Seaside Stitchers

September Workshop on Darning Stitch

2011-09-28T09:32:00.001-07:00

At the beginning of September we had a workshop with Patricia Barrett on Darning Stitch. This was a very relaxing and enjoyable day. Pat was extremely generous with her time, her expertise and materials. So far I only have one photograph of a finished piece and that is mine so I won’t show it just yet.

I am starting with some of the lovely pieces that Pat has created and then show you some work in progress by the members who attended the workshop.

Pat’s work



Pat also gives a very good talk entitled ‘From Aden to Zanzibar’
I think that might give a clue as to where some of her inspiration comes from.

Members’ ‘Work in Progress’

August Exhibitions

2011-08-08T14:33:00.001-07:00

No meetings in August. First Branch Meeting in September is the Branch AGM

Two exhibitions during August for you to visit if you are in the Lytham St Annes Area.

The first one is Blackpool Art Society at the Gallery at Booths Supermarket. Members of Blackpool Branch of the Embroiderers’ Guild are also members of the Art Society and as such will be exhibiting some of their work too.

The second exhibition is a joint two and a half day exhibition at the Assembly Rooms. This is the first time that Blackpool and Lytham St Annes Branch of the Embroiderers’ Guild have joined together to exhibit their work. (Actually that is not strictly true we did put on a joint one day exhibition at the North West Regional Day in April but that was a members only day). This one is for the public.

July 2011

2011-08-03T14:48:00.001-07:00

Our first meeting in July was our annual Strawberry Fair. This year we invited Wyn Ingham as our guest. Wyn has been setting us some challenges this year and we thought it would be nice to meet her, for her to meet us and for her to see how we had got on with the challenges. Wyn is an absolute delight. If she lived any nearer we would have to ‘press gang’ her into becoming one of our members. She made some really lovely complimentary and constructive comments about our pieces and then set us our next challenge.

The first challenge was a ‘ring wrap’ ( for a ring box) in the style of Faberge or Cloisonné. These were fun and once we had set a deadline for them and presented them at one of our meetings so see how we were all progressing we then moved on to our second challenge of making a ‘book wrap/ cover’. This was to reflect the contents of the book. As the branch chairman I was delighted that we had such a nice selection and variation to show to Wyn when she came. My thanks also to Seonaid, our Programme Secretary, for organising the challenges with Wyn.

Some of the book covers are work in progress.

You have seen the ring wraps already but as they were out on show for Wyn and I had to photograph them again – you might as well have another look at them!

The Strawberry tea was a really successful evening. It was well attended and there was a lovely spread of edible goodies. My thanks to everyone involved in making the evening such a success and to all those who attended.

Our second meeting in July was with Norma Hopkins and Terri Jones. They are both members of Textile 21. Norma was the main speaker and Terri also made a contribution to the evening. They were able to describe several approaches to designing and showed some examples of their work using the digital projector and samples for us to look at afterwards.

You can read more about Norma and Terri at this link
http://www.textilearts.net/tutors/norma_terri/index.php

June 2011

2011-08-03T14:10:00.001-07:00

At the beginning of June we had a workshop with Linda Westerman on 3D images. Although the workshop was poorly attended it was a thoroughly enjoyable day. Linda has a lot of patience and is an inspiring teacher. We all did something quite different to each other as I sure these images will illustrate.

Our practical evening was insertion stitches. Seonaid had set up some cards ready and a sheet of instructions for us to work on this technique. We didn’t get going on them straight away as we had a lot to discuss re- forthcoming exhibitions (more of these in future posts).

Our speaker in June was Hilary Nagashi. She took us on a journey around Iran using a digital projector. She brought some lovely examples of embroidery to show us and really gave us a good insight into her life as a member of an Iranian family.

We thoroughly enjoyed Hilary’s talk and drooled over the amazing collection of embroidered items that she brought with her. Sadly I didn’t have my camera with me so I don’t have any photographs to show.

May 2011

2011-08-03T14:02:00.001-07:00

In May our speaker was Sue Lancaster. Sadly I missed the meeting as I was away on holiday in Scotland. I have it on good authority that evening went well and that Sue was very interesting. You can read more about Sue at this link.

http://www.stitchedupandfleeced.com/index.html

There was no second meeting in may as it was Bank Holiday.

