Happy Christmas

 What an odd year we have all experienced. All I can say is that it will get better!!! I wish you all a Happy Christmas and hope that we can all meet up again early next year.

Our virtual Xmas party went really well on Tuesday, thank you Brenda. We followed your instructions, dressed festively and had a glass and mince pie to hand. Glennys lead a demo for us to make a small greetings card whilst stitching in a mindful way. Quite odd but there were moments of silence as we concentrated but Julie made reference to the feeling of sharing our stitching as we worked together. Brenda had prepared a Christmas themed quiz which was won by Pauline. Fancy not knowing that Pierre Troudeau was born on 25 th Dec!!!!

Barbara was not present to receive our congratulations for winning the Mollys Cup this year. Her piece was No5. Brenda phoned her the next day and then I had a chat on the phone.

So wishing you all a safe and happy Christmas, heres to a much better New year. KEEP STITCHING

The last competition piece

 

No 6

Pleases study all six pieces and let Sheelagh know which is your favourite .

Two more competition pieces

No 4

No 5

 

A third competition piece

 We now have three entries for Mollys Cup.What has happened. They should have been ready for the Sept AGM. I believe the title was collage and couching. You have a few days to submit and then to vote. THIS IS ONE REASON WE ARE A GUILD AND NOT JUST A SEWING CLUB!!!!

THE FIRST TWO COMPETITION ENTRIES

 

Number 1

Number 2

MOLLYS CUP

 

 

Molly's Cup

You may be wondering what is happening about this year's competition, “Collage and Couching” ? We have decided to do it virtually by sending a photo by Whatsapp or email to Julie (I.T.) and she will then collate them post them onto our Facebook page and for those who don't do Fb it will also be on the Bolton blog : begstitchers.blogspot.com

They will have numbers not names so that voting will be fair. You will have one vote to decide your favourite piece. Please have your photos with Julie by Friday 13th November in order to be entered.

Voting should then take place. You can then register your vote by emailing Sheelagh who is not entering the competition and will be impartial. Please have your votes with Sheelagh , by Wednesday December 11th.

The result will be announced at our Zoom December meeting on 15th December where Carole who was last year's winner will do a virtual presentation!

 

Bolton Branch EG

 Minutes of Branch Zoom meeting of Tuesday 20th October 

Apologies : Glennys Astley, Liz Almond

Present : Brenda Brown, Julie Charnley, Carole Hawthorne, Sheelagh Madden, Karen Vaughan, Linda Thornton, Janet Mitchell, Clare Jady, Pauline Bowling, Lesley King, Val Coleshaw, Ann Willacy, Ann Heather, Marion Jazmik, Julie Harper

Brenda explained that we were not having a formal AGM under the present circumstances.

It was found regrettable that although we did have a rich and varied programme arranged for last year that we are unable to deliver it completely.  However Carole is arranging for some of our speakers the first being Jessica Aldred to do zoom meetings for us in January fingers crossed! Brenda thanked the committee for their hard work and perseverance during a difficult year.

We also missed our usual summer meal at Ridgmount House this year therefore we didn’t have the EGM consequently the committee remains the same. However Ann Willacy who joined Bolton last year has expressed a wish to join us and therefore welcome her to our  committee.

Unfortunately we also missed out on the opportunity of having a craft stall at the Triangle Church craft fair as that too had to be cancelled. In the past we have succeeded in raising a decent amount for our funds as well as having lots of fun planning, making and being there on the day!

Brenda thanked Julie Charnley (IT rep) for organizing the zoom meeting courtesy of her Zoom license. I have however received an email from Terry Murphy recently to say that they are considering acquiring a licence which branches would be able to access.

 Molly's Cup

 You may be wondering what is happening about this year's competition, “Collage and Couching” ?  We have decided to do it virtually by sending a photo by Whatsapp or email to Julie (I.T.)  and she will then collate them post them onto our facebook page and for those who don't do Fb it will also be on the Bolton blog : begstitchers.blogspot.com 

They will have numbers not names so that voting will be fair. You will have one vote to decide your favourite piece.  Please have your photos with Julie by Friday 13^th November  in order to be entered. 

