March Meeting

The work has begun on our Multi-coloured Swop-shop embroideries

Janet's in charge ... can you tell?

 Glad to see everyone is working hard in my absence

 

 

 

Lillian and Sylvia contemplating...looking very serious...

 

I spy lovely 3D felted bowls

 Hand embroidery for the Multi-colour Swop-shop work

 Stunning use of herringbone

 

Just lovely to see the adaptation of the fabrics for this project in hand embroidery

 

Here is a good example of the 'compulsory fabric' in use. This was provided by Ice and can be appliqued large or small, once or twice or as many times as is suitable for the design. The cut out work allows threads or fabrics to be woven through it

 It is so strange to see my block printed fabric being worked by someone- else...I love it!!

 So much to see - texture, tone and pattern everywhere

 Another use of the 'Ice' fabric

 ...and another

I have no doubt that this project is going to be totally unique and by far the best thing we have done as Connect in Threads. Keep up the good work ladies.

I will add my own work below soon to show you I did my piece on holiday.

 

 



February ''Multicolour Swop Shop''

Today we began our new venture in preparation for our exhibition later this year with Wolverhampton branch of the Embroiderers' Guild

The lucky dip process of choosing our background fabric began...

...'''such fun...!!''

 Our mission is to have a piece of fabric donated from one of our fellow members, and hand embroider it with variations of just one stitch. Ice donated this amazing fabric which we also have to incorporate into the piece. It can be cut up and appliqued, painted, printed over, woven with running/chain stitch or stitched into, but it must be apparent in the final piece

So we set off by printing onto our fabrics after a wonderful demonstration by Dina who whet our appetites - we couldn't wait to tuck in

Lillian printed her fabrics ... amongst other things! Look at the hand!

An example of a printing work base, with lots of hand made blocks

Elaine's beautiful colour scheme

Margaret has begun to compile her A5 piece for the exhibition using the compulsory 'Ice' fabric which has been divided into sections. Looking great already at this early stage Margaret

Margaret's second piece of fabric which had been donated by Dina. Everyone loved this fabric which Dina had printed over a shop printed fabric - such wonderful textures and patterns in such rich colours

Heather's printed fabric of the chickens - ready for her running stitch

...and here comes the running stitch

Margaret experiments on the gelli plate

Examples of stencil prints made on the gelli plate

Positive and negative prints from the same stencil

 Jude's positive and negative prints of a Paisley stencil, with some overprinting

More prints from Jude - stencil printing on the gelli plate over Janet Connock's block prints

Sylvia has used her 3 donated fabrics and the 'Ice' pieces with great effect. Can't wait to see the embellishment Sylvia

 

 Dinah working on one of her pieces and is thinking of a three dimensional effect

Janet is working on one of her three pieces - you can see all three here

During the afternoon the printing enthusiasm continued...

 ...but other project work continued or began too

Some of us wanted to continue with our Indian motif project

Pat has taken a section of an Indian motif and enlarged it. Colour has been sampled and now the next stage will be to experiment with layering different size motifs, or weaving strips of the design together. We shall have to wait and see

 Jude's sketch book on the left - also working on an Indian motif. The fabric on the right is a development from the sketches and has been printed using an eraser for the block and then hand embroidery is being worked.

Clare has used her papers printed in December with Colouricious to make a set of Valentine cards

Clare's indigo and paper embroidery- there is a lovely face on the paper house

This cushion square shows lovely texture and stitch variation - Ice is 'pretty in pink.'

Pat is working on a large panel begun at Amanda Clayton's workshop - all white and off-white - very delicate.

What a productive creative day. Well done ladies and thank you for your wonderful efforts and valued company. Good luck with your Multi Colour Swap fabric which you will bring with you again to the March meeting.

Happy New Year

Today we were brimming with ideas - it must be the New Year! The ideas came and everyone left today, I believe, with enthusiasm and a new gusto - yes Lillian too!!

We kicked off with members sharing their work completed since our December meeting.

Margaret's daughter had an idea of producing a book from a family trip through Welshpool to Newquay; so here is Margaret showing us the end product.

 
The back of the book is the entire map of their journey.





 

Detail of a page - all machine embroidery...

...and another page. Beautiful Margaret!

Thanks to the Christmas season, we had remembered our wax candles for Heather. Here is a picture of Heather making her new candles to raise funds for her group to sell at craft fairs for their Duke of Edinburgh expeditions.



 Denise is enjoying her City and Guilds course and wanted our opinions regarding her ammonite embroidery.

The technique is water soluble fabric

Ice is also on the same course at Westhope Craft College. This piece on silk has been hand stitched and each circle is outlined with water soluble crayon giving a lovely soft edge.

 

This piece is inspired by the tiles at Wightwick Manor 

Jude's hand made printed book begun with Colouricious.

A gift for Mother's Day, the photographs are photocopies, painted with acrylic wax and then hand stitched onto the block printed pages.

 In December Jude managed to complete the bunting for her grandson, depicting Thomas the tank engine in Christmas attire. In January the bunting became reversible with Callum and the number 4 ready for his birthday in March. The number is removable and will hopefully be replaced each year.

 

 

Last month we were treated to Ruth's first hand experiences of Jaipur. Today we had the second chapter from Alma who shared her stories of the wonderful people and experiences she had on the same trip

 Fantastic wood blocks - you can also see the journal on the right which she has put together of her memories

 More blocks...

 ...samples of papers...

 ...and this amazing 'quilt' which was just laying on the floor in the store. Front...

...and the back. This truly is the mark of recycling!

 

This lovely case was made by Sue for Janet. Rich in texture and colour.

 

Lavender angel is work in progress by Sylvia

 Continuing with our design project ''India'', is Dina's book of ideas. She had the lovely idea of attaching her little starting point (in black and white) to the top of the inside cover. So it can be seen and never lost, from any working page of the book.

 Dina has lots of design developments and is exploring the many possibilities.

Here are a couple of examples of the hand made books begun with Jamie from Colouricious. This is Pat's family book.

 This is Joy's - edged with her Indian braid - a gift today from Alma for everyone

 The plan is to possibly use this book for Indian design work

We have today decided upon our new project for our next exhibition at the Red Cone Museum, in conjunction with the Embroiderers' Guild. More detailed information regarding this will follow soon. If you missed this meeting today...watch this space! We are very excited about our new venture - ''Multi-coloured swap shop sampler.'' 

Please see Programme for more details**