October 2013

Moving on swiftly, or I'll never catch up,

A busy month. Above are photographs of the tie back competition from the Regional AGM at Scarcroft. Last year each branch were given some tie backs and asked to make something out of them. The results were many and varied and Hilary's box, above in the second picture down, won the individual prize.

Below are examples of the birds finished in the two morning sessions in September and October, the bird in the tree doesn't stand out very well but a clue is that  its in the centre of the photograph. Hope they all enjoyed sitting in their Christmas trees.

 

The advantage of doing this blog retrospectively is that it gives chance to remind me of the really good speakers we had last year (though of course I could have just looked at the blog if it had been finished). This is Clare Lane's work, shown under the heading Urban Fabrics. I haven't taken photographs of her larger screen printed fabrics but have provided a link to her website to jog your memories.

Good, just two more months to catch up with.Don't forget, if you double click on one of the images they can be enlarged as a slide show.

September 2013

I see from the programme (which I have to refer to working so far behind the meetings) that September was a Member's Day. I hope I have this right, the afternoon session was a talk by Hilary on how she made a Christmas tree with the spokes from old umbrellas

 The cluster of birds on the top of the tree are examples of those to be made in the next two morning workshops

 Beverley also brought in examples of the work she is doing at the moment. Because I'm so far behind with the blog, I know now that she was working on ideas which would eventually be made into a Christmas card.

Flower Show 2013

Now that I know some of you actually visit the blog, I've made the effort to a) track down the password to this site and b) find the photographs from the Flower Show (I've also wasted a fair amount of time trying to find the photographs from the August meeting!).

A shot of our stall, showing the fantastic collection of Dresses for Africa. Charlotte is willing to accept more of these at the November meeting, so get those sewing machines out again.

At the Show this year the category of machine embroidery was re-introduced to the competition categories. Our branch scooped the 1st, 2nd, 3rd and Highly Commended categories, well done all.

 Hilary won a prize in the crochet category with her bag made re-using plastic carrier bags,

 and a prize for her doll in the toy category.

 This photograph and the next few are shots of our stall at the Flower Show. For those who haven't visited the Show we are invited each year to put on a display of the work the members have done over the past year. The organisers have tried to encourage us to enter the competitions as well, hence the re-introduction of machine embroidery.

 These are entries into the patchwork competition

 Marie's entry in the hand embroidered category

 

Alwoodley Quilters

 

 Guild of Lacemakers

 I think this group are called Airedale Spinners, they meet at Armley Mills on Wednesdays, though I'm not sure whether that's every week or not.

The Committee, chilling at the end of the weekend.

 

The Edible Monster competition entries

and finally one of the entries into the 'any other craft' category. As usual, I don't think I took photographs of all the entries or enough of the display stalls but they should serve as a taster to visiting the real event next year.

Now, the next blog entry should be Riccall, Regional Meeting, where are those photographs?

July 2013

Oh heck, we're halfway through August and I've only just got round to posting on July's meeting. The morning session was spent working on our own projects and generally chatting. Jan brought in some beautiful linen pillowcases found in her mother's house. The weaving was really fine and the buttons intriguing. They seem to be two 'puffs' of linen joined together. An ingenious way to create fastenings - were they made because of a lack of buttons or to prevent hard lumps on the pillowcase? Does anyone know of any other examples?

As mentioned on last month's post Charlotte had asked if anyone would be willing to make pillowcase dresses for the underprivileged in Africa, I think that would be a yes then....

The afternoon session was lead by our very own Judith. She brought in some samples of shisha work and showed us how to do a very interesting stitch to hold the mirrors in place. I failed miserably with a needle too large for the thread and fabric but will endeavour to have a go before September. Below are some of the results....

 Some were slower than others ( too much talking again?) but brought in samples of various stitches used to anchor shisha mirrors in the past

 

  

And others brought in other work they wanted to catch up on. The advantage of having a Member's Day is that although there is usually an activity planned those who don't wish to participate can do they own thing and not miss the meeting.

Don't forget by double-clicking on one of the images you can create a slideshow of the photographs. 

See you in September, and before then I'll report on Leeds Flower Show held last weekend, now where did the photographs of that go.......................