April 2011 and Regional Day!

2011-08-02T14:02:00.001-07:00

The month started with a Saturday Open Day. Unfortunately with all the preparations for Regional Day we omitted to advertise this event so we had very few members attending. However that did not stop us from enjoying the day.

Marge brought an array of braiding materials and examples, small kits and instructions. We had the embellisher available for anyone to try out and also the latest acquisition to our branch equipment – the Ashford Knitters’ Loom.

Seonaid going great guns on the ‘Knitters’ Loom.

Marge’s Braiding equipment. She also had a lot of information with her in a box of files.

Experimenting with the Embellisher and some embellished samples.

A couple of drop spindles. The largest one is a Navajo Spindle.

REGIONAL DAY – APRIL 16th!!! Finally it arrived.
Actually in all kicked off on the Friday from about 4pm onwards as we entered the building and began setting things out in readiness for the BIG DAY!!

The day all went to plan and from the comments that we received afterwards and as members left at the end of the day a good time had been had by all. We were joint hosts of the event with Lytham St Annes Branch. The following images are of the pieces from the joint exhibition. I am not including the competition entries as there are too many people belonging to other branches around the regions whose permission I might need first in order to show their work.

The organising committee all went out for a well deserved meal that evening. It was so nice to be able to relax knowing that the day had been a success and it was all over!!!

March 2011

2011-08-02T13:21:00.001-07:00

The March practical evening was ‘Canvas Stitches’ . Seonaid had gone to a lot of trouble to paint small pieces of canvas and to bring threads and interesting embellishments to add to the pieces of work. She had also provided an instruction sheet on Norwich Stitch. Another successful evening with everyone ‘beavering’ away.

The first 3 months of this year also meant that we spent a fair bit of time in each of our meetings with reminders about the preparations for Regional Day – now only 1 month away!!!

The speaker in March was Barbara Howell talking about ‘Using Photos as a Design Source’. I missed the talk as I was on holiday in the Lake District but I believe it was an interesting evening.

You can find out more about Barbara using this link http://www.barbarahowell.co.uk/

February 2011

2011-08-02T10:18:00.001-07:00

Our workshop was on machine embroidered brooches led by yours truly!

Everyone worked really hard and produced some lovely brooches.

making the material.

working the edge

time to embellish

The end result – a successful workshop!!

The try it out session in March was on Tyvek and other heatable plastics. There were quite a examples brought in by members and a lot of interest in ‘having a go’ with a heat gun and using the iron.

It was also our hand-in evening for our 'ring box wraps'. This was the first of our challenges from Wyn Ingham.

It was great to see such a good response. The ring boxes had to be inspired either by Fabergé or Cloisonné.

At our second meeting we were visited by Becky Waite who talked to us about ‘Working in Blackpool and other Things’ She works in recycled plastic and brought some interesting pieces for us to handle and inspect closely and a PowerPoint presentation of her work. Sadly she had to leave early to catch a train back home so we didn’t really get chance to ask her too much about her work.

You can take a look at Becky’s work here. http://beckywaite.synthasite.com/

January 2011

2011-08-01T23:54:00.001-07:00

At our only meeting in January, Marge was our speaker. She talked to us about ‘making boxes’. Marge is an expert on this topic and wowed us with her great collection. We are trying to get her to publish a book about making boxes. We know that she has most of the content already created for a book. We just hope that we will be able to see all her hard work realised in print one day. Marge teaches box making at Alston Hall and she will be exhibiting her collection of amazing boxes at the Guild AGM in Southport in 2012.

Catch-up Time! November 2010– January 2011

2011-08-01T23:48:00.001-07:00

It is a long time since I put any updates on the blog due to RSI in my wrist and elbow. Let’s just say that I am pleased that I won’t be creating the North West Regional journal any more! (It is some else’s turn now).

So what have we been up to – well ……….

Both of our November meetings were devoted to creating our ‘Postcards of Blackpool’ that we plan to exhibit at Regional Day.
For the life if me I can’t find any images at the moment of the finished posts. As soon as I can track them down I will upload them!

At the beginning of December we should have had a workshop on ‘Darning’ with Patricia Barrett but she was unable to get out of East Lancashire, due to the appalling weather conditions. She has however agreed to teach the workshop at the beginning of September so we are really looking forward to it.

