July 2019

Our group met last weekend and is growing still further with the addition of Annette Y. We welcome her to our group and hope she enjoys her time with us. Nine of us enjoyed a day full of creativity, fun and laughter. We missed Susan via an internet meeting, with technology not quite working on the day. Maybe next time.

Show and tell always brings out some amazing work, all of which is showed below.

Sheila's work 'Strata 2' is currently on display in the Bainz Gallery in Wangaratta.  The work was created for the exhibition, 'A Sense of Place' as part of the biennial Stitched Up Festival.  The work measures 50 cm by 50 cm and is stitched solidly with raised chain stitch using her own hand dyed threads and some commercial threads.  Additional found objects have been incorporated into the work.  The Stitched Up Festival is finished but the exhibition continues through to the end of July.

The Two stitched "postcards" above are by Leslie. Both are non assessed homework for Mary's Contemporary Stitch and Design Course. The brief was to use dense, straight stitches.

Continuing on from last months Rice Stitch exercise, Robyn has completed the flap for a shoulder bag. She has made the bag from Pig skin leather in three different colours. 

Jenny had turned her rice stitch exercise from last month into a scissor fob.

Jenny had also finished off a bobbin lace book mark. The pattern is from a book of 'Bedfordshire Lace Making' by Pamela Nottingham. The book mark is made using  a King Tut variegated quilting thread for the border, and  a combination of the King Tut thread and a Mettler Silk finish 100% cotton No 50 for the flowers. 

Jenny was also continuing on with her knitted shawl, working the final border. New things learnt with this project have been 'Bee Stitch', and joining the border to the main body as the shawl is worked.  The pattern is 'Hush little Baby Please Don't Cry'. 

Susan's embroidery started this month is a quote  from an artist whose exhibition Sheila and her saw on their  Bendigo trip back in 2018. 

Sheila and Susan traveled together during July visiting various art galleries.  They saw the Ceramic Award at the Shepparton Art Museum and the royal portraits at the Bendigo Art Gallery.  Then they spent three days taking in all the exhibitions in and around Wangaratta, that were part of the Stitched Up Festival.  The Wangaratta Art Gallery was exhibiting the Contemporary Textile Prize, where textiles are pushed and pulled in all kinds of directions.  Well worth a visit.  All interested textile addicts should attempt to attend the Festival in future.  You will be well rewarded.

https://www.stitchedupfestival.com/

Above is Susan's development of a design, using a small part of an image of a mixed media work in Shepparton as inspiration.

Susan has also been creating a 'Library of Shapes'  from their trip to Wangaratta. Thanks go to Julie Paterson for the idea. The double page image is an example of shapes that she collected from various exhibitions that they saw, and there is an example of the print blocks that Susan carved from her library of shapes

  Sheila was using lines repeated on an index card as part of her ICAD  challenge. 

The line used was one she created from an exercise on line earlier in the day. 

Our challenge for the morning was an exercise on line that Jenny had prepared. We all picked three types of lines from a container, then put pen to paper using the three words as inspiration.

Below are some of the results of this exercise that was produced on the day.

Our little group has grown and the inspiration and work produced is diverse. So please come back next month for another visit to see what we get up to.

June 2019

Eight  members attended our June meeting, including Susan, who traveled down from the Central Tablelands to join us in person. Marina dropped  in during her lunch break from the class she was attending, Suganthi joined us after lunch, and Wendy waved hello from a distance as she performed President's duties.

This month's activity was provided by Susan, a canvas work stitch, a 'rice stitch' variation. Normally, rice stitch is done in two colours, but there are six  stitches within the finished rice stitch, and for this variation  up to six different colours and shades/tones can be used to complete each stitch.  The stitch can be worked on canvas, open-weave linen, or Aida cloth, and needs to be a fairly large stitch to cover the fabric and avoid   the colours  blending into each other. This rice stitch variation is a great way to experiment with colour and pattern - the more colours and tones/shades the better.

  Sheila completed the rice stitch using a variety of her hand dyed threads.  She wants to do more sampling using heavier threads to completely cover the canvas or may change the stitch count.  This stitch is now on Sheila's 'to do' list.  

Robyn's rice stitch

Annette's Rice Stitch

Jenny's Rice Stitch

Susan's Rice stitch

Show and tell happened as we continued to experiment with rice stitch.

Sheila did a class with Carolyn Sullivan at Quilt NSW.  Carolyn supplied all the materials and taught the class her stitching techniques.  Sheila enjoyed the class and has plans for further work using the techniques learned.  More of Carolyn's work can be found at: http://www.carolynsullivan.com.au/

Annette had attended a mini workshop with Annette Meldrum at the last Lace Guild meeting. Above is her sample of Embroidered lace net. Another addictive form of embroidery to add to her list to experiment with.

Susan has found canvas work to be  so much fun, and has started on a bigger piece of canvas, using up yet more yarns as she  explores texture. A mix of stitches have been used which she found in an old book  "Needlepoint: An Illustrated Pocket Guide to over 80 Beautiful Patterns" (published in 1980). The piece should keep her busy for a while.

Jenny had finally finished a crocheted scarf that she began back in November last year. The motif pattern is from her Mum's collection, cut from an Australian Home Journal, dated January 1947. It was meant to be done in No 40 Crochet cotton to form a tray cloth, but Jenny worked it in 4 ply cotton.

Annette has been working on  baby shawl no 2 for 2019. Almost finished, it is being worked in 3ply  Bendigo wool. Knitted on 5mm needles -a square knitted in the round with  increases at the corners. Pattern is Shetland Old Shale. Note for the future do not buy knitting patterns off the internet they are not necessarily correct and you may need to do much thinking and reverse knitting to get the design to work.

