March Meeting - Maggie Smith

After a few minutes confusion when I don't think even Maggie knew if her last name was Smith, Grey or Thatcher, she went on to tell us how she had been inspired to "Shape, Stuff and Stitch". It is not surprising that Maggie ended up as a needlewoman as her grandmother was a tailoress to the Duchess of Devonshire, and there's no escaping from that kind of heritage! 
Maggie has only been working with textiles for 20 years but having seen her City and Guilds work and some of her earlier pieces you would think that she had been stitching since she could pick up a needle! It was during these early test pieces that Maggie first started drawing and painting on fabric to emphasise the 3D effect she wanted to achieve, and much of her work has been a development of that - moving from traditional stumpwork to the layered and plastered techniques that are typical of her pieces. 

As well as these "art pieces" Maggie explained that she had a commercial side too and showed us the dolls, books, birds in big boots and other small items that she sells in order to finance the fine art side of her "career" and the upkeep of her studio. 
On Saturday 3rd March, Maggie held a successful workshop at the Maurice Jagger Centre, attended by members and guests. 

Other news from the March meeting was that Brighouse Arts Festival Committee have asked if we will, as a Branch, produce a 6' tall figure of a man, who will be "climbing" up the outside of the old Sugden's Flour Mill in Brighouse, which now houses the ROKT Climbing Gym. 
Never ones to turn down a challenge, of course we agreed and are going to have a one day workshop in July (possibly the 8th) in order to construct this masterpiece. One of our new members has already volunteered to draw him so that's the hard part over!


On the Saturday following the meeting, Maggie ran a workshops for members, passing on her unique style of "stuffing" fabric and creating beautiful textured pieces. Below are some works in progress by (top) Helen and (bottom) Alexis.

February Meeting - Fiona Wilson

Despite the cold weather, a good turn out for our guest speaker Fiona Wilson, who came all the way from sunny Huddersfield with her lovely work! 

Welcome, too, to our SEVEN new members!

Fiona explained to us how she started off on her chosen career path - from an uninspired start with a sociopathic art teacher, through a Business Studies degree and ten years in business, a summer of drifting, finally onto an art foundation course, then taking a degree in art at Bradford College.

Following her degree show, Fiona was selected to do a graduate showcase at the Festival of Quilts, which in a roundabout way led her to applying for the Embroiderers' Guild Scholarship, and because of the award given to her by the Embroiderers' Guild, to where she is today - a successful textile artist and teacher with her own workshop in Huddersfield. 

Fiona's recent works are based around her love of combining fabric, paper and stitch, and also her love of maps and images of the local environment, as the below image illustrates. 

The below image has drawn on Fiona's love of maps and contour lines. She explained to us that drawing was an important part of her design process and she often sets a challenge for herself of drawing as much of an item as she can in 30 seconds, as a warm-up exercise. 

Fiona's great enthusiasm for art and design has led her to continue her studies by recently completing an MA at Manchester University. 

Fiona runs classes in her workshop at Radiant Works, Huddersfield, and details can be found by following the link to her own Blog on the right hand side of this column, or just by typing "Fiona Wilson Textiles" into your search engine. 

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And finally....(as they say in all the best bulletins)
Here are two of the not-quite-finished pieces from Gillian's workshop a couple of weeks ago. But at least they're more finished than they were! 


This one is Myra's : 

And this one is Mandy's : 

Don't forget that if you click on any of the photos in the Blog you will be able to see them full sized rather than squinting at them (like I do because I forget as well!)

Burano Houses

A cold Sunday morning in Halifax saw us transported by way of a workshop with local textile artist Gillian Travis, to the much more picturesque location of Venice and the small island of Burano, where the houses are painted bright colours, reportedly so that in times past, the fishermen coming home from the sea could immediately tell which house was theirs. (I expect they use sat-nav now!) 

Gillian explained to us how to interpret our own photographs in line drawing, in order to trace the results and transfer them to coloured fabric (turban cotton is ideal) which is then applied to a backing piece and stuck down with Bondaweb or Heat and Bond (the latter being easier to trace onto and giving more exact results). 

When all the applying (or more correctly, applique) is complete, the pictures are enhanced with machine embroidery to become the finished product. Here are our pieces pictured just before we finished for the day. 

Needless to say, no-one reached the sewing stage! Here are some of Gillian's Burano houses to show what we are aiming for. 

You can see more examples of Gillian's work by following the link to her blog in the side bar. 

A world in Miniature

A well attended January meeting saw us all straining our eyes to see Maureen Aspinall's astonishing collection of miniature works of art, all created by her. 

Maureen belongs to a miniatures group in Huddersfield, and their challenges were the starting point for many of her pieces. One such piece was the hat shop pictured above (I have included a pound coin to show the scale). Everything in the shop was created by Maureen, who has a background in tailoring. 

Miniature work is usually done in 1/12 scale (such as the hat shop) but sometimes in 1/24 or 1/48. 

