A HAPPY CHRISTMAS TO ALL BRANCH MEMBERS

And to anyone else who reads this Blog - may you continue to do so.

The Blog was set up almost 3 years ago to keep members, who couldn’t always attend meetings on a regular basis, up to date with the latest monthly talks and workshops as well as Regional and National news.

We hope it keeps you informed about what goes on at our Parbold meetings.  New members, as well as visitors, are always welcome. 
Come and see us in 2012.

A few seasonal Clip Art images for you – but don’t have too much of these!!

        

      

                                                     AND A

                  HEALTHY AND

Best wishes from Sandra and all the committee.

Saturday 10th December

Due to  an apologetic  Friday evening  phone call from our booked speaker, explaining that she was ‘iced/snowed in’ somewhere in the depths of the countryside, and after many late Friday night and early Saturday morning phone calls between committee members, we managed to put together a very successful meeting for the 26 members who came.

Members had been told that they did not need to bring anything with them for our original speaker, so between all the committee we got together a collection of  threads, glitter and Christmas fabrics, other bits;  cards, scissors, needles; glue, beads, sequins………. Together with paper patterns and finished samples, the challenge was to make a Christmas card or ‘way out’ Christmas ornament.

 

 

In addition I had taken part of my collection of sketch/workbooks for those who might not want to stitch, but just sit quietly and as this meeting was planned to start at 12 noon, we started with a our usual notices which was then followed with a very short talk (sprung on me at the last minute) about my notebooks.

After our packed lunch – with the addition of mince pies, Stollen and chocolates provided by some members (how calorie laden was that!!) the ‘CHALLENGE’ then commenced.

You can obviously eat and drink and stitch at the same time!!

Three of us did not take part in the stitching – me plus 2 others who wanted to read through the sketch books -  and it was amazing to see the innovative ideas appearing so quickly in the hands of our expert members – see for yourselves in the pictures below.

Our Joint Chair – Sue Tyldesley had provided two prizes so that we had one for each category – the  finalists are shown below -

Caroline was the winner with the card on the left which had a very Christmassy feel. The runners up were Carole and Sue Chisnall.

The ornament section had a lot of entries and the 4 finalists are shown – the winner (John) with the green ‘springy’ tree decoration on the left – the three runners up were Sue C’s cracker, Eileen’s silver Fairy and Helen’s gold angel.

We were amazed at the wide variety of items created in such a short space of time.  However the prizes Sue had provided in such a hurry were for ‘ladies only’ – hand creams and the like, so John as winner just had to settle for extra chocolates!!!!!!

After that excitement we of course had our extra special bumper Christmas raffle – 3 large baskets of ‘goodies’ – a truly bumper crop this year with overflowing baskets –

First prize to Karen Hurrell -

Second prize – Pat Bean -

Third prize – Sue Chisnall  who seems to be having trouble containing her excitement!!

Then for the colour raffle –going to Angela McLarnon who was amazed at her good fortune!

I think you will see from all the above that it was a very successful afternoon – something different for us and very much appreciated by all who attended.  A very relaxed and friendly, chatty afternoon – just what we need currently on a very cold and damp day ‘up north’.

NATURAL PROGRESSION RETROSPECTIVE

The group have a retrospective exhibition along with a couple of artists, at Mere Sands Wildlife Nature Reserve- it is on for the whole of December & maybe into the New Year.

Most of the works is for sale & very reasonably priced, extremely good for Christmas presents etc. 
Also their shop features work by Sue Chisnall and Pat Bean – all available  for sale.

The reserve is open every day for walks 9.30am to 4.00pm but the visitors centre, is closed on Fridays.

You can contact the Visitors Centre,Mere Sands Wildlife Trust Nature Reserve, Holmeswood Road Rufford, Lancs
L40 1TG Telephone 01704 821809.

