Saturday 14th February

Several members attended our Sit and Stitch session and produced some great samples of COUCHING STITCHES –

    

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THEN for the afternoon Hands-On session with Sue and Tracey - we made print blocks using string, polystyrene and foam cut outs and made our own stencils from card – making sure the ‘cut-out’ shapes were linked. 
These will be used for the next session in April  when the blocks and stencils will be printed onto fabrics.

Blocks and stencils -

The committee held an additional meeting to discuss Guild business and it was decided that Marguerita McBride our Branch Secretary, would represent us at the AGM in Birmingham on April 11th.
Unfortunately the AGM clashes with our Branch committee meeting on the same day. However proxy votes will be available this year so please keep a look out for details on the Guild website – using your Membership Login details (this is on your membership card).
Full details will also be in the next issue of Contact – No.39 – due out soon.

   

 

Travelling Books–February meeting–handover.

There was a lot of interest in the change over of books from the first ‘Journey’  where a wide variety of work had been achieved from those members taking part – some pictures of separate pages below -

       

The 3 continuing groups of 6 members have exchanged books and will now work with a different group and different themes so it will be good to see them full to overflowing with colourful designs, drawings, stitched samples and finished pieces by the time they all return in September.
A good start for our Anniversary exhibition in 2016.

OUR LATEST WORKSHOP–Saturday 7th February with Anne Brook

Attended by 14 of our members we were all treated to a great day of design and machine stitching – onto papers!! 

Working with Anne was very inspiring – she explained and demonstrated every stage very clearly before setting us the task of choosing papers – from a huge selection of decorative wallpapers to newspaper and all things between.
Anne’s own work is often based on nature – seed heads, flowers, birds etc., but today she chose to demonstrate by creating a piece based on a sewing machine!

The aim was to create a piece of work from an image we had been asked to take with us or some members chose to work on the patterns and words on the papers available.  These are mine – there were many many more!!

    

We started by tearing, cutting and sticking images and strips of papers onto a wallpaper background before stitching – all demonstrated very clearly by Anne.

Here are some of the pieces in their first stages and after being worked on. 
FAR MORE pictures than usual but I couldn’t possibly leave anyone off!

Before and after stitching where possible -

      Kay

        Angela

 
Gilly

      Sue Abbott

 Caroline

Deborah

    Marguerita

  Wendy

 Nicky

      Monica

    
Sue Chisnall-Sumner

Enid

   
‘My Krooked Kandinski’ – my version of a great artist’s work – with apologies to him!!

There is one member’s work missing but she had to leave early so hope to get a picture later.

THANKS ANNE – for a fantastic day – we all thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.

For more information and better photographs - go to Anne’s website -    
H-anne-Made to follow her Blog.

MONTHLY COLOUR RAFFLE –February 14th

‘NEUTRALS’ –
SALT MARSH, KAZAKHSTAN

 

 

 

 

 

This will also be the colour/design source for the A3 Travelling Book pages.

FEBRUARY 14th MEETING - SIT & STITCH SESSION followed by HANDS-ON with Sue and Tracey.

Prior to the afternoon meeting there will be a Sit & Stitch session from 12noon with Sandra who will be demonstrating a variety of -  
COUCHING TECHNIQUES.

You will need to bring 1 or 2 pieces of A4 size fabric –one calico or cotton plus an openweave piece.
Small piece of felt – any weight.

SMALL amounts of the following -
A variety of threads from thin to thick - include knitting wool, ribbons and torn fabric strips. 
Selection of needles, plus your usual sewing kit and a ring frame.

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The afternoon session will be the first of our 3 Interlinked Hands-On series with Sue and Tracey who will be making Stencils and Print blocks –

You will need -
Craft knife and cutting board- only if you have them. 
A4 piece – medium weight card.
A4 piece plain paper
A4 piece of tracing paper.

Pencil and Rubber. Paper scissors.
Double sided and masking tape.

18” - 24” length of string – any thickness.

TRAVELLING BOOKS–FIRST EDITION.

The 25 members who have taken part will finish their travels at our meeting on February 14th.

I have been informed by 3 members that they will not be able to continue due to family and work commitments but have all said how much they have enjoyed the project and getting to know one another.

SO if anyone else finds that they cannot continue, can you please let me know a.s.a.p. before the next meeting so that I can re-organise our groups.

ALSO – if there are other members who would like to join in please let me know so that I can bring in some books.

The committee thought it would be good to show what everyone has done so far – so we will put them all out on display at the February meeting.
Thanks for making this event so successful.

Some pages are shown below -

 

OUR FIRST MEETING OF 2015.

A lively committee meeting this month – lots to discuss including Programme; Sit & Stitch; Hands-On and Travelling Books  as well as information from HQ which had to be notified and discussed at our main meeting.  
A report on this part of the meeting and questions raised will be sent to all members as soon as I get them all together – please remember to send to me if you haven’t already done so.

Our Show and Tell by 3 members was then a nice bit of light relief – just listening to how each of them had initially stitched in their earlier years – one from the age of 9; and how they had approached their City and Guilds courses at two different centres with some wonderful results - some of which are shown below – in order of speaking -

Caroline Percy    and     Sue Chisnall-Sumner

                         

and Marguerita McBride.

It is such a pity that these courses hardly exist now, as many ladies have found that it gave them a focus for their future retirement - some going on to teach others, or joining/forming exhibiting groups and generally keeping the Guild membership thriving!

However in the North West, the Region have been running courses for the past couple of years but we don’t know for how much longer this will happen.