Thursday 4 December 2014

November Meeting

I was hoping to give you a display of finished patchwork from our workshop a fortnight ago.  Some pieces did come in but several were missing because they weren't completed.  Below is a picture of the ones we did see.



In the morning Jackie and Ann did another 'Make and Take' session with the help of Moira as well.  We made a variety of Christmas decorations and cards as you can see below.





Everyone who takes part in these sessions enjoys them and it is great for getting to chat with people you don't normally sit with.

We had a great speaker in the afternoon, Diana Barrett whose talk 'For What it's Worth' looked at the perceptions of embroidery throughout the ages and how it has always been deemed 'Women's work'.  It caused some discussion over the tea cups at the end of the day.

This last picture is a christmas tree that has been on display at the Beck Isle Museum.  Each year they ask local businesses to sponsor and decorate a tree and this is our Branch's tree.  All the decorations have been made by members.  Christina carefully looked after them all year when we took them down from our own trees in January so we didn't have to go digging in the decorations boxes in October.


I think this looks super and so much nicer and more traditional than the 'tastefully toning' arrangements you see today. 

Sunday 9 November 2014

Patchwork Day

We had a really good day with Jackie and Ann demonstrating how to piece together a table runner.  Most of us made christmas ones, some made square table centres and some made non christmas items.  We were all kept very busy by Jackie, there was no slacking or sitting chatting but Ann made up for it with a supply of her wonderful blueberry muffins.  Some were so busy that at the end we didn't get chance to display everyones's work together so we are bringing it to the next Guild meeting when hopefully there may even be a few completed pieces of work.

Tuesday 28 October 2014

October Meeting

Today we presented our advent calendar, that we made for the Regional AGM challenge, to Cath Temple who will take it to the local Guides and Brownies to raffle for their own funds.  We also made a decision on our new Rose Bowl Challenge for 2015 and it will be 'Winter'.  You can do any technique or any item but it must have a winter theme.

Some of the members recently went on a trip to the Royal Armouries at Leeds.  It was organised by another local group who are doing work on a theme or 'Warriors' so it was an appropriate place for them to go.  We all had an enjoyable day and everyone got some ideas for future projects.

We have another 'Make and Take' session coming up next month and we are doing 'Christmassy Things' similar to the items in this photograph.


We also had a selection of the flowers that Brenda showed us last month that people have got finished and one item even included into a cushion cover.





Next month we are having another patchwork day and will be making a christmas table runner or a table centre, whichever you prefer.

Christmas lunch is booked for the 13th December at the Crossways so anyone not yet booked who would like to go can you contact me as soon as possible and I will get your name on the list.

We are hoping to have a joint meeting with Hull Branch and do two 'Make and Take' sessions at the March meeting.  They are only a very small Branch and don't have much opportunity for workshops so hopefully this will be the start of many joint ventures.

We had a very enjoyable talk from Gina Smith about her 'Travels with a Needle' who brought along some lovely pieces of work for us to drool over and who gave us an entertaining journey through her holidays and trips to some very exotic places and some not so exotic but just as beautiful.

Sunday 19 October 2014

Regional AGM

This year Ryedale Branch hosted the Regional AGM at Scarcroft near Leeds.  It was a busy day for the seven of us that went but we managed OK and had an enjoyable time meeting up with other branch members.

We provided tea and coffee for the morning, lunch and afternoon with some luscious cakes made by our members.  We also ran the raffle for the Region and a sales table that we made £80 on for our branch.  So a worthwhile trip.  The speaker was excellent and provided much discussion among members about multi-cultural groups.  I was lucky enough to win a raffle prize and went home with some wine and chocolates along with a colourful hand made bag, so that was my evening sorted with Lewis on the TV that I had recorded earlier.

These are the members of Ryedale who worked so hard all day.  Thanks to Jackie for making the sashes which received several compliments.


Hanging over the front of the table is our new banner bag.  It has a number of squares made by members and all put together by Jackie.  You can just see our banner in the background and now it can be transported around much more safely.
 
The next photos show some of the entries in the Chairman's Challenge which was once again won by Leeds Branch.





The winning entry are the small hangings next to our advent calendar, not a very good photograph I'm afraid but they were voted best by all the members present.  Now I have to go and reveal to our members the new challenge for next year, hope they all like it!
 
 

Sunday 28 September 2014

September Meeting

I was away on holiday for the July meeting so I don't really know what they got up to in my absence and therefore couldn't post a blog, so it really does seem a long time ago since I updated our information.  However, there were a few items brought along that had been made at the July meeting and also some more of Barbara's weaving from her talk.

Here are some cards that had been made last month and also some 'apples' that Ann has made using her own dyed fabric.


