More stuff

Hello all.

Where has the year gone? How come it's July already? And apologies for not having posted for some time. I've been very busy so hope you'll like some of the photos I have to share.

So, I was very fortunate to attend a class with Jean Littlejohn with the Lutterworth Embroiders Guild.

Here is my work in progress:

  

  

 And here are the pieces at the end of the day

  And here is a piece I finished from my last class with Jean:

I had a fab time last weekend.  It was the village arts festival and I was asked by the Market Bosworth Quilters to demo FMQ on the Saturday. Well - sitting sewing, drinking tea (which was brought around by the lovely Andy) and talking - it was a no brainer.  I had a lovely time.

I also had a quilt on show.  A little blue Disappearing Nine Patch that I hand quilted. I do love hand quilting - but it's a little too warm at the moment to have a big quilt on your knee.

I also attended the West Midlands Embroiderers Guild Regional Day that the Leamington branch organised.  It was a great day. The location, North Leamington School was great - all one level, lots of parking and a great lecture theatre.  The talks were given by Professor Giorgio Riello of Warwick University, titled "Decorating Textiles" and Nicola Jarvis, talk titled 'all that glisters'. Please do look at their blog as it has some great photos.

I also attended a presentation by The History Wardrobe on 'Women and the Great War'. As ever they were amazing and I leant so many things about the war, womens role in the war and, of course, textiles.

So you can see - I have been rather busy.  But the days are less packed and hopefully I should get some of my own work done.

Are you all ready for the Festival of Quilts. Not long to go now!

Hardanger - the clue is in the title!

So yesterday I attended a class with Vicki Mansfield with the Leamington Embroiderers Guild.

She is an amazing embroiderer and had wowed us the previous evening with examples of her work. Now, I'm not great at formal stitching - I'm much more laissez faire in my approach, so I knew this was going to be a real challenge. And boy was it a challenge.

So this is what we were aiming for:

 And this is how it progressed throughout the day  

It was tough and I've never attended a class that was sooooo quiet!  All that concentration.  Although I did find it hard I was pleased to have tried something very different, which is the whole point of joining the guild.

Busy busy busy

 Hello all.

I hope this post finds you all well and hopefully dry.

I thought I'd start my post by sharing a photo with you that I took last Sunday of our local church, St Peters and the beautiful snowdrops. It really was a lovely day.

I've also had a great time with the Lutterworth Embroiderers Guild at a talk and then a workshop with Nicola Jarvis.  You may recollect I have attended a workshop with her previously.

You can see our group here, all working very diligently.  It was a very quiet class.

The photo below is what my piece should look like - after a lot more work.

I learnt and perfected some great stitches: long and short stitch, stem stitch, split stitch, laid work, trellis stitch, buttonhole, satin and Turkish Rug.  

Nicola was a great teacher - she spent the whole day demonstrating stitches and offering encouragement.

Nicola's talk was really interesting.  I had no idea that May Morris had written a book and it was still in print. 'Decorative Needlework'  was originally published in 1893.  

Nicola selected some great quotes from it.

Anyway I must get back to stitching as I think this one may take some time.

Classes

Hi all,

Hope you're well and enjoying this beautiful dry sunny day.

I've been to a couple a really good classes recently.

First was a class with Hilary Beattie at The Bramble Patch.  It isn't the type of class I would have normally picked, but I've seen her at a few events and knew I'd have a great time.  

So the class was painting stylised flowers.  And here are the results:

As you can see I've painted the flowers on both plain and lightly patterned fabric.  The aim is to combine this panel with other fabrics and painted elements.  I'll let you see how it progresses.

The next day I had a class with Ineke Berlyn with the Leamington Embroiderers Guild.  A great day.

So - in the Black Magic workshop I learnt how to use a discharge paste with Thermofax screens.This is activated by a steam iron.  Once this part is complete I used the same or similarly themed screens with metallic paints.  I think I may have overdone the first piece.

At the same time I tried the technique on calico.

This is half the piece before it has been machine embroidered.

And here is the second half of the piece with some machine embroidery work.  I'm going to add some hand stitching.

I'm pleased with how this is progressing.  It's been a great way to practice machine embroidery and see how using the different threads produce such different results. I think it might end up as a cushion.

I hope you're all well and I promise to show you how it progresses.

Work in progress

Hi all,

I hope you're well and dry.  Yet again it's rained hard for most of the day.

 We had a sewing day with Leamington Embroiderers Guild where the aim was that we all sewed name badges.  And this is my effort. It was interesting to see how we all came up with such different designs. And you can see some of the other designs on their blog.

And here is the current work in progress.  It's taken from the latest Quilting Arts magazine.  Although the magazine provides ideas and a pattern you can really make the houses your own.  This still has some more embellishment to go.  

