3D structure with wire. Priscilla showed us how to twist the wire and squeeze the twists with pliers. As soon as we had decided what to make we set about twisting our wire into the shapes we wanted, which was not as easy as Priscilla made it look!

We then cut up fine material such as silk or chiffon and applied it to the structure with hot wax which gave a delicate translucent effect.

We were then able to stitch into the structure and sew on buttons beads etc..

Most of us either finished or nearly finished our structures and we took our efforts home proudly. All thanks go to Priscilla for such a fun and enjoyable day.

Storey Exhibition May/June 2014

Yesterday Brenda and I went to the preview of the Storey  Exhibition and you will all be delighted that as you walk along the corridor to the room you will see our joint effort of Starry Night in front of you.

Some of our postcards from the Athletes of the World project are  displayed with other cards from  North West Branches.

Our basket of flowers made from ties is hung in the corner with other pieces from the tie challenge.

Sandra K. has an individual piece entitled Remembrance-tied to the past.

Remembrance-tied to the past

The exhibition is well worth a visit as it has a wide range of stitch, both traditional and contemporary.  The colourful, creative and finely stitched  pieces  have all been displayed in a pleasing way and  a few  of the pieces exhibited are shown below.

I hope you will find time to visit the Exhibition as it is well worth a look. Thanks must go to Monica and her helpers for organising it.