September Meeting and AGM

Today was our AGM and my last one as chair.  Everyone welcomed Angela as our new Chair with Val as secretary and I am sure all the members will give them both as much support as they have given me.  I have enjoyed my 5 years in the 'hot seat' but am ready for a rest now.

We welcomed 4 new members this week, although I think we shall have at least one old member not renewing this year so our numbers won't increase much.  It is always good to have new members with new ideas and lots of new stitching to look at.

The Rose Bowl was judged by Eileen Gibson, who was a member of the Branch when it first started and who is now returning to us.  There were nine entries, all beautifully done and the one chosen was by Laureen Hancock who embroidered the number 25 in numerous stitches and very fine thread. She now has the pleasure of looking after the crystal rose bowl for the next year.

As we were celebrating our 25th anniversary, we had a buffet lunch supplied by the members and it was delicious.  Although there looked to be a lot of it, we certainly made good inroads into it.

In the afternoon, Janet Coe gave us a talk about the Branch and it's beginnings.  She brought a lot of smiles to the faces of long standing members and a lot of 'Oh, I remember that' comments.

Moira had made a lovely cake with 25 on the top and we cut it after the talk and had a piece each with our tea.  Unfortunately, I was too late to take a photograph of it, it had gone by the time I got my camera out.

These two photographs show all the nine entries in our competition.  The subject was 'silver' and the piece had to be 6"x 4" in size.

This is the winner.  Unfortunately the photograph does not do it justice, it is difficult to see all the many stitches.

American Beadwork

I have just come back from a holiday to some of the National Parks in America.  It was a coach holiday and we covered about 3,500 miles altogether and I have seen some amazing sights.  I think I now have about six years worth of inspiration for embroidery but I don't know how much I shall get done.
We stopped one day at a tiny town called Afton where a Lancastrian and his Iranian wife run a tiny cafe and home made chocolate shop.  It is about the only 'English' style tearoom I have ever seen in America.  During the winter when they are blocked in with snow and don't have many customers, the lady (I don't remember her name) makes beautiful beadwork necklaces, bracelets, etc.  Some are designs that are in magazines and some are based on more traditional Native American designs.  I thought one or two people may be interested so I took a few photographs.

The chocolate was good too!

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.