Summer is here

Our August meeting was a very enjoyable afternoon at Pat's home. The sun shone on us as we sat in the garden sharing anecdotes, memories, laughter and Pat's wonderful culinary skills.

Books were passed from hand to hand, brand new and inspiring - more temptation to purchase

Thank you Pat for today - we had a wonderful relaxing afternoon

Have a wonderful Summer everyone

July Meeting

July 12th
Our 'Theme of India' continued today and we bought together our varied and wonderful artefacts of India: textiles, books, wood blocks. Janet shared her beautiful little bags from Afghanistan where a lot of the techniques, including seisha, were apparent and 'Indian' in their style. Encrusted beads of plastic were a fascination. The little bags sparked a lot of interest.

 Pat and Pat with their heads in a book

One of the wonderful things about Connect in Threads, is the way in which everything is shared. Techniques, materials and ideas flow freely. Problems are shared and solved very often. ''Two heads (or more) are better than one.''

Margaret, Sylvia and Judith

Ruth has been on a second Kantha workshop and here is her role of work - so many patterns, techniques and colours. This will be a wonderful help when we have a Kantha workshop at the Embroiderers' Guild in August.

Close-up of the Kantha work

The other wonderful thing about Connect in Threads, is that you can work on your own project and interchange your project work at any time. Margaret's quilt is a real feast for the eyes and nears completion now.

Clare invested in two wonderful Indian hangings, at the recent Regional Day. How lucky we are to share in the beauty and talent of these pieces.

Clare will be taking inspiration from this hanging for her own project work.

Well done ladies on yet another successful meeting. Even the unscheduled fire drill did not distract us from a productive day. We are not meeting in August so have a lovely Summer and see you in September.

 My thanks to Lillian for the fresh strawberries from her wonderful garden, and to Pat for her usual, but no less wonderful culinary skills in cake making - all topped with cream! Thank you everyone :)

June 14th

Today the room was buzzing! We only just fitted into the room and the atmosphere was electric!
Welcome to our newest member Sylvia who worked on a piece of free hand embroidery.
So many projects continued today, that it is almost impossible to list them all, but thankfully that isn't really necessary. The purpose of the group is for like minded friends to support one another and to share in the triumphs of our work while offering solutions and ideas to difficulties in our work.
Our interest in Indian textiles continues and we are planning to work more on the theme in July and September by looking at Indian techniques in hand embroidery - to be announced on the 'calendar of meetings' page soon.
Alma is working on a lovely project for breast cancer patients - pretty, large heart cushions which fit snugly in the armpit to alleviate soreness after a mastectomy. Alma also shared a pattern for a wonderful scissor holder which is not only aesthetic in design but holds three pairs of scissors.
The hall today depicted a scene of activities ranging from hand embroidered purses, block printing, machine quilting, designing for hand made blocks, to couching for a competition piece for the Central West Embroiderers' Guild 'Regional Day' in a few days time.
Thank you ladies for a wonderful therapy day!

COLOURICIOUS

May 10th, 2012
Today we were privileged to welcome Jamie Malden from Colouricious

A year's wait was well worth it as we were in for such a treat. Jamie's love of textiles and block printing in particular, is contagious. Jamie designs her own range of wooden printing stamps which are carved in India

Janet Connock is seen printing decorative hands and feet, depicting the peacock at the centre. Look at the quality of the block

We were able to share dozens of examples of fine fabrics depicting hand and machine embroidery, bead work and embellishment in the shape of quilts, hangings, tissue boxes, table linen and handmade books, to name but a few. Here Judith and Pat are enjoying some of the many examples of work

Example of Angelina fibres that have been ironed onto the surface of a wooden block - fabulous effect

Jamie getting ready to begin the process of block printing - on an apron. This was to be our first project for the morning. Individual, unique, hand printed aprons with Indian motifs and everyone was startlingly different

Pat, Alma, Lillian, Margaret and Janet enjoying the process of block printing our aprons

Jamie had little time to sit as she is very ''hands on'', helping Pat Judith and Elaine

Janet and Margaret well on the way with the apron prints

Sue and Heather - a very interesting print on the diagonal proved to be stunning!

Elaine loving the process and making her serendipity cloth. This cloth soaked up all of our left over printing ink during the day - we cleaned our blocks on it and mopped our hands. The result would be a fabulous unique cloth for another project to be continued next month

Pat and Alma demonstrating how to apply fabric paint to the block with a sponge

Here we are in all our glory, photograph courtesy of Jamie

Apologies to Margaret B who had to leave early for the theatre and missed the photo shoot :(

Our work in the afternoon - more wonderful wood blocks to choose from. Jude's cheeky camels surrounded with luscious leaves. We are now on our second piece of work and using overprinting to great effect

Lovely thistle print and building up layers with the blocks

Beautiful layering of subtle colours

Heather is rightly very proud of her fabric - Photo courtesy of Jamie

Photo courtesy of Jamie

Lillian enjoying the process and fulfilling a dream for a piece of work that has been 30 years in the making :)

Margaret deep in thought with her beautiful over-printed cloth

Today has been a wonderful day to share with like minded creative people under the brilliant guidance of Jamie Malden. Thank you to everyone who attended and made it a special day to always remember. Our meeting next month will be to continue with our fabrics adding embellishment and stitch - so please return to see the results

http://www.colouricious.com