OPEN DAY 21 June 2010

Our first Open Day and what a day .... excellent weather, lots of visitors and an abundance of lovely work and books for everyone to see.  Tea, coffee and cakes were also available for visitors to enjoy


To enhance the embroidery exhibition Rev Nigel Sinclair put several beautiful stoles, alter cloths and a chausible inspired by Matisse on display in the church.  He also revealed further little gems of information about the church.

Our next meeting is on Monday, 19 July 10.00 am - 4.00 pm.  Details will be sent to all those who are interested in participating.  Unfortunately one of our tutors - Diane Freeman - will not be available that day but a full programme of tuition will be provided.

ITALIAN CORDED QUILTING

Vikki had completed a sample using Italian Corded Quilting and this photograph does not really do it justice.

SILK RODS AND PODS

This month saw everyone getting to grips with silk in its various forms - silk cocoons, silk carrier rods and silk tops.  The collection of bowls made from silk tops sat out in the sunshine drying in the churchyard looking like a collection of mushrooms or aliens.  The June session should see some of the bowls finished complete with embroidery and beading.

Above are examples of flowers made from cocoons and backgrounds using silk carrier rods, whilst below are flowers made from the silk carrier rods.  The flowers on the right have been stitched using Trapunto on a marbled silk background.

Marbling with Shaving Foam

A puzzle for you all.  Following the April meeting at Pannal someone in our group has been playing with shaving foam with her 10 year old grandson. She sent this photograph of the shaving foam - only hope the paper turned out as good. Wonder if any of you know who it is?

DATES FOR YOUR DIARY

Dates for the remainder of the year have now been booked so make a note in your diary.  They are listed under Forthcoming Dates on the left.

APRIL MEETING

The good weather brought out some more snowdrops  ...  despite the problems caused by the volcanic ash Diane managed to arrive back from holiday in time for this month's session at Pannal.

Everyone had such fun marbling with shaving foam.  The smell in the room was reminiscent of a men's locker room!!  Annie demonstrated how to make simple paper boxes or a more complicated fabric box and Diane introduced Trapunto, Italian Corded Quilting and Bargello to everyone.

Several pincushions based on knotwork garden designs were either completed or in the process of being completed from the previous sessions.

 .... one or two people had become a little more adventurous and had been experimenting with some of the techniques they have learned over the months.


Left is a piece created using Kunin Felt which has had Bondaweb painted with acrylic paint applied and it was then zapped from the back with a heat gun.  Couched threads and beads have also been applied.

Needlefelting was used to create the needlecase cover below.

Monday 17 April 2010

The first session for the Spring term focuses on making marbled paper and fabric which will then be used to create either a simple paper covered box, or a more complicated stitched fabric box.

Two Italian techniques will also be demonstrated:

- Bargello - a needlepoint design also known as Flame Stitch which can resemble a marbled effect

- Trapunto and Italian Corded Quilting - Trapunto is a quilted and stuffed technique which produces raised areas, stuffed from the back, adding interest to a design.  The latter is a corded technique where quilting wool is drawn through the stitched parallel lines of a design.  Both use two layers of fabric and a lustrous top fabric such as silk produces the best results.

A requirements list will be sent out very soon to all those who are interested.