One of her prizewinning pieces was the creation of some dolls house dolls' dolls(!) and pictured here are some dolls from another shop piece made by Maureen which contains many other similar items. 

She told us that although some things were glued using Marvin Medium (made by Berol) for example the furniture, which she makes out of mount board, all of the fabric pieces were stitched. Below is a room made by Maureen in 1/24 scale. The mount board is stained and it does look like real wood. 

She uses an ordinary sewing needle and recommends threads from Empress Mills where they have a good selection of specialist threads. (We are having a visit from Christine Driver at Empress Mills later in the year.)

She explained that when dressing miniature dolls, such as the one shown in a workroom setting above, it was important that fabrics drape correctly, and so for this reason she tends to use natural fabrics, usually cotton or silk. 

 

Pictured here is a doll wearing an outfit that Maureen created for the Regional Competition last year. A recreation of an authentic Victorian pattern from 1877, it is possible that the original dress was decorated with real flowers. Maureen then went on to create a garden for her to stroll through. 

Following Maureen's talk, we had a chance to have a look at her pieces close up and see the detail that makes her work look so authentic. 

Olympic Postcards - TOGO!

As part of the Olympic celebration, every Branch of the Embroiderers' Guild was allocated (at random) a country to represent in post-card sized images, which will be displayed around the country during the Olympic Year.

These are some of the varied Halifax submissions, with inspiration being taken from the flora, fauna, stamps and traditions of Togo.

The Ryedale Quilt

On 2nd December 2011 children who took part in the Ryedale Challenge and made a quilt which won first prize at Regional Day 2011 were invited to the Halifax Branch meeting and handed over the quilt to a representative from the Forget-me-Not Trust, Sheila Dryborough. The Forget-me-Not Trust is a charity which provides support to children with life-limiting illness and their families. They have just completed the construction of a brand new purpose-built children’s hospice in Huddersfield, and are planning to welcome children through their doors for the first time early in 2012. It is hoped that the quilt with its cheery floral theme will be displayed in one of the brightly painted public areas within the hospice. The Hospice relies heavily on public donation and some of the competition prize money was also handed over to Sheila to assist with the running of the hospice.

The photo shows some of the children who took part, handing the quilt over to Sheila.

October Meeting - Gillian Travis

Our October meeting was a talk by Gillian Travis.

Gillian trained as a landscape architect - a fact which is well illustrated by the nature of many of her pieces.

After having her three children, she found that she missed the creativity of her work and started embroidery. This led to City & Guilds, a teaching course, and then becoming a tutor at Huddersfield College where she taught City & Guilds on a variety of textile-based courses.

She was also at one time, Chairman of the Halifax Branch of the Embroiderers' Guild. In 2006 Gillian was made redundant, and around this time her husband bought an old foundry on Elland Road in Ripponden which eventually became their home and both of their places of work, with Gillian opening a workshop where she now teaches her own classes.

Alongside the teaching, Gillian told us that she had always enjoyed travelling, and found a lot of inspiration for her own textile pieces from her travels, initially around Asia and then mainly around Europe, taking advantage of budget airline prices and cheap hotels.

Her work has focussed on subjects as diverse as the houses in Burano and Balkan socks, and she showed us many photographs illustrating where she found her inspiration and how she had interpreted this in her work.

Mainly working in painted fabric and machine embroidery, Gillian had also joined a contemporary quilt group where the members produce a piece of work every month, each year with a different format (this year being 10" square), which had helped her to produce a large body of work.

This in turn had led to her entering competitions both nationally and internationally, and winning many awards and prizes, including at the acclaimed Festival of Quilts at the NEC.

One of Gillian's more recent achievements had been publishing a book about her work and this contains many examples of her work and inspiration. Copies of her book are available by contacting Gillian at gilliantravis.co.uk where you will also find her excellent blog and details of her classes.

August Meeting - Stumpwork

The subject of our August 5th meeting was stumpwork, or as it should properly be called, "raised embroidery".

We looked at lots of examples in books and examined in close detail some pieces done by Sheila at Regional Summer School in 2010, in a class with Nicola Hilton. (They weren't finished on the day - Stumpwork is very time consuming!)

Members were then given the chance to have a go themselves, trying either a wrapped bead or a closed or open pea-pod, and we also talked about how to make leaves and petals.

Here are the wrapped beads - they are made from beads with large holes (available from Viking Loom and other outlets) which are then wrapped with a single strand of embroidery thread, using a beading needle or similar, otherwise it won't go through the hole towards the end of the wrapping. To finish, a small bead of the same colour is attached, and the berries are attached to the fabric with a shank (like a button) so that they can "dangle".

To make the open peapod, lay a strip of beads and couch them down so they don't wobble around.

