Monday 27 May 2013

May Meeting

The first warm sunny day for a long time and we spent the day indoors!  However, we had a good meeting.  Moira had brought some of her dyeing equipment along and several members had a short tuition session on dyeing your own fabrics.  It was very much appreciated by all who joined in. 

In the afternoon we had a very enjoyable talk by Nicoa Hulme on Stumpwork.  This tied in very nicely with our recent workshop on that technique with Kathleen Laurel Sage.  It is always interesting to see how different people approach the same topic.  Unfortunately, although I had my camera with me, I completely forgot to take an pictures of Nicola's work.  It goes without saying that it way wonderful.

Sunday 19 May 2013

Stitching in the Dales

For the first time, Moira and I, joined a group of ladies on the residential course run by the Grassington Branch of the Guild and had an extremely enjoyable couple of days stitching.  Our tutor was Linda Westerman and the topic was 'Fragments of the Past'.  Everyone did something different, from memories of summer picnics to Egyptian tombs and all the work was brilliant.  Linda was an excellent tutor, never trying to overide what you wanted to do but guiding us through the moments when our brains seemed to just block up.  We had an interesting B&B by the river, in an old 17th century farmhouse.  All beams and stone staircases and doorways even I had to duck to get through.  The buffet lunches provided were amazing, the lady preparing it being only too pleased to have different tastes to the rugby players she usually provides for.  I am looking forward to seeing what they are going to run next year as I would love to go again.  I now have loads of work to complete from the two courses I have done recently but it feels good to have the inspiration going again.






Sunday 12 May 2013

Kathleen Laurel Sage Workshops

We have just had a wonderful 2 days in workshops with Kathleen Laurel Sage.  We  joined forces with the Textile Experimental Group who meet in Ayton near Scarborough and on Thursday we had a machine embroidery day in Ayton village hall, making organza panels.  This was a really busy day and lots of work was achieved with several people going home with a nearly completed panel.  On Friday we met in Wrelton village hall and had a much more sedate session doing stumpwork flowers and leaves.  We didn't have much in the way of completed work to take home but we did take away lots of ideas and information for the future.  Our thanks to Kathleen for being such a lovely friendly tutor.






Saturday 4 May 2013

April Meeting

Unfortunately I forgot to take my camera this month and therefore I have not got any photographs of the wonderful quilts our speaker brought, nor of the experiments that were done in the mini workshop.

Members were interested to know what other people had used Lutradur for, so Christina brought along some painted Lutradur of her own together with her soldering iron and heat gun and did a mini workshop for those who were interested.  It was very much appreciated and the sharing of knowledge is what the Guild is about.

The Kathleen Laurel Sage workshops are fast approaching.  The Maching Embroidery Panel workshop is now full and the Stumpwork one on Friday 10th May has just 3 places left if anyone is interested.

Several members attended a workshop to learn about using their sewing machines.  They learnt all sorts of useful things about tension, thread, needles, etc.  Everyone agreed what a useful day it had been and some of them have booked further sessions.  Kathy Selwood who runs the courses has taught and serviced sewing machines for many years and there isn't much she doesn't know about them.  Even the manufacturers have consulted her!

We have got plans afoot for an exhibition next year in the Spring and to boost our funds while we wait for that, we are having a cake stall at Kirbymoorside Market on Wednesday 4th September.

An outing to Bowes Museum is planned for the 19th September where we hope to have a good look round the new textile gallery.

Our speaker was Antonella Jones who is a member of several quilting groups in Whitby and who brought lots of lovely colourful quilts for us to look at.