17th July 2025

 

'Paint with fabric, draw with stitch' - presentation by Melanie Baugh 

19th June 2025

'Felted journey with botanical colours'  by Helen Melvin 

 

Helen's journey started with spinning, she was then taught felting by Sheila Smith  making a scarf and then waistcoats, throughout this process she kept records and learned much from the making process.

She also uses the wool to crochet, making for example a 'fantastic coat'. 

 

  She then went to a natural dye workshop (initially Helen used synthetically dyed textiles) and following this has created her own natural dyes which she uses to dye merino wool for her work. She uses concentrated extract of natural dyes to paint onto fabric/wool/fibres.

An exhibition of textiles/felt from Central Asia - Kyrgyzstan, influenced her ideas for colours, patterns and designs. All the dyes used were natural and this led Helen to use indigo.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Helen has produced 4 books related to natural dyes including colours of sea and sky (indigo) and colours of the rainbow.

 Initially she made her own paper to stitch, batik, paint over with inks and then rip up in order to stitch by hand or machine onto her pictures as featured on the stones i the river in spate picture.

In other work Helen uses fine Japanese paper, stitched and painted together with ideas from the countryside which she develops to create pictures eg Slate fences, stone walls, path to the stile and standing stones (machine and hand stitched into with doodles). 

 

 

 

Japanese papers have a long staple length and can be felted in with wool which meshes with the paper, this when dried holds its shape. Helen uses this process to make the 'wasp like ' vessels. The finer the paper the softer the structure of the vessels is. Helen also makes felt, stitches into it and felts it further which distorts the stitches.

 

 

Helen uses 'solar dying' using solar pots - she uses Kilner jars to put dye in with one colour at the bottom and another at the top (multi colour), then puts wool or silk fabric into them and leaves them in the sun, this creates multicoloured fibres and 
fabrics to use.  

 15th May 2025

 

Catherine's work and her talk was detailed and interesting certainly demonstrating her 'Way with words' .

She comes from Lancashire her family having been connected with farming, cotton mills and industry. She has always stitched, but took a degree in maths and then taught. However in 2012 she was a leader for Quilts for London a project creating penants to give to olympic athletes of which 25,000 were produced and collected. 

Catherine's interests are felting, Dorset buttons,eco -dying using plants from her garden, patchwork, quilting and hand embroidery. She is particularly interested in how thread reacts with or compliments fabrics.

For her work Catherine uses a size 10 quilting needle, hoop/frame, appropriate threads eg vintage sylko to create the words which are the narrative telling the story, for the words she uses upper case as they are easaier and quicker to stitch. She tends to work in red (Red rose of Lancashire) and black with occassional accents of other colours.

Catherine researches collecting books of Lancashire poetry, history etc. 

When designing Catherine knows the size, shape, where it is to be hung etc proir to stitching/creating the piece eg at 1st sight she wanted a red square of colour and then the words to be revealed.

The words used may be of personal experiences (eg summer 76) or memories of others (summer 2022) Catherine collates and manipulates the words in order to create the piece of work.

Worker bee and the sound of the mill 2021 - the bee is the symbol associated with Manchester and the words are from a poem written in 1864, the words are stitched into rust dyed fabric and surround the image.

Life's rich pattern - as words are aspects of her life they inspired 'Time for Tea' the clock and the menu.

Cheesegrater with recipe for her mother's cheese and onion pie  2019.

Covid 19 - Memories of what was said and felt were doccumented.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Accrington Pals 2023 (Rose) - tells the story and honors the 720 men(represented by 720 french knots) who 'went over the top' that day with only 100 returning.

 

 

 

 

 

Memories - take time to smell the roses (2019) words and time, 1st piece of work exhibited.

Match box challenge 2023 - as children were given a match box and the competition was to collect as many items as possible to fit into it. Catherine created the Bryant and May match box using silk and vintage sylko, to display her work.

 

 

 17th April 2025

Tudor dress and the ordinary woman was an interesting and informative talk by Sarah Thursfield (Medieval Tailor).

