May round up

It has been interesting seeing new independent stitch groups forming following the closure of branches and I'm sure there are people working away getting to grips with updating various social media pages. I have to say I've got a bit behind posting what Skipton Stitchers have been up to so here's a bit of a catch up! 

We are still enjoying Anne Brooke's #52tagshannemade and various other courses and stitch alongs. I've added some links in resources which I'm hoping will work! I'll try and add more as time allows. 

So, in no particular order, here's a small sample of what's been happening:

(More on Instagram and FaceBook)

Next meeting June 21st

During the past months we have been meeting virtually but we are hoping for a socially distanced get together Monday 21st June. 

We are keeping everything crossed for good weather and no changes to restrictions. The plan is to meet at 10.30 in the grounds of Christ Church (our usual venue for inside meetings); we will be meeting at the Tesco side of the church. 

Bring something to sit on and refreshments. 

Please be aware that we will not have access to toilet facilities 😬

It will be lovely to meet people in person again and share what we have been up to during lockdown. Many of us have been joining in with stitch alongs or online courses so there will be plenty of stitching to have a look at. 

Hope to see you there! If you are considering joining us for the first time do come along and say hello!

Free Workshop

One of our members Hayley Mills-Styles is running a free embroidered postcard workshop online on Saturday 5th June at 2.30pm. All the materials will be provided and you can book your place here: https://t.co/9dNPqmlv0o

The last date to book is the 24th May so there is time to post the materials.

Stitch wheel

Well, finally some of us have finished the Cathy Reavy stitch wheel. It's been an interesting project and there has been lots of stitches for us to get to grips with. Some stitches have been familiar, some re-learnt and some new. There seems to be a consensus that we definitely won't be doing knotted blanket stitch again! I have discovered a new favourite stitch that I'll certainly be using again and that's Quaker stitch - a combination of split stitch and stem stitch which is great for letters.

Even though we've all been following the same videos our finished results hare all slightly different. The videos are still on YouTube if you haven't had a go and would like to (links on previous post).

Freebies, Stitch Alongs and Craft Alongs

There are some interesting things to be found on the internet for stitchers! I may have already mentioned this on our old blog but during lockdown some of us have been doing Cathy Reavy's stitch wheel, following the weekly videos on YouTube; I need to catch up, I'm a couple of weeks behind. Then there's the fabulous Anne Brooke with her various challenges, currently the 52 tags series. These are all free and I for one have enjoyed them very much and look forward to the coming weeks with Anne. 

There's lots more photos on our Instagram of the tags we have been doing and there will be some of the wheel when we finish the final few stitches. Links above.

There are also some great freebies to be had out there too, where makers have generously shared patterns. There's something for everyone. Personally, I'm not a great one for cross stitch but I have to say I'm rather taken with these two little projects which can be found here along with lots of other craft projects on the 'gathered.' website.

Last but not least in this mini roundup is Frill and Flounce; the link is to the FaceBook page but I'm sure you can Google it. They have some free Zoom workshops in their events information. I have done a couple of the bookbinding courses which have been great. Have a rummage round and see what you can find!

You wouldn't want to miss a brilliant idea because you weren't there.

I'm a bit late posting this for various reasons, not least the hoo-ha surrounding the Embroiderers' Guild and the closing of branches; we have been sorting ourselves out and hopefully you're here because this new Blog has finally appeared on a Google search - I've been fighting with it! If not, then hopefully you have been redirected from our old blog. I can't pretend to be any good at sorting out all this techie stuff so I'm keeping my fingers crossed. It would be great if you could follow us and that might help.

ANYWAY...

Last month we had a great Zoom afternoon with Angie Hughes on "Creative Icebreaking". Getting going can often be a problem and so we learnt about Angie's process. She quoted Phillip Pullman "Resist wandering off, checking social media or making yet another cup of tea. You wouldn't want to miss a brilliant idea because you weren't there to receive it." 

Books are an interesting way of getting started; Julia Cameron's The Artist's Way was something Angie used: write 3 pages of prose every day; write about anything - it gets your brain working.

Another technique she has used successfully is mark making on a large sheet of paper using any tools, Quink ink and bleach. Make a list of words, choose five and use them as inspiration. Bite the bullet and without looking tear the sheet into pieces creating different arrangements.

Other sources of inspiration are Domestika courses - I've done some and they're very good; Laura and Linda Kemshall on sketchbooks; fine artists such as Klimt, Matisse and Hunterwasser; Ruth Issett, Alice Kettle and Bobby Britnell also give her inspiration.

Using a viewfinder to isolate interesting bits of paintings or designs can also be a springboard for a piece.

For our mini workshop Angie showed us how she makes the stamps she uses, along side some Indian carved blocks, and gave us ideas on how to use them.

Photos of Angie's work are from her website and the link is at the top of this post.

She runs lots of Zoom workshops if you're interested in learning more.

Following our mini workshop we made some stamps ourselves; now we need to eat lots of Ferrero Rocher to get some gold foil (Angie uses it a lot) and dig out the velvet, paint, bleach overcome the procrastination and creative block and get going!

Here's some of our practice stamps.

Skipton Stitchers: a new beginning

This is the first post of our new blog as Skipton Stitchers. it seems we've all been up-skilling with regard to Zoom and the like as we are unable to meet as before. Today we had our monthly meeting via Zoom and Claire, our chair, volunteered a mini workshop on raised embroidery. She gamely created some lovely videos demonstrating the techniques she used only to find that the Zoom gremlins were uncooperative! However, after some tinkering the series of clips are now available on YouTube using this link and they are also in the Resources tab.

I was feeling techie and grabbed some screen shots while Claire was chatting; do have a look at the videos. Thanks to Claire for giving it a go - this new way of meeting has been a learning curve for many of us.