Making an Exhibition of Ourselves

Yesterday was the grand opening of our current Branch Exhibition "Leading you Up the Garden Path", at Bankfield Museum, Boothtown Road, Halifax. 
Wyn, our Chair, gave a short welcoming speech to the assembled visitors, who included Regional Chair Pauline Heywood and National Chair Christine Poole. Refreshments were kindly provided by the museum and the wide range of pieces on display received many compliments from those present. There were also many positive comments in the visitors' book. 

The exhibition runs until 11th July, the museum is closed on Sundays and Mondays, and is open from 10-4 from Tuesday to Saturday. 

Here is just a small selection of the pieces on display. 

May Meeting - The Start of a Collaboration - and some Finished Pieces

The theme for our May Meeting was "A Collaborative Herbaceous Border".
Our Chairman Wyn brought along lots of identical squares of damask which had been dyed blue at the top and green at the bottom, along with lots of paints and floral-themed stamps. 
After an unseemly scrap to get to the printing materials, we printed our pieces of fabric and then started to stitch onto them. The end result will be an "endless" embroidery - they will be stitched together to make a long flower bed. 
No photos of the piece to show you yet, but here is a photo of the printing in progress : 

A couple of members brought along some finished pieces to show us. 

Sue B has made a beautiful fully hand-stitched quilt. She has been attending classes for this at Patchwork Chicks at Barrowford (near Colne, Lancashire - the Dark Side!); we called there on our Branch Outing last year and she was inspired! 

This is the front of the quilt

This is the reverse, which is just as lovely as the front! 

Jane B brought her silk Hearts Hanging, which she started at the Hearts Playday in February. The hearts are all embroidered and padded which gives the piece a lovely 3D appearance - hard to photograph it without wanting to squash all the hearts though! 

The whole piece

This heart is embroidered with fly stitch

This velvet heart is embellished with gold glass beads

This heart is embellished with beads which reflect the pattern of the fabric

This heart is decorated with one of those raised embroidered ring thingies 

that looks like a barnacle (I missed that meeting!) 

The hearts are stuffed with two layers of wadding surrounding synthetic stuffing.  They have a very smooth and neat finish. 

Finally - don't forget to visit our Branch Exhibition at Bankfield Museum, Boothtown Road, Halifax, which is on from now until 11th July. 

It features some of our recent work including Regional competition entries, along with other pieces encompassing the theme of Homes and Gardens. 

There will be a Grand Opening on Saturday 23rd May 

when refreshments will be available and you can find out all about our Branch.

Thank you to Davina for organising this exhibition!