16th November 2023

My road to ruins and beyond - a presentation by Leah Higgins

 

Mini workshop 1.00 - 3.30 pm

Button cushions part 2 

 19th October 2023

Who needs words? a presentation by Jane McKeating

 

Mini workshop 1.00 - 3.30 pm 

Button cushion - part 1 this will be the embroidery

part 2 in November will be completion of embroidery, putting together and making tassels

 21st September 2023

September social, AGM, coffee and cake 

Trisha (chair) welcomed all including visitors and thanked everyone for their continued support. She reviewed the year including the variety of excellent speakers and range of different work they created, the workshops and popularity of the mini workshops following meetings, finance, publicity, stitch together, sales table and raffles.

Thanks and presentations of flowers to:

Glenys who resigned from committee, but still takes entry fee and raffle money at meetings.

Jan (who is moving from the area)  for her work organising tea/coffee rota and supplies.

Lynn has now undertaken this role.

Notices/reminders

Exhibition at Nantwich museum approaches, theme is 'Seasons' although there will be a space for 'non seasons' work. Any type of stitched work hand/machine, any size, mount onto board/ box canvases, it must have mirror plates attached to it in order to fix to the walls in the museum.

NB Please e mail Trisha the rough size of the piece(s) of work you are creatingand also the season it depicts .

 If you are producing 3 D pieces of work we need to know the size as it has to be able to fit into the display cabinets in the museum. 

October/November mini workshops - 'Button Cushions'

Stitch together 1st and 3rd Monday of each month, now at St Annes Community hub - members welcome

Residential and 1.5 day workshops - Waddow hall now closed so would need a new venue if there is sufficient support for a residential type of course. 1.5 day workshops have seen a decline in interest/ perticipation with several having to be cancelled due to lack of numbers.

Any thoughts or suggestions please e mail Trisha

 

Winners of the Chairs Challenge 

(vote was tied)

Lynn Simpson and Judy Fairless

 

 

There was also a selection of work that members had produced at workshops.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Many thanks to Sue J for the wonderful selection of cakes that she made for the 'coffee and cake' social which followed the AGM.

 

 20th July 2023

'My travels with sketchbook, camera and needle' by Polly Woolstone was very interesting being illustrated with a selection of her work. 

Polly went to Art college and studied illustration and graphics, as she did not want to be a commercial artist she decided to teach art. Whilst doing this she went on courses including creative textiles and developed this in schools.

 

 

It was only when Polly went on holiday that she had time to do any of her own work when she created many sketch books. In 2002 events led her to return to cycling, this and a book 'A Bike Ride' provoked a visit to Ireland. In order to develop a theatre at her school Polly started fund raising with a sponsored bike ride around Ireland.

 

 

Her next sponsored cycle ride was during a sabatical term when Polly went to Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam ending the journey with 2 weeks in India.Throughout she recorded in a small concertina sketch book.

 

 

 

She fell 'in love' with India and returned several times including taking textile trips to India which resulted in experimentation and creation of her own work.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Polly uses sketch books to experiment with ideas /techniques, the temples and monuments in Myanmar, many in state of disrepair led to exploration of surfaces and texture through layering ( Fragments). 

She also makes use of free machine embroidery, an extension of drawing. 

Whispers in the wind - bird panel which is part of a series based on the Irish famine/deaths/emigration/cottages/words from songs/poems.  

 

 

 

Tide over pebbles

 15th June 2023

 

 'My art practice' by Maria Wigley was an interesting talk illustrated with examples of her work.

Maria likes making art and sees this as her interpretation of the world around her.

 She took a degree in Fashion and Textiles which involved taster sessions in printing, weaving, knitting and embroidery. During this Maria realised that embroidery could be applied to many different areas and importantly could be done on a small scale by hand at any time rather than requiring a lot of equipment and space. Within the embroidery she incorporates fabric manipulation.

Maria likes printing,drawing and writing and uses hand and machine embroidery to stitch words onto the fabric.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Her work has developed, with some of her inspiration drawn from plant structures, poetry and oriental paintings. Poetry is a creative way of writing, Emily Dickenson wrote on envelopes and scraps of paper, Maria uses this idea in her work creating envelopes and using 'asemic writing' - abstract caligraphy where the words create a picture although the words themselves are not legible and do not mean anything.

Maria uses a combination of painting and stitch (machine and hand embroidery), she uses sketch books to draw - line drawing using pencil/charcoal. Her work uses layers of paper, aqua film, chiffon/silk and various soluble fabrics which can be put in an embroidery hoop to support and then drawn on and stitched onto. Once the drawn and stitch samples are complete Maria assembles them and once happy stitches the layers together.

 18th May 2023

'Dearly Beloved, a history of wedding dresses' was an interesting and informative presentation from Jill (of Belladonna Roses) who is an embroiderer and corsetier .

Historically wedding dresses became the 'best' dress which was worn on Sunday and other special occasions not as we now have when the wedding dress is worn once for the wedding ceremony.