At our Christmas party our competition was based on a Christmas item no bigger that about 2” square. The winner was ……. (as soon as I can remember I will put the winners name in here!! Pictures too hopefully.

As you can see I have lost a few brain cells along the way!

One Step On

2011-01-20T07:05:00.001-08:00

I have just set up a new blog for the group of textile artists that I exhibit with, One Step On. You might like to take a look at it. I have only started it in the last few days so it only shows the work of 3 of the members so far. Keep looking, there will more over the next few days. Enjoy!

Inspirations from the Spirals at New Grange

2010-10-28T07:34:00.001-07:00

On Monday night we enjoyed a very interesting talk from Anne Rogers. Anne told us about how a line drawing, that looked like stitched spirals, on the front over of a book of notes about the poems of Seamus Heaney led her to develop a series of sketches on spirals. During a trip to Ireland she came across a book about Brú na Bóinne, the World heritage site, at New Grange, where the Megalithic Passage Tomb can be seen. This book had the same spirals on it as on the front of the book of notes on the poems.

Anne’s interest in seeing the real spirals took her on journey to the site where she was able to see them first hand, to draw them and photograph them. On her journey back from the trip she hardly lifted her head from her spiral drawings.

This inspiration led to a sketchbook packed with drawings, paintings and sampled methods of creating spirals. It also led to a huge body of work. Most of the work was sold at exhibition but we were lucky enough to be able to see the few remaining pieces. They are, I am sure you will agree, really lovely pieces of work.

Most of you will be familiar with Anne’s talks on the ‘Bags of of Shakespeare’s Heroines’ and ‘The Pilgrim Way’. I can definitely recommend this talk too, you won’t be disappointed. Anne uses imagery from the literature as her usual source of inspiration, as opposed to images in her surroundings. In this work she has combined both.

Branch –AGM- 2010

2010-10-23T14:54:00.001-07:00

At our Branch AGM on October 11th the subject of our Trudi Goodenough Competition was ‘Button Brooches’.

We have a really good selection on display.

The winning entry, chosen by the members, was this one by Marion Miller who deservedly won a voucher to spend at the ‘Victorian Arts and Crafts’ shop in Poulton-le-Fylde.

Well done to Marion and a big thank you from me to all contributed with their lovely brooches.

Branch Programme 2010 - 2011

2010-10-23T13:48:00.000-07:00

Oct 11th AGM & Trudie Goodenough Competition
Button Brooches

Oct 25th Talk ‘Inspirations from the Spirals at New Grange’
Anne Rogers

Nov 8th Postcards/Entries – Regional Day
Jointly with Lytham St Annes

Nov 29th Postcards/Entries – Regional Day
ditto above

Dec 4th Day School ‘Darning’
Patricia Barrett

Dec 13th Christmas Party

2011
Jan 10th Committee meeting

Jan 31st Talk ‘Boxes - how to make them’
Marge Quinn

Feb 5th Saturday Workshop - Machine embroidered brooches
Ann Christy

Feb 14th Bring you own work/ Tryout Session
Tyvek

Feb 28th Talk ‘Working in Blackpool & Other Things’
Becky Waite

Mar 14th Bring you own work/ Tryout Session
Canvas Stitches

Mar 28th Talk ‘Using Photos as a Design Source’
Barbara Howell

Apr 2nd National AGM Dundee

Apr 2nd Saturday Workshop / Open Day

Apr 11th Bring you own work/ Tryout Session
Fabric Paper

Apr 16th Regional Day -King Edward Queen Mary School
Blackpool and Lytham St Annes Branches

Apr 25th Easter Monday

May 9th Talk ‘Making it Big’
Sue Lancaster

May 30th May Bank Holiday

Jun 11th Saturday Workshop - 3D Images
Linda Westerman

Jun 13th Bring you own work/ Tryout Session
Insertion Stitches

Jun 27th Talk ‘Persian Delights’
Hilary Nagashi

Jul 11th Strawberry Tea – Show and Tell
‘Look what I have made’ Bring & Buy Sale

Jul 16th -19th Regional Summer School Alston Hall

Jul 25th Talk ‘Inspiration for Embroidery’
Norma Hopkins

August No Meetings

Sept 12th Branch AGM

Sept 26th Talk ‘It just needs something….. ‘
Bring that nearly finished UFO and find the perfect
something from Prospects.
Sylvia Davis

Monday Meeting – September 13th – Felt Flower Brooches

2010-09-09T13:35:00.001-07:00

We start back on Monday after the summer break. To be precise some of us started back by attending an excellent workshop with Golden Hinde, last Saturday.

