October Meeting - Christine Poole; an "In Betweener"; and Other News!

Our speaker at October's meeting was Christine Poole, who brought along some of the work she has completed during her lifetime's stitched journey, starting with pieces worked as a child and ending with her current projects (some not yet completed, which we could all relate to!) 
Here are some examples of Christine's work, which had been mostly been done for EG competitions : 

As you can see from the above photos, Christine works mainly in what might be called a traditional style with lots of long-and-short stitch, a skill sadly lacking from my repertoire! 

Julie Turner brought along a new piece of her own which is also in a traditional style, although not worked on a traditional background, as she has used some more of the table-mat that she employed for her stitch samples to do a piece of drawn thread work. This lovely piece was then decorated with french knots for foliage and flowers. 

On Saturday 10th October, Mandy, Margaret and Davina attended the Regional AGM at Scarcroft Village Hall. After the annual meeting and some lively debate about the future direction of the Guild (there will be an e-mail winging its way to members from HQ about this), it was time to sit back and relax, and listen to the fascinating talk by the afternoon's speaker, Karen Casper. I won't go into too much detail, as we are hoping to have Karen to speak to our Branch, but she is a very inspiring embroiderer, who only started stitching when she was in her 30s (and she is STILL in her 30s) but who has had work featured in many prestigious art magazines, and also in fashion magazines as statement pieces. She produced reams of work-books, samples and some fabulous finished articles. 

Here is a taste of what she has been working on....

Karen uses lots of vintage lace which she says that she never cuts up unless it is already badly damaged; all of her work is completed in white and cream and coloured afterwards (apart from the scanned pieces used in the skirt). 

The bottom piece has been completed on a Cornely embroidery machine, which does chain stitch over lace and is often (as in this case) used for wedding veils.

She also does workshops...exciting news and something to look forward to in a future programme! 

September Meeting - Lots of Stitchers met the Challenge!

Our September meeting brought our Annual General Meeting, and once the formalities were completed, we had time to admire the completed 2014 - 15 Branch Challenge, which was "A Stitch A Month" on a small piece of fabric, so that we could learn some new techniques, revisit old ones, and find out what we liked doing best. 
Members who had completed the challenge had mounted their stitches into books, onto canvas, or had displayed them in other imaginative ways. 
I have had to cut down the number of photos to 3 per member just to make it manageable, but it was a difficult task! 
Here they all are, for your perusal! 
(Don't forget to click on the photos for a closer view of your favourites.)


Janice's quilted book was in shades of rust and brown and the cover was decorated with canvas work. 

Val's concertina book has a canvas work cover too, with stitches displayed on both sides of the pages. 

 This is Margaret's little black book, with a machine embroidered frontpiece and with the stitching done on black fabric to match the cover of the book. 

Catherine's book has a stitched plastic canvas cover, and her stitched samples continue the theme in shades of blue and silver. 

Jane's stitch samples are mounted on canvas and make a colourful display

 Abi has made a lovely box from canvas work and her pages fold out, concertina style, on pages which have been spattered to match the box. 

 Jackie has also made a concertina book, with striking covers and very neatly labelled stitch samples in lovely variegated threads.

Vanessa's samples are in a concertina book of a different kind, made from a tasselled blanket offcut. The inner pages are machine stitched to give a defined crease. 

 Jo has given her stitch samples the theme of the Night Sky, and has used dark blue silk with silver metallic threads for impact. 

The first of Anne's samples (I know, annoying isn't it!) is a lovely book in a folder, with a stamped heading page for each stitch. 

 Julie's colourful samples are in a concertina book, and she has recycled a table mat to use as the background for her stitching. 

Anne's second set of samples are displayed on a strip of denim, on a large wooden bobbin. (I'm sure her days are longer than mine.)

Mandy's samples aren't quite mounted yet...they are stitched on silk, using variegated silk threads.

 Wyn's stitches aren't quite mounted yet either! These beautiful samples will finally be displayed on a wooden bobbin. 

And finally...you may remember that some of our members went to Summer School in July. 
Sue took a gold work class with Jenny Adin-Christie and this is the beautiful brooch which she started then, and has now finished...I should have put a 5p next to it for scale - it is tiny, but exquisite! 

~Please also have another look at the August "Flowers" Playday, where you can see some updates of members' work...