May 2013 Meeting

Rachel Lombard was our speaker at the end of last month. She emphasised the need for notebooks and how expensive materials are not necessary to make beautiful work. I wish I'd taken more photographs of her work but there are more samples on her website. 

 The base fabric for this beautiful bag is brown paper

 A page from Rachel's workbook on Beauty and clinical interventions

A raised work lion produced from a collection of images of lions. Rachel collected lions from many sources, including heraldry and children's books.

Next month's morning session starts at 10.30 and will explore Dorset buttons. Stranded cotton, a needle and a brass curtain ring are all that are required. A reminder too that Leeds Flower Show at the beginning of August has a new category of "Machine Embroidery" in the Crafts Hall. All entries welcome!

The Regional Meeting at Riccall was a great success. The two speakers were very entertaining and our branch won two prizes for "Underground" and two of the embroidery bag raffle prizes.

April 2013 Meeting

April's morning session was lead by Judith T, painting on fabric with different effects achieved by using bubblewrap, sequin waste, stamps, and even the soles of airline socks. Don't forget to bring these samples back next month with embroidered embellishments.

Last month's competition, postponed by weather, was held this Saturday. Below are pictures of the entries...

The afternoon speaker, Gillian Cooper, is the daughter in law of one of our ex members who moved out of the area. She talked about her career in textiles post Accountancy and brought samples of her work. She also brought her mother in law, good to see you again Barbara.

and finally........
competition winner......

Congratulations Carole

Embroidery Day School at Harewood House

Dear All

Before I post photographs of our meeting on Saturday I thought I would let you know about a day school at Harewood which could be promising. It sounds as if more textiles will be on view than at our day out last year.

Saturday 1 June 2013
10.00am - 4.00pm

Embroidery inspired by the Princess Mary collection...

This embroidery workshop takes inspiration from Harewood’s extensive collection of artefacts associated with the life of HRH Princess Mary who lived most of her lifetime here at Harewood.

Ornate monograms were used to mark the Princesses possessions which, along with hand-written letters and notes, provide an insight to her life at Harewood.
A special behind the scenes look at items from the collection will provide inspiration for a number of different hand embroidery techniques.
Artist Hannah Lamb will demonstrate how to achieve simple but effective embroidered lettering and you will take home an embroidery sampler to inspire future projects.
No previous experience of embroidery is required.
Tea/Coffee will be included, but please bring your own packed lunch or alternatively you can buy lunch in Café. All materials will be provided.

Adult:	£40.00
Harewood Card Adult:	£36.00

February 2013 meeting

We had a very successful meeting on Saturday. Sally demonstrated the finer points of rotary cutting in the morning session, including filleting a shirt. We're all expecting her to finish her quilt of samples for next month's meeting. Unfortunately I don't think anyone took any photographs of the demonstration, the brown paper packaging was a masterpiece. If any other member has a skill to share don't forget to mention it to Hilary, the morning sessions are becoming popular.

Janet Brown was our speaker in the afternoon. For those from other branches who haven't heard her, book now! Janet told us how her work has developed over the years and how her techniques have developed into the stunning textiles shown below. 

Next month is the Womersley Cup Competition. The subject is UNDERGROUND

September 2012 Meeting

Welcome back to the new term, and hope everyone had a happy holiday. During the summer Freda made progress with her daffodils and has branched into split stitch for the flower head.

 Jenny has also been working, on a pincushion to give to a friend. She used a synthetic ribbon for the flower head, rather than silk, so that the item can be washed.

The morning sessions are going to be more structured this year and we kicked off to a good start with Hilary running a class on applique......

 

A new bag to carry samples to the Guild meeting

 

 The kit and finished sample from Saturday morning's session. We hope that everyone will bring in their finished pieces next month to post on the blog.

Audrey not only brought in a cake to celebrate a significant birthday but also two samples of applique from the branch collection. The crinoline lady teacosy was bought from a charity shop, it's unusual in it's use of applique with the surface stitches. 

 

The applique below is unfinished and is labelled as Japanese applique. Does anyone know anything about this style of work? Research needed!

Finally, the afternoon speaker, Sue Seeger, was very interesting. She has studied and taught the history of women's dress in great detail and is involved with the costume department at the theatre. She was also involved with Homburgs and designed costume for their shop. Sue gave us a slide show of the development of fashion from about 1850, illustrating how design has been influenced by social history and the march to women's equality.

See you next month, when I hope to have developed the library list.

July Meeting and Leeds Flower Show 2012

 First up, Freda's progress with the daffodils

July's afternoon meeting was all about maps. Two people brought maps they had made, I'm sorry that I don't know who they belong to. The photographs are courtesy of Ruth

 Hilary brought her new jacket to the afternoon session and explained how she had made the border. She had also traced small portions of the AtoZ road atlas pertaining to each member of the branch and we all set to work embroidering our own portion of the map with wool in chain stitch. During the week Hilary stitched these together and the result was exhibited at Leeds Flower Show.

 

Part Two, the Flower Show

 Two of the Children's categories in the Art and Craft Hall where our stall was.

 

 Our Stall

 Catherine's patchwork

 

Margaret's embroidery

 

The Grey Squares and Debbie's necklace

There are other displays in the Arts and Crafts Hall

  Alwoodley Quilters

 Spinners of Aire

White Rose Lacemakers

Regional Exhibition at Ripley

Carole's newsletter yesterday reminds me that I haven't posted the pictures of the Exhibition. So, here they are in no particular order, and with an apology that I took far fewer photographs than I thought at the time. Don't forget that if you double click on one of the photographs you can view the them as a larger slideshow. 

 This snap was taken to remind me to investigate 'poor man's pewter'

 Our own branch shield, made by Maureen Hindes, and beneath it the tablecloth made by the people who were members at the 75th Anniversary of the Yorkshire Branch @ Leeds (or was it the 60th?). Each member embroidered a square and included her name

 A close up of the leaves on the shield.

 The background of the hanging is handmade felt

 Nidderdale's exhibition space

 Not sure which branch this one came from

 or this, the princess and the pea

The winner of the Tin competition at Riccall

 A close up of our table - sorry, it's a bit out of focus

 Our stand

If anyone else took photographs of the exhibition I could include them on the blog if forwarded to me.

See you on Saturday

I've added this photograph again because the first doesn't seem to work in the slide show. If I remove the first from the blog, then the next picture doesn't work. Will try to sort it later

Barbara