Exhibition of Work, Methodist Hall, Grange 5th September 2015

We have just had a busy couple of days preparing for our exhibition in the Methodist hall in Grange. There were projects to finish, cakes and biscuits to be baked and sales itms to be priced!
We set up Friday night and as usual there were a couple of technical hitches which needed sorting out but by the morning apart from making the tea and coffee and setting out biscuits and cake everything was ready apart from visitors.

The weather was good and gradually people began to arrive and view our work and chatter over a drink.
We tried something a little different this time and had a few mini diplays of skills or topics for embroidery and you can see a few below. These were very handy for chatting to people about our work.

Lichens

Boxes

Gummy Silk Paper

Block Printing

Cords

Patchwork

Hardanger

Our sales table did very well and helped raise money for our funds.

 Thanks to the generosity of our members we had some good raffle prizes.

 We served tea, coffee and home made biscuits from 10 until 3.
There was a steady stream of people throughout the day and they were very appreciative of our group's talents and skills and made very positive comments.
A couple of people might come and join our group and they will be made welcome.
Our Regional Chairperson Val Coleshaw also visited and it was much appreciated by our members that she had travelled all the way from Bolton.
It was a successful, if tiring day, and thanks go to all our members for their hard work and generosity.

Shiva Flowers Sandra Kendall September Meeting 2015

Our workshop on Shiva Flowers was led by one of our own members, Sandra Kendall, who brought with her a lot of samples and photographs of flowers that were useful to use with this method and can be seen in the pictures below.

 Sandra explained about taking the skin off the Shiva sticks, that the colours mix as in paint and the background colour also has an effect on the final colour.
We started off with a little warm up exercise by using a hand cut stencil of 3 shapes,attaching it to cloth by ironing, putting Shiva colour around the edges of the shape and transferring it to the cloth with a tooth brush.
Our members were then shown how to make a stencil of their chosen flower and apply the Shiva including adding stripes or different coloured centres.

  Before we did any stitching Sandra suggested we make any leaves from bondawebbed silk, cut out and attach by iron. She then went through a variety of ways of making stems to suit the flower.
Sandra then demonstrated machine stitching around the flower to make it "pop out". An alternative method was to backstich by hand around the edge.

 Once the edge had been sewn the flower could then be embellished by hand stitching and beading to make the centre of the flower stand out.

Most members had reached the point where they had started to add the leaves. The flowers were then taken home to finish off and to quilt the background.
The flowers were  varied in color, shape and size and we are looking forward to seeing the finished embroideries soon.
Thank you to Sandra for an enjoyable day.
 

Exhibition of Embroidery and Textile Art 2015

We are holding an exhibition of our embroidery and textile art pieces, made over the past year, on Saturday 5th September at the Methodist Hall, Grange over Sands.As well as the exhibition there will be refreshments, craft stall and raffle.
The date will soon be with us so please don't forget to bring your exhibition pieces either to the meeting on Tuesday 1st September or Friday evening at the hall.

Any offerings for the raffle or craft stall will be gratefully received.

The Festival of Quilts August 2015

I travelled down to to the NEC early on Thurday morning with my shopping list in my hand and hoping to see some beautiful and interesting quilts. 
I was not disappointed but I had never seen the queues so long. To enter I had to join a queue which snaked all around the floor for about 15mins before I could get in! There were also queues at many of the stalls in order to pay!
I got everything on my list and here are just a few of the quilts pictured below.

 As I was wandering around, who did I bump into but Mary ready for action with her steward's sash and white gloves.

The Festival of quilts is always worth a visit both for the ideas it generates and picking up things to buy that are not easy to get at home. It was a good day but very tiring.