Jenny was also knitting a baby shawl in 3ply Bendigo wool, and also found patterns off the internet quite often include mistakes. The pattern is 'Hush little Baby Please Don't Cry'. With this exercise, Jenny had learnt a new knitting trick called a 'Lifeline', where another thread can be knitted in across the row to hold stitches.  If a mistake is made further along, the work can be un-pulled, and the lifeline will hold the stitches, prevent them from 'running', and make them easier to pick up. Two lifelines can be seen in the photo above, and will be easily pulled out when not needed.

Sheila continued her daily activity of paper cutting during the month of May.  She made use of some of her painted and gelli printed papers.  Now that Sheila has briefly dabbled in paper cutting, she knows she has lots more to learn and looks forward to more cutting

Needing a daily project that might involve less time each day, Sheila has been participating in ICAD, Index Card A Day.  For the backgrounds, Sheila is using gelli prints and brayer cleanups.  The collaged papers are of-cuts from the paper cutting.  Sheila is documenting her work at:

https://www.instagram.com/thingstitcher/

I wonder what we will all get up to next month? Come back for another visit to find out.

April 2019

It was Easter Saturday, and we had nine attendees to  our group meeting, a great turnout for an Easter weekend. We also welcomed another possible new member in Lisa. 

Show and tell brought out a range of skills from our members.

 Jenny had appliqued her embroidered doily to a pieced background and turned it onto a tote bag. The doily had been given to her un-worked some years ago, the stitching done about ten years ago, and the crochet edge earlier this year. Jenny had raided her stash of fabrics to find the perfect colours, pieced strips together and added the doily. Shadow machine quilting holds the doily in place, and ditch stitching between the background strips holds it all to a backing fabric.

Gerri's landscape has been completed with fabric, fussy cutting and glue. It is her first attempt using the sewing machine to create. Seagulls have yet to be added.

Above is a  cot panel Annette is hand quilting for an expected baby in June. Her mother purchased cot panels for her grandchildren, and her intention was to hand quilt each one when expected great grand-children were coming. Some were completed and given before she died. Annette's  sister completed two after their mother passed, and Annette is  now completing one for her son and daughter in law.

 Sheila recently traveled with her quilt group to the small community of Picton to visit the local patchwork shop.  Lunch followed at the pub where Sheila collected a number of black paper coasters.  She has had fun doodling designs on them.  She might turn them over and doodle on the white side with a back pen next.

Jenny has been using up tiny scraps of even weave linen making small squares of Hardanger. Most of the filling stitches were new to Jenny, and after working quite a few in white, she thought, why not some colour? Jenny is still thinking what to do with them.

Leslie is continuing with the  "Counted Thread" - part of the Introduction to Embroidery Course - Year 2 she is undertaking. This sample above is a Hardanger design, which she  might make into something one day.

The above black-work sample is also part of Leslie's course. The stitching of the tree at the bottom is identical on the front and back of the fabric 

More completed canvas work embroidery for a second cushion by Susan. Last month's for a grey fabric chair, and this one for a burnt orange chair. Again, it was using up various Appleton's wools, in variations of rice stitch using up to six different colours for each completed stitch. There are about 16 different colours and shades used. The stitch is not a complicated one, covers canvas quite quickly, and many different patterns can be created depending on the colours chosen, and how they are used. Susan still has lots more yarn to use up, so is thinking of what next to do in canvas work. It's such fun!

Sheila's daily practice for the month of April is stitch collage, and she has decided to work an alphabet.  Using her hand dyed scraps of lace, ribbon, braids, trim and threads as well as scraps of commercial silk, she has created a letter of the alphabet each day of the month.  Sheila is undecided if the letters will be joined into a quilt or if they will be turned into a book of some sort.

More samples of Leslie's from her course . the one above is pattern darning.

Leslie's samples of cross stitch and Assisi from her course, and she has charted her own designs.

Baby knitting by Annette. A Kimono crossover baby jacket still needing buttons. 

Knitted with 3 ply Bendigo washable wool. This has been a favourite new born baby jacket with her own family's new mums.

Jenny has been progressing with her knitting. She has completed the back, one front, and started the second front of her new cardigan. Using a basic cardigan pattern from  the Paton's 'Classic Knits for Women - Book 1245', and a lace pattern from 'The Harmony Guide To knitting Stitches' , Jenny has created a border pattern to decorate her new cardigan. It is being worked in 8ply cotton from Bendigo Woollen Mills .

Susan had finished her  crochet scarf. The scarf is crocheted in Heirloom brand 8 ply  cotton. The pattern is her own, parts culled from several different books. The body of the scarf, in bright green, is a diagonal shell stitch, used 'extended' DC. This was then bordered in a light green  with DC stitches. The long sides were finished with a picot edging, and the short sides with a fringe-like edging created from chains and SCs, from Edie Eckman's 'Crochet Borders Around the Corner'.  It was supposed to be using up yarn, but Susan had to get extra for the borders, as she didn't have enough of the bright green. Now She will have to think of something to do with the less than 1 ball of cotton left.

Suganthi had been attending Lyall Willis's inktense classes on the 2nd Tuesday of the month at the Embroiderers Guild. She had been wondering how she might embroider/work on a butterfly, Lyall's class was the inspiration. Suganthi took this image   from the internet, which said the image can be used for free for personal use.

The image was then  copied  and coloured  using inktense pencils, then painted over with fabric medium - notice how very bright/intense  the painted colours are!

Suganti then  used split back-stitch in gold thread to outline.

Our activity on for the day  included "mock herringbone" stitch and also mixing threads in the needle. Both of these techniques are used by UK Textile Artist - Sue Stone - to create pattern and texture in her artworks. Above are our stitching results after a short period of time.

A great day was had by all as our little group grows with new creative members. The day went way too fast, as we all tried to catch up with what everyone had been doing.