Regional Day

If it wasn't that you would miss a really good day out, I would suggest you book a weekend trip when the Regional Day is on because it is almost always a lovely sunny day and this year was no exception. We had two wonderful speakers in Serena Partridge and Nicola Jarvis.  Serena brought some of her tiny hand stitched shoes and gloves for us to look at and Nicola told us how her May Morris birds came into being.  As ever, lunch was delicious and there were several interesting stalls for us to spend our money on.  The competitions were well supported especially the young embroiderers whose work on William Morris designs was extremely good.  I won another bag in the raffle, I think this is the third one I have won and each has been amazing.  I have made lots of things from the items I have received and some have gone on to be sold at Branch events to raise money.
I'm afraid I didn't get photographs of the competition winners but they will be on the Regional facebook page, however I have got photos of the other entries and to say that these didn't win shows what a high standard there was.
Don't forget our exhibition on the 7th and 8th July in Snainton village hall, YO13 9BG from 10am to 4pm.  There will be lots more beautiful embroidery, a sales table, tombola and of course refreshments.

Flowers beginning with the letter 'H'

Some of the William Morris based designs.

Young Embroiderers work

May Meeting

I didn't realise how far behind I was with the blogs but when I think about it, I was on holiday at the end of March and again at the end of April so I didn't get to those two meetings.  However I understand that Helen Birmingham was very interesting and the workshop with Jan Dowson was enjoyed by all who participated.  There were some lovely pieces on display at this months meeting but as always, I forgot to get some photographs.
Our speaker this month was Vivien Stamford who spoke about Found Fabrics and the Antarctic Project.  Viv has collected lots of pieces of fabric from the beach at Bridlington, some of which she brought to show us.  With these pieces she has produces some wonderful work, a lot of it based around the Antarctic Expeditions of Scott and Shackleton.  She has done a lot of research into the projects and her work is very thoughtful. 
The Branch members are all working hard towards our exhibition on the 7th and 8th July in Snainton Village Hall.  We will be open from 10am to 4pm and entry is free so don't forget to come along.  There will be plenty of tea and cake so that is a good excuse.

February Meeting

I couldn't stay long today as I had a choir rehearsal in the afternoon but I called in for an hour in the morning to catch up with everyone.  I shall be missing the next two meetings unfortunately as we have some good things happening so the blog won't get updated until after the May meeting.

Today, Eileen gave a workshop making these lovely jugs, the pattern for which is from Stitch magazine.  From the feedback I got, everyone enjoyed doing these and had lots of fun with them.

Liz has been busy with her sewing machine and made this lovely panel.

January Meeting

Happy New Year!  A number of the members attended our Christmas Lunch on the 13th January at the Crossways Hotel in Pickering.  As always the food was lovely and the company excellent.
At our meeting today (27th) we had the Stamford Bridge Tapestry Society some of who joined us for the morning to do stitching and demonstrate the stitches they use in this beautiful embroidery.  There will be twelve panels when they have finished depicting the battle of Stamford Bridge in 1066.  The style of the work is similar to that of the Bayeux tapestry but it won't be quite that long!  As with the Bayeux Tapestry, there are some delightful figures fitted into the story.  Everyone loved the little fisherman sitting on the bridge fishing while the battle raged around him.  In the afternoon Heather joined us to give a brief description of the battle and Sue told us more about the Society and how they had all got together. 
Thank you's were said to all those who stewarded at Nunnington Hall for our exhibition which went down very well.  The management at the Hall were very pleased with it and with the number of additional visitors it attracted. 
Our next exhibition will be on the 7th and 8th of July at Snainton Village Hall.  This is the Branch bi-annual event so there will be lots to buy on the sales table, lots of tea and cake and tons of lovely embroidery and textile work to look at.
Here are some photos of the items they have for sale to raise funds for the fabric, threads, etc. needed to produce it. Each of these figures is taken from the tapestry.

Here are the ladies stitching away at some more of the smaller pieces.

Maureen was making this lovely canvas work bag using plastic canvas.

This beautiful hanging star was made by one of our beaders.

November at Nunnington Hall

This month I was stewarding at Nunnington Hall for our exhibition there and what a lovely day we had.  It was a bit chilly sitting at the top of the house but we had wrapped up warm and weren't too uncomfortable.  Apparently it wasn't as busy a day as usual but there were a lot of events on all over the county.  However, we had a steady stream of visitors from all over the world including Germany and Canada as well as from all over England.  Several of them had a go at Colleen's lazy daisy stitches and took a piece of work home with them.  I demonstrated Angelina fibres and how to use them.  Everyone who visited us was very complimentary about the work on display and it did look lovely, very well arranged around the two rooms and a corridor.  I didn't take any photographs I'm afraid, but you can still go and have a look at it yourselves before it finishes on the 17th December.

October Meeting

We had a really good meeting today, lots more work coming in for the exhibition at Nunnington Hall and lots of little white decorations that everyone had done to hang from the tree branches that Christina provided.

I managed to get a bit closer so you can see a few of them a bit better.

We had a really good talk by Janet Browne who told us all about how she got involved with her style and topics that she works in.  She brought lots of her birds and maps for us to look at as well as sketch books and samples.  We had a lovely time afterwards looking through them all.

Here are some of the pieces she brought and lots of eager hands rooting through them.

Our next meeting will be just a Members Day and Val and Angela have a small kit for people to do if they want to.  I shall be at Nunnington Hall all day doing three demonstrations of Angelina Christmas cards, so if you want to meet me and see what the Branch members have been up to, come along to Nunnington Hall.  Dates are above.

September Meeting

We had a full house nearly at our new venue in Snainton.  It is a lovely big room with plenty of light although the ceiling is high which makes it a bit noisy but we have all seemed to settle in.  Today was also our AGM which we went through as quickly as possible so that we could listen to our speaker, Andrew Clay who gave a very enjoyable talk on The Royal Jewels.  Going back to Queen Mary, he explained the difference between the Crown Jewels, jewels that belong to the Royals and the Queen's private collection.  The photographs were stunning, the amount of jewellery worn by Queen Mary and Queen Alexander was incredible and the dresses were just as impressive.  A really good talk that kept everyone discussing it afterwards.  Shame he didn't have any samples to show us!  Andrew is the Manager of Woodend Creative space in Scarborough and does two or three different talks and they are all very good.
We asked Andrew to judge our annual Rose Bowl Competition, the topic of which was Pantomime. There were a number of entries but the winner was Nikki Brown with her beanstalk interpretation.  I would love to have taken some pictures but didn't have a camera with me but I hope to get some from other members to put on this page as soon as I can.
We are all bringing together work for the exhibition at Nunnington Hall which is coming up very soon.  The dates for the exhibition are on the side panel, please come and look round a lovely house and see all the work we have been doing.
The Mystery Stitchery is moving along, people are getting the hang of what we are doing and are making plans for how to put the various pieces of work together when they are all finished.