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.

REGIONAL SUMMER SCHOOL

The annual Regional summer school is always eagerly anticipated at Alston Hall in Longridge near Preston – a very comfortable residential college in lovely grounds with fantastic views across the Ribble Valley.  A central venue for the whole region with 42 members attending from as far afield as Carlisle to South Cheshire.

This year 6 of our members attended the 3 different courses on offer and as usual had a wonderful few days.
4 of us did the Printing Techniques course with Sue Chapman starting on the Thursday evening with dinner and finishing on Sunday with afternoon tea.  
1 member attended the ‘Flower Power’ course with Diane Bates  and 1 member attended the Hand Applique course with Lucy Smethurst.  These courses started on the Friday evening.

Needless to say, the food as usual was excellent – especially now with the new chef – some really great imaginative food.  Anyone would think we only go for the food – we don’t of course but it does help us to be extra creative!!!

Some pictures of work are attached – just hope I have the correct names for  all the pieces, but apologies if not.


This is the start of a piece of Applique by Monica Selway – you don’t get a lot done very quickly if you want to make a good job of it  as it is such fine intricate work -  so we are looking forward to seeing a finished piece in some months time we hope.

I think (and sincerely hope) that this piece belongs to Sue Tyldesley who attended the Flower Power course.  She wasn’t in the room when I took it, but I was assured it was hers!

The next pictures show some of the work done on the Printing Course – a tiring few days bent over print screens, cutting print blocks and experimenting with Procion printing.  We all went home with masses of work which will take us some time to turn into finished items I feel.

 
This work was done by Pat Fisher - her designs were based on shapes in the funnel of a cruise ship.

   
These pieces were created by Tracey Ramsey using a series of rubbing blocks to form the patterns.

  
My prints were on silk and old linen tablecloths which had previously had iron-on transfers applied many years ago by one of my family.   I foolishly promised Sue Chapman that I would make something from them to take to the Quilt Show in August – better get my skates on as I only have 4 weeks. 

Unfortunately Sue Abbott had to leave early so I hope to be able to show some of her pieces later, plus some of our finished work whenever that gets done!!

AUGUST 8th MEETING – HANDS-ON

This will be the last in the series of themed Hands-on sessions, this one based on SEASIDE POSTCARDS for Wakes Week – Blackpool and surrounding areas – the cards can be funny, cartoon, saucy, pictorial, seaside etc.
Keeping to the finished size of a postcard – they can have painted or printed backgrounds, be appliqued, quilted, machine or hand stitched, using Pelmet Vilene or some other form of stiffening.

Source information and materials will be available on the day.

The history of postcards is a fascinating one – started in Austria in 1869 and in Britain a year later they were at their peak of popularity before the First World War.
These cards are historically significant because they provide an insight into the social history of the world by depicting the fashions of the time, specific events including the First World War and the rise of industrialisation.

If you want to learn more before coming to the August meeting you can look up a lot of information and see a huge variety of cards on the internet.

The colour raffle for this month is AMBER

FOCUS ON OUR MEMBERS 3

Pat Bean was another of our members who completed her City & Guilds course at Preston this year and she reports below -

I am originally from Yorkshire where I trained as a Home Economics /  Needlework teacher in Sheffield and moved to this area in 1968 to start work ,
I joined Parbold Embroidererers Guild 4 years ago after attending many short courses in as many  textile related areas as possible.  I realised  however that  I needed to learn some design techniques and so started the C& G courses at Preston  College.
I completed the Diploma in embroidery and textiles this year and my work was displayed in the college exhibition along with  other members of the Parbold Branch.

One of my pieces is an ivy branch with painted silk ruched through and layers of dyed kozo,  manipulated paper, 3D paint and beads.
This particular piece of work was chosen to be shown at the P.A.D. gallery in Preston ( The old post office next to the Harris Museum), which I had never heard of it until a month ago  and then found out that I had also won third prize .
They had displayed it as a mobile rather than the wall hanging  and I actually prefer this idea.     The inspiration for the work came from volcanic formations in New Zealand and the plants that grow in these inhospitable places.  However my garden is usually the main inspiration for my embroidery.
It  is really nice to have completed the course at college and to now have the time to develop the areas that I have really  enjoyed.

The pictures below were provided by Sue Chisnall.

This is Pat’s piece that won her a third prize at the P.A.D. Gallery.

 
A hat for Ascot perhaps!  Perhaps you could wear it to the next meeting Pat?

 

 
As you can see some lovely work from Pat and we now look forward to the first exhibition of the new group the students will be forming called ‘Natural Progression’.
Good luck to them all.

Update photo's from the Indigo day

As promised, I now have the photographs taken on the day by Karen Hurrell -

Stitching in some stones, beads, buttons etc. before dyeing; these will form the patterns in the dyed fabrics.



Sue Abbott mixing up the dye - helped by Magie



Don't recognise who this is, though it could be one of our 3 Sues(!)
She is obviously dyeing some fabric - with more drying on the washing line.


A very hot day as you can see, but very productive.