Voting should then take place. You can then register your vote by emailing Sheelagh who is not entering the competition and will be impartial. Please have your votes with Sheelagh , by Wednesday December 11^th. 

The result will be announced at our Zoom December meeting on 15^th December where  Carole who was last year's winner will do a virtual presentation!

 Drop in daytime meetings

 The subject of having informal meetings in between our normal branch meetings was discussed. It was decided that we should try it starting on Tuesday 3^rd November at 2pm.  

There will be no agenda, no pressure to do anything apart from turn up and have a chat just drop out when you want to. Just an informal Zoom get together where you can ask advice on a project, where people can share ideas or information or just be sociable. Its what you want it to be. Julie will set us up again and you will receive the codes needed to log on , on the day. Hope you'll give it a go!

Activity

Following this part of the meeting Val was invited to show us a little activity which we were given instructions in how to prepare for it. Val had done this activity recently on a course and we thought we'd try it. It was essentially designing within a grid with a simple template to create a design which as she said created curves by using straight lines. Of course I got it wrong and started doing curvy lines!!  She then showed us how she had translated her patterns into stitch and I was impressed by a stitch she had used called Bokharra couching.

I would think this method of designing would be very useful to create a pattern for a quilt, but I am sure there will be many more possibilities.

Following the activity we all had a good natter and Marion told us a bit about how her new book is getting ready for publishing next year. Something to look forward to !

Don't forget to claim your voucher which you got when you paid your fees to headquarters. 

There are various offers and it is still available . I've chosen a voucher for the new Thread IT magazine which will normally cost £25 a year but with the voucher you get a free year. So it's worth a try. 

 Do read your Contact Magazine there are opportunities to do various courses including a live embroidery course by Zara Day £30 for 6weeks, which I thought looked quite good.

Zoom Meetings

 November 17^th Meeting will now be mainly a show and tell and I am looking forward to seeing the books made by a few people who have done the online Anne Brooke course . The flower still life picture will be shown – hopefully stitched up- so don't miss it.

December 15^th Meeting will be a Christmas social with the presentation of Molly's Cup and an exciting activity, plus chance to catch up.

January 19th Meeting we will have Jessica Aldred as guest speaker hopefully presenting her talk “My Work and very special wedding dress”. 

(Carole is still working on the rest of the programme so please bear with us- we are all venturing into the unknown !).

As usual take care and looking forward to seeing you at our Pop Up meeting when you are  invited to drop in.

Brenda

 

  

 

 

 

 

Julie Charnley
julie.charnley@aol.com

September meeting

 Again it will come as no surprise that our AGM and meeting set for next Tuesday has been cancelled. The committee has been negociating with Horwich RC and were confident that we could meet safely. However as Bolton is in another lockdown and nationally we can only meet in groups of six, this was taken out of our hands.It would be lovely if we could meet in October , but who knows. Do keep in touch by logging in to our Facebook page. there is lots to see.

Dont forget that subs to HQ {£38.00] are requested by end of September. Do it on line if poss and then fill in the required form. At the bottom is an "incentive" freebie. 

The virus

It will come as no surprise that Merseyside branch has taken the sad decision to cancel the NWRDay. I saw this mentioned on the NWR Pages so have written to Vicky , current Chair at Merseyside to send my "sympathies" and support. We in Bolton must feel their sadness as its not long ago since we hosted a similar day. Vicky attended our meeting fairly recently, with members of her branch, The good news is that it is not actually cancelled, just postponed. The LACE centre will honour the booking and it will go ahead on 24 April 2021. There are implications for Glossop branch who offered to host 2021 but will hopefully be able to move to 2022. I am awaiting similar news from HQ regarding the National AGM. If you peruse the HQ site you will find the Minutes etc and a proposal to raise fees. This would have been voted for on the day so wonder if we might receive proxy votes? I have two European holidays that are very unlikely and I also think summer school might fold. Very worrying times for us all but we can keep in touch. Brenda has extended the Facebook connection so you are never "alone" The only positive is the time that we have gained to STITCH. get out all those UFOs and photograph the end results. Val

Lots of new information

I have struggled and found it impossible to publish the poster designed by Brenda but have copied the very informative e mail distributed by Julie


Dear all



I apologise for the length of this email, however we have lots of exiting events over the next few months and want everyone to have all this information.