Originally wedding dresses were not white but varied colours (plain or patterned) eg green (for fertility). Green dresses were expensive as they had to be 'double dyed' first in blue and then in yellow. In Scandanavia black was worn as a wedding dress.

 

Wedding dresses were opulent but made in the style of the day so they could be reused.Corsets were worn under the dresses The actual wedding service only had a small number of people attending and was early in the day eg 8.00 or 9.00 am and was followed by the 'breakfast feast'.

This pink dress has a 'looped up' skirt which can be let down and features quilting to combat the cold, it is a functional dress.

 

 

Mary Queen of Scots/France wore a white wedding gown in 1565, the first to do so . Following this Royalty wore white, whilst those with aspirations wore ivory/cream, this best dress being saved until they were presented at court.

Veils started as an evening accessory and then as fashions changed began to be used at weddings although they did not initially cover the face. 

The white Georgian dress in muslin with its low neck and short sleeves would not have been suitable for church, so would have been worn with a polece /spenser jacket to provide a high neck and long sleves for modesty in church.Quite often over sleeves and pelerine (large collar), or under sleeves below puff sleeves were worn. The dresses in 1860's were made within a week and the fresh flowers were sewn on overnight.

 

 

 

 Detachable trains( attached at waist/shoulder/neck) were used to make the dresses more practical. Lace was only used after Empress Eugene of France wore so much at her wedding.In 1867 jacket, bodice and skirt were used as wedding ensembles.

 

 In France in 1880 beading and embroidery started to be used on wedding dresses.

This dress (far right) has a boned bodice, an overskirt and train, all made from 2 layers of tulle with vintage lace.

 

 

The 1950's saw the arrival of 'off the peg' wedding dresses (cream dress) as well as patterns for people to make their own dress as evidenced in the white shorter dress

Crochet wedding dress from the 1980's

 20th April 2023

Lynne Stein with a presentation 'Hook,Prod,Punch and Tuft'

 

Mini workshop 1.00 - 3.30pm 

Part 3 -   Embelishment Dorset Buttons, Suffolk puffs etc

 2024 Notice board - 

Connected Threads -Stitch together

Meets twice a month on the 1st and 3rd Monday from 9.30 - 12.30, at St Annes Community Hub Nantwich . Open to all members, £3.00 fee payable at each meeting, bring your own stitching/knitting etc.

Tea/Coffee Rota

16th May  - Sue B, Stevie N,

New co ordinator for tea/coffee  is Lynn

Exhibition 1st May to 6th July 2024 at Nantwich Museum 'The Seasons'

Please submit you work for the exhibition at the meeting on 18th of April or asap after that date to Trisha.

NB All work should have a label including:  the name of the contributor, description of piece, value for insurance,whether it is for sale or not.

List for volunteers to sign up for any of the 4 Saturday's identified, 11th and 25th May, 8th and 22nd June .

Hoping to have 2 volunteers present to talk to visitors about the group, work and pieces in the exhibition.

Opening time is 10.00 to 15.00 divided up into 2 sessions eg 10.00 - 12.00 and 12.00 - 15.00.

If insufficient numbers of volunteers available idea will be abandoned.

 

16th March 2023

'A layered story'  presentation by Suzette Smart

 

Suzette has always stitched and created starting at a young age, using kits, weaving , sewing etc and this is what she always wanted to do. She did a B Tech in Art and Design which involved collage and wire and then went on to a degree in Fashion and Textile design.

Whilst her children were young Suzette bought a machine which she used for free embroidery, creating stories and thread pictures (no fabric used). This constrained the size of her pieces of work so she included fabric, this has also involved repurposing of pieces of existing work into her new work through the process of collage.

 
Piece created for Exhibition in 2016 - used a vintage dress as the base /foundation which Suzette cut up and re put together - it is based on a map of where she lives with journeys depicted in thread.

For this Suzette used a dress that she had as a child as a template and then included ideas from nature. She uses pieces of fabric with memories, paint, mixed media to recreate the dress shape and decorates it with birds, flowers, fruits and words.

This was inspired from the garden during the 'lockdown' period, with the darker flowers reflecting the mood. The background was created using fabric crayons for the rubbings with the story being told in the top layers (flowers/words etc)

This piece is worked on a old tablecloth and features hexagons, windows, (open fabric to reveal image) animals which are created through stitch and then applied and images transfered onto fabric which is cut up and collaged onto the background.

 16th February 2023

'World Textiles' presented by Sue Simper 

Sue is a teacher with a passion for textiles, she has taught creative textiles and been involved with the Quilters Guild. Throughout she has collected a wide variety of textiles from around the world to provide inspiration, record traditional making techniques as well as patterns/decoration, identify lifestyles and cultures of the people who made them.

 

We enjoyed looking at and handling the textiles and were encouraged to think about and discuss, how they were made, what they were used for , where they originated, what they told us about where people lived, their beliefs etc.

 

 

 

 

 

Mini Workshop from 1pm 

Print and Stitch Rolls  (first of two mini workshops)

First workshop session will be printing