March day school

On Saturday, Jackie Martin lead our day school. She had given out instructions prior to the day that required us to collect and then dye small pieces of lace. There was quite a lot of discussions as to the merits of coffee versus various brands of tea.

  As usual, Jackie had worked very hard before our meeting producing kits for us. We were therefore able to start straight away.

Above you can see how I started to place lace onto my fabric.We then used machines to attach the lace. Once this was done, we could start applying buttons and beads and lots of surface stitches.

We had a lovely lunch, made by Lesley, Ann and Barbara and Lesley spoiled us by bringing drinks to our work stations.

We all worked really hard and completed out Memory Heart and in fact I believe we all started a second one. As usual I wanted to get mine finished so spent a lovely afternoon in the garden adding buttons and beads to my second.Thank you Jackie, when are you coming to us again?

March meeting

“The story sew far”is not a typing error but the name of the talk given by Liliane Taylor on Tuesday. I had been lucky to meet Liliane at summer school last week so had an idea about her work.She loves to use antique pieces within her large montages.Each picture really does tell a story.

For instance the piece on the left was one of her earliest and tells of her mother,friend and self.

The one above was completed with the use of an embellisher. The night rushed by and it was 9.oo before she was able to begin to pack up and return home. We had all had a lovely experience an have gone home full of inspiration.

www.lilianetaylor.com

At the start of the meeting we were able to celebrate the hanging of our market piece, which looks really good in its new home.

Ann also asked for show and tell items. Eileen showed us her latest work, a sampler for a godson that was full of symbolism.

Brenda had recently bought a book about bags. This had really inspired her and she brought along half a dozen that she had just worked.

Apologies that I do not have a newsletter to attach but many of the messages were just reminders. Please encourage Ann to take photos at the next meeting as unfortunately I have to send my apologies.

Out and About

Barbara and I visited the Whitworth art gallery today, to see the Cotton Global Threads recommended by a friend. It was certainly worthwhile.

There was a wide range of exhibits from Egyptian fragments to colourful lengths of woven fabric, movie film and interactive games. Another bonus was an excellent lunch!!!  Open every day and this exhibition is available until 13th May.

Out and about, Padiham

Yesterday I attended the meeting at my other branch, Padiham.We had been asked to come along with Hardanger materials. Nan Clough then explained the technique and passed around some exquisite samples. “Five stitches over 4 threads make a Kloster block”

However there was a more pressing point and I offered to help Joan stitch our postcards together. My new camera battery was faulty so I must apologise for these photos. Our country was Kiribati and as you would imagine there were many tropical island views.