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.

June Meeting

A busy day at the Branch collecting and finishing off all the items for the exhibition next week.  Don't forget to come and see us at Snainton Village Hall, YO13 9BG, Saturday and Sunday 7th & 8th of July between 10am and 4pm.  There will be a super sales table, tombola and lots of cake as well as plenty of embroidery for you to look at.
Our speaker this month was Anne Menary who gave us an amusing talk about 'The Fabric of the Universe' and how she had got into the universe as a topic for embroidery.  Her sense of humour in her cards and pieces of work is really good and we all had at least a smile if not an outright laugh as some of her musings.  For more information and a look at her work, visit her website at anne@annemenary.com.
I took a few photos of Anne's work but the website offers much more.

Some of the work going on at the Branch on Saturday.

Christina working on her 'Mystery Stitchery@.

Kath was beading this necklace.

Janet has just started this colourful piece.

Not sure who's this piece of lovely work is.

These last two were from the workshop with Jan Dowson.