DECEMBER–COLOUR RAFFLE

Don’t forget that in addition to our bumper Christmas raffle we still have our monthly colour raffle, which, for December is Turquoise.  SO please bring a few items in that colour for the raffle, if you can.
Thought this picture was a bit different – you can look up others on Google images.

December meeting - 10th

On Saturday 10th we will have an extended monthly meeting starting at 12noon, when Sue Lancaster will be giving a talk and a Hands-on entitled ‘Gambling with Creation’. (Don’t forget your packed lunch!).

Sue will provide everything we need for the Hands-on exercise we will be doing – which is to be a surprise -so no need to bring anything with you, though I don’t think I can travel without scissors and a needle and thread – just in case!!

Sue has a website entitled ‘Stitched up and Fleeced’ which shows a wide variety of her work which includes – Panels, Bags, Hats and Buttons, so if you want to see what she does, do have a look.

Hope to see you all there.

SATURDAY 12th NOVEMBER - COFFEE MORNING AND AFTERNOON TALK

A busy day on Saturday – starting with a very successful Coffee Morning for Project Linus when we handed over a further 7 quilts and 17 knitted blankets making our totals for the year 42 quilts and 59 blankets – well done everyone - a fantastic effort.

During the  business part of our afternoon meeting our Joint Chairman Sue Tyldesley was very pleased to hand over the Broderers’ Cup to Kathleen Slinger, our longest serving member – of 61 years.  Kathleen’s work was chosen by a members vote at the Regional AGM and will appear as the cover for the Annual Regional Journal 2012 – a beautiful piece of Goldwork. I will get the photograph of her piece to show in this blog as soon as I can.

The afternoon speaker was Michaela Smith who came to talk about her journey from her first beginnings as a quilter when she created standard block designs; followed by a City & Guilds course, and how this has influenced what she is doing now.

She has always loved working with landscape and now incorporates a variety of modern techniques including painting directly onto fabric; using Lutrador, painted Bondaweb, papers and silk painting.
She has been influenced by the Landscape paintings of Brian Cooke who creates landscapes using mixtures of bright and muted colours and this same idea is now being incorporated in her work, where she uses brightly coloured strips of Sari ribbon with torn and frayed edges to great effect.

A very interesting and informative talk by a very talented lady – photographs courtesy of Sue Chisnall – I had forgotten my camera!

CHISTMAS RAFFLE REMINDER

As most of you know we have 2 ‘bumper’ raffles a year and the Christmas one will be held at our December 10th meeting …. SO…… Carolyn will need donations for the 3 baskets of goodies to be brought in for our November meeting, to give her time to put everything together.

Donations can include fabrics, threads, books, kits, already stitched items – in other words, anything to do with stitched textiles.
We had 3 wonderful baskets last Christmas so please do help with donations this year if you can.
Tickets are £1 each

REMINDER TO MEMBERS – PROJECT LINUS COFFEE MORNING.

On Saturday 12th November we are holding the Coffee Morning and Sale of Work for Project Linus – I will be there from 9.30a.m to set up and would appreciate as much help from members as possible.  Please arrive as soon as you can as we need to arrange the sales tables, seating etc., before we open at 10.30a.m.  Kay will also need help in the kitchen and we will also need helpers for the sales tables.

If you have made a Lavender bag kit, cakes or biscuits, please bring as early as possible and anyone donating fabrics, threads or finished work should pack and price all items so that this does not have to be done on the day.
If you intend selling work and want to give the nominated 15% commission, also please pack and label with a price and provide a list of items for checking at the end of the morning.
We will have both Lesley Mercer with her ‘Project Linus’ fabric stall and Hilary Nagashi has also agreed to bring her remaining items from her shop ‘Bags of Inspiration’ (which is now closed) – lots of beads, silks etc….

We have to finish at 1p.m so that we can set up for our afternoon meeting. Visitors to the coffee morning will be welcome to stay on for the talk, at our normal visitors fee.

Look forward to seeing as many of you as possible – lets hope we have good weather.

