Continuation of Stump Work Animals with Gillian Darrington February 2013

This month we all arrived with our finished animals and a background which we had made at home. We were all waiting for Gillian to show us how to attach our animal to the background.

We had to seal the edges of the embroidery with PVA glue and then cut it out. Gillian then showed us how to attach it to the background by a slanting stab stitch stuffing it at the same time. As we stitched the animal began to take shape and look more realistic and here they are nearly completed!

Here is Gillian's sample piece below. Thank you to Gillian for a good and productive workshop.

Completed Pieces

Maureen has finished her map, which was started at Summer School, of a trip by boat in Scotland. The more you look at the map the more things you find!

 Sandra K. has embroidered an Ancient British Warrior complete with spear haft made from ash wood as part of a project run by Wild Flower Europe of making a Patchwork Meadow.
If anyone would like to know more or have a go at embroidering a plant linked to our culture go to
www.plantlife.org.uk/patchworkmeadow
for more details.

January Meeting 2013 Stumpwork Animals

Our workshop this month was taken by Gillian Darrington one of our own members. We had been asked to bring a picture/drawing of an animal we would like to embroider.
Gillian set up a display of some of her very attractive stump work animals, as shown below, to give us an indication of what we would be making!

We were asked to draw our animal onto calico in pencil and back stitch around the outside line. We then chose the coloured threads we wanted and began working in stem stitch filling in the shape of the animal. The lines of stem stitch gave shape to the contours of the animal's body.

Most of us used 2 strands of 6 strand embroidery thread in a variety of colours to produce shading.

We found the hand sewing quite therapeutic and took our animals home to finish. By the end of the meeting there was quite a menagerie in the room!
 We are bringing the animals back to February's Meeting where we will attach them to our backgrounds.
Thank you Gillian for a good workshop and we are looking forward to finishing our animals and turning them into pictures at the next meeting.

December Meeting 2012 Christmas Party and Competition

This month we all arrived bearing goodies for the Jacob's Join and many members were carrying  extra prizes to be donated for the raffle.

raffle

The room had been decorated with a pretty Christmas tree which helped to create a festive atmosphere.

For our Christmas competion members had brought their completed Everlasting Landscape started at the last meeting with Anne Covell. There was some holding of breadth when we saw if they matched up but they produced a very pleasing landscape as you can see below.

 Members voted for their favourite and the winner was number 7 embroidered by Gillian Darrington. Well Done Gillian!

We then had a quiz based on hand stitches which caused a lot of giggling!

We then set up the food and everyone was invited to help themselves.
It was an enjoyable meeting and all thanks go to the members for their offerings of food, raffle prizes, taking part in the quiz and competition.
Happy Christmas to all our members and wishing you all a peaceful New Year.

Knitting and Stitching Show Harrogate 2012

On Friday 23rd November our members gathered at Grange Station to wait for the coach to take us to Harrogate. The coach arrived on time and we had a couple more pick ups on route before arriving in Harrogate about 10:15.
Some of us had lists of items we hoped to buy others were just waiting for something to catch their eye before buying but we were all hoping to be inspired by the displays.
By 11o'clock it was very busy and exceedingly hot but we managed to find lots to buy, inspire and enjoy.

One of the highlights of the show was to see the athletes of the world postcards on display. They looked absolutely stunning displayed en masse.

San Marino is in the centre

Our second strip is in the 

centre topped with the map

Just a few of the many postcards

It was a very enjoyable day but we were all very tired on the way home.

November Meeting 2012 Everlasting Landscapes Anne Covell

Our meeting this month was taken by one of our own members Anne Covell who had entered the competition run by Stitch magazine to produce an Everlasting Landscape. Anne's entry was considered good enough to feature in Stitch and can be seen in the pictures of the entries below.

Anne's embroidery is top row, middle

Ann explained how first we needed to produce a design  and she showed us how the measurements needed to be precise for the area in which we were going to work particularly the end points so that they would fit together to make a continuous embroidery.

The colours for the background were chosen so that they would be similar when joined together

We drew and coloured our designs so that we had some idea which colours we would be using and where.

We transferred our design to a back ground fabric and proceeded to applique from the back. A couple of members decided to stitch in needlepoint.

 

Most of us finished our designs and started the applique and stitching which we are going to finish at home. We will then mount the embroideries and bring them back to the December Meeting where they will be our Christmas competition.
Hopefully they will all fit together to make an Everlasting Landscape and all be a good as Anne's!
Thank You Anne for a very interesting day and introducing us to something we had never tried before.