Sarah went into re-inactment to make clothes, she had undertaken a City and Guilds in Fashion in the 1980's and learned pattern drafting and fitting and applied this to making clothes.  She is interested in the technical development of clothing from early needles and thread and the making of fabric through to Tudor times. By the 16th century, despite the home industry of spinning/weaving/lace making these were all produced for manufacturers to make into clothing. Tailors bought cloth and made clothes, there were also seamstress', glovers and shoemakers together with luxury trades making ruffs, silk buttons etc.

It is harder to find what ordinary people wear, the high fashion portrayed in pictures/paintings was only for the rich and royalty. Over the 16th Century there was a move from flowing medieval to clothes worn by Elizabeth I, tailored dresses with square neck, fitted bodice,gathered skirt, wider sleeves.

 

Elizabethan look 1580's a pair of French bodies (corset) which lace at the front and back.The front fitting over the stomacher providing the Elizabethan 'V' shape waist. A bum roll and farthingale would be worn with this to support the skirt.

  Knitted sleeves or fabric sleeves were produced to wear, these could be tucked under short sleeves, or tied on to gown or doublet.

Stockings started as being made from fabric held up with garters and were then knitted and also held up with garters.

Collars can be increased in height and edged with lace or deep 'ruffles' gathered /pleated fabric to create a 'ruff' effect.

Surface decoration can be applied on clothes to enhance eg sleeves, collars/ruffs

     Embroidered Coif

 20th March 2025

 

'Step by step' in this presentation Kay related how walking influences her inspiration and the work she creates.

She decided to retire to Cumbria for the landscapes,views, walking opportunities etc. Kay had always been interested in art and at an exhibition met a textile artist which led her to a City and Guilds in embroidery. She loves working with material and stitch to create textures as seen in her panels based on rocks, minerals and crystals.

A large panel created as part of her certificate course was based on the theme 'our garden' Kay took photos which she manipulated in photoshop and created the piece using calico which she painted and stitched.

Following her diploma Kay started to exhibit her work and also run workshops, then for the Friends of Higham Scholarship she created 10 pieces of work based on rocks/minerals/geology/stonecircles - Journey through time quilt.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The theme for the Northern Threads contemporary textiles group was Fragmentation - torn by time, disintegration, splintering - for this Kay used fabrics torn into strips to produce the fragmented landscape, her colour palette was green/grey featuring stripes of wool and with words embroidered on to it.

For Cumbria above and below ground, having walked all the Wainwrights she took this as her theme, creating backgrounds including patchwork, each panel consisted of 9 patches, Kay wanted not an accurate representation of places, but of memories/ how she felt. Foxgloves down Lingy end was one piece, another Scarfell Pike with the hill. For this she used a fabric background then applied the shape of the hills with paint, dyed fabrics to applyand embroidered, organza printed with words ' the stream of consciousness' was added.

 

 

 

 

 

Thinking about the impact textiles have through water use, dyes etc Kay considered how she could minimise her footprint and turned to recycling.Panel features an old Victorian dress, she unstitched the back opening it out to become the panel, then has hand stitched torn /ripped fabric to this and added embroidery. She has also torn old blue fabrics into strips and re stitched them to create 'Ocean' panels.

Kay also paints fabric using earth pigments and soya milk (home made), applies free machine stitch to create images interpreted from pictures.

She ecoprints, using silk, camomile and rusty nails - the long panels she created being hand stitched and appliqued with leaves.(silver birch) 
 

 

 

 20th February 2025

Julia Wright Landscape surfaces 

Julia is based in Manchester and works in mixed media and jewellery, which has led her to create detailed small scale pieces. 

She has a family background which includes art, textiles and creative work.She initially undertook an Art foundation course where she discovered she was a maker rather than a painter which led her to a degree working with all materials and techniques. After this Julia worked in an Art gallery where she learned what was required to exhibit work and how to work with galleries. She also gained a teaching qualification, initially teaching adults, then high school art and 6th form A level textilesand Art foundation where she encourages students to explore ideas, experiment and play to see what works.