FIBRE FUSION WITH HILARY NAGASHI

Hilary came with everything we needed for an exciting days work. Her explanations and demonstrations were very clear and all 15 members and visitors got stuck in straight away to make fine silk creations from a variety of silk fibres, trapped leaves, threads, feathers and paper scraps.

Some of the following photographs are not named as we were all so busy I could not get around to everyone and write down names against pieces of work, so apologies to those not named but perhaps you could let me know sometime.

A clear example of how we were working – by Helen a visiting friend!

Apologies – don’t know who!

Sue Chisnall’s leaves.

My trapped skeleton Hydrangea petals.

Another one I’m not sure of.

Not sure but these might be Monica’s pieces.

We will now look forward to seeing what everyone makes with their ‘stash’ of exciting silk creations.

Thanks to Hilary for a fascinating day.

COLOUR RAFFLE FOR NOVEMBER

The ancient Egyptians believed that TOPAZ was coloured with a golden glow of the mighty sun god Ra and that Topaz was very powerful and protected against harm.

SATURDAY 12th NOVEMBER

Prior to our afternoon meeting we are holding a coffee morning – as detailed below.  After a talk by the local organiser of the Project last year, several members decided that they would like to form a working group to support the Charity.
They have so far made a total of 45 quilts and 53 knitted blankets mostly using donated fabrics and wools.

PROJECT LINUS  - COFFEE MORNING
AND SALE
AT PARBOLD VILLAGE HALL
10.30a.m to 1 p.m
ORGANISED BY THE BRANCH
IN SUPPORT OF THE CHARITY WHICH MAKES QUILTS AND BLANKETS FOR TRAUMATISED CHILDREN IN
HOSPITALS, HOSPICES AND AT HOME.

AN ENTRY FEE OF £2 INCLUDES REFRESHMENTS
AND THERE WILL BE A WIDE SELECTION OF ITEMS TO PURCHASE.

WE LOOK FORWARD TO SEEING YOU

Visitors will be most welcome to join us for the morning and maybe stay on, to hear our speaker -  Michaela Smith - talking about “Fabric Landscapes”.

NOVEMBER WORKSHOP WITH HILARY NAGASHI

On Saturday 5th November we are holding a workshop entitled  “Fabulous Fibre Fusion” – a day spent experimenting with a variety of fibre techniques to make small samples which can be further developed at home.  There may even be some time to start some stitching SO if you would like to attend and haven’t already booked, please get in touch with Sue Chisnall – I think there are a few places left.

OLYMPIC POSTCARDS–SERBIA

We now have a set of 12 cards completed with one or two more to come in – they all look very colourful and will be on display at the Regional AGM this Saturday (15th October) at Garstang.

We have the flag, national flower, various costume designs and a map as well as various country scenes – mostly taken from research on different websites.

OCTOBER HANDS-ON

Everyone was supplied with a card dress shape which they have to cover for the display of Horrocks style dresses at the Regional Day in Preston next year.
We worked with 2 methods – either printing onto plain fabrics which can be combined with commercially printed fabrics or using Transfer painted papers to create striped, floral or linear designs based on the styles of the Horrocks dresses from the 1950s.

It was a very busy afternoon but everyone managed to get some printing or ironing off done to take home and work on, so we now look forward to the results which we need completed by our February meeting next year – so plenty of time to get stitching.

I suggested that some of us (of the right age) might like to look out old photographs or memorabilia to put together a display for the event on April 28th 2012 – so again plenty of time, but do let me have them  a.s.a.p as some of the old grainy pictures need to be improved for printing – at least mine does!  We all seemed to look the same in those days – not much individuality really.

My picture from 1954 wearing a dress in the Horrocks style made by my mother, photographed in our garden by my father. Those were the days when there was a waist, slim arms and ankles!!

    
Two of my designs – on the left – Transfer paints and on the right – printed and commercial fabrics with pleated skirt front and tie belt.

