MAY RAFFLE–Lavender’s Blue Dilly Dilly ………

A reminder from Caroline who runs the raffles that this month we will need to provide prizes for our bumper June raffle – anything stitch/textile related please for our 3 Bumper Baskets.

MAY 11th MEETING–Talk by Pat Barrett

Pat will be talking about her travels ‘From Aden to Zanzibar’ which sounds very interesting and this will then be followed by her full day Workshop on Saturday 18th on the ‘Darning Stitch Technique’ that she has developed into some wonderful pieces of quite elaborate textured embroidery – how about doing a Landscape for our exhibition??
Although you will work from your own ideas Pat brings a wide variety of finished pieces to use as starting points - couldn’t be simpler.

The photograph below is of a piece I did with her at the Blackpool Branch workshop about 18 months ago – not the best example but it does give an idea of what you will be doing.  It is about 8” square and I had almost completed it by the end of the day.

EXHIBITION BY NATURAL PROGRESSION

‘A Galaxy of Stitches’
24th May to 29th June

The second in our list of exhibitions, this time from – Natural Progressions.  Work will include pieces made by the following of our Branch members - Pat Bean, Sue Chisnall-Sumner, Caroline Percy, Tracey Ramsey,

An exhibition and sale of contemporary work at Mere Sands Woods & Wildlife Centre, Holmeswood Road, Rufford, Lancs – open daily except Fridays – 9.30a.m to 4.30p.m.  Free entry.

SATURDAY APRIL 13th MEETING

A Hands-On session for the exhibition – don’t forget to bring any work you want help or advice with or just bring one of your exhibition pieces to stitch.
There will be a short talk and demonstration with lots of information on mounting, framing etc., if you need it.
OR
If you will not be taking part in the exhibition you will still be welcome to see what we are all doing.

A piece of work under construction – come and see how it works out.

COLOUR RAFFLE – RED

“Red Sky at Night…..”

 

NOTICE–SATURDAY 23RD MARCH

Please note that due to the bad weather – snow, rain and whatever else is falling on us – we have had to cancel the Workshop with Elizabeth Sharrock for tomorrow.

Arrangements will be made to hold this on a future date and everyone will be notified.

TALK BY DIONNE SWIFT–MARCH 9th

Dionne’s is well known for her development of the Devore technique and her talk was about this process  which is believed to have begun in 17th century France – where the ladies wanted something that looked like lace but was not as expensive (known as ‘Fools Lace’).

Dionne’s PowerPoint presentation was backed up with excellent samples in fantastic colourways which she passed around for us to handle and these were much admired by members.

Dionne works with silk/viscose velvet – a traditional combination cloth where the viscose (a cellular/plant fibre) is destroyed by the Devore paste, which is painted onto the back of the cloth and thoroughly dried, then ironed to bake and activate the paste, and the silk (an animal fibre) remains.

After washing and drying she can then dye or print using silk screens or block printing.

Due to the commercial aspect of Dionne’s work she did not want us to take photographs so if you want to see samples – go to her excellent website -  www.dionneswift.co.uk where you can not only look at her development into the Interior Design aspect of her work but you can purchase the specialist paste she makes herself and download instruction on how to go about the technique.  Well worth a look.
Anyone attending the Fashion and Embroidery Show at the NEC next week -  where she will have a stand, can see (and buy) samples of her work, the Devore Paste and more.

CHANGES TO OUR APRIL MEETING–SATURDAY 13th–EARLY NOTICE

This meeting was to be a follow-on from our ‘Marbling’ session last October, which has now been postponed to our July meeting.

This April meeting will still be a Hands-On session to help with planning for our June exhibition -

“Working for an Exhibition – Completion and Beyond”

A helping hand for those members who have not been involved with work for an exhibition before – do you need some advice/help with finishing, mounting, framing and hanging your work?
Whatever stage you have reached, or even if you haven’t really started yet, bring everything along to this meeting and those members who have some experience will be on hand to help and advise.

This is intended as a self-help session where we can all exchange ideas, look at each others work and discuss different methods of presentation as well as guidelines on pricing work for sale and for insurance purposes.

Some members will be bringing a selection of work, finished and framed in a variety of ways and showing different hanging styles to give you ideas for your own pieces. Good finishing standards are always important - especially if you wish to sell your work.

Everything will be kept simple and easy to follow – bring what you have done so far or even a photograph or magazine picture you want to use as a starting point and we will try to help - you will still have 8 weeks to complete your work and they do not have to be huge!
It would be great if every member could enter at least one piece!!!!!
Look forward to seeing what you have all done or are still doing.