Sarah and Sue were very generous with their expertise and were also very entertaining. Sadly I didn’t have my camera with me and I am awaiting some images of the workshop from Sarah. The workshop was very well attended.

On Monday evening we will be making felt flower brooches. I hope that as many members as possible will be able to attend. It will be nice to see everyone again.

This should give you a taste of what we will be doing on Monday. You just need your basic sewing kits, maybe some beads and if you want to use metallic threads to embellish your brooch then please do bring some. I will provide everything else. (There will be a small charge for the brooch pack, felt, brooch pin, a button, a picture of the brooches and a page of templates).

May Meeting Speaker – Elizabeth Couzins-Scott

2010-06-04T14:06:00.001-07:00

Elizabeth lives locally and is a member of the 62 Group. She told us how her work developed from her interest in the dark side of experimental fashion designs how and this allows her to interpret her ideas into articles of clothing and accessories using unusual materials. Her interpretation of a ‘must have item’ are made from steel wool, barbed wire, tacks or nails. They are both unsettling and amusing.

She very kindly let us handle and closely inspect the work that she had brought to show us. Currently Elizabeth is working at the Whitworth in Manchester and is also an Artist in Residence at the University of Central Lancashire.

She also brought along a lot of samples some of which are made purely from melted, painted and distressed plastics, mostly bin liners!

Elizabeth also has work on display in the V&A in London.

Patricia Bennett – Textiles from Around the World

2010-06-04T13:39:00.001-07:00

In April we had a really interesting and humorous talk from Patricia Bennett entitled’ Textiles from Around the World’ – from Aden to Zanzibar!

She has certainly visited a great many places and had lots to tell us about her experiences in the numerous places that she has lived and worked. She brought along a superb collection of items that were representative of the places she talked to us about and some of her own lovely pieces that she creates using the darning stitch technique. We are certainly hoping to be able to put her down for a workshop on our next programme and we can definitely recommend her as a speaker.

Pat’s own work – really lively, bright and colourful.

Chinese Thread Books

2010-04-08T14:36:00.001-07:00

We do have a meeting on Monday April 12th – it just managed to slip off the programme for 2010. Those of you who started your Chinese Thread Book with Marge at out last meeting will have a chance to work on it further – if you haven’t already finished it.

Anyone who missed the last meeting still has a chance to start one of these intriguing books with their secret compartments. Marge will have her samples and pieces of paper and I will bring another set of instructions for anyone who missed the start.

Here is mine so far ‘work in progress’. I created a design using some pencil crayons and then waxed over the paper with some acrylic wax. Some clear acrylic paint would work just as well. The crayons I used are Derwent Inktense – they are water soluble so the lines and colours blend when moisture is added. I wanted to create this effect to give a look of and old piece.

I didn’t take any photographs at the last meeting so hopefully I can photograph more work in progress, finished books and Marge’s samples and put them in the next post.

I now need to make a cover for the pages and then hopefully it will be finished. If you don’t want to start one of these then please do come anyway and take a look at the ones started last time. Kathryn will have all the latest news us fresh from the AGM in Nottingham. I think it was going to be a very interesting meeting!!! A lot of members want to have answers to a lot of quite serious issues.

If you can’t be there I will keep you up to date with an email.

We also need some help bundling the Journals ready for Regional day and Kathryn would appreciate some help putting leaflets in bags ready for Regional Day. I hope to see you there.

Ann

February Workshop

2010-02-14T15:08:00.001-08:00

Our first workshop of 2010 was on Chinese Tassels with Marge Quinn. Marge was very generous with her time and her expertise and brought several displays of beautiful tassels.
Most of those present made two tassels and everyone came away with a very pleasing result. As one person present was heard to say - ‘I don’t normally go home from a workshop with 1 never mind 2 finished pieces of work’!!!

It was nice to have members from 3 other branches join in with us at the workshop. (Preston, Lytham St Annes and North Lonsdale)

Thanks Marge – it was a great workshop.