MARCH MEETING 17th March 2020



Our March meeting will be held next week (Tuesday, 17th March), when we host speaker, Jessica Aldred (My Work and a Very Famous Wedding Dress).



Please note: If you have taken a piece of Brenda's collaborative flower picture and not yet returned, can you please bring to the meeting (finished or unfinished) as Brenda would now like to assemble this work. 



BEG EXHIBITION APRIL  2020



Please see poster attached



As was announced at our last meeting, we have at long last (and after much searching!) a venue for our Exhibition,  which is Horwich Heritage Centre, next door to the Resource Centre where we have our meetings.

The exhibition will run from Saturday 4th - Wednesday 8th April 2020 (except Sunday).

Unfortunately this doesn't give us as much time as we would like to gather items from our members and there is only one meeting before the event, which is 17th March (next week). 

Therefore, we request that any items you would like to be part of the exhibition be brought to this meeting, clearly labelled with your name and in a carrier bag. Please bring only items from the past 3 or 4 years and not anything which was in the pearl anniversary exhibition.

There will be screens for hanging items but we'll also have some tables for smaller free standing  pieces or framed items on the cardboard stands, so it will be possible to show a variety of things.

Some suggestions from Brenda, of work we would like to collect at our next meeting (17th March) for the exhibition.

• Birds
• Nikki Parmenter workshop creatures
• Stitched paper collage (Marian Jazmik workshop).
• Wire collages ( Liz Cooksey)
• Landscapes ( Emily Norman)
• Silk paper lampshades
• Any Individual projects
• Competition entries
• Anything that has been produced since the Pearl anniversary.

Hoping we get a good response - we would like to include at least one piece from everybody!



SATURDAY WORKSHOPS



MARCH SATURDAY WORKSHOP RACHAEL SINGLETON "UP ON THE HILL, DOWN BY THE SEA  

The list for the March workshop on Saturday, 21st March, 2020  at Bank Top, will be available, at the meeting. Cost is £30. Please bring any money owing for this workshop to the next meeting on 17th March. 

There are a few places still available for this workshop, so if you wish to attend please bring £30 to the above meeting and add your name to the list.



Please see attached requirement list 



We will be making tea light/vase covers (depending how fast you work will determine which) but could simply be 3D pieces of stitched art (see below).  





Advance notice forJanet Browne Workshop  23rd May 2020:



 Janet Browne Workshop

 23rd May 2020

 at Bank Top

 9.30am - 4pm

 Cost £35

The list for this workshop will be available at the next meeting on 17th March. Full payment preferable, although a £10 deposit acceptable, the balance to be paid by 19th May (last meeting before the event).

Please see Janet's website www.janetbrownetextiles.com   for examples of her work, although bear in mind her work tends to be quite large and we will be making smaller simpler pieces. 

Please see attachment showing designs from her previous workshops. 



Requirements  to follow, although you will need a sewing machine capable of free machine embroidery. 



I will send the March 2020 newsletter prior to the meeting.





Kind regards

Julie

Feb Meeting

Apologies again for this delay. After the meeting I dashed home to complete my packing and was then off to Cyprus at 5.00am. However the meeting was well worthwhile. Sue Sercombe and her husband came over from the Wirral  on quite a miserable night, to talk to us. Sue brought along a vast aray of pieces of work and many of them were passed around for closer inspection. She shared her love of embroidery and textiles but admitted that she had not concentrated on one technique, rather trying all that was on offer.,This is something to which I concur. Some of her pieces were clothing and members modelled them with grace. No one attempted to wear the wedding dress that Sue made for her daughter but we heard stories about its construction and reconstruction and then why and how it was washed!!! Sue spoke without notes and we were quite disappointed when Brenda had to draw thw time to her attention. I believe we could have been there all night.

