August Playday - Flowers, Flowers, Flowers!

You may be able to tell what the theme of our August Playday was from the heading! Some members took the opportunity to continue working on their Towers of Flowers; to continue with work started in other workshops; to start something completely new - or just to take the time out to sit and stitch with friends, doing their own thing. 

Abi had a very productive day. 

She stitched a bird on its nest, taken from an Emily Sutton tea towel 

And here it is after it's had a good meal, looking much happier! 

 Then she made some Mark Hearld chair back covers

(And here it is in situ!)

 Then she started on a cushion cover as a gift for a friend

 And somehow, she managed to find time to make some show curtains for her "She Shed" in this lovely Cath Kidston fabric

Elizabeth managed to complete a whole bag, 

complete with patchwork squares on one side...

...and big circles on the other. Note the floral lining and motifs! 

Mandy spent most of the day making pages for her 

"Frances Pickering" books

Davina completed a quilt, a gift for a (lucky!) friend - here she is, modelling it!

This is a detail of one of the panels

Anne spent the day making what seemed like thousands of brooches for her stand at next week's Art in the Pen at Skipton 

(White coffee, one sugar, if you go to see here there!)

Rona continued to work on her Tower of Flowers

 Lots of hand-stitching on these seed heads!

 And blackberries!

Jane also continued working on her Tower of Flowers

 Lovely twirls of beads and a sophisticated colour scheme

 Gorgeous 3D flower buds

Janice continued to work on a cover for a book of Memories

 Lovely neat stem stitched title!

Catherine started work on a Gillian Travis kit of 3D flowers
in lovely hand-printed fabrics

And here are the lovely quilted flowers completed, a couple of weeks later : 

...and Margaret and Wendy scampered off before I could collar them!

August Meeting - "Knot Gardens" - and some completed Towers of Flowers!

For our August meeting, Margaret had planned a "Knot Garden" activity evening, based on an article in Stitch Magazine (July 2014). 
We grated some transfer crayons - these are wax crayons and their colour is fixed by ironing. The grated pieces were ironed between baking parchment until they melted, and then were transferred to (synthetic) fabric which produced some nice random patterns. Pieces of similarly coloured chopped up organza and chiffon were stitched over the crayon, and then these were stitched in french knots, bullion knots and pistil knots, to give the impression of a colourful flower bed. 
Hopefully there will be some pictures of these ongoing pieces to show you after our next meeting, but here are some photos of our members enjoying the challenge!

 You will see that Margaret ran round the room 

so that she could be in both pictures!

Wyn presented member Jenny Greenwood with her first prize from Regional Day, the Maggie Judges Floral Trophy, for her winning entry into the "Flower Beginning with E" which was a lovely Echinacea in a vintage frame. 

Here is Jenny with her small yet incredibly valuable Moorcroft vase, which she has the pleasure of owning for a year! 

Davina has been stitching sweet treats - calorie free of course (I tried them.)

We also welcomed Eva, a visitor from the Hertfordshire Branch, who has a holiday home in the area and hopes to call again! Here is a link to the Herts Branch Blog - they do lots of interesting things, too! 

https://hertsbranch.wordpress.com

Last but not least, here are some photos of the lovely Towers of Flowers which members started at the last Play Day - there are some real beauties!

(Don't forget to click on the photos to get a close-up view)

This is Janice's Tower with blanket stitched edges and lots of dangly beads and lots of cornflower blue flowers

This is Catherine's slender tower in a very chic grey and gold colour scheme, and she has threaded stitched flowers onto the wire with the beads

Jackie added lacy flower and butterfly motifs at the top of her tower, 

and lots of strings of beads in colours to match her flowers

Wyn's tower has beautiful beads hanging from the points, and she has applied some striking motifs along with the flowers on a chopped silk background

Margaret's tower has lots of hand-stitched flowers on the body, with swirls of machine embroidered leaves and flowers wired around the structure

Anne has applied numerous different types of flowers to her tower - large sequins, lace, appliqué and machine-stitched - and has embellished it with curls of white florist's wire