The Finished Piece

 Well, here it is! The Skipton Castle project is finished and ready for display. We will have it with us at Yarndale and then it will be at the Castle. Come along and have a look next weekend 23rd/24th September. All the squares came together without too much of an argument. All contributors are named on the back and the construction team was Gail, Claire, Carolyn, Sally, Sue and Jill. Well done everyone!

Claire will be giving a talk on Sunday at Yarndale about our big projects - come along around 12.30 I believe.

Return of the Secret Stash

 Those of us not on holiday somewhere (hopefully) nice and sunny had a lovely meeting today AND it was the return of the Secret Stash - back by popular demand. Same format as last time - a bundle of fabric and a button, two hours to create something with it - anything at all, any technique. Oooh the pressure! Anyway, as usual there was a wide variety of ideas, some of us weren't brilliant at time management (Saima!) but we had fun anyway and it was nice to see what everyone came up with. Pictures below.

We also unveiled the finished Skipton Castle project. No pictures to share just yet - we will be doing a reveal shortly before Yarndale and the finished piece will be on display there so come and see us! We'll have a bargain sales table and a mini workshop running too. Claire K will be giving a talk on Sunday about our community outreach work, and I have volunteered to be her "glamorous" assistant - though I'm not quite sure what I'll be assisting with or that I will be glamorous! 

We have gained new members from some of our Yarndale visitors so do come and find us and listen to Claire's talk.

Craven Museum visit

Thanks to Dee for her guest post about this month's meeting!

We were welcomed to Craven Museum by staff members Jenny and Megan, who started with a brief tour of the museum, pointing out items of particular interest in relation to textiles – ranging from a costume worn by a mill owner’s daughter and wedding outfits to a piece of cloth dating back 5,000 years.

We were then taken to the Education Room where we were given an interesting Powerpoint presentation about the textile related items stored in the museum and the resources they have access to.  The staff had also laid out several items of clothing from their stores which included a range of fashion through the ages, one of which was a beautiful silk wedding dress from the 1940s, owned by a titled lady, which had later been embellished with paints and beading by a maid.  Other items included shoes, baby clothes and table covers made in beautiful hand-made lace.  We spent some time inspecting the detail of these items before we were taken in small groups to the upstairs store room to see things not currently on display, such as samplers etc.

We thoroughly enjoyed our visit and are grateful to the museum staff for organising this bespoke  visit for us.

The afternoon was spent stitching back at the hall and some of the Skipton Castle squares appeared - sneaky peek below.

And hardanger from Gail's group...

Secret Stash

 This month's meeting was a Secret Stash challenge. Everyone was given an envelope containing the same fabric scraps, some lace and buttons; the challenge, in the spirit of the Sewing Bee was to create something using the pieces in an hour and a half, any techniques or ideas allowed. We did cheat a bit and have an extra half an hour, but it was great fun and the results were all different. We might have another go with different scraps at a later date. Here are some of our efforts in various states of completeness. Hopefully they will be on display at our next exhibition. 

The starting pack:

                                        

December Meeting

We had great fun today with our wool balls! Sue kindly led a workshop on kamal kadai, a traditional Indian form of embroidery often seen on saris and featuring floral patterns. To be festive we made poinsettia flowers on half a tumble dryer wool ball. 

We didn't quite finish in the meeting but the centres are embellished with yellow beads or french knots and then leaves added in the same needle weaving technique. Finished ones below!

We also launched Serena's competition; she has been a member of the Embroiderer's' Guild for 50 years and set us a couple of challenges to be judged in April. More on that at a later date.

We also introduced Travelling Pages - an idea pinched from Scunthorpe seaside stitchers, similar to travelling books. We are linking our pages to 'There is no Planet B' - the postponed exhibition. I'll say no more about that until nearer the time!