Our joint exhibition with Lytham St Annes Branch, in the North Pier Theatre, North Pier Blackpool is almost upon us. Lets hope we get a great many visitors to see our work over the weekend of the 9th/ 10th & 11th of August.
Friday, July 26, 2013
July–Strawberry Tea
“Our annual Strawberry Tea was held on the 8th July. Around twenty members attended and, in between strawberries, cream, scones and Kathryn’s Vanilla Mouse, we had a preview of some of the items which will be on show at the Exhibition in August. (If you want to see what they looked like come along in August!) These had been brought in to “dress” the set as the Gazette sent their photographer to take some pictures for the Eve article which appeared on the 16th. A great way to publicise both the Branch and the exhibition with Lytham St Annes.
We also took the opportunity to say thank you to Marion Miller who has recently resigned from her role as catering supremo by presenting her with a gift token. Marion will be a hard act to follow but we will do our best to maintain her high standards. “
June–Speaker–Chris Cannon
Our speaker this month was Chris Cannon who talked to us about her ‘Passion with Plants’. As well as a PowerPoint presentation this was a very hands-on evening.
Chris explained about her passion for plants and showed us a wide variety of plants that represented different features of interest for interpretation into stitch.
She gave us all a selection of photographs and got us to focus on looking at marks and recreating them in pen or pencil on a range of papers, making sure that we did not fall into the trap of trying to do a representational drawing of the plant itself.
Chris is a member of Preston Threads, a Lancashire based group of textile artists. Her plant based, hand stitched pieces , with this group have recently been exhibited at the NEC and the Voirrey. (Two members of Blackpool Branch are also members of this group).
Below you can see some of the approaches that Chris uses in her own work, hand stitched pieces and sketchbook work and how we all got on with the tasks that she set us on the night.
After we had made some marks on paper we then thought about how we could use to stitch to represent the marks. There are some really interesting results. It was a really fun evening.
Sunday, June 23, 2013
June - Stitch Night
The first meeting this month was a practical evening. These are nice relaxing evenings and give members a chance to share what they are doing with each other, seek out advice when needed and spend time getting to know everyone.
We are now rapidly approaching our Summer exhibition at the North Pier Theatre in Blackpool and it is great to be able to see what work is being produced. Much of it is work in progress but it already looks like we will have a lot of superb pieces on display under our theme of ‘Time for Tea’
‘WORK IN PROGRESS’
May
May began with a very successful workshop run by Liliane Taylor.
Liliane came to talk to us last year and it was evident that members very keen for her to do a workshop for us. This year we will be holding a joint exhibition with Lytham St Annes Branch at The North Pier Theatre, Blackpool and our branch theme is ‘Time for Tea’.
Liliane’s work lends itself perfectly to our theme and she named it ‘Everything Stops for Tea’. Sadly I missed the workshop as I was in Scotland on holiday. It was a very enjoyable and successful day. Several of our newer members who has never done anything like the techniques taught on the day were delighted with the workshop and the what they had produced.
These are two pieces produced at the workshop. There are more but as yet I haven’t managed to photograph them.
The Barrett Counterpane
At the end of the month (Bank Holiday Monday) we had Julian Abraham come to talk to us about the Barrett Counterpane. This is housed at the Quaker Tapestry Museum in Kendal. Julian is a researcher, writer and freelance curator. He has been associated with the Tapestry Centre for some years.
His talk was very interesting and illuminating into the history of the individual and and embroidered squares that make up the counterpane. He is currently writing a book about the counterpane. Most interesting were the clues and evidence that Julian has researched and explained about each embroidered square. The background to some is still ‘work in progress’.
Unfortunately not many members were present at the meeting, probably because it was Spring Bank Holiday. They really missed a treat!
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