Embroiderers’ Guild – Bolton Branch      February 2020

This Saturday, 22 February is our next Saturday Stitchday.  A chance to work on your current projects or try something new with support and encouragement from other members.  Carole will lead a demo on papermaking so please bring an apron and plastic table covering.

  On 21 March we welcome Rachel Singleton (who came to our October meeting) for an exciting   workshop.  See the poster or Julie’s email for photos of her work and what we could be making. The cost of this workshop is £30.  £10 deposit when booking and full payment by 17^th March.

  All Saturday events take place at Bank Top Chapel, Ashworth Lane, Bolton.

   Competitions

The national Members’ Challenge for 2019/20 is “My Favourite Things” – people, places, mementos, etc.  Details on the Guild website, you will need to log in. 

This year’s regional day is in Liverpool on 25 April and the Rosebowl competition theme is “All you need is Love”.  Tickets are £30 including lunch, please see Sheelagh if you wish to attend.  See the poster for details of speakers, traders, etc.  Competition entry forms are available. If anyone thinks they are now entitled to a 25 year badge, please see Brenda or Sheelagh.                                                

 Unfortunately, the National AGM is on the same date, in Birmingham.

Exhibitions

Manchester HOME gallery: Work from the first Greater Manchester open arts exhibition including some pieces by Marion.  Until 29^th March.

Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool. ‘An English Lady’s Wardrobe’ 70 outfits and accessories showing changing fashions from Edwardian times to WW11. 23 Nov – 1March.

Whitworth Gallery, Manchester. ‘Tapestries’ – an exhibition of textiles from the Whitworth’s collection of tapestries including historical and contemporary examples. Until 1 March.

Preston EG are having an open day on 4^th April including a talk by Valerie Wartelle.  See poster.

The Palm House at Sefton Park, Liverpool is hosting an exhibition by the L/P based Contemporary Threads group, using the Palm house itself as their inspiration.    9-18 March, open 10-5pm.

If you have any items for the sales table, please give them to Karen.  Please don’t just leave items.

If you hear of any exhibitions or events that you think may be of interest to us, please tell Sheelagh.

Birthday Cards: Ann still needs of cards for members birthdays.  Please, if you have any handmade cards or you       can make some can you give them to her.

Our Bolton blog: begstitchers.blogspot.com  

We now have Facebook pages for Bolton and NW Region. Please ‘like us’ to help publicise the Guild and our    activities.

Guild web

Jacobs Join January

 I had been madly busy all week and out for lunch or dinner every day so that thought of another lunch out did not seem to attractive. However I try to attend as many of Bolton's events that I can so on Friday night I boiled a dozen eggs ready to prepare an egg mayo as my contribution to our lunch. Roadworks on Blackburn road made my ten minute journey into a half hour nightmare so all the tables were set up when I arrived. I also noticed the stitching that we began last year at this event. Very colourful.

Brenda and her team had done a great job. We had a relaxing coffee and then played a "controversial" game of true or false. In turn we read a card to the person next to us, choosing one of two accounts. The other person had to guess whether it was true or false. General knowledge[HA HA}and lots of guessing, Judith won the game.

We were all feeling hungry so arranged a wide range of contributions on the table. It was an excellent feast and we still had to go home with goodie bags.
 Another coffee and then Brenda introduced our afternoon stitching. She had made kits for about 30 persons, felt circles or lozenges that we needed to cover in stitches. They would then be threaded onto cord to make a very colourful hanging. I manged one and a half during the afternoon and came home with another which I completed that night. I know that Pauline has also completed three so that's 1/2 dozen ready to assemble.

