November Meeting

Today was a Member's Day and we were set a challenge by the Chair to do some stitching using only one stitch.  We could choose our own or pull one out of a hat, which I think most of us did.  There were fabrics and threads available if we needed them and we could either work to a 7inch square or something of our own choice.  I pulled Sorbello stitch out of the hat which was something I have not done before.  We also got under way with our travelling books.  The books were distributed and we now have to cover them, make a bag for them to travel in and put our first pages in our own book.  All to be done by the February meeting.  We have set a topic of 'Circles' for our first pieces of work so I combined that with the Sorbello stitch to start the cover for my book.

I knew I would forget the names of the stitches that everyone was doing so I am not going to label these in case I am wrong.

I think everyone enjoyed today and quite a few found themselves trying stitches they had never used before.

October Meeting

Sorry I am a bit late doing this blog but I have been away for a few days over half term and have just caught up with myself.
We had another enjoyable meeting and have now got most members signed up to doing a 'Travelling Journal' so the sketchbooks are on order and we will be able to get started next month.
Eileen has just been on a workshop with Alicia Merrett at the Royal Hotel in Bridlington and this wonderful quilted cityscape was the result.

Even her practice piece was amazing

We had borrowed two of the guilds Folio's for October's and November's meetings and I have to say, they are so much better than when we borrowed them about ten years ago.  Very well presented pieces and quite a lot in each one. Here are just a few of them.

Members were also busy with their work and here are some of the items they were working on.

September Meeting

About sixteen members joined up today and enjoyed a good chat after not seeing each other for some weeks.  We had a swift AGM and moved on to look at the Regional Chairman's Challenge that Christina has been putting together.

The challenge was to produce a piece of work of a given size that represented your branch.  Each section of these leaves has been worked by a member of Ryedale and represents the diverse work that members do, all of which joins together to make our Branch.

While Christina was finishing this off, Colleen had several people crocheting her little sheep.

Sue had brought her embellisher  and was producing lovely pieces that my phone camera does not do justice to.

Janet was working on this colourful canvas work.

The Chairman has set us a new challenge - Travelling books.  I know some Branches have been doing this for a while now but we hope to get started in the next couple of months - I'm looking forward to that.

July Meeting

Not as hot a day as we have been having lately, some welcome rain in the last couple of days.  The Chairman reported that the exhibition had gone really well, be covered all our cost and made a small profit and hopefully aquired 4 or 5 new members, which is what it is all about.
Today's speaker was Melita Butterell from the Durham Cathedral Broderers who showed us some of the work that the Broderers do.  If you have ever been to Durham Cathedral you will have seen some of the lovely pieces of work they have done some of which have been designed by Malcolm Lockhead.  They are displayed all around and there are guided tours available on certain days.  That together with the new space for the St. Cuthbert pieces makes a visit to Durham a worthwhile day out.
Below are some of the samples she brought with her for us to look at.

Melita was very knowledgeable about all the pieces and obviously very passionate about the work the Broderers do.

Meanwhile, some of the members were busy stitching in the morning and quite a bit of work got done. Here are some samples of it.

Exhibition

What a lovely weekend we had for our exhibition.  Wall to wall sunshine and cricket on the field - so very English.
We had a steady stream of visitors on Saturday despite the football (or maybe because of it), Sunday was quieter but still a good number.  There was lots of work for people to view, a very popular tombola where every winner received a hand made item, the Rose Bowl Challenge to judge and plenty of cake.
The Rose Bowl Challenge was an A5 book cover.  Each entry had a little bag and visitors were requested to put a coin in the bag of their favorite piece of work.  The winner was the bag with the most coins in (not the highest value) and all the proceeds went to St Martin's House Childrens Hospice.  There was a good amount of money in total in the bags and the winner was our chairman Angela, seen below with the rose bowl.

These were the other entries, a good number from a group of around 30 members.

These were items from the Jan Dowson workshop.

Then we had a workshop with Eileen making these lovely vases.

Here are some of our Mystery Stitchery pieces.  There are more but still in the making.  Every month we purchased a pattern sheet that had been designed by Loreen and we made it up in our own way then put the pieces together to make either a book or a box or whatever pleased you.  The money we made from the sale of the pattern sheets will go to HQ towards the upkeep of the collection.

We also had a display of some of the Christmas items we had at Nunnington Hall last December.

The next pieces were on the theme of Animals.

We also had a display of World Embroidery.

Last but not least, we had a good show of embroidery in general. 

This piece is from South America, it is at least a metre long and every bird is different.

 This last piece was given to the Branch by a lady from Snainton.  The story behind it is that all the ladies of the village of West Heslerton were given 1p worth of threads to make a patch for this quilt.  This was in the 1940's, if anyone out there knows anything more about this quilt we would love to hear from you.

There were lots more pieces of work on show but this is just a selection so that next time you will remember and come and see us.