Tuesday 13 December 2011

Exhibition in Hemsley

I have just been to Helmsley to a very good exhibition by Caroline Dunn.  It is at the Arts Centre and is on until the 22nd December.  There are some lovely panels with mainly machine embroidery and applique.  Besides that, there are some lovely shops with unusual christmas gifts and plenty of cafes, so treat yourself to a day out.  If you go by car, head out towards Scarborough and turn off at St. Gregory's Minster.  It's a lovely little church with two Saxon tombstones with wonderful strapwork on the top.

Sunday 27 November 2011

November Meeting

Today we had a 'Member's Day', so no speaker but we were all finishing our postcards for the Guild.  Most people had got on quite well and some were just starting but we have now got quite a few ready for the finishing off and assembly.  We should have 14 altogether which isn't too bad.  After my workshop with Francis Pickering last month, several people were interested in how we coloured the paper for the books.  I have just started another book so I brought my paper along to paint and several members had an impromptue demonstration.

A presentation of a National Garden Centre gift voucher, was made to the outgoing chairman, Janet, who had served six years and done a sterling job keeping the branch going from strength to strength.

Sunday 30 October 2011

October Meeting

We have finally sorted out a new Chairman, which will be me, Anita Cassedy and the post of Treasurer will be taken on by Liz Clark and Isobel Goforth is the Secretary.  We have also had two new people volunteer for the committee so we are now up to strength.
 Plans are going ahead for an exhibition in the Spring at Farndale.  We hope to coinside with the flowering of the daffodils there and cash in on the extra visitors that this attracts.  As a central theme for the exhibition we hope to display a selection of members work on the subject 'Black and White'.  You can work in any medium and your piece can be all black, all white or black and white, we don't mind.
The Rosebowl competition for next year will be a Chatelaine.  This must comprise of at least three pieces and can be done in any medium.  Judging will be at the AGM as usual.
We had a fascinating demonstration of paper making by Niki Hanson of Pulpitations.  Making your own paper is much easier nowadays, no more soaking in buckets for weeks - you just put it in the liquidiser!
Don't forget to keep working at those postcards.  November is the month to bring them in and finish them.

Machine Embroidery Workshop

This was our fourth workshop with Eileen Gibson and yet again we had a great day.  There was much splashing of paint crumpling of tissue paper and crimping of metal.  After preparing our backgrounds we then attached metal shims with our sewing machines.  One or two of us were a bit nervous of this process but the courage to try was found and we all produced a number of interesting pieces.  I completed mine this week into a little book using a tecnique of colouring pages that I had just learnt at an Art Van Go workshop with Francis Pickering.  Below are some of the work that was produced.




Sunday 25 September 2011

September Meeting

Saturday was our AGM which went quite well although not as many members as usual attended.  We had a very interesting talk 'Thread Therapy and Frustration' by Jonathan MacPherson of Barnyarns.  He also brought lots of threads and accessories for us to spend out money on!
We had our 'Rose Bowl' competition entries on display for Jonathan to judge and below is a photograph of those entries. The subject this year was flowers.


The winner was Moira Wood with her beautiful picture of buddleia done with applique and embellishing and here is a picture of Moira with the 'Eva Heselton Rose Bowl' which she gets to keep for one year.
We have also had some entries completed for the Guild Olympic postcards.  Only three so far but we have earmarked the November meeting as a finishing off day so hopefully there will be a few more by then.

Monday 12 September 2011

It's the Bag Lady again!

I was so pleased with my poppy bag that I made after Kathleen Laurel Sage visited us that I have made another one.  This is for my great niece who will be 4 this week.  I have reduced the size of the bag and only used the smaller flower shape and added a couple of butterflies.  I have fastened the flowers on with small buttons instead of beads as I thought they would hold on better. You can buy the plastic at Dunelm if anyone is interested in making their own bags.

