Regional Summer School

The first warm weekend of the summer and we were all heading towards Bishop Burton to shut ourselves away to embroider.  I joined Val, Moira and Christina on the Libby Smith workshop 'Rolling Landscapes' and we were quickly underway dyeing small strips of fabric to make our landscapes.  It was a bit tricky rinsing them out in the tiny washbasins in our bedroom en-suites but we all seemed to manage without painting the walls as well.

Saturday was spent layering up our landscape and starting to stitch.  The day was interspersed with trips to the canteen to feed the body and walks round the gardens to feed the mind.  As usual, the food was excellent and there was plenty of it.  It is always good to meet members from other branches and to chat as well as work.  Sunday after lunch we did a final trip round each others classrooms to look at the work done and it was all beautiful.  Maggie Smith's group had been doing tiny flowers and trees in the most delicate of stitching, Pippa Foulds group had also been doing fine stitch work using the white on white technique of Mountmellick embroidery.  Jan Dowson's group made some lovely patched works using antique fabrics and ephemera to produce lovely memory pieces.

Here are some photographs of the work done on Libby's workshop.

This lady finished hers in the weekend.  Wisely she made it very narrow and not too long so that she didn't have quite as much stitching to do as the rest of us.

This is the tutors work.  You can see it better on her website. They are beautifully detailed with paint and stitch.

This is the finished one rolled up.

June Meeting

A lovely sunny day and we had fewer members here today, maybe they were all gardening.  We welcomed one visitor and Jackie gave us another Make and Take session making fabric flowers.  Our visitor was ahead of us as she had shortened the dress she was wearing and used the excess fabric to make a flower which she had stitched to the shoulder.  It looked really good.

Our speaker today was Julia Burns who runs a company called Red Hen.  She produces a range of gift cards and writing sets and also sells limited edition prints of her designs.  You can purchase her goods in shops like John Lewis and Harrods.  The really interesting thing is, all her designs are made using potato prints!  She demonstrated cutting a potato and printing with it and described how she produced the more complicated designs.  We were also given an insight into the world of business and trying to get onto the ladder with your own products.

This is one of her designs the original Red Hen which she printed today.  You get three different prints by not recharging the paint.  The comb, wattle and legs are hand painted on afterwards.

Some of Julia's designs and products.  Several of us couldn't resist buying these notecards.

Moira has been travelling the country looking at the Capability Brown exhibitions and she gave us a brief overview of the ones she had seen.  Not to be missed if you get the chance is Ickworth in Norfolk and Leyburn.  Although this one has now finished at Leyburn, we believe it is going on elsewhere so if anyone knows anything can they let us know.

Patchwork Day

We had another patchwork day for beginners this Saturday.  Although we are now nearer to intermediate than beginners and some have shot ahead to be nearly experts.

Today Jackie designed a bag for us to do using half square triangles.  Everyone got underway quickly and was soon stitching away.  Several people forgot to bring things with them but none so spectacularly as me who forgot her sewing machine.  Fortunately, Jackie had brought hers and I was able to sew with everyone else.

Here are some of the panels we made which will go on to make our bags.

This is Moira's hand dyed fabric.

Angela managed to get front and back done.  She enjoys Tatting so this bag is to keep it tidy.

Janet had these amazing fabrics which really looked good once they were joined together.

Cath chose plain colours but they really looked good together.

This is my bag well under way.

Liz had these lovely indian design fabrics that are looking amazing together.

Everyone's thanks to Jackie who did a sterling job keeping us all on track.

Regional Day

Sorry this is a bit late but I have just worked out how to download the photographs from my phone to my computer.  I am very impressed with myself that I have worked out OneDrive.

We had a very good day at Riccall as always.  There was plenty of shopping, good speakers and good food.  Anthea Godfrey and Liz Smith, two of the Guilds Trustees, gave us an update on the Guild and what is happening around the country.  Our morning speaker was Lizzie Wall who gave a lively talk about her work in applique.  She showed us lots of pieces of her work including two magnificent chasubles one of which is photographed below.

The model is her son-in-law who had been commandeered into helping.

In the afternoon we heard Stuart Hilliard, runner up in the first Sewing Bee series.  He was very amusing and kept us all in fits of laughter in the afternoon.

The competitions were well subscribed to and I have to report a success for our branch in the Coats Anchor award for 'Religion in Yorkhshire'.  Mavis Renshaw's entry of a Green Man won first prize and she was delighted.

Some of the work on display in the competitions.

The Hare at the back was the winning entry for the cup.

The foxgloves at the front won the Floral Alphabet competition.

Some of the young embroiderers' entries.

The framed picture at the back was the winning entry for the Coates Anchor award.

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.