May Playday - Quilt Top in a Day

I think when Wyn mooted this subject for a Playday, she had seen someone demonstrating a quilt top in an hour, but that would be pushing it a bit even for the most dedicated of our stitchers, especially when allowing time for chatting and cake-eating! 
Most members started off with a "jelly-roll" of fabric (jelly rolls are made of strips of 2.5" wide fabric which are cut into lengths and then all rolled up - jelly roll is the American name for swiss roll). This is an example of a "jelly roll" made up of complementary colours of fabric.

The strips are then sorted out and stitched together along their longest sides, either in rows, or in ever-expanding squares, or other suitable designs. 

 The following photographs show pieces that members 

have started to stitch together. 

The stitched pieces are then pressed from the back to flatten the seams.

By the end of the day, members had pretty much accomplished their missions, 

with some beautiful results! 

Davina

Elizabeth

Hilary

Liz

Sue B

Wyn

Wyn again

Jane

Margaret

Sue H

Janice

Wendy

Visitor Paula

Abi (sorry it's a bit blurry!) 

Jen

May Meeting - Morwenna Catt

The guest speaker at our May meeting was the quirky Morwenna Catt, a textile artist who divides her time between the UK, where she lives in Yorkshire, and Norway. 
Morwenna divides her time between teaching, making carnival masks and costumes, and developing her current themes in textile art. 
She showed us examples of her earlier work, including "Handbags for Nuns", which caused much hilarity, before moving onto more current pieces from her Sweethearts and Sandbags installation. This piece is based on the familiar WWI Sweetheart Cushions; Morwenna's are in the form of large commemorative pieces, which when on display are hung from the ceiling on parachute straps, with parachute cords hanging from the bottom. 
One tells the story of her grandfather and is constructed partly from army serge. 

Another has a pattern formed from the outlines of toy plastic soldiers. 

"Bullet holes" are made from applied velvet patches and buttons, with red threads representing blood.

Finally Morwenna showed us a cushion which bore the names of all of the soldiers who had been "Shot at Dawn" for crimes including desertion, assaulting an officer, and cowardice, as well as other criminal offences such as murder. 

Morwenna's current body of work is entitled "Augury" which is the interpretation of the future, based on the behaviour of animals and birds. 

Disappointingly Morwenna didn't bring the Fertility Bird with nipple tassels and testicle pom-poms, however she did bring one of her birds, and one animal, which are fantasy creatures partly constructed from pieces of fur recovered by her partner from road-kill (unbelievably, Morwenna is a vegetarian!)

The bird is wearing a hood and is standing on a stitched felt box. 

Last, but most certainly not least, Morwenna displayed a life-size model of a Shaman whose costume is based on the epic poem 

"The Lady of Shallott" by Alfred, Lord Tennyson

After hearing about Morwenna's fascinating textile journey (if you would like to know more, she has a website http://www.morwennacattart.moonfruit.com) - we had chance to admire the progress made on members' animal quilts, started at the Mandy Pattullo workshop last month. 

Vanessa's Stag in a Trance

Jan's Running Hare

Jayne B's not-quite-finished Stag

Wyn's Now-more-a-Hare-than-a-Donkey

Jo's Exuberant Hare

Anne's Hare (I think he's on the same exercise regime as me!)

*For other finished animals, see earlier posts

In Betweeners - Spring Things

If you look back to our August 2015 Blog Post you will see that Margaret taught us how to make Knot Gardens using melted wax crayons which were embellished with French Knots - here is Sue M's finished article! She's also added piece of chiffon, and it is in a frame with a hanging ribbon. 
Well done for persevering, Sue! 

In the not quite so distant past, Rona attended the workshop run by Mandy Pattullo - she has worked day and night since and has finished her lovely quilted hare! 

Here are photographs of it "en-route", and at the finishing post...no sign of the tortoise though. 

As you can see, as well as stitching details on the body of the hare, Rona has bound the edges of her quilt and has embellished the background with an appliquéd flower and with some Kantha quilting stitches. Gorgeous! 

Abi has also been beavering away and has now finished her fox from the same workshop. 

I'm looking forward to seeing these in person at our next meeting, so that I can have a go at this technique myself! 

April Workshop - Mandy Pattullo - Forest Animals

I don't know how we slept on Friday night. When our doors opened at 9.30, the room was buzzing with excitement. Mandy Pattullo revealed more of her wonderful work on Forest Animals and let us choose a piece of antique quilt as our background, and an animal template to work from. After detailed instructions and demonstrations, we were let loose on our own pieces. 

Much snipping and tearing later, we were surprised to find it was lunchtime already. "Time flies when you are having fun" proved to be so true.

Following cutting, stitching and much concentration, our animals started to appear. Hares, foxes, wolves, chickens and even a hound began to take shape. Tables were covered with precious snips of fabric, and comments about how we would now never be able to throw away even the tiniest scrap of fabric were heard being muttered around the room. No stash busting for us then...

All too soon, it was four o'clock and time for Mandy to leave us. We all agreed that we wanted her to come back for another weekend workshop, and fortunately, she agreed. What a fantastic day we had. I don't think I've worked as hard or the meeting room so quiet as everyone was so deep in thought as they created their creatures. There will be much sewing to be done at home, but it's such a pleasurable process. (Words by Wyn Ingham, Halifax Chair)

These are the photos of the work created by our members on the day - I can't wait to see the finished items, these animals are so appealing! 

Davina's Stag

Margaret's Fox

Jayne B's Stag

Janice's Hare

Liz's Wolf

Abigail's Fox

Vanessa's Stag

Wyn's Hare

Sandra's Stag

Jo's very exuberant Hare

Sue H's Hare

Sue K's Hare

Jan's Snow Hare

Anne's Hare

Jane's Deer Hound (I think it might be Milly)

Rona's Hare

Irene's Hen

*For those of you who maybe aren't stitchers or are not aware of this wonderful product, the blue lines are made by an alcohol pen, which over the course of a day or so vanishes so that you have an outline to work with whilst piecing your fabric.

Thanks to Davina for documenting this wonderful work! 

April Meeting - Mandy Pattullo

You could feel the excitement in the air at Friday Night's meeting. Mandy Pattullo was visiting us to give a talk followed by a workshop on Saturday. She had attracted most of our members and quite a lot of visitors, some of whom decided to join us as members because they enjoyed the evening so much. We were packed to the rafters.

Mandy held us all in suspense as item by delicious item she unveiled her exquisite embroideries. They all drew gasps of delight. She only hinted at what we were going to be doing on Saturday, as she teased us with deliciousness and treasures. 

How we laughed at her tales of purchasing second hand quilts and textiles. I won't mention the stories here because, you may be wanting to book her for your gatherings.

She moved from quilt based pieces to In Memoria work from the stone carvings on gravestones of the many women and children interred during Victorian times. It was very moving and her work representing this time of sadness is very poignant.

Another area of her talk was about her involvement in Maiden's Garlands which are to be seen in St. Stephen's church in between Staithes and Whitby. For more information on this, visit Mandy's blog - http://mandypattullo.blogspot.com

Mandy also has a general blog - http://threadandthrift.blogspot.com and a website - www.mandypattullo.co.uk

All too soon, the evening was over. Her talk was inspiring. Do book her for your Guild, you certainly won't be disappointed.

All photographs used in this Blog post are Copyright Mandy Pattullo.