DYEING WORKSHOP–18th JUNE

Fabric, thread and colour surrounded the 12 members who attended this workshop. 
This was a real ‘play day’ using a range of Procion cold water dyes, working the colour into fabrics and threads in plastic bags.  This method is best for dyeing small quantities and as our meeting room is carpeted, is also the best way to make sure there are no spills!

The following pictures show the members ‘at work’.  As you can see they brought a lot of ‘stuff’ with them!!
Bowls, plastic milk containers, jam jars, plastic bags and so……………. much more.

Choosing colours – decisions, decisions!

I can’t wait to see the results of all their labours at our next meeting.  I will put some more pictures on the blog then.

 

NATURAL PROGRESSIONS AT SAMLESBURY HALL to 31st JULY

The latest exhibition by this new group entitled ‘Roses and Ruffles’ is currently on show at Samlesbury Hall, Nr. Preston. 
The Hall is a lovely setting for an exhibition and the work is definitely worth a visit.   Our members include Pat Bean, Sue Chisnall, Caroline Percy, and Tracey Ramsey and some of their pieces are shown below -

       
These two by Tracey Ramsey

      
Sue Chisnall

      
Caroline Percy

     
Pat Bean

MONTHLY RAFFLE–JULY

‘SUNNY OASIS’ – the colours of summer – YELLOW in all its shades.

HANDS-ON PART 3 Choose & Construct

Our next meeting on July 9th is the last in the Hands-on series for this year with Sue and Tracey.
So far we have painted watercolour washes onto paper and created ‘postcard’ type pieces following our own theme – whilst listening to music!

For the third session you will need to bring all the pieces you have created plus the following-

Strong threads of your choice to stitch cards together as a quilt; fancy embroidery threads with appropriate needles;
Scissors; Buttons; beads; ribbons; braids or card adornments etc.
NB. You can as an alternative, bring elastic cord, leather cord or braids to lace through as Tracey & I will bring our hole punches etc.

Can’t wait to see what you have all done.

BAGS FOR SHAKESPEARE’S HEROINES - 2

On Saturday 4th July Anne Rodgers visited us for the second time with more of her wonderful bags.
Each bag was explained in detail with the background of the play and how, because in Shakespeare’s time women did not appear on stage, boys played the part of women but the same boy would play the part of a young man and back to a young woman again.

I discovered from Anne’s talk, the reason I could never really understand any of the plays when we studied them in school.  To me they were very confusing and I hardly ever knew what was going on – if only Anne had been my teacher!!!  We learnt such a lot whilst still appreciating the quality of the work in each bag.

We were talked through bags for Rosalind in As You Like It; Viola in Twelfth Night; Kathryn in the Taming of the Shrew and many others.  All the bags were beautifully stitched and some are shown below -

Kathryn’s bag from the Taming of the Shrew – Italianate style ‘laced up’.

Cleopatra’s bag refers to a line in the play – she was ‘pursed up’.

Thank you Anne – I am sure many of us will now go to the theatre  and understand more of what is going on, but I bet the heroines will not be carrying bags as sumptuous as yours.

LINUS PROJECT UPDATE

Today – 2nd June, I called in to the periodic workshop days that the Project organisers run, when anyone can go along to help finish off, start a new item, stitch on labels or cut fabrics for the kits that they sell to raise money for the project.
I delivered a further 11 quilts and 6 blankets, bringing our total so far to 25 quilts and 24 blankets – not bad for 6 months work!!  Lesley asked me to thank everyone for all their efforts so far.
More news on this project at a later date.

DYEING IN PLASTIC BAGS WORKSHOP

On Saturday 18th June I will be running a ‘dyeing day’ using Procion cold water reactive dyes.  The method I will be using is suitable for small amounts of fabric only and you will need to bring a wide variety, to include cotton, linen, fine silks, rayon, viscose and cotton-polyester, together with a similar collection of threads.
Full requirements lists and availability of vacancies can be provided by our Programme secretary, Karen Hurrell.

All fabrics and threads MUST be pre-washed before the day and there will be some available for sale on the day.
I will be providing all dyes and fixatives. 

Some dye samples are shown below. This particular mixed bag will be part of our Textile basket raffle in June; but do come and dye some of your own.

Hope to see you then.

MEMBERS WORK AT THE EXHIBITIONS

Some work from our exhibiting groups –
One Step On and Preston Threads, who were at Aintree -

    
Californian Poppy and Wild Rose by Sandra Kedzlie as part of the ‘Floral Threads’ display with Preston Threads.

                         
Flowers on calico by SUE Tyldesley and an untitled piece by Monica Selway with One Step On. 

AND -  PRESTON THREADS at Rossendale Museum – continues until the 31st July- see details of opening times on their website - 

Work by Sandra Kedzlie

          
A colour swatch folded canvas book of dyed fabrics and threads based on old samples in the Museum.


Hand stitched Design book containing drawings, stitch samples, text, poetry, printed, coloured and stitched papers etc., based on the theme of Transformation  - from trees into pulp, paper and eventually books.

A Swatch of handling samples describing the construction of each of the books created by printing, painting and stitching into old book pages, photocopies, transfer papers, direct printing onto fabrics etc.

You can see more of the current exhibition pieces and past work by Preston Threads on our new website – www.prestonthreads.co.uk