Didn’t we all do well!

January Meeting

2010-02-14T14:50:00.001-08:00

The speaker for our January meeting was Julia Karling talking to us about her experiences as an art teacher not only in teaching a varied age range of children in art and design but also about her love of creating 3-dimensional pieces.

She used a computer to demonstrate how she get her students to develop their skills and techniques and then she talked about the pieces that she has brought to show us. Her enthusiasm for her work really shone through. She was involved in creating the costumes and props for a musical performance of the ‘Little Shop of Horrors’ at King Edward and Queen Mary School, Lytham St Annes.

Julia brought with her ‘Audrey’, the giant man-eating plant, that she had created, for us to look at. There were 3 versions of Audrey – demonstrating 3 stages of growth. The largest had two young people inside it when it was used in the play. The pieces were really impressive and Julia was most enjoyable and encouraging to listen.

Sadly I did not have my camera with me so I do not have any images of he lovely work.

Branch Programme 2009 -2010

2009-12-06T05:06:00.001-08:00

Blackpool Branch Programme 2009 -2010

October 2009

19^th AGM and Trudi Goodenough Competition

November 2009

9^th Biscornu for Christmas

30^th Biscornu continued

December 2009

14^th Christmas Party and Biscornu Competition (Members evening)

January 2010

11^th Committee Meeting

16^th Day School Art Doll details Kathryn Thompson

25^th Julia Carling Textiles and Scultpure: hands on evening

February 2010

6^th Day School Chinese Tassels Marge Quinn

8^th Hands on Evening Gifts for New Members

22^nd Variegations demonstrations and sales

March 2010

8^th Spring Clean Bring and Buy for Guild Funds

29^th Maxine’s Feathers Talk

April 2010

10^th National AGM, Nottingham

17^th Regional Day, Manchester

26^th Patricia Bennett Textiles from Around the World Talk

May 2010

10^th Mini workshops

24^th Elizabeth Cousins-Scott My Work Talk

June 2010

5^th Day School Dorset Buttons Margaret Waring

14^th Committee Meeting (5pm) followed by Own Work

28^th Sandie Maher Charles Rennie Mackintosh Talk

July 2010

12^th Summer Trip – to be arranged

15^th -18^th Summer School Alston Hall

26^th Priscilla Jones My Work talk

August 2010

No Meetings

September 2010

4^th Day School Heirloom in a Day Golden Hinde

13^th Committee meeting (5pm) followed by Brooches – for the Trudi Goodenough Competition

27^th Blackpool Illuminations from the design point of view Talk

October 2010

11^th AGM and Trudi Goodenough Competition

16^th Regional AGM, County Hall, Preston

Trudi Goodenough Competion

2009-11-30T07:57:00.001-08:00

The subject of our Trudi Goodenough competiton at out AGM this year was ‘Holiday Postcards’.

We began working on them at our September meetings.

International Day for Older People

2009-11-30T07:45:00.001-08:00

I apologise for this being out of order with other posts but time got the better of me and I have had to just fit these in when I can.

The International Day for Older People was organised by Seonaid, one of our members and we were asked to submit and exhibit some of our work on October 1st at the Winter Gardens, Blackpool, in the Horseshoe Bar.

We had a really good day and got to meet a lot of interesting people. We received a great many very compliments about or work and 1 new member to our branch on the strength of it!

We had a great selection of work demonstrating a very varied range of embroidery techniques and we did ourselves proud.
When the exhibition finished the work was taken down and put up on display in the Art Society Studio for our Annual Studio Exhibition. Many thanks to all of those involved in setting and taking down for both exhibitions.

Special Guest

2009-10-24T05:12:00.001-07:00

At our October meeting we had a very special guest speaker - Patti Medaris Culea, reknowned Cloth Doll Maker for America. Patti was staying with Kathryn and had just been at Ally Pally at the Knitting and Stitching Show and was on her way to Fobbles, near to the village of Ravenglass, to teach a workshop.

Patti very kindly talked to us about her passion for Doll Making and more recently cloth book making and all things to do with dyeing and stitching fabrics and threads.

She was most generous with her time and very kindly allowed us to inspect the dolls. She happily handed them to us after she had talked about them and we passed them round for everyone to enjoy.

