Embroiderer's Guild travelling collection at Grantham

The Embroiderer's Guild travelling collection will be on show Grantham Museum 15th October 2013 to 4th February 2014.
                                                                                        text from Mary Paulger

Christine Plummer with a practical evening where we made little books 26th July 2013

At our final meeting of the season on 26 July, Christine Plummer led a mini-workshop on book-making. She managed to give most of us individual tuition! Unfortunately there was a party in the main hall next door and the noise of that drowned out 'speaking to the group' as Chairman Jacqui discovered when she conducted the meeting! We barely heard her shout to introduce Christine Poole, EG Chairman, who had popped over from Yorkshire to chat with us informally. Some members even managed to make their books in spite of the din! There is a saying "Out-of-chaos-comes-beauty". Congratulations to everyone who persevered. Determination won out. It never ceases to amaze everyone how different the finished products turn out to be when everyone uses similar supplies to work with.

 text by Judy O'Neill

26th July: Friday Meeting - Mini Practical

On Friday 26th July we shall be holding our final meeting before the summer break and we are planning a practical evening:

Christine Plummer will be leading us in making books [kits can be provided at a cost of £5.00] please contact us if you require one.  Below are examples of what we hope to accomplish:

Additional Requirements List [for those who want a kit]

Ruler
Pencil
Scissors
Needles
Old kitchen knife
Corrugated Card
Bulldog clips if you have them [Christine will bring some with her]

Requirements List [for those who do NOT want a kit]

In addition to the list above, you will also need:

Vylene or decovil, approx 7" x 10"
Bondaweb the same size as above
Papers for cover [see photo below]
A4 pages [different textures, colours etc - see photos below]
Thread
Buttons

20th July Stitch club with Di McCatty Appliqué / Collage

Kumi Middleton talk on 28th June and workshop on 29th June 2013

On Friday evening, Kumi told us how she came to "upcycle" worn fabrics into stitched pictures and handbags, almost mosaic-like in their intricacy. Using linen, silk and cotton fabric scraps and kimono cast-offs she combines textures and limits her colour range. Flowers however, appear in her work as they appear in nature, often in brilliant colour! 

Kumi draws on her natural surroundings for inspiration, be it twig or bloom. And of course she likes to depict birds also. 

Her pictures and her bags evoke a calmness and a serenity. But Kumi possesses quite a humourous side and she kept us laughing all through Friday evening. Dressing herself in one of her kimonos, providing little anecdotes as she added layer after layer of clothing, we noticed her Doc Martens peeping out! So definitely: "The whole is greater than the sum of its parts!" It was a truly delightful evening.

                    

                                     

On Saturday Kumi led our workshop making Cylinder Bags. We used Kumi's starched fabric or our own. This was for the bag exterior and for our 'decoration'. We cut, stitched and constructed our bags. We all included flowers in our compositions! Here is one in the process of being created by Vanda. 

Then we used unstarched fabric for lining the bag and stitched the two together. Magic. And here are finished bags by Shirley R, Mary B and Lyn R.

words and photos by Judy O'Neill

Paper making with Janet Taylor, stitch club 15th June 2013

Janet's paper making was great fun. There were about 10 of us in the big hall with a table each. We had our pre-prepared paper pulp which we watered down in our plastic vats and scooped up with our deckle and mortars and drained a bit before laying it down on j-cloths and soaking up excess with sponges. The paper and j cloths were put to dry but none of us managed to dry our papers before going home so we each took soggy piles to dry at home. Hopefully some of us will bring paper to display at the next meeting.

Tutor Janet with deckle, mortar and a paper sheet in the making; plastic vat below.

Ann experimenting - 1. pieces caught between two layers and 2. pieces laid on top.

Suzie going one step beyond with paper art.

Lyn Rochester talked on Fine Cell 31st May 2013

At very short notice Lyn Rochester gave us an excellent talk about her teaching needlework to women at Morton Hall Prison. 

Her teaching was part of the Fine Cell Work project which "is a social enterprise that trains prisoners in paid, skilled, creative needlework to foster hope, discipline and self-esteem." The organisation was officially started in 1997 by Lady Anne Tree following decades of lobbying the Home Office to change the law so prison inmates could learn the skill of needlework and be paid for their work.

To illustrate her talk Lyn brought samples of completed work plus many photo notebooks of work which has been completed. She also brought correspondence she's received from women she taught. Her talk was an amazing insight into the good which can be achieved by assisting people to learn needlework skills. Lyn's work and that of others, including Carole Biggin, continued until Morton Hall closed in 2011 and the women chose another prison to finish their sentence. Now Lyn promotes the ongoing Fine Cell Work by giving talks to groups and this helps raise awareness.

Have a look at the website http://www.finecellwork.co.uk/