Exhibition in Hemsley

I have just been to Helmsley to a very good exhibition by Caroline Dunn.  It is at the Arts Centre and is on until the 22nd December.  There are some lovely panels with mainly machine embroidery and applique.  Besides that, there are some lovely shops with unusual christmas gifts and plenty of cafes, so treat yourself to a day out.  If you go by car, head out towards Scarborough and turn off at St. Gregory's Minster.  It's a lovely little church with two Saxon tombstones with wonderful strapwork on the top.

November Meeting

Today we had a 'Member's Day', so no speaker but we were all finishing our postcards for the Guild.  Most people had got on quite well and some were just starting but we have now got quite a few ready for the finishing off and assembly.  We should have 14 altogether which isn't too bad.  After my workshop with Francis Pickering last month, several people were interested in how we coloured the paper for the books.  I have just started another book so I brought my paper along to paint and several members had an impromptue demonstration.

A presentation of a National Garden Centre gift voucher, was made to the outgoing chairman, Janet, who had served six years and done a sterling job keeping the branch going from strength to strength.

October Meeting

We have finally sorted out a new Chairman, which will be me, Anita Cassedy and the post of Treasurer will be taken on by Liz Clark and Isobel Goforth is the Secretary.  We have also had two new people volunteer for the committee so we are now up to strength.
 Plans are going ahead for an exhibition in the Spring at Farndale.  We hope to coinside with the flowering of the daffodils there and cash in on the extra visitors that this attracts.  As a central theme for the exhibition we hope to display a selection of members work on the subject 'Black and White'.  You can work in any medium and your piece can be all black, all white or black and white, we don't mind.
The Rosebowl competition for next year will be a Chatelaine.  This must comprise of at least three pieces and can be done in any medium.  Judging will be at the AGM as usual.
We had a fascinating demonstration of paper making by Niki Hanson of Pulpitations.  Making your own paper is much easier nowadays, no more soaking in buckets for weeks - you just put it in the liquidiser!
Don't forget to keep working at those postcards.  November is the month to bring them in and finish them.

Machine Embroidery Workshop

This was our fourth workshop with Eileen Gibson and yet again we had a great day.  There was much splashing of paint crumpling of tissue paper and crimping of metal.  After preparing our backgrounds we then attached metal shims with our sewing machines.  One or two of us were a bit nervous of this process but the courage to try was found and we all produced a number of interesting pieces.  I completed mine this week into a little book using a tecnique of colouring pages that I had just learnt at an Art Van Go workshop with Francis Pickering.  Below are some of the work that was produced.

September Meeting

Saturday was our AGM which went quite well although not as many members as usual attended.  We had a very interesting talk 'Thread Therapy and Frustration' by Jonathan MacPherson of Barnyarns.  He also brought lots of threads and accessories for us to spend out money on!

We had our 'Rose Bowl' competition entries on display for Jonathan to judge and below is a photograph of those entries. The subject this year was flowers.

The winner was Moira Wood with her beautiful picture of buddleia done with applique and embellishing and here is a picture of Moira with the 'Eva Heselton Rose Bowl' which she gets to keep for one year.

We have also had some entries completed for the Guild Olympic postcards.  Only three so far but we have earmarked the November meeting as a finishing off day so hopefully there will be a few more by then.

It's the Bag Lady again!

I was so pleased with my poppy bag that I made after Kathleen Laurel Sage visited us that I have made another one.  This is for my great niece who will be 4 this week.  I have reduced the size of the bag and only used the smaller flower shape and added a couple of butterflies.  I have fastened the flowers on with small buttons instead of beads as I thought they would hold on better. You can buy the plastic at Dunelm if anyone is interested in making their own bags.

AGM

Done't forget that Sepetember is our AGM.  We will be having our usual stitching session in the morning and the AGM will commence at 1.30.  We have a speaker for the afternoon from Barnyarns, so it should be an interesting day.  If you wish to bring anything up in 'Any Other Business' can you let Janet know before the meeting.