       
Sue’s two designs –printing on coloured cotton (left) and transfer printing onto synthetic fabric with gathered skirt and button decoration (right).

REPORT ON BRANCH AGM–SEPTEMBER 12th

The Chairman opened the meeting by firstly welcoming everyone and giving news of the announcement of Pauline’s resignation as National Chairman.
The membership was shocked and upset to hear this, as we all know that Pauline has always been a great supporter of the Guild – nationally, regionally and at branch level, and it was agreed that we should send a letter to Pauline expressing our distress and wishing her well.

The annual reports, including finances, were given and it was noted that we had made an overall loss, which meant that we had to increase fees for the coming year.
All committee nominations were verified but it was noted that we still needed a volunteer to run the Library – if you are interested please contact Sue T. or Anne.

After the business meeting we had a talk  from Christine Driver from Empress Mills on the history of this family business which had been started in1927 by her grandfather and is now run by Christine and her two sons.
It looked as though they had brought a full shop of ‘goodies’ for us to browse but before we were let loose Christine talked us through the development of the yarns they used to produce for the selvedge for cotton cloth – different colours for different manufacturers. 
When most of the weaving industry shut down in the UK they turned to the top end of the market and the embroiderers, quilters etc. – yarns had to change to a finer sewing thread and a whole new industry of different weights and finishes of cotton, poly-cotton, polyester (made from recycled plastic bottles), rayon, silk and textured cottons was born.

Christine in passionate about her company and her threads and gave many of us much more understanding, whilst passing around samples of threads and fabrics,  of what had to be done to create some of the fascinating items we take for granted these days.  The company are based in Colne (not too far from us for a visit) but that day we only had to get up and open our purses!
I particularly liked the Kilo bundles of Egyptian cotton which includes offcuts of many sizes – wonderful for dyeing – you might have expected me to say that!!

OCTOBER–COLOUR RAFFLE

THE OPAL – a variety of pale colours but mainly pink.

LATEST UPDATES FOR PREVIOUS BLOGS

KATHLEEN’S EXHIBITION AT TARLETON
It was a damp afternoon but about 100 people turned up to see Kathleen’s work and have afternoon tea at the village cricket club.
Kathleen was thrilled that so many people had turned out to see her work which spanned about 50 of her 61 years as a member of the Guild. She hardly had any time to have a cup of tea – there were so many people wanting to know how she had made her pieces.
The grand sum of £500+ was raised for Marie Curie care.
I hope that I can put together an article soon which will include photographs of some of her work.

RESULT FROM DYEING DAY
My selection of threads and fabrics from the ‘Dyeing’ workshop has amazingly been made up into a finished cushion. I must be slipping – finding time to actually make something!!!
Dip-dyed threads and pattern dyeing.
These were used to create the very ‘jazzy’ cushion which goes with none of my furniture but was fun to make!

OLYMPIC POSTCARDS FOR SERBIA
We now have 9 cards so if anyone has not quite finished can you please bring them to our October meeting for stitching together.

8th OCTOBER MEETING–’DESIGN-A-PRINT FOR REGIONAL DAY’

Sue Chisnall and I will be running this month’s Hands-on session based on Horrocks’ Dresses for the display at Regional Day in Preston next April.

You will be provided with a card dress shape and  some fabrics  to create a ‘printed dress’ of your own design, following the style of these 1950’s dresses. The basic designs of the dresses were striped and floral -
Ideally we would like between 24 and 30 to display at Regional Day.

Sue and I will bring supplies of card for the dress template, Transfer Painted papers, a limited supply of Acrylic paints, some print blocks and rubbing blocks and some plain cotton and poly-cotton mixes (for the Transfer Paints)

However if you have any of the following items please bring them with you -

· Plain fabrics– no more than a 20” square of any to include – pale colour cottons or synthetic mix fabrics (not the shiny type) or small flower print fabrics.
· Small Buttons and narrow ribbon (optional).
· Print blocks (if you have them) – flowers, leaves, open linear, or squiggly line abstract.
. Wet wipes for cleaning your print blocks.
· Acrylic paints, brushes (1” household) sponge, rubber print rollers (if you have them).
· Small Foil or plastic food tray about 1” deep and piece of felt to fit inside.

