NATIONAL STITCH DAY

This is the finished picture by a lady who joined in the daisy stitching at the library. She was so pleased with it when it was finished that she had it framed and brought for us to see and said how much she had enjoyed the experience.

Interesting video - Cultivating silk...

Cultivating Tasar Silk from Victoria and Albert Museum on Vimeo.

Craft Fayre

We had a very successful day at the Craft Fayre at St Nicholas Church Hall on Saturday. Many thanks to all our members who donated items for us to sell.

So successful we were wondering about taking a stall with a Spring/Easter theme next year. What does anyone think?

Monday workshop 9th November, 2015

We had a very busy morning with Betty showing us how to pull threads and wrap them to make tree trunks which we could then add leaves in a variety of stitches.

Some members have previous experience of this technique and were able to help others to master this method. 

There were eighteen members and one visitor at the workshop so it was useful for people to help each other. 

I think that is the most ladies we have ever had on a Monday morning.

I am sure we are looking forward to seeing the finished samples!

This was one of Betty Ditcher's original woven
trees that she brought along for us to see.

Another lovely example of woven trees.

NATIONAL STITCH DAY   EMBROIDERED T-SHIRT


At our branch meeting on Saturday 7th November Carol Chapman brought in the Caffe  Nero t-shirt that she had embroidered.
It had lovely needle woven daisies as part of the embroidery and our initials and date along the bottom.
Caffe Nero made us very welcome on our National Stitch Day and hopefully the t-shirt will be displayed in their cafe.

    Thank you Carol;  it's lovely.

SATURDAY 7TH NOVEMBER   VICTORIA McLEOD   DIY

We had a very interesting meeting this afternoon.  Victoria talked us through the tools we would find useful for DIY embroidery.  This included a hammer, pliers, screwdrivers, bradawl and others.

Some of the items she used to make her pictures were washers, curtain rings, curtain hooks, zips, buttons, tile spacers and so on.

Victoria used fabrics as backgrounds as well as textured wallpaper and muslin which she sometimes then painted a uniform colour but which still retained the texture.

We got lots of ideas to try out as well as possibilities for outdoor work for the Capability Brown festival at Gibside next year.

This piece used plastic tubing which was wrapped, chains
and washers.
Really colourful and effective.

 This particular piece has washers of different
sizes, buttons, eyelets and electric clips.

 A variety of items in this piece include staples, cuphooks, curtain rings, buttons and sequins.

 This symetrical piece is very effective using tile spacers, washers, curtain hooks and sequins.

 A complete change of scene - this piece uses varous textured wallpapers, brown paper, muslin, paints and then stitch.

This piece uses air dried clay.

Victoria printed off fabric maps of places which had special memories for her and then embellished the piece with stitch.

                               These two piece use a zip, back pockets from jeans, shirt pockets and various other pieces.  Definitely re-cycling.

All in all a very interesting and pleasant afternoon.  Certainly a different take on embroidery and stitch.

Monday Workshop 9th November 2015

This months workshop is Trees by Betty.

Materials

Loose weave fabric size 6" x 4" (approx) threads will be withdrawn (scrim works well)

Assorted threads

Blunt needle

Embroidery hoop

Please note that the workshop is the Monday following our Saturday meeting.

Saturday's Meeting

Saturday's meeting is a talk by Victoria Macleod titled DIY Embroidery. Sounds intriguing.
At the meeting we will have some calendars for sale featuring work by various guild members from our region.
We are also selling a new magazine, Creative with Workbox. These will be sold at £3.50, a pound cheaper than from newsagents.
Hope to see you there.