December Meeting - Jolly Jam Jars and Festive Frolics

Our December meeting was jam-packed with Jam Jars - 29 members decorated miniature jam jars to exchange with each other. It was very exciting waiting to see which one you would end up taking home! 
Here they are in all of their glory! (Don't forget that you can click on the photos to enlarge them!)

This Christmas tree on memory wire sprang out of the jar when the lid was removed!

Tiny cross stitch trees and a hanging loop

There is a lovely beaded spider in this jar - the photo doesn't do it justice!

This jar had a crown on the inside, too

Many different techniques decorated the jars - this one is completely beaded

This cute felt robin hangs upside down when the jar is closed

This jar makes ingenious use of the lid!

A jar with a contemporary twist

Suffolk Puffs in different Christmas fabric made this very striking tree

Two tiny brooches

Ho Ho Ho - bunting! 

Japanese stitching and a Father Christmas ring thimble as the in-jar surprise

Frosty and his snowy balls

A fun pom-pom-topped jar

Holly and glitter - what could be more festive?

A grapey pin-cushion

Wrapped up like a lovely Christmas gift

Self-explanatory! A bobbin to hang on your tree...

A beautiful flower and a jar full of ladybirds

An innovative beaded and braided jam jar

A tiny pink mouse - and a very happy recipient!

Bead-filled and beribboned!

Trying to see what's inside - what do you think?

Another lovely jar with a festive theme

A snowflakey flower, or a flowery snowflake?

Ooh - beads and a silver Christmas tree! 

A beautiful and unusual tree topper

A felty Father Christmas with his list sitting on his chimney pot!

Felty flowers and a string of tiny bunting

We had a really fun evening - in addition to the Jam Jar Exchange, we made gift cones from Christmassy fabric, we had a delicious (and huge) buffet, and we admired the completed Seascapes from our last Playday, we also had a silver-themed raffle, and a picture quiz (with some very happy winners!) 

Happy Christmas to all of our readers!

November Playday - Endless Seascapes

There's no better way to spend a wet November Saturday than stitching away at a joint (yet individual) project with your fellow members. 
This month we set about producing some Endless Seascapes. 
We started off with an A5 template (21cm x 15cm) and measured 6cm down from the top for the sky, then another 9.5cm down for the sea, the rest being shore. (Except for Rona who tried to be different and had the sea somewhere else altogether for a while!) We were free to use any techniques, colours and materials that we wanted and ended up with lots of different results. 

**Don't forget that you can click on the photos to get a better view**

Margaret applied scrim, beads and wind farms to hers and added footprints as a tribute to Acker Bilk!

Mandy made the sea and sand out of chopped up silk and then machine stitched over the top. The clouds are white velvet. 

Davina quilted hers, embellished with machine stitching and then made some stuffed pebbles

Isobel couched threads down and added lacy foam and ribbon for sand - she is going to paint the sky in later

Abi used cellophane and plastic as well as more conventional fabrics to produce her beach scene (love the reflection!)

Cath is working towards a tropical paradise by hand-stitching beach shades on her island scene

Helen painted the background with acrylics and then applied hand embroidered seagulls, waves and pebbles and some little fabric shells

Julie couched down her home-spun wool for a very textured sea and added wool pebbles and shell sections to the foreground. 

Cath applied pieces of different coloured fabric and then machine embroidered them to give texture to the sea and sand

Rona eventually got the sea in the right place and added a lovely little felt boat on hand-stitched waves

Wyn trapped chopped up fabric under net and machine stitched over the top, and is going to add cords and hand-stitched barnacles (see yesterday's post).

Sue obviously started hers three weeks ago as she has sand, sea, waves, sky, clouds, lighthouses...

Janice embroidered by machine and hand on a silk background, and added frayed scrim waves

Irene used many different fabrics and machine stitches to give this patchwork effect

Jan applied strips of fabric and added sari-silk yarn to give more texture to the sea, also cutting back parts of the sky

This is what they look like when they are placed together - obviously at the moment they are not in any particular order or finished or edged, but it will give you the general idea...

Check back at a later date for the finished results...

November Meeting - A bit of Stitching, a bit of Folding, and a lot of chatting!