We had a good audience with a number of members from neighbouring branches, our own members and friends.
It was a most enjoyable evening. A very big thank you to Patti.
We all felt very privileged to have had Patti as a speaker and to be able to see the beautiful dolls and books that she has created. Patti is a very bubbly, energetic and friendly lady. She was like a ray of sunshine!

Several members of our audience were going to the workshop at Fobbles and I know that they had a great time.

September Speaker

2009-10-20T14:09:00.001-07:00

Our September speaker was Moncia Selway who talked about how she became inspired to work with spider stitch and how she started to incorporate folded origami techniques into her pieces of work.

an amazing piece of work all done in spider stitch!
just look at the close-up for detail
Monica has used many different kinds of threads to gain this amazing effect.

Monica is a member of Parbold Branch

More Bags

2009-10-20T13:40:00.001-07:00

Two more bags made by Marie at, and post, the Monkey Buttons workshop.

Our members were really inspired by this workshop and have produced some lovely bags. Thanks Marie.

Starwberry Tea and Rainbow Squares

2009-07-14T01:25:00.000-07:00

Last night we had our Strawberry Tea. We also stitched all of our Rainbow Squares together. The ladies all work furiously at stitching before they were rewarded with lovely strawberries, shortbread fingers, scones with jam and clotted cream and teas and coffee.
We had a really good evening. A big thank you from me to all of those involved in setting everything up and for everyone who sat furiously stitching squares together.They look really good. It is much appreciated.
I made the scones and was asked for the recipe.

So here it is . I do hope you will try it and let me know what you think. These scones are not like traditional scones - they do keep well for several days. The recipe came from a handwritten recipe book that belonged to my Mother-in law, sadly, no longer with us. I was dleighted when I first tried the recipe as my husband said they tasted just as re remembered them from when his mother used to bake them. Praise indeed.

So here it is
Grandma’s Bun Scones

Ingredients:
4oz self raising flour
4 oz of caster sugar (I use much less as I don’t like things really sweet)
2 oz of butter (or margarine) I use about 1 ½ as it seems to rub better
1 beaten egg (you can add a little milk if you like – I use a large egg)

Method:
Put flour and sugar in a bowl, rub in the fat and then mix in the beaten egg.
Do not use the whole egg, just half of it to start off with and then add a little more if the mixture isn’t binding together into a soft ball.
You don’t want the mixture to be sticky but neither do you want it to be too dry.
Knead the ball slightly with your hand and if it is a bit sticky sprinkle some flour over it.

I make about 10 balls from the mixture using my hands and place them on a baking tray that has parchment paper on it.
Use the remaining egg to spread over the top of each scone.

Bake at 180 degrees for about 15 mins – test for browness and doneness! I always think you have to judge finished baking by your own oven – if not quite done give them another 5 minutes so – it isn’t crucial!
When baked they will have spread and look more like biscuits.

I have also baked them in one of those flippy floppy baking trays – placed on a metal tray. Then they come out more traditional scone shaped.

These are not like traditional scones – but they are delicious and unlike normal scones they will keep for several days!! (Bonus)!

Enjoy

Monkey Buttons

2009-07-13T15:15:00.000-07:00

In June we had Saturday workshop from Monkey Buttons. They design and create patchwork bags.

The members who attended had a great day and produced some lovely bags.

These bags belong to Val, Marion and Pauline. I hope that one or two more members will eventually let me have a photo of their finished bag.

Kathryn and I missed out as we were conducting a Regional Training Day for Branch Officers. Maybe next time! (with better planning on our behalf.!

Val's bag

Marion's bag

Pauline's bags

Rosettes, Corkscrews and Wiggle-woggles

2009-07-13T14:59:00.001-07:00

Last year one of our members taught us how to make Rosettes, corkscrews and wiggle-woggles, blogged about in an earlier post.

I promised to ask Joyce for some instructions and she has very kindly written them out for us.

A big thanks to Joyce - we really enjoyed making these - they were quick and easy to make - are great for using up small left over balls of yarn, can be made to look quite exciting and have lots of uses.

Over to Joyce for the instructions!

These patterns are starting points only and there are many ways in which they may be varied. Needle size should be appropriate for the yarn chosen, but tension is not critical. 10 metres of yarn should be enough for any of these projects, but thick yarns need more length than thinner ones. Rosettes and corkscrews may be finished off in a different yarn

BASIC ROSETTE

Cast on 10 Stitches.

