RETICULE and ACCESSORIES

Our meeting this month was taken by one of our own members Elizabeth Shorrock who showed us how to make a wall hanging by using papers that had been coloured and printed in various ways.She brought a book of samples, various hangings and pictures with her for us to look at and which you can see in the photographs.







We started off with 4 A4 sheets of tissuetex which we had coloured and printed in our own choice of colours. We then cut and reassembled the papers several times to produce a different pattern each time.

The new paper was then attached to interfacing with bondaweb using the iron.

When the new papers had been reassembled a couple of times we then cut out squares ready to assemble into a wall hanging, once they had been stitched and backed.

Most of us got as far as the stitching and we took all the pieces home to complete.





At the next meeting I am sure there will be lots of completed wall hangings!

We all had a good day and a lot of other ideas came out of making the papers. Thank you Elizabeth.

These beautifully embroidered pictures were inspired by the stained-glass windows in a small church dedicated to St. Gregory near Sedbergh. They were worked by Brenda Pearson on canvas, off and on, from 2009 to 2011. The colour and stitchery are absolutely beautiful and the more you look the more things of interest you find.
Well Done Brenda! They are wonderful and what a high standard you have set us all.

This month the meeting was led by Gillian Darrington, one of our own members, who brought with her some examples of stumpwork heads. You can see examples of Gillian's Stumpwork heads below. They are highly decorated with frills, flowers and feathers resulting in very pretty ladies from a bygone era. All of our members were keen to have a go.

We cut out an oval shape in calico, gathered the edge, pulled it tight and stuffed it to make the face. We then stitched the nose and eyes to lots of giggling fearing that our ladies were not going to be as pretty as Gillian's!!! However, we were assured the hair would cover a multitude of sins!

Next we used silk fibres in interesting colours for the hair covering any lumps and bumps.

We then used leather or felt for the hat folding and pleating it until we had an interesting shape. The hat was completed by adding a colourful feather. To complete the lady we made flowers or ruffles to cover the neck and a small amount of embroidery.

We were all pleased with our finished heads and you can see how colourful they are in the pictures below.

Thank you Gillian for a fun day.

Sandra W. has finished revamping her shoes which were started at the November Meeting.They are now ready to trip the light fantastic!!!!!
Well Done Sandra! They are very pretty.

We have now completed our contribution to the Sporting Nations Project initiated by The Embroiderers' Guild. Each branch was given a country and ours was San Marino, a small republic surrounded by Italy.
The embroideries below show our members interpretation of the geography and culture of that country carried out in a whole range of different stitch techniques. Our members should be very pleased with the colourful and attractive outcome.
The postcards will now be posted to Embroiderers' Guild house where they will be joined by all the other postcards from groups across Great Britain to be displayed at venues up and down the country in readiness for the Sporting Games.
Well Done and Thank You Everyone!

This month's meeting was led by one of our own members Anne Covell who showed us how to make Thread Bins for all our snippets of thread. The design was rather ingenious in that it telescoped down to a small flat cirle when folded away.

Anne showed us a completed bin and some half finished ones so that she could demonstrate how they were made and how the stitching joined the pieces together.

We made a tube of fabric and then cut out 2 x card circles, 2 x wadding circles and 2 x fabric circles larger than the card circles.
The fabric circles were gathered and pulled tightly over the card and wadding. This was done twice for the base and then the two separate pieces were sewn together.

A four inch inner tambour ring was slipped inside the half folded tube and stabbed stitched tightly in place.

The circles were then stitched in place one to one side of the doubled fabric one to the other. This was hard to imagine but Anne demonstrated on her half completed bins and it started to make sense.

At the end of the day we had all completed a thread bin something which happens very rarely as we usually run out of time. A big thank you to Anne for helping us make something attractive and also useful.

We will now be the neatest sewers around with all threads in our bins!!!