We will have a display board of some dress designs and the Horrocks book for you to look through for ideas.

PRESTON THREADS AT BRABINS

‘Retrospective Threads’

An exhibition of previous works brought together under this title, will be held at the Brabins Shop and Gallery – 22 Talbot Street, Chipping, Preston PR3 2QE

1st to 30th October
Open daily 9a.m to 5p.m
Closed weekdays from 1p.m to 2p.m

Preview – Sunday 2nd October 2-4p.m
everyone welcome.

Chipping is a pretty village near Longridge, and is popular with walkers; it has a church with beautiful stained glass windows and there is  a choice of Pubs and a Cafe.
Tea/coffee and cake is available at the gallery.
You can get more information from the Brabins website at www.brabins-chipping.co.uk

 

REGIONAL SUMMER SCHOOL at Alston Hall.

This annual event attracts a variety of interesting tutors for a weekend in July. 
Sue Chisnall, one of our members attended and her report is shown below -

“This is my second time of attending and I can truthfully say I am now hooked!!  I really fancied the workshop with Francis Pickering on Cherished Books ands luckily managed to get a place.

Francis’ books are enchanting, normally with the theme of nature and with applicable sayings and quotes.  She keeps a record of all the quotes, poems and snippets that she sees and hears and uses them when needed (a really good idea).

I really fell in love with the way she colours the pages and will definitely use this method again.
My book was on geology and I have yet to fill the pages although I have made a good start.  The beauty of this method is that you can work on the pages as and when the mood takes you.

The weather (as usual) was diabolical and long walks to keep the weight down, after eating non-stop, were out of the question.  However as we worked until 10p.m most nights, I never had time to be bored and just flopped into bed at night – what an experience and with the added bonus of seeing old faces (not literally) and making new friends.
I can’t wait for next year!!

Some photographs of work in progress – Sandie Meher’s ‘Dragonfly’ book.

    

Sue’s ‘Geology’ book -

  
I really wanted to attend this course but couldn’t go this year, so I went to have tea with everyone on the Saturday and was so bowled over by the wonderful papers everyone had produced for their books that I just had to have a go when I got home -

I just need to make a book now – I already have a poem in mind but need some spare time to get started!!

SEPTEMBER MEETING–A.G.M

Our September meeting will be the first of our new financial year when our subscriptions are renewed. 
Our Secretary, Carole Sams has renewal forms and if you cannot attend this months meeting you can send your membership directly to her.  Contact her at shirazsupper@hotmail.com

This year we have had to increase our fees due to increases to HQ; tutor fees and travel, and general running costs,  as follows – the annual fee will be £32 for members; £10 for Associate members (belonging to another branch as their main branch) and Life and Friend members of the Guild.
Monthly entry fee will be £3 and £5 for visitors who will be able to attend for up to 3 meetings a year.

The new year’s programme will be posted on our Guild webpage as soon as I can get it done and printed programmes will be available at the September meeting.

We start a new COLOUR RAFFLE THEME for the year this month, which will be BIRTH STONES – September being SAPPHIRE.

OLYMPIC POSTCARDS FOR SERBIA

Our short workshop in June was the starting point for a set of ‘postcards’ based on the culture, art, architecture, flora and fauna of that country and already we have a few completed cards some of which are shown below.  Sorry I can’t put names to pictures for all of them at the moment.

The National flag.

National flower

Costume design.

Costume design

A wine country!

Taking goods to market?

Map of Serbia

We need to have completed our strip of cards for display at the National AGM in Southport next March, so a while yet to complete the set – 7 down a few more to go.