Row 1: knit 1, *yarn forward, knit 1, repeat from * to end. (19 stitches)

Rows 2, 4 and 6: knit

Row 3 as row 1 (37 stitches)

Row 5 as row 1 (73 stitches)

Cast off loosely.

Curl the shape knitted into a rosette. It may help to pin it as you go. Fix the shape with a few stitches, using the ends of yarn from casting on and off. Decorate as desired and stitch a pin to the back.

BASIC CORKSCREW

Cast on 30 stitches.

Row 1: knit into the front and back of each stitch. (60 stitches)

Row 2: knit 1, *yarn forward, knit 1, Repeat from * to end of row (119 stitches)

Cast off.

BASIC WIGGLE-WOGGLE

Cast on 12 stitches

Row 1: knit 2 together, knit to the end of row.

Row 2: purl 1, yarn round needle, purl to last stitch, knit 1

Repeat these two rows until the knitting is slightly longer than it is wide. Cast off.

The aim is to make one side of the knitting tight, and the other loose. It should be curling itself into a cylindrical shape as you knit, but depending on the yarn and the knitting it may need a little coaxing. Curl it into the desired shape (cylinder or cone) and fix one end with a few stitches, using the end of the yarn.

Joyce Pemberton 2007

Programme Update

2009-06-21T14:13:00.001-07:00

Monday June 22nd - we have a speaker Caroline Jordan talking about 'The Harris Museum' .

On Monday July 13th we have a Strawberry Tea for branch members and we will stitching the rainbow squares into their strips.

Monday July 20th is the Branch outing to the Ice Cream Parlour, at Kendal for a meal and a talk in the evening from Christine Johnson of Reticule, Kendal. http://reticule-bags.co.uk/

Do take a look at her website. If possible please try to visit her shop in the afternoon.

There are no meetings in August.

Our Saturday workshop in September has been cancelled and you will be informed at a later date if there is to be an alternative.

We start back on September 14th with a practical evening on 'Holiday Postcards'.

Rainbow Squares

2009-06-21T13:55:00.001-07:00

We are reaching the stage when all of of rainbow squares have to be handed in so that they can be stitched together ready to be exhibited at GMEX in September.

This is just a selection of the finished one so far. We had no control over the choice of colour for our branch we each had to select a sealed envelope. It turns out to be quite a good choice for us as it happens to be the colour that Blackpool football team play in!

We hope to collect as many as possible in at our next meeting, tomorrow night, and plan to stitch them together at our Strawberry Tea - July branch meeting. Oh what fun!

I think they are really looking good - a big thank you to all of the members who have contributed to our branch effort.

There are still more to come - so there will be some more images later.

Marbling Fun

2009-06-21T13:47:00.001-07:00

Recently we had a fun evening with one of our members, Val, demonstrating a range of marbling techniques for us all to try.

She had worked really hard setting everything up earlier and she had provided all the materials that we required. All we had to do was to get stuck in and have a go!

Marbling a wooden bead

Marbling polystyrene balls - they were fun!

Marbling on a piece of silk fabric.

This one got a bit messy but we managed a couple of pieces of paper and a piece of silk fabric!

Nice and bright and colourful!

Hanging out to dry!

Mountmellick Workshop

2009-04-04T15:56:00.001-07:00

Today we had a wonderful workshop with Rubina Porter teaching us how to do Mountmellick Embroidery. Ruby is a lovely lady who gave so willingly and generously of of her time and her expertise.

She is a trustee of Shishu Polli Plus. (Here you can read all about the project). She told us all about the work that she does out in Bangladesh and brought a lot of beautiful items made by the ladies at the centre. If you look at the 'news and events' section on the website you will see that they have formed an Embroiderers' Guild group. We had a really good day and we were all so quiet because we were so engrossed in what we were doing and listening to Ruby.

Ruby brought several cushions worked in Mountmellick. They were all worked on cream silk.

Ruby's cushions

Work in Progress

This is my piece - I have deviated slightly by using some darker shades!!! (There's always one)!!!

These pictures were taken at the centre in Bangladesh. (Don't mention the apostrophe)!

