We are a group of women (but men are welcome!) who have an interest in textile art and embroidery. We are of mixed abilities and there is no need for you to be able to sew to come and join us - there are no tests!
New members are always welcome - why not call in and join us as a guest for a few months?
Meeting fee for visitors is only £5.
Our meetings vary - we have talks and workshops, show and tell - we also have lots of weekend workshops and playdays. For details of what's coming up (and what's been and gone!) check out our programme below...

Sunday 11 October 2015

October Meeting - Christine Poole; an "In Betweener"; and Other News!

Our speaker at October's meeting was Christine Poole, who brought along some of the work she has completed during her lifetime's stitched journey, starting with pieces worked as a child and ending with her current projects (some not yet completed, which we could all relate to!) 
Here are some examples of Christine's work, which had been mostly been done for EG competitions : 




As you can see from the above photos, Christine works mainly in what might be called a traditional style with lots of long-and-short stitch, a skill sadly lacking from my repertoire! 

Julie Turner brought along a new piece of her own which is also in a traditional style, although not worked on a traditional background, as she has used some more of the table-mat that she employed for her stitch samples to do a piece of drawn thread work. This lovely piece was then decorated with french knots for foliage and flowers. 


On Saturday 10th October, Mandy, Margaret and Davina attended the Regional AGM at Scarcroft Village Hall. After the annual meeting and some lively debate about the future direction of the Guild (there will be an e-mail winging its way to members from HQ about this), it was time to sit back and relax, and listen to the fascinating talk by the afternoon's speaker, Karen Casper. I won't go into too much detail, as we are hoping to have Karen to speak to our Branch, but she is a very inspiring embroiderer, who only started stitching when she was in her 30s (and she is STILL in her 30s) but who has had work featured in many prestigious art magazines, and also in fashion magazines as statement pieces. She produced reams of work-books, samples and some fabulous finished articles. 
Here is a taste of what she has been working on....




Karen uses lots of vintage lace which she says that she never cuts up unless it is already badly damaged; all of her work is completed in white and cream and coloured afterwards (apart from the scanned pieces used in the skirt). 
The bottom piece has been completed on a Cornely embroidery machine, which does chain stitch over lace and is often (as in this case) used for wedding veils.

She also does workshops...exciting news and something to look forward to in a future programme!