Ruddocks Reward Scheme

Ruddocks in Lincoln is doing away with discounts for Embroiderers Guild members in favour of a reward card. 4 points earned for each £1 spent on just about anything - art, stationary, games, maps, greetings cards - but not magazines, stamps, courses, confectionary. Each point is worth 1p against products at Ruddocks but you can't make part payment of points towards an item
Fill in a form and a card will be posted to you, 20 points are already on the card when you apply.
This all sounds good in theory but we were better off with immediate discount on purchases, but it's better than nothing.

Picture Frames

I used to buy the wood from the shop at the top of Rookery Lane opposite Brant Rd he even used to mitre it for me, I think the shop is still there.

Framing Materials

MaryB has asked if anyone knows where she can buy wood to make picture frames.

I googled 'picture mouldings' and came up with

http://www.mainlinemouldings.co.uk/
http://www.lionpic.co.uk/

Mitrecraft on Crofton drive - a possibility, but is wholesale

Can anyone help?

Luttrell Psalter Workshop 16th August

We'll be at Bailgate from 7pm on Thursday for another LP Workshop for those of you who would like to come along. There'll be more techniques for you to try and ideas for taking your designs forward.

Festival of Quilts

For those of you who haven't experienced this event - you really should! It's not just for quilters.
It's at the NEC near Birmingham (only 2 hours drive from Lincoln, and easy to find) and starts on Thursday this week (runs until Sunday).
There's over a 1000 quilts to see, many of them art quilts which wouldn't look out of place in an embroidery exhibition. The traders will be there too - many of whom you'll already know. But you won't find cross stitch or card-making stands.
More info from http://www.twistedthread.com/festivalofquilts/index.asp

Stitch Club - Woven Stitched Bags

The next Stitch Club is on Saturday 18th August with Christine Plummer.
We'll be making bags using strips of fabric woven into incorporate lace, ribbons which will be hand or machine stitched before making up into a bag.
If you haven't got your name down already or need a requirements list please get in touch with me or Heather

Garden Party

Well, the weather did hold out for us. Dee's garden is lovely and 20 of us had a fantastic afternoon chatting and stitching. (I didn't have my camera with me, so if anyone has photos please email to me and I will post them on the blog.)
Heather prepared a project for us to do. We were each given a letter and a piece of felt to stitch. The letters will be painted and assembled later to produce a banner for Lincoln Bailgate. Look out for it in a later blog.
The bring & buy raised lots of cash for the Luttrell Psalter project - we'll be having a sales table at branch meetings from now on.
Now we're looking for another garden for next year ..... any volunteers?

Garden Party on Sunday

The Bailgate Garden Party is at Dee's in Ingham this year - starts at 2pm. I do hope the weather holds up. It's been so nice this week after all the rain we've had. I am looking forward to a nice, relaxing afternoon.

Bring a chair and a sewing kit.

New shop in Ruskington

Glynis emailed me with the following ...

In the July 25 issue of thisisthebusiness, a colleague wrote about a new patchwork/sewing shop in Ruskington. It is run by Zambian-born Debby Scarff.

I haven't been to see her, but she has quilts on display and sells quilting and embroidery stuff, as well as batik goods direct from Bali.

Perhaps members would like to know of her existence. They can find her shop at 31 High Street, Ruskington....her telephone number is 01526 830210, in case anyone wants to check what she stocks.

Thanks for the info Glynis

Moonshadow Mist

I've been reading a lot about Moonshadow Mist and decided I must have some, if anyone else must have some the best price I could find was on qvcuk, if you havn't heard about them I think they are similar to walnut inks but some fantastic colours, really get some good effects with them.
Val

Sally Twinkles

I've been into Mansfield today 2/8 to Sally Twinkles and discovered that Miss Twinkle died in February. The shop has been under threat of closure but the staff now understand that a buyer has been found and all will remain the same. Which is a huge relief as reasonable fabric suppliers in this area are few and far between.
Heather

Discount suppliers

Mary's found some good offers for thread on www.sewdiscounted.co.uk.
They sell a wide range of threads, fabrics and accessories for hand embroidery, plus cross stitch kits. They have offers on Kreinik and Rainbow Gallery brands.

Another supplier with similar lines that I've used is www.willowfabrics.com

Hands that do stitches

Thanks to Mary P for this one

http://www.kreinik.com/articles/news.php?newsid=32

It's a self-massage technique for your hands, arms and neck. Mary's tried it and says it seems to help.

Our hands and arms are the most important tools we have, so we need to look after them.

Fibre & Stitch E-Zine

You may be interested to have a look at this

http://fibreandstitch.com/index.htm

It's a new on-line magazine that is being launched at the end of August. Will be covering mixed media techniques including paper, fabric and stitch.

There's some interesting free projects to get you started!

19th century patterns

Been browsing and came across this amazing resource

http://www.exceedinglycurious.com/ingalls/ingalls1/ingalls1.html

John Governale has scanned all 255 pages of an 1886 J. F. Ingalls catalog of embroidery stamping patterns and placed the scans in the public domain. You can download them for free. Worth a look. They're large images and there's no thumbnails, so they make take a while to download if you don't have broadband.

Those of you making bonnets may find something suitable for the brim.

Felt Bags - photos

Here are some photos from the workshop - can't believe how different they all are!

Well done everyone.