Friday 19 August 2011

AGM

Done't forget that Sepetember is our AGM.  We will be having our usual stitching session in the morning and the AGM will commence at 1.30.  We have a speaker for the afternoon from Barnyarns, so it should be an interesting day.  If you wish to bring anything up in 'Any Other Business' can you let Janet know before the meeting.

July meeting

I missed the July meeting but talking to people who went, it was very enjoyable.  The speaker, Heather Ritchie was excellent, so much so that we have purchased her book for our library. 

I have re-organised our cancelled machine embroidery day for Saturday 15th October.  We will be looking at machining metal shims and cellophane but anyone who hasn't been before and would like to have a go at the first project we did, then Eileen is more than happy to have you along.  Price is £13 and the venue is Wrelton Village Hall.

Wednesday 13 July 2011

Bags of Fun!

Since Kathleen Laurel Sage came to talk to us, I have been desperate to get started making one of her bags and this is the result.  It was interesting to work with plastic instead of fabric, it doesn't slide on the sewing machine very well which makes the free machining a bit tricky until you get used to it.  If anyone else plans to do this bag that is in Stitches magazine you need to be aware that the rolls of plastic we bought from Kathleen are not quite sufficient for an exact copy of the bag.  Mine is just a bit smaller, I haven't put the flap over and there are fewer flowers.  I am still quite pleased with the result though.  I thought I might get some more plastic and make my great niece one for Christmas with flowers and butterflies on.

Monday 4 July 2011

Ripon and Lotherton Hall

We had a lovely day out last Wednesday, the weather mananged to stay fine for us and the rain shower came while we were on the coach.  Lotherton Hall is a lovely country house, a bit smaller and more homely than a stately home but there is still plenty to see there for the very reasonable entry fee.  The exhibition of North American Plains Indian artifacts was very good and very informative.  I think everyone enjoyed it.  If you do go and you watch the DVD that is played, don't wait for Sitting Bull to die, you could be there all day! We took a few friends as well as members to fill the coach and it made a nice mixed bunch who all got on well together.  The exhibition is on until the 31st December and I can certainly recommend it, I think children would enjoy it too.

Monday 27 June 2011

June Meeting

We had a lovely meeting this month with Kathleen Laurel Sage as our speaker.  She brought some wonderful pieces of work for us to look at and gave a very entertaining talk.  Take a look at her website www.kathleenlaurelsage.com .
We welcomed visitors from the Guilsborough branch of the Guild and members of the T.E. Group in Scarborough.  Tea and cake was served at 1.30 and again after the speaker had finished and we all got to have a good chat together.  A nice display of work from our previous day school's was on show, thanks to themembers for bringing it.

Sunday 12 June 2011

Pass It On

Well, what a wonderful suprise when all the entries for the Pass it On competition started to arrive at the Regional Day meeting at Riccall.  There was a lovely display of entries as the photos above show.  Many of the children had never held a needle in their hands before, some had learning disabilities and many were from schools in deprived areas.  All of them had really enjoyed creating the pieces of work and there were some quite moving stories attached to some of them.  Congratulations to all the winners. Any ideas of where we go from here to keep these children with us?






Regional Day itself was great.  Much improved lunch and two extremely good speakers made the whole day enjoyable.   Lots of entries for all the competitions, some good traders and an excellent raffle (particularly as I won the prize I had had my eye on when buying my tickets).

Monday 30 May 2011

June Meeting

As you all probably know, the June meeting with Kathleen Laurel Sage will be an open meeting.  There will be no charge for visitors and tea and cake will be provided.  That means, can members bring a cake or buns with you to put out.  Anything left can you take home again.  If there is anyone looking at this blog who would like to come, can you post a comment so that we can have some idea of numbers.  The business meeting will start at 1pm so that we can do tea and cake before the speaker at 2pm.  Look forward to seeing you all.

A few completed crewel work samples

Here at last are a few of the samples of crewel work everyone did with Phillipa Turnbull.  It's a shame they are all the same design because there were quite a number of different ones done on the day.  However, they all look good.  You will notice that Janet's still has the embroidery hoop marks on it, she finished stitching it minutes before I took the photograph.

