National Day of Stitch - 1st August 2015 - and some Hearts

Fast becoming an annual event is the National Day of Stitch, which falls at the start of August. Some branches in the Region organised exhibitions or visited craft stores to carry out demonstrations. This year, we asked our members to send us photos of themselves stitching on National Stitch Day, wherever they happened to be. 

Anne happened to be crossing the Atlantic on her way home from Florida and here are her stitching photos!

Anne's stitch samples, with "mother's little helper"!

Anne's husband wondering if there's anywhere that Anne won't sew?

The scene of the crime

Rona and Jane spent the day stitching together at Jane's house, doing some more work on their Flower Towers (see earlier post) while enjoying good food and companionship. They also paid a visit to Jane's allotment. 

Rona hard at work - not sure if this is before or after the cream cakes!

Jane doing some hand-stitching - those Flower Towers are very time consuming! 

 If any other members have photos of themselves stitching this week, or just want to let me know what they were doing, I'll add your stories to the collection! 

Rona also sent me this lovely photo of the work she started at the "Hearts" Playday in February which is in the style of Jue Hill. It is made from strips of damask tablecloth with scraps of other fabric used for the hearts.  

July Playday - "Towers of Flowers"

A while ago, textile artist Helen Cowans published instructions in the Embroiderers' Guild "Stitch" magazine for her "Tower of Flowers", a hollow decorative vessel which can be used as an ornament or a vase cover. Halifax members decided to use this as the basis for a Playday, adapting the design in their own colours and styles. 
Basically, a piece of fabric is prepared with snippets of other fabrics which are bonded to the surface to make a new textile; the new textile is cut into three triangles which are used to make pockets which are stuffed with foam core board and are then stitched together and embellished to make the vessel. The edges are wired to allow for manipulation of the points at the top of the triangles, and to allow the hanging of beads from the points.
Unfortunately I was on holiday at the time so I don't currently have details of who did which, but here they are at the end of the Playday - the panels are in varying degrees of completion and are awaiting construction. 
If you recognise yours among them, please let me know and I'll add your name to your piece!

This is Margaret's colourful piece

This tall tower is by Nancy Miller

Wyn placing some organza flowers on her silk snipped background

These are Davina's Daisies! 

*Unfortunately due to a mix-up, my own Tower of Flowers wasn't available to use for reference at the Playday - I am including some photos of it below so that you can see how it is finished off. 

Mandy

Regional Day Success!

Yesterday was our Yorkshire and the Humber Regional Day at Riccall near Selby, and yet again Halifax Branch gained success in several of the competitions, with two winners and a runner up out of the three competitions. 

Firstly, Margaret Walton again triumphed in the Challenge Cup, for which she received the trophy and a cheque for £50. 

This is the second year running that Margaret has won the trophy, but the first time that she has been there to receive it! 

Her piece of work was a beautiful book which she started making at the Branch's Frances Pickering workshop a few weeks ago. The judge said that it was "a really evocative piece about a journey through life". 

It's got a little shoe attached too!

Julie Turner came second in the same competition, winning £25 for her piece, also a book, about the journey from sheep to clothing, entitled "Wool - A Back to Back Journey". Julie's book was stitched onto b;anklet "pages" and she used wool from her family's own prize-winning sheep. 

This is a great picture of a naked sheep!

Another entry in this strongly contested category was from Abigail Ledder with her striking record of a journey to New Zealand. 

Here's a close up of Abigail's beautifully stitched New Zealand silver fern leaf. 

"Haere Mai" is Maori for "welcome".

Our final entry in the Challenge Cup was from Davina Adams with her journey round the world - this was also entered last week in the Branch's "Small World" challenge. The Russian Dolls all fit inside each other!

Moving on to the Maggie Judges Floral Trophy, which is presented in memory of our previous Regional Chair. Every year the flower begins with the next letter of the alphabet - this time it was E. 

This year it was won by another Halifax member, Jenny Greenwood, with a white Echinacea appliquéd onto a black background.

There's even a bee stitched on there for good measure. 

(The bee doesn't start with E).

Our other entry in the floral competition was again from Margaret Walton, with this beautiful Eryngium which includes feathers as part of the design. 

No winners in the final class, the Coats-Anchor Award which this year was "Maps", but we still put on a good show!

This is a detail from Janice Townend's map of Windermere.

Here is another entry from Margaret (you can tell she's retired!) which is also based on the Lake District.

