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MEETING - 1 May 2014

Moving On: A Personal View Gwen Hedley is a well known, Kent based, textile artist and freelance teacher. She has written two books “Surfaces for Stitch” and “Drawn to Stitch” On her website she describes her talk in this way: “This lecture discusses the trials and tribulations of moving on in ones own work, developing new pathways and seeking new horizons. It examines ways in which my work has developed and changed, and the thoughts and ideas that make it happen. Such thought processes and approaches might spark new ideas in others looking for a change in direction.”

1 May 2014 - Exhibition Table

Cushion made by Liz Morris for out Chinese Raffle at Regional Day

Seeing other people's work can act as an inspiration and give ideas for future work. May's exhibition table will be a collaborative effort showcasing members' work prepared for Regional Day and other local Guild events:

• Cushions for our Chinese Raffle at Regional Day
• Entries for Kickstart
• Entries for the Regional competition “Be-ribboned, Be-jewelled and Be-ruffed”

Friday 2 May – Creative Connections: Gwen Hedley. An all day workshop. Participants have already been given details of venue, requirements etc. Sorry, all places are now taken and there is a waiting list.

3 April 2014

Threads of Connection - following the threads: Dr Kate Wells. Kate uses sustainable and ethical production methods to produce work inspired by the Japanese philosophy of Wabi-Sabi. This is sometimes described as one of beauty that is "imperfect, impermanent, and incomplete". Kate will be talking about her work which spans over 30 years of studio experience and draws on a love of landscape, birds, rich pattern and fine detail.

Exhibition table: Sheelagh Doran who will be showing the work she has done on her internet City and Guilds course and books and magazines from the Danish Embroiderer’s Guild.

17 April 2014

Meeting of Stitch Group when members do their own work, exchange ideas and meet in a social setting.

Photo: Close up of work done for a Group project and submitted as part of the course work.

Meeting 6 March 2014

Our guest speaker was Melanie Birmingham who gave an in-depth insight into all things felt.

Her title was ‘May Your Stitches Be Tight’ which is a well-used greeting in yurt communities. Melanie enthralled us with her background knowledge into ethnic felt making along the northern and southern Silk Routes. She demonstrated techniques passed down through generations for over 1000 years which she had learned first-hand on her travels. We were guided along the Silk route and eventually reached the Mongolia area. Felt making, especially the wonderful rugs is a communal activity, you are greeted on entering a yurt with ‘May Your Stitches Be Tight’ and then you get to work. All the community work together women, children and men who help with the horses to roll the fibres into felt. These rugs are used as social hierarchy symbols, the brown ones go on the floor first as everyday rugs, these are for the family to use day to day, guests are invited to sit on layers of patterned rugs – the higher the layers the more important you are. These are the Sunday best rugs.

We also saw a variety of different hat styles and Melanie enlightened us to the fact you can tell whether the stitcher was right or left handed from the stitching used. Melanie creates replicas of archaeological exhibits to demonstrate the techniques used. Felt has been made in the same way since at least 1800 BC – unfortunately Victorian male archaeologists omitted details of stitching and colour on their finds and most are black and white photos.

We had an Exhibition table with Grace’s work to ponder and marvel a; a plethora of embroidery and textile styles to admire. Well done Grace, you are an inspiration to all.

March meeting – Thursday 6 March 2014

‘ May Your Stitches Be Tight’ - Melanie Bermingham

Melanie Birmingham is a felt maker. She will be talking about stitching on felt; historical, ethnic, and contemporary. She will have photographs of work in her illustrated talk as well as samples and examples of embroidery using felt to view and handle. You can find out more about Melanie at www.feltmakers.com

Exhibition table: This month, Grace Learey, one of our members is bringing a selection of her work for the Exhibition Table. Grace prefers to experiment rather than using one consistent style. So her work contains machine embroidery, hand embroidery, painting and numerous stitch techniques. And all of it is different.

Photo: Embroidered slippers made by Grace

If bad weather forces us to cancel the meeting, we will place a message on this blog and email all our members.

February meeting – 6 February 2014

7 for 7.15pm start at The Saints Parish Rooms, 3 St Mary's Gate, Chesterfield

Memo To Self – MA and beyond – A talk by Sarah Burgess 

After many years of teaching art and textiles in Sheffield and North Derbyshire, Sarah decided to go back to college herself, studying MA Textiles at Manchester School of Art.This is the tale of what happened; how life intervenes and what she did next.

You can find out more about Sarah at http://www.sarah-burgess.com/index.aspx

February meeting – Exhibition Table

Chris Commons, one of our members, has been an artist all her life. She trained as a painter and developed her interest in creative textiles later. She uses a variety of approaches but this picture show her favourite method. She paints onto the fabric a carefully drawn picture, parts of which are enhanced by closely worked machine stitching. It looks possible to walk through her archways and doors. Chris will bring a selection of her work and there will be an opportunity to talk to her about her work before the start of her meeting

Bad winter weather

 

If the weather is bad and the meeting is cancelled, we will email members on the day and place on notice on this blog and on our page on the East Midlands Embroiderers' Guild website.

Meeting 2 January 2014

Weather permitting, this months meeting is a workshop lead by Jean Groom. We are going to decorate the felt flowers made at the November meeting. If you didn't attend that meeting, Jean has some spare felt flowers to decorate so you won't be left out. Please bring

• The flower/flowers that you made earlier
• Needles and scissors. If you are going to use fine beads, you will need a beading needle.
• Threads and beads in suitable colours for your flower/flowers. We will provide a small selection of these.

Optional things to bring

• Sequins (we will provide some)
• Thimble if you use one
• Broach back
• Light if you have one (with extension cable if it is not battery operated). Don't go out and buy one as we have been told that we can use the ones belonging to the Cross Stitch Group. Lighting to work by was a problem last month so the more lights we have, the better.

The display of members' work and books last month was very successful; so we plan to repeat it. If you have any of the following, please bring them:

• home made felt (which you have made yourself or purchased)
• embroidery involving felt (your own or purchased)
• books on felt making or books showing pictures of embroidery on felt.