Monday 2 May 2011

Royal Wedding Lace

There is a short press release on the Royal School of Needlwork website giving details of the lace that they made for Kate's wedding dress which is quite interesting.

Sunday 1 May 2011

Pass It On

The Pass It On competition for young people who are not members of a Young Embroiderer's Group is picking up pace. 

Our branch has definately one group entry and possibly a second on its way and a couple of individual entries.  I hope everyone else it taking up the challenge.

We have had additional sponsorship for the competition from Coates and Boyes Stores so the winners will get a nice goody bag as well as a monetary prize.

Meeting 0n 30th April

Well, I took loads of lovely photo's of everyone's work and somehow I have managed not to save them (had to use my phone as I had forgotten my camera) so you will have to take my word for it that it was all lovely.

First we had two finished items from last month's workshop with Phillipa Turnbull and one piece still in progress.  Come on ladies, there were over twenty of you there and only two finished items.  I did spot a couple of people busy with their competition entries for Regional Day so they are excused but we need a few more samples next month and then maybe I can get a decent photo if I remember my camera.

We must be the first branch to have started our christmas decorations this week.  Ann Lancaster, who was originally booked for our November meeting, had to cancel because of the weather so we re-scheduled for April and we have been making peg angels and Yorkshire Daisies for our christmas trees.  How organised are we?

An outing has been arranged to Ripon and Lotherton Hall where there is an exhibition on The Native Americans of the Plains.  Details are on the Branch news page.

Wednesday 6 April 2011

Good Service

I recently ordered 6 threads from Sew and So, two of which were cotton perle in the balls.  I ordered them Tuesday at 4.30pm and they arrived with Thursday's post and the postage charge was only £1.  I consider that good, reasonably priced service so I have added a link to their website.  They have a good selection of thread so have a look.

Welcome to our new Chair

News just in from the AGM is that Pauline Hannon is now the new Chair of the Guild.  We wish her good luck in her new post.

Sunday 27 March 2011

Stumpwork and Crewel Work

Here is Christina beavering away at the stumpwork day in the Quilt Museum in York.  This was a continuation of the classes held at the Regional Workshop weekend last year. The day was enjoyed by all and it looks as though plenty of work was done.

Over twenty members of the Branch enjoyed the crewel workshop held at Wrelton on Saturday 26th March.  Phillipa Turnbull was an excellent tutor and we all went home with our heads buzzing with new techniques.  I hope a few of you will have finished your pieces before the next meeting so that we can display a few photos on the blog.

Next machine embroidery day is Saturday 14th May when we will be looking at metals and cellophanes.





Sunday 13 March 2011

Bonding & Burning




We had another good machine embroidery day with Eileen.  This time we were bonding and burning which was great fun.  Everyone is enjoying these days, especially the chance to just sit at the sewing maching and play for a whole day. We have all said that we wouldn't do that at home.  Here are some of the finished samples we did and if anyone else would like to join us we hope to have another day on the 14th May when we will be machining metal.


Thursday 17 February 2011

Well done Halifax

Check out the Halifax blog, they have produced a wonderful entry for the 'Pass it On' competition in June.  What a lovely idea to donate it to the Children's Hospice. 

Well done and good luck to all of you.

Thursday 3 February 2011

New Guild Address and Phone number

The Embroiderers' Guild
1 King's Road
Walton on Thames
Surrey
KT12 2RA

01932 260738

Machine Embroidery Day

Cornucopia bags


Heads left!
 Is this Ryedales first sweat shop?  It sounded like one with ten machines going all at once.  This was our second attempt at machine embroidery with Eileen Gibson.  Everyone so enjoyed the first day we had when we made book covers using pre-set stitches on our machines, that we booked a second day in January.  We made the cornucopia bags shown above which really looked lovely, my photo doesn't do them justice.  We are so carried away with our prowess that we have booked a third session on March 12th, so watch this space.  If anyone else would like to join us, please contact the treasurer.