Guild Postcards

I have just been to Huddersfield to view the embroidered postcards and they are quite an amazing sight.  There are nearly 3000 of them and they are spread all over the theatre.  The ladies of Huddersfield Branch have done an amazing job to get them displayed, I believe it took them over 7 hours to do.  It was fun looking at the pictures and trying to work out which country they represented.  Some Branches had put in an amazing amount of research, Lincoln for instance, had Comoros (has anyone heard of it) and they produced 14 postcards about the island, plus a flag!  Some branches had worked a theme into their cards.  Horsham had produced all theirs in Kantha style to represent Bangladesh. The smocking branch had obviously done all theirs in smocking and produced one of my favourite pieces of a wave and a beach.  I have printed another of my favourites, a picture of the northern lights in Finland.  I was also taken with an Iguana from Swaziland but unfortunately he didn't photograph well.  If you look carefully you will see Ryedale's contribution in one of the photographs below.  The exhibition moves on to The Customs House, Mill Dam, South Shields from the 27th June to 11th July so if you can get to see it, it is worth the trip.

May Meeting

Sorry for the delay in reporting on the May Meeting but my internet has been down.  The line from the telegraph pole had rotted in the box at the top of the pole and an engineer had to come out and climb up and reconnect me.  Apparently, most of the engineers work these days is repairing old cable!

Back to last Satuday.  We had a good display of finished items from the mini workshop we did last month using transfoils, pictures below.  We have also put together a small display of members work for the exhibition at Ripley in July. It was worth taking the time to work out how many pieces of work were needed to make a good display.

 We received an offer of wood pincushion bases that needed sanding and varnishing before completing with fabric, embroidery, etc.  Members have agreed to buy them at £1.75 each, all proceeds going to fund the building of a school in Haiti.  For those who don't wish to keep their pincushion, we hope to sell them to raise a few more funds.

 We are also setting up a quilting team within the Branch to organise the making of a new bag for our banner.  The poor banner has been transported around for years in a bag made from curtain fabric which has now got sadly saggy.  To prevent any damage to the banner, which is made with thick card so that it can be mounted on a stand and therefore can be transported to all our exhibitions, we thought that a quilted bag would be the best option.  I have suggested that to make all the members a part of the project, we all bring in a piece of fabric to go into the chosen patterns.  I am now leaving this up to the team to get together next month and sort out a colour scheme and design, it's nice when you can offload all your bright ideas for someone else to sort!!!

We had a very good talk from Elizabeth Almond entitled 'Blackwork Journey - New Beginning, where she explained how she came to start stitching blackwork and where here design ideas come from.  She gave one or two good tips for beginners and experienced stitchers.

April Meeting

What a busy day we all had.  In the morning we had a mini workshop using transfoils.  Many of the members had never used them before and as they are difficult to buy anywhere locally, we ordered lots of different ones from Art Van Go and we all had a go at the piece of work done by Jean Littlejohn in the Feb/Mar issue of Stitches.  It took about 2 hours to get to a point where people had either finished or knew what they needed to do to finish a small panel.  The results are below and they really did look good.  I hope to see them all finished off into book covers or something similar next month.

In the afternoon we had a wonderful talk by Katie Chaplin on the Traditional Costume of Japan.  She brought along her daughter to model for us and we were shown how a Japanese lady would be dressed in a full ceremonial kimono.  It really was interesting and as she also brought along some Japanese fabrics and kits for us to buy, we all ended up having a really enjoyable afternoon.

Wonderful Exhibition!!

The black & white and 1970's displays

Finishing the setting up

Members catching up on their stitching

First we thought the weather had let us down, the warm sunshine in March had made the daffodils flower early but then the cold spell last week kept them going and there was still a lovely display to encourage walkers to come and see them.  Then there was snow last weekend at Farndale and it took out the electricity for a few days but by Thursday things were starting to look better.  We set up Thursday afternoon and Friday morning we all arrived in a shower of rain.  The hardy walkers started to arrive and disappeared into the countryside, the sun came out and more cars started to come in.  By lunchtime we had a steady stream of visitors all of whom enjoyed our displays.  Saturday started with a blizzard but again the sun got the better of the clouds and although not such a warm day, we still had plenty of people coming through the door.

We would particularly like to thank the members of Guisborough Branch and York Branch who came out specially to support us.  All our members who came up to help or just visit enjoyed themselves, chatting with friends as well as visitors who were interested in our work.  Special thanks to Phil and Avril who manned the tea room for two days and did a sterling job.  You couldn't see them for all the cakes that had been provided.

The whole success of the day was entirely due to the beautiful work provided by our members.  Lots of new pieces never seen before, traditional and modern and of a standard to match the best in the country.  We did two feature tables, one in the centre of work done in either black, white or black and white which gave a very dramatic effect.  The other table was of work that members had done in the 1970's and it provided a wondeful contrast of designs, colours and stitches with the work that we are all doing today.

Another thank you to York Branch for loaning us their 'Rainbow Squares'.  The orange make a lovely contrast with our brown squares and make a really good display together.

Mini Workshop

For the April meeting we are going to have a mini workshop from 10.30 to 12.30 in the morning.  We will be using transfoils as many people have not used them before.  If you do not have any transfoil but would like to join in the workshop, can you ring Anita and she will order some from Art Van Go at £1.25 per pack. 
The main other requirements are:
Fabric - open weave that will take thick threads
Assorted threads in different textures and colours but mostly thick threads.  Some fine gold or sparkly thread for the top
Bondaweb
Chiffon - fine chiffon scarf fabric or organza
6" embroidery hoop would be useful

Above is a picture of what the finished piece could look like.  I am taking the instructions from a recent copy of Stitch magazine if you want to have a look at it yourself.

March Meeting

Not too many of us here today but a very interesting talk on the Lacemakers of Ripon by Mary Moseley and Avril Edmondson.  It is amazing how fine the threads were that the lacemakers used, no wonder their eyesight failed at a very young age. 

The preparations for the Exhibition at Farndale on the 13th and 14th April are well under way.  Unfortunately the weather has got a bit ahead of itself and the daffodils are out now but hopefully the cooler weather forcast for this week will slow them down a bit and we will still have a good show.  There will however, be a very good show in the Bandroom of all our work and I am looking forward to getting it all displayed. 

Information was given for a coach trip to Bombay Stores and Salts Mill on the 27th July.  Anyone who wasn't at the meeting but would like to come, please give Anita a ring to put your name down.  I know it is going to be on the day of the opening ceremony for the Olympics but the concensus was that shopping at Bombay Stores was more important.

February Meeting

This is a photo of some of our members with a few bits of work and our embroidered tablecloth in front of them.  We hope to get this picture into the newspaper in a couple of weeks time to advertise our exhibition (see below). 
A big thanks to all the members who have volunteered to either help at the exhibition or to provide cakes for the refreshments or both.  All we need now is your work to show! 
We had an interesting talk by Veronica Hartley about the making of hats.  She has her own business called 'Dottie Hats' and after giving us a brief history of headwear, she then talked us through how she designed and made hats.
We have got a possible interest in a trip to Bombay Stores later this year (we are all suffering silk withdrawal symptons) and we thought we might continue it at Salt's Mill, so that could be something to look forward to when the weather gets better.