May Meeting

I know this is a bit late but I was away last week in Berlin and am just catching up with myself.  I can recommend Berlin for a city break there is loads to do and it is a lovely modern city.

Our speaker for May had to cancel and so one of our members, Christina Hampshire, stepped in to breach the gap and gave a very enjoyable talk about 'Why I Do What I Do'.

She told us all about how she started embroidery and how she spent many years working on her own until she discovered the Guild and met up with lots of like minded people to work with.

It is always good to see the work that other members do and everyone enjoyed talking to Christina about techniques and materials used.

Here is some of her work.

Work done with the Castle Embroidery Group in Harrogate.

Christina's 'Tree Rythmns' entry which received a Highly Commended award.  This can be seen at the Bankfield exhibition and the other piece at Ripon.

Work based on architecture.

Inspiration for stitch from knitting patterns.

Story boards.

Stitching in the Dales

Just to let everyone know that the Stitching in the Dales was as good as ever and we all had a very enjoyable couple of days stitching away.  Both classes were full and thanks go to Carol and Gina for sharing their expertise and to everyone who organised the event and provided food, etc.

I have taken a few photo's (I remembered my camera this time) and start off with the view from my bedroom window at the B&B that I stayed in.

These next few are from Carol Coleman's workshop Earth's Beauty.

The next pictures are from Gina's workshop which was creating landscapes.

Some lovely work and ideas.

April Meeting, Scampston Hall and Guild AGM

The Guild AGM, held in Manchester this year was a very good day.  We had two inspiring speakers in Susie Vickery and Sian Martin.  The venue was smart and close to the railway station and the lunch was excellent.  The timings this year were spot on and we finished promptly at 4pm.  The Guild is still having problems recruiting new members and finances are a struggle but the profile and the image of the Guild is leaping ahead with new ventures into collaborations with other partners.An increase in subscription fees was approved which will go some way to help the finances.

The exhibition at Scampston Hall is now in place and what a lovely display it makes.  It is in the conservatory which is not a huge space but the work fitted in very well.  Look out for a press report in the Malton Gazette and Herald, hopefully week commencing 9th May.  It has be good to work with other branches and we have all said that it would be nice to get together again either as a meeting or another exhibition - or maybe both!  If you get chance to visit Scampston do go, it is a lovely garden and there is a very nice tea room and our exhibition of course.

A good meeting in April although the weather is still a bit cold up here.  We have managed to reunite nearly everyone with their work from the exhibition and we made a good profit for the branch funds.  Thanks to everyone who helped.
Angela has started a monthly newsletter which everyone enjoyed and thought a good idea.
The travelling journal has another double page spread completed and has moved on to its next writer which is Christine who is planning to do something on blackwork.
Our speaker was Pauline Cameron who keeps alpaca's.  Regrettably she did not bring one with her but she did bring lots of photographs for us to look at.  She also brought some of the wool she makes from the fleece of the animals and demonstrated spinning it.  The sweater she was wearing was knitted with her own wool and it was beautifully soft.
I didn't get any photographs of the alpaca's she owns but here is one of some that I took in Peru a few years ago.

These were amazingly sensible about crossing the road, they waited at the kerb and all went together.

Exhibition

We have just had a wonderful exhibition at Farndale.  Once again the daffodils were at their best and although the ground was more like a mud bath, it didn't deter either the walkers or the embroidery enthusiasts.  Lots of people came especially to see our work and several said that they had been looking out for it as they had enjoyed it so much in the past. It wouldn't have been the success it was without all the stitching from the members and the work from those who manned the rooms on the day. Here are photographs of most of the work on display.

These little fellows were the star of the show.  22 members each made one of these birds from a Stitch magazine pattern and as you can see, each one is different.

These are Colleen's 'comforter's' made up from the work she did for her City and Guilds many years ago.  The remains of each piece from round the dolls she has made into a book.  They look a bit like forensic body drawings!

Janet's beautiful hardanger.

Christine on the bag tombola.

These next three pictures are items from our 'Make and Take' sessions in Branch meetings.

Work from Regional and National competitions.

2015 Rosebowl competition 'Winter'.

Imelda's lovely beadwork

2014 Rosebowl competition 'A Book Cover'

Janet's beautiful ecclesiastical goldwork.

March Meeting

We have quite a lot for our sales table, bag tombola and the exhibition tables themselves, all ready for the 8th and 9th April at The Bandroom, Farndale.  This includes 21 beautiful birds, each one different.  These were stitched from a design in Stitch Magazine and they look amazing.

We had a super talk from Carol Coleman who encouraged us to design our own work using the computer to manipulate our photographs.  Her work is wonderful, have a look at her website -www.fibredance.com.

Jackie is planing another quilting workshop for us beginners around June time so keep looking to see what we have been up to.

February Meeting

This month we had a members day.  We are always cautious about February as quite often in the past we have had to cancel the meeting due to bad weather.  This year however, the weather was fine and most of the members were able to turn out.

Jackie and Ann had once again been busy preparing kits for us to work on.  Jackie had some lavender bags with transfers to copy onto the fabric and stitch in traditional embroidery stitches.  Meanwhile Ann had prepared pieces of canvas for us to work a small design based on the 'lace on canvas' technique.  These tiny pieces could then be made up into cards or other small objects.  It certainly kept us all busy and we had two visitors who also enjoyed their day.

Work towards the exhibition is moving on apace and we now have a good selection of bags for the tombola.

Jackie has also made a lovely bag for the regional day raffle and we just have to fill it now with lots of goodies that will tempt you all to buy raffle tickets on the day.


These are some of the bags for the tombola.

This is one of the 'lace on canvas' pieces belonging to Ann together with a sample of what the members made.

 These are Jackie's lavender sachets.

Here we all are busy working away.

A preview of something you will see at our exhibition on the 8th & 9th of April at Farndale.    These little birds were in Stitch magazine and we have all made one and everyone is different.  They look really good.

January 2016 meeting

Our membership has fallen this year by about 5 but we are hoping to have one or two newcomers next month.  Although a few people were missing this time for various reasons we still had a lively meeting.  The committee spent the morning planning the exhibition which will be on the 8th and 9th April at Farndale again.  We will be setting up on the Thursday at 6pm, quite late in the day but the room is in use prior to that.  Moira and Janet are going to make us some very stylish bunting to hang outside the venue.
The travelling journal is going really well with 4 pages already completed and on its way to the next one.
Several people have put their names down to complete work for the Capability Brown project so we should have a good representation there.

As usual I forgot my camera (even my new one that my daughter bought me for Christmas/birthday) and I missed getting some lovely shots of the speakers work.  Angela Cole gave an informative talk about willow and hazel and how her and her partner had set up business making garden items and fencing.  While giving this talk she also made a lovely wigwam for plants to climb up.  I purchased two of her flowers and have managed to photograph these at home.

These come with long hazel stalks so that you can stand them in your garden but I think I am going to attach mine to the garage wall which is a rather blank space.  Angela normally sells these through one of the florists in Malton.  I can't remember the name right now but if you are interested, contact me and I will find out for you.