Brenda also showed us the bowl of flowers that we had all been stitching. She had roughly joined our pieces but must be quite annoyed that there are still gaps. Some members have taken a piece but yet to return it even though its been about a year. A personal plea from me to search , finish or own up if you have a square. Id love to see our finished piece as soon as possible.

There were only 10 of us at the lunch which is in itself a little disappointing but on the other hand it really was great fun. We were all chattering together throughout the event and able to speak to every person in turn, However I do implore you to put these dates into your diary and whenever possible support our Branch. As a former committee member I know how difficult it is to arrange all the events and variety of activities and know it is frustrating when they are under supported. Use it or lose it!!!!

January 2020

Happy New year to all my readers, even though it is rather late!!! We were entertained in Bolton by Suzy Huxley this week. I was really impressed with the work that she brought with her.Lots of animals captured with  machine embroidery that were extremely lifelike. She also had three sewing machines{that were quite ominous} as I am not comfortable with a sewing machine. Suzy brought along her daughter who acted as her technical support.Why I wondered, until later in the evening where Suzy set up a small camera close to her sewing machine which then projected her actions immediately onto the screen. Just like looking at You tube!!! Her talk was quite reassuring to a novice embroiderer. She was happy to make her own rules and also remind us that it takes practice, we cant lean a skill in minutes, hours of practice over and over again.

The photos above give a flavour of her work,followed by Suzy in action at the machine and how it projects onto the screen. Contact her at craftykids@btinternet.com

Barbara brought in two pieces of work, inspired my a Mindfulness talk late last year.

Embroiderers’ Guild – Bolton Branch      January 2020

Happy New Year, welcome to our first meeting of 2020 and we start with some good news. Last year Manchester HOME invited artists living in Greater Manchester to submit work for their first open entry art exhibition.  They received over 2000 entries and shortlisted 20 to win 1 of 5 Manchester Open Awards – and Marion is one of the artists shortlisted!   500 of the entries are included in an exhibition at HOME (near Manchester Oxford Rd station), open till the 29^th March.   Congratulations Marion!

  Events

 This Saturday, 25^th, we have our annual Jacobs’s Join. There is a list for each member attending to        note which food items they will bring for our buffet lunch.

 22 February is our next Saturday Stitchday.  A chance to work on your current projects or try something     new with support and encouragement from other members.

  On 21 March we welcome Rachel Singleton (who came to our October meeting) for an exciting   workshop.  See the poster or Julie’s email for photos of her work and what we could be making. The cost of this workshop is £30.  £10 deposit when booking and full payment by 17^th March.

  All three Saturday events take place at Bank Top Chapel, Ashworth Lane, Bolton.

   Competitions

The national Members’ Challenge for 2019/20 is “My Favourite Things” – people, places, mementos, etc.  Details on the Guild website, you will need to log in. 

Next year’s regional day is in Liverpool on 25 April and the Rosebowl competition theme is “All you need is Love”.  Tickets are £30 including lunch, please see Sheelagh if you wish to attend.  See the poster for details of speakers, traders, etc.

Exhibitions

Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool. ‘An English Lady’s Wardrobe’ 70 outfits and accessories showing changing fashions from Edwardian times to WW11. 23 Nov – 1March.

The Creative Crafts show is at Event City, near the Trafford Centre from 30 Jan-1 Feb.

Whitworth Gallery.  ‘Tapestries’ – an exhibition of textiles from the Whitworth’s collection of tapestries including historical and contemporary examples. Until 1 March.

If you have any items for the sales table, please give them to Karen or Julie.  Please don’t just leave items.

If you hear of any exhibitions or events that you think may be of interest to us, please tell Sheelagh.

Birthday Cards: Ann still needs of cards for members birthdays.  Please, if you have any handmade cards or you       can make some can you give them to her.

Our Bolton blog: begstitchers.blogspot.com  

We now have Facebook pages for Bolton and NW Region. Please ‘like us’ to help publicise the Guild and our    activities.

Guild website:  www.embroiderersguild.com