Regional Matters

Rainbow Squares

All the Branches in the Region who are taking part will have their squares displayed at G.Mex, now called Manchester Central, over the weekend of 4 to 6 Sept – do try to get there if you can.

They will also be on display at the National Trust property - Quarry Bank Mill, Styall, Sat 10 and Sun 11th October and will then be returned to Branches at the Regional AGM in Preston.

Regional AGM - Sat Oct 17th, 10.45am.

All members are eligible to attend; the cost to include welcome drink and de luxe sandwich buffet lunch at £13.00.
We are sorry that we are not able to accomodate anyone wanting to bring sandwiches to our venue over the lunch break, but there are several cafe’s nearby.
Lancashire County Hall, Fishergate, Preston,PR1 8XJ is opposite the railway station or car parking is at the rear of the building. Please book via your Branch Treasurer by Oct 7th.

HANDS-ON LOCAL HERITAGE 4

On Saturday 8th August, we held the last of this series – on Wakes Week Postcards and what a good meeting it was.
Tracey and Sue had really spent a lot of time on researching all types of postcards and had brought in a huge amount of source material for everyone to look at for ideas.

There were books on the subject, Seaside tea towels, actual postcards old and new and two work areas had been organised for members to print, paint and emboss some of the backgrounds and embellishments provided.

The following postcards had been made by Sue and Tracey and we now look forward to many more made by the members.

This picture shows part of the  variety of source material available.

Two of Tracey’s cards – using a printed ‘picture fabric’ for the central design in the first one and hand painted sandcastles in the other.

 

Two of Sue’s cards – appliqued beach huts and a painted picture of  a boat and ‘treasure’.

All the work produced from these sessions will be on display at our Open Day next May when many items will be displayed and some will be for sale so come along and see how it all turned out!! More details of this event later.

As soon as I have it, I will publish the branch programme for the coming year and a reminder to members – your membership renewal is due at the September meeting – a slight increase this year to £26 and £6 for Life/Friend and Associate members.

Have a good break and let’s hope the remains of the ‘barbeque summer’ will turn out to be just that.

Hope to see some of you at the Festival of Quilts at the N.E.C – I am going to be there on the 20th and 21st.

Byee  for now.

PHOTO UPDATE

Just a few more photographs to keep you going over the summer months -  Don’t know who they belong to apart from the last one which is John’s – a real expert in fine stitching and who has obviously done this before!!!
A good one to start with as it shows how you mark your pattern and start the stitching – worked in silver thread on black  - this will make a lovely finished piece.


One step on – a bit more stitching – filling in the areas with different techniques.

Somebody worked hard on this one – finished I think and showing a variety of techniques filling each area.

John’s piece – the centre design was stared on the workshop day, -he works very quickly.  A box lid I think.

To the members reading this post please let me know if this is your work and I can credit it to the right person – you bring them to meetings for me to photograph for the blog, but almost always there is no name on the back, or even on a piece of paper alongside.  It would be nice to know.

I have to admit to not being able to do Goldwork (along with Beadwork as reported earlier).  Believe me, I have tried – doing 18 samples of all the Goldwork techniques when I took City & Guilds, but I really can’t see well enough to get my couching stitches straight and unobtrusive, and I have to admit to being a bit of a perfectionist – if it is meant to be done in a certain way, that is the way I like it to be done.
SO my samples ended up being presented in a little handmade book in a matching bag, which made them look so much better and nobody noticed the uneven stitching!!

AND – I did it – the bag I produced from my summer school printed fabrics.  I really love these ‘messy’ courses – especially when they produce such exciting fabrics.

Front view

Back view

Hope to see some more finished pieces from the other members who attended,  later in the year.