Barbara's beautiful weaving, you could make a dress from some of these patterns, they are that fine.


Down the side we have our new programme for 2014/15.  If anyone can tell me how I can get to highlight the bottom items that are all in black I would love to know.  For some reason it won't let me highlight a single letter never mind a whole name as I have done above.  Technology - huh!

September was our AGM and we gave our thanks to Liz who has now stepped down as Treasurer and welcomed Imelda into the post.  A bit of a baptizm of fire to start on the day that subscriptions are collected along with the Knitting and Stitching show money as well but she coped admirably.

We now have a new banner bag thanks to Jackie who pieced together all the individual embroideries that the members have done and this is the result -
We can now carry our banner around it style.  Come and see it at the Regional AGM.

The rosebowl competition this year was for a book cover and we had 8 entries, all of which were stunning but the winner chosen by the members was Christina.

Here are the entries -
 


and here is Christina with the rosebowl.
 
Our afternoon was spent making flowerpots that Brenda had brought along las month and everyone thought they were lovely, so she has kindly spent her time drawing desings onto calico for the rest of the group.  This is what we are doing and I expect to see a nice display next month of finished pots (ours are smaller than this one).
 
 
 





Sunday 29 June 2014

June Meeting

Although members are now starting to go on holiday etc. we still had a good attendance today.

A few of the quilted cushions from the workshop two weeks ago were on show but not all of them are finished yet.

Cath's is missing because she was sitting on it.  The day was so popular that another is planned for November and we are hoping to make a christmas table runner.  Everyone thanked Ann and Jackie for organising and running the days.

This afternoon we had Wyn Ingham helping us to make mini victorian needlecases which were lovely.  Everyone enjoyed the afternoon and most people took home a finished needlecase.  Some bought extra kits to make more, they were so pleased with their first ones. 
 
Here are some action shots of people working on their needlecases





And here is a selection of the finished ones.  Not everyone put theirs on the table but you can see the huge variety of kits that Wyn put together for us, it mus have taken her ages and our thanks go out to her.

Next month our own Barbara Douglas will be talking about 'Colour and Design for Weaving' and Barbara is an excellent weaver and some of her fabrics are superb.  We welcome visitors and I would recommend this talk if you are interested in weaving.

Below is a taster of what we will be doing next month on our 'Make and Take' session.




Monday 16 June 2014

Patchwork Day

Six members of the Branch met up on Saturday for a Beginners Patchwork day with Jackie and Ann.  We had an excellent day learning how to do a 'Rail Fence' patchwork.  We didn't get as far a quilting it but I have been very good and got mine done at home, thanks to the football.  Everybody really enjoyed their day and many thanks go to Jackie and Ann for all the time they have put in to prepare and present this for us.


Here are the finished pieces of patchwork and how different they all look even though they are the same design.

Sunday 8 June 2014

Regional Day

Six of us once again had a very enjoyable day at the Regan Centre although the weather wasn't it's usual sunny self.  We had two very entertaining and informative talks one by George Hook, who is the last man in Birmingham to make mother of pearl buttons, and one by Lucy Adlington on the Great War Fashions.  The standard of the competition entries was as high as ever and there were some really lovely pieces on display.  Next years topic for the two competitions will be 'Maps' and the flower for the Maggie Judges competition will start with the letter 'E'.

I had a very good day as I won one of the raffle bags.  Kindly put together by the Sheffield Branch, I don't think they could have got another item in it.  It is now my challenge to produce a piece of work using as many of the items as possible.


This is a photograph of the bag I won with all the items that were in it.  Thank you very much Sheffield Branch.

May Meeting

Jackie has a friend, Heather Hasthorpe, who lives in Norfolk who she persuaded to visit her when we had a meeting day so she could give us a talk about her quilts and workshops.  It was lovely to see her quilts but also her embroideries, samples and postcards that she makes as well.  It is always interesting to hear what is going on in other areas of the country.

Our contribution to the Regional AGM challenge is coming along well and starting to take shape.

As a Branch we have decided not to do anything specific for National Stitch Day this year.  It is not a good time of year to do this in this part of the country and so many people have other commitments during the school holidays.  However, we did say that if anyone was stitching anywhere on that day then they would get someone to photograph them, especially if it was in an unusual place. 

Monday 28 April 2014

April Meeting

Today we had Isobel, one of our members speak to us about the Royal School of Needlework Certificate and Diploma.  Isobel has been doing this for a few years now and has produced some really lovely work for it.  She explained how she had travelled to Durham to classes with Tracy Franklin, going by train each time.  We also saw the original Robin that she stitched which graced the cover of the RSN christmas cards for two years.  Everyone enjoyed the talk and were very impressed with her dedication to the task of learning to stitch to perfection.

