Travelling Books

Over the past few months our members have been busy with Travelling Books.
No we haven't been sending books to far flung places for a bit of a holiday! 
The books have been travelling around the group and filled with lots of glorious and inspiring work before coming home to their owners!

The owner of the book decided on a theme and off went the books around a group 

We had a great time with a "show and tell" when the books completed their round and lots of  enthusiasm for this to be continued.  

So it is intended that we swap groups and the books go around again to different members to complete the cycle again.

It was generally agreed that these little works of art had been a pleasure to do and certainly had lots of us thinking outside of our usual comfort zones!

National Stitch Day 2nd August 2014

National Stitch Day this year was celebrated by hosting an event at the Central Library in Blackpool.

Not sure how many visitors to expect we had prepared lots of mini kits. We were very pleased when people started to arrive, and soon the tables were full and we had to bring in extra seating!

Around 15 visitors enjoyed an afternoon of stitching and many of our members dropped in to help out, have a chat and brought along samples of work to be displayed.

The librarians kindly loaned us lots of lovely books to look at and to give us even more ideas and inspiration!

The event was a great success and it was fantastic to see so much enthusiasm. Many people asked if we could do it again soon - I am sure we can sort out something.......

Strawberry Tea

Members recently enjoyed our Annual Strawberry Tea which for the first time this year featured our branch competitions.
The Marge Quinn Award was established to encourage newer members of the guild to put forward their pieces and the Chairman's Award was for those with more experience.

Prior to judging the competition Marge treated us to a wander through her life in stitches. Her talents are many and diverse and she brought along many examples of her work including some from her school days.

Her talk was very informative and certainly showed us all a broad range of techniques 

We then moved on to the important matter of Strawberries and Scones!  

These as usual were delicious!

Lots of our members brought in work to display for the two competitions which was great to see

Entries for the Marge Quinn Award were accompanied by a brief description of the work and the thoughts and ideas behind it.

The winner is Lesley Gillibrand 

Entries for the Chairman's Award were judged by the members and the winner is Sue Bartlett

It was great to see so many members together for what was a most enjoyable evening

Blackpool Art Society 130th Birthday

Blackpool Art Society celebrated their 130th birthday with a party at the Studio.  The Blackpool themed morning included a quiz, art competition and of course lots of cake and strawberries and cream.
Some members entered into the spirit by coming dressed in "period" outfits.

The event was very well attended and gave everyone the opportunity to catch up with friends old and new top celebrate the occasion.
Blackpool is one of the oldest established Art Societies in the country and many items were on display to illustrate the past history of the society and of Blackpool.

The branch provided a display of work and Marge brought along the Branch Millennium Book which was a source of interest throughout the morning

We had a few felt kits available for make and take and these were enjoyed by many of the members

Encaustic workshop

Following her talk earlier this year Sue Tyldesley returned to do a workshop for us.
We were looking forward to a day of playing with lots of new techniques and we were certainly not disappointed. It was amazing what was produced on the day.

Images made on card with wax were transferred onto fabric to provide interesting backgrounds for stitch

In the afternoon we were able to use the hotplate for even more effects

We were able to produce lots of interesting and individual samples during the day

All we need now is lots of time to get stitching and making!