A day of planning

 Monday's meeting was a 'doing day'! Aside from a committee meeting we had a group folding fabric and packing it to sell at Sheep Day. Sheep Day returns to Skipton on Sunday 26th June and we will be there so please drop by and say hello; it was lovely to meet and chat with people back in 2019 and it will be great to get out and about again. We will have our packs of fabric to sell and as always you can access some little tutorials/workshops on the Tutorials and Resources tab on this Blog if you need a bit of inspiration. I think we have some of the brooch kits left from Yarndale last year so grab one if you haven't already. It will also be the last chance to nab a Morsbag. Morsbags are great - they're fabric bags made from our stashes to replace plastic bags and are absolutely free; we only have a few left and don't plan on making them again. 

We also had a bit of a chat about our upcoming exhibition at the end of October on the theme There is no Planet B. Keep an eye out for more details.

And of course there was stitching. Clare brought in her 'bonkers' (her words) piece of recycled embroidery which is fabulous! She also brought an enormous roll of green wool - we have plans for that on Sheep Day - come and have a look, you might get to wield needle and thread!

Celebrating Serena

 One of our own, Serena, has been a member of the Embroiderer's guild for 50 years and to celebrate she set us some challenges. We had to do some recycling. Serena has a habit of collecting calico bags from various car boot sales and recycling stores (usually from gin festivals!) so the challenge was to decorate one; she also brought some fabric from sample books and this was to be used however we wanted. Today was judging. We all voted for our favourites in the two categories and then Serena picked her favourite. Our prize... Spinning Jenny vouchers (a shop for stitchers in Grassington).

Here are the three winners.

And the other entries.

Matryoshka and remembering Deborah Mullins

Our member led workshop today was needlefelted matryoshka dolls. Thanks to Sue D for organising this. We had a lovely day stabbing away at merino wool tops creating our dolls. There were various shapes, sizes, colours and interpretations! We managed to finish the day without too many stabbing injuries although there were a few broken needles. Here's an assembly of dolls in various stages of completion.

In 2019 Deborah Mullins gave us a great talk on Palestinian embroidery and we were due to have a workshop with her in March 2020. Deborah gave us some wool tops to prepare the bases for the embroidery ahead of the workshop, but then we all know what happened in the March! Unfortunately Deborah passed away and we were left with her kind donation of wool tops. So, today, we turned them into our dolls and while they're not Palestinian I'm sure she wouldn't have minded.

Zara Day Workshops

I recently took part in one of Zara's online Zoom courses. It was really great, I thoroughly enjoyed it. This is my bird from Course 11!

You can see work from other courses she has run here

Zara is running some more if you fancy a go. 

zara@zaradayembroidery.com

May Timetable

 

Course 10 – Ebb and Flow – Wednesday 4^th May – 4.00pm – 6 sessions £45.00

Course 11 – Decorative Birds – Thursday 5^th May – 4.00pm – 6 sessions £45.00

Course 12– Layering and Cutting Away – Tuesday 3^rd May – 4.30pm – 6 sessions £45.00

Mini Make – Paper and Stitch – Monday 9th, 16^th May and 11th 6^th June 4.30pm – 3 sessions £40.00

Diamond Awl Workshop

What a great day we had today with Jason and Louise from Diamond Awl Leather Workshop. We made coin purses and throughly enjoyed ourselves. We made a bevelled edge on our leather blanks (took a bit of practice!), stained and polished the edges and then got to grips with the stitching. Again some more practice wielding two needles at once on the same piece of waxed thread and lots of muttering under our breath to get the stitch sequence correct. 

                           

We all managed to produce a lovely little purse and had a great sense of achievement at the end of the session. Jason and Louise were great; we were inspired!

                                
   

Sketchbook Revival 2022

 It's a FREEBIE!

Starts March 21st, 29 free workshops. I've done this in previous years and it's a great idea. Click HERE to take you to the sign up website.

Inktense

 Well, we made it to the meeting in spite of the weather doing its level best to disrupt things in recent days. We had a lovely day, led by one of our members Jackie, on using Inktense pencils.

                                                                

The lovely flowers in Jackie's lockdown quilts are fabric coloured with Inktense pencils and then blended with aloe vera gel. We experimented and found hand sanitiser gel works fine too! 

The first job was some individual leaves (Jackie has a cunning plan for these!).

Then we tackled some roses. It was really good fun and thanks go to Jackie for the time and effort spent in preparing all the materials for us to play with.

Here's one of Jackie's finished pieces which she has quilted trapunto style...

...And some of the variations we produced on the day.

             

     

Blooming Technology!

 I'm not an expert at sorting out hiccups with social media accounts and I've had a very frustrating couple of days. I used to be able to switch between my personal Instagram account and our skiptonstitchers one without logging out on my laptop - there was an option in the drop down menu in my profile. However, I have discovered that it has disappeared! I now have to constantly log in and out of both accounts. It's fine on my phone but not on the laptop anymore. Why is that then? It's infuriating! I've also discovered that only the FaceBook link works on the blog when in Google Chrome - Instagram doesn't, Pinterest doesn't. Everything works on plain old Google and Safari. Why is that then? What is going on? 😡 It's beyond me.

I can't sort it out, I've tried... 

Drop me an email skiptonstitchers@gmail.com if you have a solution. 

I give up. 😖

Textile Coffee Morning

Some information you might be interested in.

TEXTILES COFFEE MORNING - Mon 24 January, 11am

 Are you thinking of investing more time in your creative passions in 2022? Interested in studying with like-minded textiles enthusiasts? Join us for an informal chat about FdA Textiles Practice, a part-time blended-learning course, designed to fit around other commitments.

 The Coffee Morning takes place online, with opportunities to chat to current students and learn more about the course.

Places are FREE but booking is essential. To book you place, email course leader Hannah Lamb: h.lamb@bradfordcollege.ac.uk

Change of Plan for Monday 17th January meeting

 Just a quick note to say Monday's workshop will be Gail's Crazy Patchwork; Jackie's Inktense workshop will move to February.

There is some preparation to do ahead of time - fabric shapes need to be stitched to the backing fabric. The pattern and instructions are in the Tutorial & Resources tab on here.