A reminder to everyone, our Rose Bowl competition this year is a 'Stitched Book Cover'.  It can be hand or machine stitched in any technique.  Hopefully it is a small enough project to encourage a large number of entries.
The Rose Bowl was donated by a past chairman as a prize for an annual competition and it has been going for some years now.  The number of entries varies, depending on the topic chosen.  In the past we had more entries for a technique than a subject, now it seems to be going the other way.  The topic is chosen by the committee.

Ann and Jackie have organised a beginners patchwork day on the 14th June at Wrelton, 10am to 4pm.  Price is £5 plus £3.50 if you want the prepared pack of fabrics.  If you are interested can you let Anita know and I will pass on it on to Ann to send you the requirements.

We have volunteered to provide the hostess services at the Regional AGM on the 11th October at Scarcroft Village Hall, Leeds.  We need about two car loads of helpers so if anyone would like to go, please let Anita know.

We have a Challenge to do from last years AGM which consists of a bag of assorted fabrics and threads and we have to make something up from that.  I won't announce here what we are making but we could do with a fairly large piece of plain cotton fabric if anyone has any to spare.  Any colour will do at the moment and we will choose the most appropriate from what members bring to the May meeting.

You still have time to make a piece of work for the Regional Day competition 'Waterways' or the Coates/Anchor prize 'Anchors Away'.  If you are not going to the actual meeting, we can arrange for someone to take your work for you.

Sunday 13 April 2014

Exhibition

Well, the weather did us proud, particularly on Friday, it was lovely and sunny and we had lots of visitors.  A special thank you to all the members from other branches of the Guild who came out specially to see us, it is lovely to have such support.

Another big thank you to all those members who helped over the two days and also to all the members who submitted such a wide range of lovely work for us to display.

Here are a few of the photographs I took.  Some I can't print because the light was reflecting off the glass in the pictures but here are the best.


This was our very successful bag tombola.  Every prize was a bag made by a member of the Branch.  It could be a tiny one with a sweetie in it or a large shopping bag but everyone who won was pleased with their prize.  No more bath salts that have been round every fundraiser in the district!






Down the centre of the room we had a display with a theme of 'A Summer Garden'



 
These six little pieces were all purchased from a speaker we had and are all the same design but they have turned out so different from each other.
 

 
Pieces worked with Kathleen Laurel Sage on her workshop




The daffodils were at their best this year and really put on a good show.


Wednesday 2 April 2014

March Meeting

I can't believe I haven't done a blog for February, I am sure I did it.  I will have to check my other blog, see if I have posted it there.

Unfortunately our speaker for March was unable to come due to unforseen circumstances, so we continued our Make and Take session into the afternoon.  We then did a short Show and Tell as we had lots of work on hand ready for the exhibition and we just selected pieces out of the bags and asked people to talk about them.

We had more new members today, that's ten this year.  It hasn't boosted our numbers a lot because we lost five at the end of last year but it is a step in the right direction.

Everyone enjoys the Make and Take sessions that Jackie and Ann organise, it really gets people together and talking. 

Everything is coming together for the exhibition, just got to hope that the weather will be kind to us.  The daffodils at Farndale will hopefully still be out that weekend.  Details of the exhibition are below.  Hope you can read it.



 
These are some of the Make and Take work that was done.  Some people were making sheep with wool and french knots, others were doing flowers over chiffons.
 






 

Saturday 1 February 2014

Photographs from the January Meeting

 
These are Jane's flowers being made into a wreath

 
Here we are doing suffolk puffs



The 'Fly Stitchers' as apposed to 'Tippers'
 
 
 
Some of the finished flowers from Jane's workshop

Thursday 30 January 2014

January Meeting

Another good attendance today with 5 visitors, all of whom are going to join next month.  One of our members had visited a local patchwork group and got a few people interested in coming to our meetings, so that is one way of recruiting new members.

We had a Member's day today, just in case the weather was bad.  Three members of the Branch, Christina, Jane and Anita each ran mini workshops on suffolk puffs, fly stitch and patchwork flowers.  Members were free to move around between each workshop or stay where they were which made for a very enjoyable day.  It was particularly good for the visitors because they got to meet lots of the members and everyone had a really good chat.  Of course I forgot my camera again so I am hoping Christina will be able to email some of her photographs and I can upload them if they come.  Thanks to Jackie and Ann for organising this, we all appreciated it.

Plans are moving ahead for the exhibition and we have also put some thought into what to do with the bag of pieces that we got at Regional AGM.  Some members have already signed up for the Regional Summer School and there are several people thinking about the Regional competition.  Altogether we are a very busy branch.

We also had a visit today from Pauline, our Regional chairman.  I think she enjoyed her day with us and took away a good impression of our Branch (and some of our ideas).