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

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!