This last picture shows some of the items that Ruby brought show us. These are produced by the women in Bangladesh and sold here to provide money to support the project.

Viking Warriors and Weavers

2009-03-28T13:52:00.001-07:00

Most recently we had a very interesting visit and talk from Ian Uzzell who made a grand entrance dressed as a Viking warrior!

He talked about the significance of the clothing that he was wearing and those that would have been worn by his wife in Viking times (as seen on the model below) and of the artifacts that he had brought to show us.

Ian, complete with chain-mail.
That was really heavy - goodness knows how they ever moved about wearing that! All of his clothing was made in true style - right down to his shoes!

The linen cloth for this embroidery has been woven by Ian.

Spindles for spinning yarn and a Viking 'kniddy knoddy' for winding the yarn ready for washing.

Tassels

2009-03-28T06:04:00.001-07:00

Quite recently Marge Quinn (one of our members) gave us a talk on Tassels. Marge have been making tassels for many years and has an awe-inspiring collection. She demonstrated how to make simple tassels and cords.

The images on show speak for themselves.

Rosettes, Corkscrews and Wiggle-Woggles

2009-03-28T05:52:00.001-07:00

On two of our practical evenings Joyce Pemberton (one of our members) very kindly showed us how to make knitted rosettes, corkscrews and wiggle-woggles.

We all had great fun using up some of our leftover yarns. (you know - those small bits that you accumulate over the years from lots of knitting and stitching projects - which you can't quite bring yourself to throw away)! Now you know what to do with them.

May be I can persuade Joyce to write some notes on how to do them - watch this space!

'Little Works of Art'

2009-02-25T13:46:00.001-08:00

Recently it was the turn of members of the Blackpool branch of the Embroiderers' Guild to try out their design skills and create their own Little Works of Art under my tutelidge.

We had a great day and the ladies produced some brilliant pieces of work. As you can see!

Quilted Flower Bags

2009-02-25T13:43:00.001-08:00

One of Marge's workshops.
We had great fun making quilted flower bags as you can see!

'eit' 2006

2009-02-25T13:29:00.001-08:00

In 2006 the North West Region of the Embroiderer's Guild celebrated the Centenary of the Guild by holding exhibitions in 3 National Trust properties. The North West Region is divided into 3 areas - Area 3 exhibited at Little Morton Hall in Cheshire, Area 2 exhibited at Gawthorpe in Padiham and Area 2 exhibited in pieces at Sizergh Castle.

Blackpool branch is in Area 2 and these are the pieces that were exhibited by the members at Sizergh Castle.

This is a group piece - small cushions inspired by the castle and its gardens worked in a range of different stitches. Each member worked their own preferred technique. The pieces were assembled together and expertly finished off by Marge Quinn.

This piece has since made an outing to the Fashion and Textile show at Harrogate when a selection of pieces from all 3 National Trust exhibitions were on show representing the North West Region.

It has also been exhibited at the Art Studio at the Blackpool Library.

These pieces also exhibited at Gawthorpe were created by individual members.

Marge's Staircase

Kathryn's Dolls

Marian's Vessel

Ann's Gatepost

Silk Painting

2009-02-25T13:27:00.001-08:00

Val's speciality is Silk painting.

Exhibition Pieces

2009-02-25T13:26:00.001-08:00

Each year we exhibit our work in the Art Studio during the month of November and members are invited to exhibit with the Art Society at venues in the locality.

Pauline's interpretation in stitch of her daughter's house.

This was exhibited in the Studio.

Shelagh's beautiful stumpwork set and Val's pleated silk pieces were exhibited in Grundy Art Gallery in Blackpool

Pleated and space-dyed silk by Val.

Art Society Quilt

2009-02-25T13:25:00.001-08:00

This quilt made by members of the branch hangs in the Art Society Studio where our meetings take place and is always on show.

Blackpool Branch of the Embroiderers' Guild

2009-02-25T09:27:00.001-08:00

A warm sea-side welcome from all of our members.

In 2006 our branch celebrated its 25th anniversary.

Millennium Project

In 2000 members were invited to produce a piece a piece of work that represented Blackpool.

The pieces were mounted and bound together in book form. This part of the project was undertaken by Diana Chew, who designed and worked the front cover, along with the mounting of the pieces and the construction of the book. The pages can be removed to display separately if required.