Closer to home for this entry from Anne Brooke :

And finally, Mandy's titchy map of the world.

Members will have to wait for the Regional Yearbook to come out to see photos of the other entries! 

I think we can safely say that the flower next year is going to begin with the letter "F" - so get started on your freesias, fuchsias and fetter bushes!

In other news, Mandy won two prizes out of the 15 on offer in the Bag Raffle...not this one unfortunately, but here is Halifax's spectacular offering...thanks to all members who contributed, I can tell you that the lucky winner, who was from Ackworth Branch, was very pleased with her lovely prize!

It's a Small World - Branch Challenge 2014-15

While we had Sally Darlington at our disposal (see previous post) we made her judge our Branch Challenge. 
There were even prizes - £30 for the winner, £20 for the runner-up, and £10 for third place. 
The title was "It's a Small World", and it had to fit (widthways at least!) into a standard petri dish. If you weren't aware, a petri dish is only 9cm in diameter, so it is amazing to see what some of our members have managed to cram in there! 

As our winner, Sally chose the entry by the ridiculously talented Anne Brooke, 

who made a pixie house out of felt, 

embellished with hand-embroidery, and with tiny pin trees. 

What's even more annoying is that Anne made this within about a week of the challenge being announced last September, while the rest of us were still finishing them off about an hour before the meeting! 

In second place Sally chose this piece by Jane Clayton, whose small world was a personal reflection of the difficulties sometimes caused for her by her own skin. 

The lid of Jane's dish is printed and embroidered, and the inside is a felted epidermis. You can feel Jane's pain, looking at this piece of work. 

In third place Sally chose this piece by Jo Sykes; a typically Pennine scene of a mill and hills, appliqued and painted and then decorated with hand embroidery. 

Now have a look at the other entries and see if you agree with Sally's decisions!

Val filled her dish with rings embroidered in variegated cotton, 

all stitched together and laid on a translucent background.

Hilary made an underwater scene complete with a treasure chest,

 overflowing with beaded treasures! 

Maureen stitched this intricate peacock with a great use of perspective. 

His "eyes" are highlighted with metallic threads.

The title of Jenny's dish is "Walk on Haworth Moor", 

the background is painted with acrylics 

and details are added with hand-stitching. 

Joan's amazingly detailed cross-stitch scene depicts the small 

world of horse racing. Look at the tiny horses! 

Sue set the scene for "Mary, Mary" with a garland of paper flowers! 

Mary is a little hand-made doll in her hand-embroidered flower garden. 

Janice's tree, mainly stitched in French knots, 

shows the passing of the seasons from Spring to Winter.

Mandy's dish, also in French knots, is literally a depiction of a small world. 

The other countries are on the reverse side. 

Sue's knot garden is just that - the whole surface of her piece is 

covered with tiny exquisite French knots. 

Davina's dish contains a trip around the world with lots of pieces of art, decorated with embroidery and symbols typical of the country in question.  

This is just to show you that it did in fact all fit in ingeniously into the dish! 

Margaret's piece was a poignant reminder of the fragility of life, 

with her evocation of the sea of poppies outside the Tower of London. 

Irene's enchanting under sea scene is embellished with all sorts! 

Shells, beads, stitch, net, sequins, all in shimmery light-catching colours. 

Rona's was another symphony in French knots, evoked by the verse, 

"I know a bank where the wild thyme blows", which she had stitched on the top side of her piece. 

This is the under side of the lid and the bottom of Rona's piece - so much work! 

Hilary has depicted a microscopic small world in her piece, "Bacillus Anthracis Embroderous". I think we've all caught it! 

Rachael's wind-swept tree on the banks of a river 

is couched onto a subtly shaded painted background 

with a hand-embroidered reed-bed in the foreground. 

Jackie demonstrated some of her beautiful needle-lace in her dish 

with this fantastic butterfly 

on a background embellished with herringbone stitch and French knots.

Wyn's was a small circular world, with tiny hand-made felt houses and trees

attached to the background with blanket stitch and decorated with French knots. 

Liz's design would certainly have won the prize for how much you could feasibly fit into a petri dish with this brilliant merry-go-round! 

Another great use of perspective - Sarah's houses are machine stitched and she has even sewn some onto the narrow ribbon around the inside of the rim! 

Catherine's manipulated fabric  bacteria look a bit too realistic for my liking! 

So there you are! Another really diverse collection of work 

by our talented members. 

If you're a visitor to our blog, 

why not leave us a comment with your own "Judge's Decision"?