September Workshop

At the beginning of the month we had a workshop with Ruby Porter MBE on Kantha Stitch.  
Ruby works tirelessly with the young women in Sreepur Women’s Refuge in Bangladesh. She has formed a branch of the Embroiderers’ Guild out in Sreepur for the women at the refuge.

Ruby showed us the Kantha technique and got us all started. It was a just an afternoon workshop but was most enjoyable. Ruby has been to our branch before and has talked to us about her work in Bangladesh. She brought a wide range of items that were embroidered in the kantha stitch some of which had been embroidered by the ladies and some from her own collection that she has accumulated over the years that she has been involved in helping out there.

      
                                    
                  
                  
                  
                                  

North West Region Summer School

Several of our members attended Summer School in July at Alston Hall.

Kathryn, Barbara and Mary attended Janet Browne's course. They began by making a stitched sample of their houses and then progressed to designing and stitched a map of an area of their choice.  They really enjoyed the course and produced some really lovely pieces.   These are ‘work in progress’ so hopefully we will get to see the finished pieces.

Val, Seonaid, Judith, Jacqui and Ann all attended Sheila Smith’s course on Nuno felting. We also had a great time and really enjoyed making felt.  These are just a few samples to show the sort of pieces that we produced.

 
 
 

      

Strawberry Tea

We had a very enjoyable evening at our Strawberry Tea. Not only did we we have our usual scrumptious eats (Strawberries, Scones, Meringues, Butter Tarts, Vanilla Terrine and more) but we also had our visit from Tracy Gill.  Tracy is the Learning Officer for the Rachel Kay Shuttleworth Collection at Gawthorpe Hall.

Tracy brought a superb range of lace samples from the collection to show us. She spoke briefly about each piece and explained the Inspired 2012 project that some of our members are planning to take part in. She wanted to give us plenty of time to take a close look at the pieces and to take photographs of any that we would like to use as inspiration for our pieces. 

We are not allowed to show any of the images of the pieces on show and can only use the photographs that we took for our own personal use for the project.  Hopefully we will be able to show photographs later in the year of the pieces that our members have produced.
We felt very privileged to be able to look at the pieces on display. 

We had a good turn out of members for the evening and some visitors as well.   We do hope that they enjoyed the evening and plan to visit us again very soon.

Anne Burrow is our speaker at our next meeting on July 30th speaking about ‘ Family Connections Through Textiles’ – knowing Anne it will be a very interesting talk. 

June

Tracy Gill from Gawthope Hall was planned to come to talk to us about the RKS (Rachel Kay Shuttleworth Project) and show us slides and lace pieces from the collection. Unfortunately she couldn’t make it that night so she sent me  a slide show presentation and some images to introduce the project and give everyone some idea of what we should have seen. This was a little taster for a future visit that was arranged for our Strawberry Tea in July.

At our Stitch and Chat night we made brooches using pieces of tartan that I had purchased from Loch Carron Weavers when I was on holiday in Scotland in May. They were very simple in construction, quick and easy and lots of fun. They certainly kept everyone very busy.

            
    
       
                                 

May/ June Blackwork & Boutis

Our workshop planned for May doing Blackwork with Liz Almond had to be cancelled due to a shortage of  members available for the date planned. We do, however hope to sort out a date in the coming months when Liz can come to the workshop with us.
Liz had given us a talk in March and brought an amazing selection of pieces of her work to show us. What a talented lady.
Take a look at Liz’s website.     

                  
                  

In May Marie Lewis came to give a talk on Boutis. I was on holiday in Scotland and had to miss her talk. The members were much enthused by the pieces that Marie brought and found her talk very interesting.  Marie came back in June to do a workshop for us.   We al found it a very relaxing technique and had a really enjoyable day with Marie.