St. John's Church Exhibition

This weekend (10th & 11th October) we had a small exhibition in St. John's Church, East Ayton near Scarborough.  As a branch we had done some work repairing the altar frontal for the church and instead of paying the branch to do it, we asked if they would let us put a display of work in the church.  We came to an agreement on the date which happened to be their harvest festival and they managed to get the archdeacon to come and bless the altar at the same time.  It was an enjoyable weekend, with many local people calling in on the Saturday to leave donations and join us all for coffee.  On Sunday, 2 of the team of 4 who did the repair work, joined the service and the harvest lunch afterwards.  We received a lot of compliments for all the work on display as well as the altar frontal.  This report will hopefully go into Contact magazine as well as the Regional Yearbook to show another way in which branches can promote themselves and the Guild.

The work undertaken was on the top 4 bosses of the frontal where the worst wear had occured.  The gold was unravelling and the silk shading was disintegrating.  We managed to match the threads fairly well for the silk shading and we bought new gold thread for the centre of the bosses but we re-couched the outer goldwork.  The fringe was gently brushed and we felt it would unwind if we washed it.  The old linen top was removed and a new piece inserted.  The gold shines out now when the frontal is on the altar but we have advised the church that next time it will have to be replaced.  We felt that the bosses were probably re-used ones from a previous frontal as they seemed quite old.

This is what one of the bosses looked like before.  You can see the gold thread hanging off.

This is what they look like now.

The full altar frontal.

Here are some of the exhibits dotted around the church and on display in the vestry.

September Meeting

Our AGM today which was well attended again and what a good day we had.  After all the business we had a quiz with Angela Fawcett and I don't think I have ever attended such a jolly AGM anywhere.  We split into groups and the winners were Janet, Christina and Lindsay who all ended up with a lot of chocolate.

Today was also the day we judged our Rosebowl Competition and Angela did this for us.  A difficult job, choosing a winner from the nine entries.  The topic was Winter and the winner was Christina with her lovely jug.  Apparently, this was based on something she had seen in Stitch Magazine.  This is the second year running that Christina has won the bowl so she should have a place ready set aside for it!

Christina with her winning entry.

We have got a bit more information about the Capability Brown exhibition that will be at Scampston Hall next year and will be on all through the summer from May to September.
Our piece of work for the Regional AGM 'Chairman's Challenge' os almost complete and looks very nice.  It certainly complies with the request for something small and beautiful.

Woolfest

Visited the Woolfest on Saturday at York Auction Mart.  It was a very good day, lots of wool related stalls and the Guild stall was much admired.  I learnt a lot about sheep from a very entertaining gentleman who provided a talk and demonstration of sheering.  The layout wasn't brilliant as I think that on Friday a lot of people missed the end rows of stalls but some ingenuity and rehanging of the Guild bunting improved the situation for Saturday.  Thank you to everyone who provided items for our stall.

Summer School

Christina and I had a wonderful weekend at Bishop Burton, doing lots of work and meeting up with friends from other Branches.  We have all put on half a stone in weight with all the lovely food that was prepared for us.
There were four tutors, Nicola Hulme, Chris Gray, Jenny Adin-Christie and Linda Miller.  All the classes did lots of wonderful work and I have got some photographs below of what went on in our room.

Sorry no, this isn't a members fantastic work, it is two models that are in the grounds at Bishop Burton.  Still fantastic though.

The next pictures are from Chris Grays workshop which is where Christina and I were.  Known locally as 'The Messy Room'.  We were making three fold books to contain something that was of interest to us or had a special memory that we wanted to cherish.

 These next two are Chris's own books.

 This was one I missed earlier.

The other classes produced some wonderful work too.  Jenny Adin-Christie did goldwork which was absolutely beautiful, Nicola Hulme did stump work and Linda Miller did machine embroidery, creating pictures and views done in solid machine stitch.

A wonderful weekend and I can recommend it to anyone and very good value for money.

June Meeting

Sorry this is so late but I have been decorating my dining room and then I have been away on a wonderful workshop with Sarah Burgess and Distant Stitch.  It was an excellent weekend and we worked really hard, I was so tired I slept through an apparently very loud thunderstorm.

We had another good meeting in June, lots of things to discuss and we are becoming involved in lots of different things such as the Capability Brown project and the repairs to my local church altar frontal which will give us a small exhibition in the church later this year.  Watch out for the dates.

Our speaker this month was one of our members, Colleen who spoke about 'Just a Bag' a very interesting talk which started out describing a friends reactions to Colleen wining a prize for a bag she had made.  Needless to say, this friend does not appreciate the finer arts of embroidery.  As always with Colleen, the talk was entertaining and there was lots of work for us to look at but as usual, I forgot my camera and so cannot share them with you.

No blog next month as I am away and as we don't  meet in August, it will be September before I have a meeting to blog about. However, if there is any news or information you need to know, I will put it here.

May Meeting

Today we had a mini workshop with Josie Storey who is always great fun to have at a meeting.  We were making mini bags, like little shoppers, which can be used for keeping small precious items or for giving tiny gifts like earings or even a gift card.  All the members present had a go and it was a very busy day.

We have managed to gather together a good supply of items for our 'raffle bag' for the regional day in June, so a message to any other branch - watch out for the Ryedale bag, it is well worth putting your ticket on it.

A small group of members have been working on an altar frontal repair for one of the local churches and as payment for doing it, they are going to allow us to hold an exhibition in the church in October.  It will co-inside with the re-dedication of the frontal by the archdeacon and also the harvest festival.  It promises to be a very special weekend for the Branch.

 Here are some of the items Josie brought for us to look at and kits for us to buy.

 These are Josie's versions of the bags she demonstrated.

And these are the bags that some of the members made.

Stitching in the Dales

A number of us joined the Grassington Branch for their annual 'Stitching in the Dales' workshop.  We spent two and a half days with Lynda Monk making a huge quantity of fabulous pieces.  We worked really hard and were exhausted at the end of each day but we came home with lots of wonderful ideas and plenty of work to finish off.  Thanks to Lynda for such a comprehensive workshop and thanks to Grassington Branch for arranging it all.  Also, a huge thank you to Rachel and her team for the wonderful lunches she provided.  Here are some of the things we made:

This was my panel with the stitching and the tyvek scrunched scrim attached all ready for the gesso to go on.  These next pieces are lutradur which has been stenciled with various pastes and gels and then painted.

Next we were using expandaprint onto lutradur through a themofax screen.  We finished some off with foil and some with embossing powders.  Some will go home plain to be painted.

Friday morning we were making flowers using the same technique as above.  They are so beautiful you don't need a vase to display them, they look good anywhere.

Ann's daughter may recognize these hands.

 Here is some of the finished work at the end of Friday afternoon.

Not to forget the ladies who were beavering away upstairs with Kate Stewart making these lovely landscapes using watercolour paint and organza.

A wonderful few days with lots of good food and good company.  Looking forward to next year.