Julia draws a lot, she collects natural objects eg fir cones, stones, fossils, observes cracks in pavements, tree roots, fungi, rock strata, landscapes, sea shore, barnacles, waves etc, where ever she goes she takes with her small concertina sketchbooks to fill with her observational drawing. She gathers shapes, patterns, textures, structural shapes and then combines these with imagination to create loosely themed work.

Julia uses fabric manipulation, crochet, knitting, macrame, embroidery, working with natural fibres, recycled items,plastic, metal eg rings,wire, dying fabrics and threads herself to obtain the neutral/earthy/rust/natural colour palette required.

When knitting Julia uses needles of different size and will knit creatively to distort the surfaces. She will then crochet or weave into this also adding 'wraps' (fabric wrapped round with threads)and stitched'blobs' . 

 

Embroidery is used as a mark making tool to add colour/detail/texture, Julia has been inspired by the Japanese 'Boro' mending techniques comprising dots, dashes and linear marks.

Roots 2017 explored ideas of growth and decay

Coastal inspiration 2020 - coral structures, using multiple layers, worked in white and hand stitched.

 

 

 

 

 

Circles indicate continuity, use hand dyed muslin, threads, yarns, wrapped pieces and holes. Holes are created by pulling fabric to separate strands, she then stitches these, using small firm stitches, to form and hold the circles and holes.

 

 

Orange bark was inspired by Australia with its red earth/landscapes, Julia hand dyed cotton, linen, muslin, silk, including copper wire, paper and rubber.

Yorkshire dales landscapes

 

 

 

 

 

 

St Ives Cornwall series - undertook one per day during holiday, used neutral colour to focus on texture, pieces feature barnacles, bubbles left by waves etc.

 

 16th January 2025

Leah gave an interesting and informative presentation entitled 'My road to ruins and beyond' which took us through her journey in textiles, printing, stitch and quilt making.

 

 

Leah learned to stitch, knit,crochet early as mother and gran sewed, she went on to make her own clothes including wedding dress, but her sewing was all practical rather than decorative.

In 1986 she was asked to make a quilt - something she had not done before. Leah cut out 12" squares of fabric, sewed them together, backed , filled with wadding, stitched in places. From this Leah set out to learn more about quilts, she made more but then decided she wanted to design her own.

 She took a City and Guilds in patchwork and quilting, although she enjoyed the practical she did not like the sketch book element.Leah learned to dye fabrics,made quilts and to achieve the sketch book she put all the pictures she had taken during the creation of the quilt together.

Leah studied the making of art quilts, learned screen printing techniques and went in a new direction screen printing a piece of fabric and then adding some applique and stitching.(arrows)

The next technique was building layers - Sin city based on Las Vagas and gambling. The background for the piece was 'sin city'printed repeatedlyin different colours and font sizes to build up the layers and then had detail stitched in.

Leah's next was colour studies taking inspiration from Shanghai, she used procein dyes to print layers, then chopped up the fabric, arranged to give desired effect, then pieced/sewn together into a quilt/s.

The ruins series was based on abandoned/ruined buildings, featuring rust/moss/ industrial remains. For this Leah used breakdown printing- a process which gives organic marks/texture to create the fabric, which she then cut up , sewed back together and applied stitch to enhance - brick kilns were her inspiration.

 

Dinure featured colours based on lichens, stones etc and Leah used two different screens, one with calm/restful words, where she used lighter colours, the other with angry/worried/anxious words, where darker colours were used.

The Print series was inspired by the 'red top'papers and the typeface Frankin Gothic heavy.

Democracy - was inspired by the Brexit debates and who speaks for me. The pandemic and lockdown interupted this but did lead Leah to a 2nd book - Colour your Palette as well as online workshops.

  

 

 

 

 

 

Cadence series - blue-white-blue with an orange strip and stitch featuring in the middle, the theme being randomness.