Lay stitches of 6-strand embroidery thread alongside the peas to pad out the pod, then do blanket stitch over the strands, very close together, so that it covers the padding. (There might be a different name for this stitch but that's the gist of it!) Fill in any gaps with satin stitch to give a smooth finish.
To make the closed pea-pod, draw your outline onto our fabric faintly with pencil. Fill in vertically with 6-strandded cotton, as before, and then use single strands to do blanket stitch and satin stitch to cover the padding.

The flat leaves on the fabric are made by drawing the outline on the fabric, and doing long and short stitch from the centre of the leaf to the outside. Finish by stitching a vein down the middle of the leaf.

The raised leaves are made on a separate piece of fabric.

First, a piece of fine paper-wrapped florists' wire is formed into the shape of a leaf (or petal) and this is then couched down onto fabric in a hoop, with a few stitches.

Then, very close blanket stitch is done with one strand all around the outline of the leaf, with the smooth edge of the stitch on the outside. Make the stitches very close together, to hide the wire You will find that this looks better when finished, if the wire is the same colour as the thread! You can always colour it in with paint or felt pen before stitching, if you can't find a match. Make sure that you wrap the thread round the wire where the two edges meet and it becomes the stem.

Run a thread through the blanket stitches on the inside of the wired shape which gives an anchor for your filling in stitches, then fill in the centre of the leaf with long and short stitches to the centre, as before, and finish with a line of stitching for the vein.

The final, scary part, is to cut your leaf out of the fabric, cutting as close as you dare to the stitching. If you find that you have white fabric left showing round the edge, trim with VERY sharp scissors and as a last resort, it's back to the felt pen (but that's cheating!)

Attach it to your picture by poking the bare wire stem through the fabric (you may have to make tiny holes with a needle or scissor point) and secure on the reverse with small neat stitches.

And here is a finished article, with detached leaves and petals and wrapped beads.

Books which are dedicated to the subject usually give good step-by-step instructions and many of the same methods are used for other items - for example, the dragon fly above has wings made in the same way as the leaves, but with a different fabric for the wings, and has a wrapped bead for the abdomen.

Why not browse the new Embroiderers' Guild Bookshop, run by Search Press, at www.egbookshop.com?

May Meeting - Dry Felting

Armed with felting needles, sponges and merino tops, we set about creating our dry felted masterpieces with varying degrees of success! Most of us worked on a floral theme however some members were more ambitious and started some 3D animals - looking forward to seeing what everyone made of their fleece at the next meeting! No photos of this evening so you'll have to use your imagination. (May be for the best!)

April Workshop - "5 Hour Challenge"!

This workshop, run again by our Chairman Wyn Ingham, was a mystery to all of us prior to the day. Wyn provided us with a list of ingredients and we just turned up and did as we were told (except for Sandra who was a bit of a rebel).

Every hour, Wyn told us what we had to achieve in the following hour, however as the idea had come from a magazine where this was a 5 day challenge, we were understandably lagging behind by the end of the day!

Hour 1 - was spent colouring a piece of plain fabric (calico or similar) with watered down acrylics, fabric paint or dye. While that was drying (with the help of hair-dryers, heat guns and the hand-dryers in the toilets) we cut shapes from foam to make some stamp pads. Wyn had bought a bargain foam bed roll at the pound shop which worked a treat and was much cheaper than the proprietory art brands! We made the pads by sticking them onto thick card with double-sided tape.

Hour 2 - was spent stamping patterns onto the fabric we had coloured, using the pads we had made (Wyn let us cheat and use some ready-made stamps too).

Click on a photograph to see the enlarged version

We also used some puff paint, or Expandaprint, to accent parts of our pieces.

You can see from these pictures that, as usual, there were lots of very different ideas within the group.

Hour 3 - was spent machine stitching on our stamped pieces of fabric. The accuracy of this stitching was not so important, as the next stage was

Hour 4 - no-one actually reached this stage, but the idea was to cut our fabric into pieces and then

Hour 5 - reassemble the fabric into a vessel, any shape or size.

Anyway, the following pictures show most of our pieces at stage 3, after being machine stitched:

Davina's piece after stitching
Another piece by Davina. The white areas are printed in puff paint, then embellished with stitch.
Some of Sandra's experimental pieces, incorporating wool fibres.
Vi's piece which almost looks like a finished quilt!
Maureen's piece with some applied fibres and loopy machine embroidery
Jan's piece, based on allium heads, with painted Bondaweb applied in strips
Wyn's samples, based on peacocks and peacock feathers
Helen's piece stamped with intricate butterflies
Myra's pansies, showing several stages of the process
Cath's interesting abstract piece - can't wait to see where this is going!
Val's vibrant sunflowers
Sheila's pansies which have been outlined with fabric paint for further emphasis
Mandy's piece, part printed and part stencilled (and part stitched!)

Hopefully we will see some further development by the time of the May meeting...in any case, if you are not going on holiday (which seemed to be most people!) please bring your pieces for the benefit of members who didn't attend the workshop.