Merry Christmas

Wishing everyone a Merry Christmas. Hope you are able to spend it with loved ones in these uncertain times.

Here's some festive Christmas wreaths from the #52tagshannemade plus an extra!

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!

November Meeting and Textilia III

It was great to see everyone yesterday and we welcomed some new members too!

Several of our members belong to Textilia III and we were joined today by Catherine Slater another Textilia member. Textilia III is a Yorkshire based textile group formed in 1995 following founder members' participation in City & Guilds. What was really interesting to hear about was their 'Group Critique'. We all get stuck sometimes and having a critical friend can really help. It sounds a bit daunting but as it was explained to us what emerged was a supportive commentary that members received.

Textilia have had project running over lockdown, similar to our 4" squares but a little more challenging than a monthly colour theme. They had 3 jars, one with a selection of techniques on slips of paper, 

one with colours and one with
prompts/themes. A random slip is taken from each jar and that becomes the prompt. Some were a little easier to make than others but they were all lovely. It's a great idea!

Members have all been busy, not least Jackie who has produced yet another lovely book.

The Red Dress

What a great project and stunning result. This has been a 12 year international collaboration with 244 embroiderers from 28 countries involved.

You can read all about it here.

A BIG Thank You

 

This is a bit of a summary of the year - I know it's not the end of the year but it seems an appropriate time to say thank you as it's a year since the Instagram account started and it's had a lot of support.

Our stitch group has been on the go for a long time - originally as Skipton Branch of the Embroiderer's Guild and now as Skipton Stitchers - bit of a challenge sorting that one out during lockdown! Despite the last year and a bit being scuppered by Covid, in many ways it has been really heartening to see the way the stitch community has shared and supported each other. 

We've had Zoom meetings (involved some rolling eyes at uncooperative technology) and new WhatsApp chats which have kept people in touch. Online workshops have been a godsend and there have been outdoor get togethers when permitted. It's so nice to be back to 'normal' meetings, if not quite as normal as before! I seem to have spent an awful lot of time on my laptop and setting up our Instagram account has kept me particularly busy - gathering photos from members and keeping track of what I have and haven't done 😂.

We have a new Programme Secretary - thanks to Sue for volunteering for that one! We have an interesting year ahead of us with outside speakers and workshops; we decided to utilise members' skills more and increase the number of member led workshops - we're a talented bunch and want to celebrate that. 

We had a really successful Yarndale and Exhibition - thanks to all who set up, organised, contributed or visited; we're also preparing for another exhibition, hopefully October next year.

So, in celebration of the past year's successes, despite Covid, here's some fireworks! (tag 45 #52tagshannemade)

Exhibition success!

 Thanks to the team who worked hard to organise our exhibition and all those who volunteered for stewarding, we had a great response and it was really lovely to see everyone's lockdown stitching. Here's a flavour of what was on display including SALs, workshop pieces and everything in-between; I didn't manage to get everything but I think there's a good representation here. I particularly like the plague mask Christine produced - very apt! Thanks also to everyone who paid us a visit, hope you found something you liked or to inspire you.