Happy new year everyone * January 2017

 A new year and decisions to be discussed and made for the year

 It had been decided by Jude  that today was a thinking day to plan and work on whatever we chose to do

 New work was shared

 Ideas were shared

 New books were read and shared

 Fabrics were distributed due to the new year clear out we promised ourselves

 Colour books were evident

... and a new elephant made an appearance from Margaret B.

 Close up showing beads and French knots on a printed background

 Ruth is soon to depart for India and had a pile of dyed fabrics, tacked ready to embroider on holiday

 Close up of Margaret B's colour book

 Margaret Biggs has begun to plan her black and white project. This sample has been worked on the embellisher

Margaret experimented today with open work fabrics and woolen fibres

 Margaret Biggs' box of possibilities for the black and white work

 Pat W is working on her Wightwick Manor piece. Romeo and machine embroidery which will become a 3d bowl

 Denise is Road testing a design by Alison Parkes. Hand embroidery

 Elise also worked on hand embroidery

 Another piece for Wightwick Manor - cut work

 Cheryl and Kay were hand embroidering birds for the Wightwick Manor project

 Janet L makes stunning quilts and this lovely piece is a label for her latest quilt



 Lillian made 3d Christmas baubles as part of a commission, using fabrics supplied by the client

We devoted a lot of important time to planning a great deal of 2017. I am excited about the ideas we have and I will be 

emailing you with our suggestions for your input.

My thanks to Margaret Boswell, Roberta, Elise and Annie for offering their support to deliver our programme of events.

Such fun!!

Jude 

November - Chalk Pastels & Needlefelting

Colour Book work today was based on cutting out stencils and using chalk pastels or charcoal to off-set tone. The pastels were applied to the edge of the stencil and then gently rubbed outwards. Positive and negative shapes can be repeated with ease to create designs

The effects were terrific

Close-up

Clare's Cubist Pears

Needlefelting was on the menu for a few of us today. Applying threads, chiffon and felt to a woollen/felt background by barbed needles. The needles can be held by hand or by the use of an electric Embellisher which is much quicker as you can have up to 5 needles

 Other work took place as it is very near to Christmas

There were also a few elephants turning up to join our ever growing herd

Wonderful work Heather

The importance of sharing and advising one another is never far away

 

 Hand Embroidery is always prevalent and practised

 

Designs and Suffolk puffs in preparation for our Black, White and one other colour project

Stencil cutting on a Sizzix machine

Roberta has become a member of this

and has kindly let me photograph it to share it with you all. It has lots of benefits - see Roberta or check out the website artfund.org

December will soon be upon us and it will be party time - working on whatever you want to and enjoying a plate of party food and drinks with one another. Such fun!

Jude