No speaker for our November meeting but still lots going on. Firstly we learned about upcoming Regional Events and hopefully by now members are stitching away at their entries into the Regional Competitions in June - Journeys, Maps and a Flower beginning with "E". We had lots of new members and visitors - there was hardly a seat left!

Next Davina showed us how to make different types of folding books to display our "Stitch Challenge" two-inch stitch samples, and helpfully brought us all some ready-cut paper to start our books off. 

Then, Wyn showed us how to use button-hole / blanket stitch to embellish any ring-shaped item and turn it into something beautiful (drinking straws, who'd have thought?)

Here's Wyn's gorgeous Buttonhole Stitch sample to give you an idea of what it could have looked like...

Purely by coincidence, Sue had been working on some Dorset buttons (same technique but the seam is on the inside) and had embellished them with bunches of flowers...tiny but perfectly formed, as you can see (penny included to show scale).

Group Outing - Gawthorpe Hall, with retail therapy en-(circuitous)route...

26 of our members and guests set out on Saturday morning for our now annual "Sheila Butterworth Memorial Outing". Due to illness during the week, Wyn thought it wise to drive herself, taking Irene for company, which made for a much more peaceful coach journey than expected...(I'm only joking! We missed you!)
Our first stop, after some imaginative route planning by Brian's sat-nav, which tried to take us on the unmade road past the wind-farm at Wainstalls, was at Empress Mills at Colne. We had a very happy hour browsing the many nooks and crannies at this family-run enterprise, which are stocked from floor to ceiling with fabrics, threads, dyes, wadding, ribbons, and every other haberdashery item you can think of. With talks from Christine on lovely new products as well as detailed descriptions of some of the threads that they make or supply, it was a difficult job rounding members up to stick to our schedule!

The Empress Mills team pictured at Ally Pally earlier this week

Our next stop was nearby at Patchwork Chicks at Barrowford. As we only had time for a brief "shop", some members said that they would return for a further visit to this shop full of lovely quilting fabrics and notions. 

Patchwork Chicks

After grabbing a sandwich in Barrowford (some of us weren't as organised as others!) we returned to the coach for the 15 minute journey to Gawthorpe Hall at Padiham. Here we were met by Textile Curator Rachel Terry who gave us an informative talk about the items on display from the Rachel Kay-Shuttleworth Collection which is held at the hall, which was her family home. "Miss Rachel" collected textiles throughout her life, as well as being an accomplished needlewoman, lacemaker and tutor herself, and the collection is VERY extensive and holds some fine pieces. Each piece in the collection has hand-written notes and is graded on its merits. We split into two groups, giving the other half a chance to look around the rest of the Hall, or call at the Courtyard cafe for some delicious cake. 

Soldier's quilt made from over 9000 tiny pieces of uniform!

Contemporary pieces by former artist in residence, Bella May Leonard

Our group just before leaving with Gawthorpe Hall in the background

Amazingly the weather was fine and mild, and even more amazingly, we managed to find a direct route home and arrived back slightly ahead of schedule! 

 

October Meeting - Jade Marczynski

We were lucky enough to welcome another three new members this month, one of whom spent the meeting stitching some exquisite work of her own design. Isobel's work is fantastic; tiny stitches and witty, colourful pieces. 
Here are a couple of examples of her work : 

Rona has spent the month stitching a lovely colourful "garden" in French Knots and said that she really enjoyed concentrating on one stitch and found it quite therapeutic. 

Our October speaker was Jade Marczynski, a textile artist in her 20s from Saltaire, who has studied at Huddersfield University, and was chosen by Selvedge to display her work in the window of their offices in London following her degree showcase. 

Whilst currently working as a teaching assistant, Jade is managing to continue with her stitching and brings her textile art into her work with children. She also exhibits at the Saltaire Arts Festival in her own house. Her main body of work is based on interviews she has carried out with local people about their wartime experiences. Many of her pieces, which are hand-stitched on vintage textiles appropriate to the interviewee, carry a poignant message and are very moving; others are funny, and all are insightful. 

It's hard to tell because they are stitched so neatly, but the filler stitches on these two pieces are tiny, incredibly neat cross stitches. 

You can contact Jade on her website at http://www.jademarczynski.co.uk

or via her Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/pages/Jade-Marczynski-Embroidery/144904178923138