October 2020

Our group met via Zoom again this month, with seven of us in attendance. There was much discussion of our current exhibition as well as show and tell.

Lesley has nearly finished her cushion in Tuscan Lace

Sheila has been preparing for Christmas making her annual tree decoration to give to family and friends.  She has also created her own cards.  Unfortunately, these are all under wraps until they have been received by the family and friends.  She has also started working on a major embroidery for the Embroiderers' Guild biennial Margaret Oppen prize.  Another work that can't be shown.

With so much work needing to be kept from the public eye, Sheila has pulled out some old work.  Following a course with Dorothy Caldwell, Sheila began exploring stitch on paper.  Using a discarded piece of craft paper, she added basic stitches to each page and then created a small book.  She has since gone on to create a number of major works involving stitch on craft paper.

After discovering how to make books using a single sheet of paper, Sheila went on to create a stitched fabric book.  A large piece of calico was covered in scraps of organza with a grid of machine stitching to stabilise them.  She then added a stamped design and stitched lines and shapes using her hand dyed threads.  When the stitching was finished, she folded the book and machined a cord of heavy thread around the page edges.

Jenny had been experimenting with some drawn thread. Cutting 6 and leaving 8 threads. Exposed threads had been wrapped and the larger holes were filled in with woven wheels. A Crochet thread was used for the woven wheels, so consequently they all have a mind of their own .

Jenny had also been internet surfing and landed on  this page  After reading, Jenny had discovered that pulled thread stitches could be worked over a background with threads removed in only one direction. here we see an experiment in wave stitch. In the top half wave stitch has been worked in one direction leaving one thread between the stitches. On the bottom half, wave stitch has been worked in the opposite direction leaving no threads between the stitches. 

Jenny had also made herself a new little Christmas decoration. Using a photograph from the internet as inspiration, Jenny charted the design and worked it in Perle thread on Belfast linen.

Annette's Dorset Feather stitch sampler. Her sister found the 1957 Olivia Pass Dorset Feather Stitchery book. She thought Annette needed it to accompany her journey with Dorset Buttons.

 

A little Summer Cardigan knitted by Annette in a  Bendigo Woollen Mills pattern. Worked with 8ply cotton, it still needs to be stitched together and buttons

This month is Inktober and Sheila has been participating using the prompts as her guides for each drawing.  The drawings are of a 30 cm mannequin and drawn with a small variety of coloured pens.  The drawings are in a craft paper accordion book with each page around 10 cm square.  The full set of drawings can be found at:  https://www.instagram.com/thingstitcher/

This is the 1st in what Annette  hopes will be an embroidered series of her travel photos. Watercolour pencil, applique and stitch with silk thread. Annette Loves the contrast of her daughter's blonde hair in the moving sea of Japanese people visiting a shrine in Tokyo.

Annette has been looking at photos from when we were able to travel. Years of work ahead and great memories.

COVID 19 is still circulating around, though restrictions have been lifted and contact tracers are working overtime. It is with great excitement that our group hoped to meet in reality next month.

 

September 2020

 Vlinders, Papillon and Butterflies

Our exhibition is  snow open on level 2,  Gallery 76, 76 Queen Street , Concord West. NSW.

We have all been working hard towards our exhibition and it is now open for viewing. COVID set us back a few months, though we have pulled through and the exhibition is now open. 

We still held our meeting via Zoom last Saturday, with five of us attending. Show and tell is always a treat.

Jenny had finished off another pincushion. This one had begun life as a sample for a major piece using a pulled thread stitch. The pin cushion is now with it's new owner.

Jenny had also made a needle case using scraps of linen from the same major piece. Jenny had no plan, and just started stitching. First with a buttonhole stitch edge, then a row of satin stitch and eyelets. The piece talked to her as she worked and finally grew to this needle case featuring Hardanger and pulled work. Threads used were left overs from another project. The needle case is now with its new owner.

A small section of Jo's butterfly which is part of our  Vlinders, Papillon and Butterflies exhibition. The piece is called 'Golden Butterfly' and features Gold metal leaf, machine embroidery’ French knots and appliqué. 

A snippet of Jenny's little butterfly trinket bag. The piece features counted 'Blackwork' stitches worked in blended threads.

A section of one of Robyn's butterflies featuring wire, needle lace and beads.

For the exhibition, Sheila created a number of butterflies using painted fabric samples made in a class.  The design on the fabric was the starting point for each butterfly.  This butterfly has a hand dyed cord couched over the design on the fabric and a painted felt body.  She made ten butterflies for the exhibition.

Lesley's current work in progress is apiece of Tuscan Lace. The  project is featured in  "Inspirations" issue 103. The design is by Maria Elide Melani of Italy and the technique is Deruta Sfilato. 

Jo's current project is playing with Valdani pearl cotton with satin stitch.

Jenny's current project is a piece of Hardanger, also using Valdani pearl cotton in a variegated colour. The design is from Inspirations magazine no 106 and is by Di Kirchner of Australia. 

Sheila took part in the Inchie challenge hosted by Amy Maricle:  https://www.instagram.com/amymaricle/.  She took the resulting pieces and created a small accordion button book.  Then she created a box to hold the work.  The circular pages were painted with fluid acrylics and marked with a variety of markers and paint pens.  The box was made with gelli printed card and is based on a box that Sheila has had in her collection for many years.

For the month of August, Sheila stitched on a heavy paper previously marked with india ink.  When the pages ran out before the end of the month, she converted to tracing paper, marked with white paint.  The completed pages have been assembled into a book with a coptic binding.  Details of individual pages can be found on Sheila's Instagram account:  https://www.instagram.com/thingstitcher/

Even though COVID 19 has been been making it's presence known, we have all been stitching and creating. Our exhibition  'Vlinders, Papillon and Butterflies' is  snow open on level 2,  Gallery 76, 76 Queen Street , Concord West. NSW. Please drop by in reality and have a look. Until next month, happy stitching.

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.