Teabags aren't just for a cuppa.

 Today Jackie led us in a mini workshop on teabag landscapes. Jackie is a real whizz with her left over teabags and has shown us her beautiful work using them many times. Well, we got to join in today. She has been saving Yorkshire teabags (what else?!) for a while, drying and preparing them for us to use. She brought inlets of little bits and pieces to create our miniature landscapes - bits of scrim, plumbers scrim(?!), evenweave fabrics and florist's ribbon; we got to delve into her ort tin of lacy scraps. Once we had selected pieces for out background, middle and foreground we stitched them down and then added embroidery. Everyone loved the results and they were all different. Don't throw you teabags away, turn them into mini works of art!

Some of Jackie's lovely work: 

And our mini art works:

Embroidered Paperweights

 Today we did a workshop on embroidered paperweights - basically a stone! 

Step one, find a stone; it can be a boring stone or an interesting one with a nice fossil or colouring on that could be a feature. A certain member who shall remain nameless brought an enormous stone but rose to the challenge.

Step two, cover your stone with wadding, leaving a peep hole for any interesting bits. Stitch the wadding into place using bits and pieces - no-one will see it so no fuss required.

Step three, stitch fabric scraps to the wadding. Here's examples in various stages.

Step four, add embroidery stitches and any embellishments!

They all looked lovely and it's a great way to use up odds and ends and little scraps.

Casalguidi, lace and calorie free macarons!

 What a great day we had yesterday with Wyn Ingham; Wyn has visited us several times before and it's always a great pleasure and fun. This time she came to give us her talk on Casalguidi and lace in the morning and the in the afternoon we did a mini workshop creating some cute macarons.

Wyn has been collecting textiles for a long time and has some gorgeous pieces of lace, some she has bought as little samples and other pieces are family heirlooms she has gathered and saved. Her family have long been connected with textiles, craftsmanship (cabinet makers, confectioners, weavers) and teaching; as a young girl she stitched and embroidered with her tailoress grandma. This was particularly interesting for me as my grandma was also from a  family of tailors and we have a history of weavers and confectioners too - spooky! 

She took us through family stories involving pieces of embroidery and told us fascinating tales of visiting Rachael Kay Shuttleworth at Gawthorpe Hall with an aunt and carrying biscuits round in a casalguidi bag. Holidays have inevitably got visits to fabric stores and textile collections woven into them.

Wyn's earliest piece is a 5th century coptic Christian embroidery - beautiful little birds.

She then took us on a journey through Elizabethan sumptuary laws, dyeing and bleaching fabrics, Schiffli lace (chemical lace) and of course Casalguidi which was produced in a short window of time.

Here are just a few of the lovely pieces of lace from her collection.

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In the afternoon we made macaron - not all finished but everyone loved them! Wyn has a dishful, and here are three completed ones - speedy stitchers!