19th November 2026

 

Jenny O'Leary with her presentation 'Building on Traditions' batik on tissue paper and fabric

 

Mini Workshop 13.00 - 15.30pm

Mini gift wallet    (part 2) 

15th October 2026

 

Elnaz Yazdani with her presentation 'Rethinking Embroidery'

 

Mini Workshop 13.00 - 15.30pm

Mini gift wallet    (part 1) 

17th September 2026

 

September social, A.G.M, coffee and cake 

Following the AGM, members took advantage of the opportunity to meet and chat with others, visit the sales table and view the wonderful variety of members work whether created for the Travelling books or undertaken at workshops. The coffee and cakes, provided by Sue, were enjoyed by all a fitting way to finish the meeting.

 16th July 2026

 'Quilts and more' was a presentation of a varied selection of work by Lesley Smith from her first quilt to her painted and free machine embroidered pictures.

 

 18th June 2026

The presentation by Christine - Paint, paper and thread was informative being illustrated by a large selection of her work which she passed around to view during the talk.

 

Initially Christine studied fashion and textiles, then in 2000 she took a City and Guilds course where her tutor encouraged exhibition work and workshops. For these she created books by colouring paper, cutting up magazines and painting them to form covers and then using ideas and/or pictures from magazines and travel brochures to create the books with themes for example gardening, holidays etc.

 

 

Christine likes stitching onto paper including ribbons, buttons etc and then forms these into books. She also paints on paper using acrylics or uses ink to colour/decorate and then stitches by hand or machine onto the paper, these are then formed into books by joining them together in creative forms eg circles which are folded into book shapes or keeping them as pictures either singly or as longer strips.

Her books can also be made with hinged covers which are used to 'house' collections of things she finds interesting, for example business cards, providing a record of these in one place.  Another book she used to display items she collected like pictures, cards, tickets,information, photos etc during a visit to Glasgow for a show.

She also makes 'luggage' type tags which she works on and then ties them together into a book. 
 

Christine designed a book made from recycled things like envelopes, gift tags,etc 'The book of memories', she gave this to a friend who filled it with items and sent it back to Christine as a present.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 For a TV programme she had to make book kits in quantity and all identical to sell and an American magazine asked Christine to do an article, this was the 'garden journal' a book made using layered papers and stitched together.

Christine experiments with images, stencils onto paper, uses acrylics to colour, tries fabrics, she also uses Japanese paper (from old ledgers), painting onto them through a stencil to create positive /negative images, and will also cut up pieces made and rearranges them in order to display/use.

 

 

 

The books Christine makes use board for the covers, for this she covers the card(grey board)  in Decovil which has a rubbery feel and is ironed on , this forms the spines and allows her to sew into them. Jelly plates are also used to make the covers but these can also be cut up to make designs for cards and tags for e.g. Christmas.

 

 21st May 2026

Hanny Newton's talk about her 'Adventures in metal thread embroidery' was very interesting  with lots of worked examples on display as well as interesting photos to illustrate the points made.

 

 

She spoke about her love of goldwork and using metallic threads. 

Identifying couching as a very useful method of using these threads with her work displaying the effects that could be achieved.

                                                             

 

Hanny talked about her commissions and large scale commercial work. Also how she adapts and designs to achieve effects with less stitching.

 

 

 

 

Whilst still loving goldwork  she has moved on to researching embroidering with straw She had beautiful examples of some of the effects which could be achieved.

 16th April 2026

Hayley Mills- Styles presentation 'My Life in Stitch' was  interesting and supported by her colourful and varied range of work.

Hayley has been embroidering for 42 years , she took a BA in textile crafts which covered crafts like machine knitting, embroidery, silk screen printing etc,. She followed this with an MA in textiles featuring digital embroidery involving scanning pictures and then converting into embroidery. Hayley then became a freelance artist creating her own pieces eg the pink cone, working on a variety of commissions as well as teaching workshops for example 'drawing with thread' in Leeds Central Library.

 

Community work like 'The unravelling Fantasia of Miss H' - Mary (Miss H) was incarcerated in the workhouse where she stitched. Hayley was approached by 'Stitched up Theatre' to run workshops, she asked the women to stitch something to depict what being a woman meant to them. The pieces produced by the women were then made into 3 banners by being patchworked together by Hayley. 

  

 A lot of work that she does makes use of vintage fabrics and found items. Hayley also creates work for exhibitions eg Prism, for the on in 2022 the theme was 'Untold' for this her piece was 'where is my mind' featuring old tins with strands of text of intrusive thoughts spilling from them. The words were machine embroidered onto soluble fabric in order to form the strands.

 

The 2023 exhibition theme was 'Warped' research led Hayley to warped pertaining to ships being pulled ashore by ropes so 'flotsom and jetsom' uses found ropes, rust dying, machine wrapped cords, bringing found pieces from various places together.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 The 2024 exhibition theme was 'Edgelands' for this Hayley embroidered pieces of graffitti taken from images in Leeds.

Threads of freedom  - was the 80 year commemoration of VE Day 'Our freedom then and now' workshops.

Hayley's current theme is 'Fancy Goods' i.e. those seen in the  tourist based seafront stalls/shops in Scarborough her buried treasure features beaded plastic buckets and spades (she sews the beads on), 'Pennyfalls' game Unicorn, bear etc and the 'dropped ice cream ' plates created with paint, beads etc.