Promise I'll show them to you when it's finished.

Take care all.

Autumn...

Well - autumn has finally arrived.

That means I need to make a quilt so I can snuggle under it in the evenings ,hand quilting it to keep me warm.

My Walk series has hit a creativity block, well I think most of my creativity has.  

Work really does get in the way. But I do have something new coming up that I'm sure will help to re-spark my creativity. 

I'll be sure to share this you all.

I did attend a really interesting talk at the Lutterworth Embroiderers Guild by 

Karen Parry from John James.  

One of the most interesting parts of her talk was explaining the different needles and their uses.

 We also had the opportunity to buy some of the needles she'd explained to us - remembering that we all need to change them more often.

It was very interesting and useful talk - so if you have the chance do attend.

Hope you've managed to attend a fireworks display. I went to the LOROS event at Mallory Park.  I must say it was one of the next displays I've seen in some time.

Take care and hope to see you soon.

Where do I start?

I've been up to so much, I don't know where to start.

So - first of all I'll start with the Open Studios at Bramble Patch with Edwina MacKinnon and Catherine Nicholls.  I didn't time my arrival too well as a coach party had just arrived.  But I bided my time and waited so I could have a chat with them both.  So here's a photo of a more relaxed open studio.

And just an aside about The Bramble Patch - they now have a weekly newsletter, so just subscribe on their website.

And then I went onto The Splendour of Stitch at Wycliffe Memorial Methodist Church in Lutterworth. This is an annual exhibition by the Lutterworth Embroiderer's Guild and it's a great opportunity to see all the members work. They also had lovely tea and cake on offer.  here are some photos from here too:

 These are from our Carol Naylor class.

These are our aprons from our class with Jamie Maldon from Colouricious. A great way to display them 

I love these elephants and will be asking for a workshop to make one - they are so cute.

And these are some of the pieces made at our Janet Bolton class.

And then yesterday I had a very exciting day with some friends - at the Battle of Bosworth re-enactment.  It was great.  Here are a couple of the banners, beautifully made.

Here is the Battle of Nations.  

They were fab - no holds barred, full on fighting.

  And then there was the re-enactment.  It was very well done and a great spectacle. 

If you do get the opportunity to go - please do.  

There was so much to see we didn't fit it all in.

Anyway - hope you're still making the most of the fine weather.

Best wishes.

Hello - Embroiderers Guild and Festival of Quilts

Hello all.

I hope you're enjoying the changeable weather we're having.  It seems to go from bright sunshine to a torrential downpour in seconds.  Well, it does give us something to talk about.

I was visiting the Handmade Boutique in the Western Arcade in Birmingham and was chatting to Tiger Lilly, we were chatting about the Embroiderers Guild. It reminded me of the preconceptions people have about the Guild - that you have to be an amazing embroiderer and if you aren't you can't join.  I really can't emphasize enough that all you need is an interest in textiles and or sewing.  You can literally just come along to the talks and not go to any workshops. 

It's worth researching the branches websites to see what they do, when they meet etc to see if it fits in for you.  And you can always test any group by popping along as a visitor.  Don't worry about going on your own, many groups now have a buddy system, so the way the groups work can be explained.  But the most important thing is to enjoy yourself.  Look on the Embroiderers Guild website and see where your local group meet.

And now - it's that time of year again, actually it's a bit earlier than normal. 

It's FESTIVAL OF QUILTS.  

And having pre-ordered I've already got my show catalogue.

I'm going for a couple of days and I have a few talks booked, I'm hoping to meet friends,  have a chat and see what they have bought.

Take care all and I'll be back soon with photos of my purchases.

Warwickshire Open Studios and Lynda Monk

Yes. It's that time of year again. Warwickshire Open Studios

If you're able to visit any of the artists please do, I'm sure you'll have as great a time as I did today.

My first visit was to Sew Arty. A great shop, with lots of classes and lots of things to buy too. I managed to limit myself to 4 reels of thread.

And then off to see Jo Roberts.

I know when I go to visit I will see something 'mappy and lifey', but I'm never sure quite how she'll bring the elements together.

This project was Jo's record of 70 days.  It's really interesting and funny. 

The next photo is her current project with David Southwell.  Do look at her blog to see how each of them interpret a word. Another beautiful project.

Jo was very welcoming and made a great cup of tea in a beautiful china cup and saucer.

I then popped over to Charkha Yarns.

And here are my purchases - rather restrained I thought.

 I should also let you all know I attended a talk by Lynda Monk last week at the Lutterworth Embroiderers Guild. 

She produces some amazing work - and I could hardly keep up with her description of techniques.  Here are a few photos.