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.

August 2019

Our group grew further this month with the addition of Margaret K who will be joining us, bringing our total numbers up to 16 when we are all present. For this month we had 12 in attendance, including Gerri who returned  after a long absence, while Susan and Donna joined us from country NSW via the internet and Zoom.

Our creative exercise for the day was led by Sheila. Our task for the day was to learn and play with woven picots. Above we can see Robyn's efforts in making them stand up to add texture.

Show and tell is always a treat with some amazing work being produced.

Gerri had pieced a landscape by machine using applique.

Leslie had completed her butterfly for the goldwork  module of the Introduction to Embroidery - Year 2 course. 

The duck is another "postcard" for the CS and D Course that Leslie is doing, and features dense straight stitching, using a low key colour palette. 

A hanging pin cushion by Gerri with a pocket for nic nacs.

Another butterfly by Leslie for the Applique module of the Introduction to Embroidery - Year 2 course. 

This month Robyn has started on her butterfly projects for May 2020 exhibition at the Embroiderers Guild NSW.  Above we see two brooches inspired by butterfly wings. Stitched with one strand of silk through tea bag paper. Some colour has been added with water colour paint.

Jenny had found four  half finished bookmarks looking for something else. This one features wave stitch as a filling, and only needed a tassel to be finished.

The second book mark features eyelets and some uneven satin stitch, and also only needed a tassel to be finished.

The third one features eyelets, satin stitch, and cobbler stitch, and also just needed a tassel to be finished.

The fourth one features eyelets combined with a diagonal satin stitch, and a fourth tassel was made to complete it

Jenny had also finished and blocked her latest baby shawl.  The pattern is 'Hush little Baby Please Don't Cry', free on-line, but with mistakes in the pattern. Jenny overcome the pattern mistakes, and also made it larger.

Some years ago Jenny had attended a workshop with Christine P Bishop. The workshop was for a Dresden style table mat featuring pulled work, and a curved hem with picots. The attraction was to   learn how to work  curved hems on even weave linen. All the stitching on the piece had been completed, and only the hem was left to do.

The hem has now been completed, the piece has been blocked, and is now waiting to be cut.

A postcard size exercise worked by Lisa in straight stitch (back stitch) in high key colour. Inspired by a photo sourced online of a piece of architecture, Lisa  drew on the shapes, lines and curves of the design. It’s for Mary’s  Colour and Design class.

More of Robyn's butterfly inspiration, running stitch  on an original applique design .

Robyn has also been couching the cordonnet on her original butterfly design before doing the Needlelace fillings.

Susan had finished her latest "quote embroidery".
 The quote itself is from a work by Raquel Ormella, and is Susan to a 'T'. It is stitched in stranded cottons, with the background in irregular satin stitch blocks, and the script is in chain stitch. Over a dozen different colours and shades were used to complete the embroidery.

Gerri had been making a crocheted bag. Decorated with hand made flowers, it has been made reversible with a zippered pocket.

Gerri has also been turning our circle exercise from last year into cushion covers. They are still a work in progress.

Suganthi's work in progress - a collage - a non-assessable task for Mary Brown's component of the Contemporary Stitch and Design course.

Materials used: Black cotton, silver paint, glue, thread, beads, cut out flowers from her fabric stash, cut out sari borders bought from Blockwallah at the Craft and Quilt Fair in Sydney.

Thank you all for visiting. I wonder what we will all get up to next month? Please come back next month to find out.

March 2018

Our little creative group met in the library again, beginning the day with a fun exercise by Annette. We were all handed a little kit which contained the beginnings of a cute little needle roll, and a blindfold. The object of the exercise was to stitch blind onto pre-prepared fabric, then later we added some foils.

This is our results of stitching blind. The sample on the left is Annette's finished one

This is the results of our samples once we ad added some foils.

Annette's finished needleroll, both inside and out,  to show us what to turn our creations into.

Following this fun little exercise, we continued with show and tell

This hanging by Sheila was her entry into last year's Margaret Oppen Competition. The theme for the competition was 'Diamonds and Other Treasures'. Sheilas hanging consisted of paper, wrinkled and stitched to create faces. The diamonds have been machine stitched to a background.

Jenny had finished stitching on her 'A year in Stitches' blackwork/drawn piece and was beginning to put it together into a needle book.

These two samples of needle darning are by Robyn. The patterns are by Heath Matthews and Robyn is using Pearle 8 variegated thread.

Jenny had finished the final band on her blue drawn and pulled sampler. The band is a Schwalm design from the book 'Schwalm Whitework' by Renate Fernau. This is the final band on her sampler which so far has taken 7 years of work. 

Annette had started on her coloured pulled thread 'Peacock Feathers'. The instructions have been carried around for many many years and now hope to be completed

Wendy had taken on board some suggestions from the group last month to add  to her 'Stitching on the go' pieces. Suggestions were to add smaller daisies in finer thread to the top one,  and to add red to the bottom one. Wendy is much happier now.

Gerri had been making biscornu pincushions using up scraps from her stash. They feature some surface stitching and button embellishment.

This journal cover of Sheila's is made from an old carry bag that was beginning have seen better days. The better parts have been re-purposed onto this cover.

This is Sheila's new carry bag. It features an old cross stitched rabbit that has been re-purposed.

. This organza work is by Gerri,  for the installation at the Craft and Quilt exhibition. She has used both single and double stranded thread in her surface stitching. The colours  reflect the seasons.

These are Christmas teddies made by Gerri using a tartan fabric and polyester filling. Faces are embroidered using surface stitching.

Gerri’s mandala uses surface stitching to explain that all comes from the heart. This reveals how Gerri enjoys coming to our little group meetings at HQ. The mandala includes the needlework that we do; various aspects of our new building - the library; the walls designs; the sharing of coffee and ideas, as well as friendship experienced in the group. The Mandala was our design exercise from last month.

Gerri has also made some very quick needle cases using scrap fabric and embellishments from her stash.

In preparation for Easter Gerri has used rice paper decoupage techniques with a spray sealant to make these eggs. The eggs were made of paper mache.

. This is Gerri's contribution for the postcard installation that the EG will have at the  craft and Quilt exhibition. Gerri has used all manner of fastenings, combining stitching for repairing and joining fabric.

Sheila's personal challenge for the year is to create art every day. She will be changing her focus each month. January was to do an expanded square every day. The photo above and the photo below are just two of her expanded squares.

In February, Sheila's art focus was on collage, using only an architectural magazine and creating an alphabet. The above two photos are of her letter W and P.

In December the focus was on stamp carving. Above is her trial at stamping pattern repeats. 

Annette had made these socks on 2.75mm needles using Bendigo Woollen mills multi coloured sock yarn. The pattern was also purchased from Bendigo Woollen mills.

Jenny is in the process of knitting herself a new cardigan using an alpaca/wool blend in 8ply from Bendigo Woollen mills.  Using the Paton's Classics for Women pattern book, combined with a decorative pattern  from her 'Harmony Guide to Knitting Stitches' book, Jenny has finished the back and is now working on her left front.

Now for some fun Australian Flora and Fauna Christmas decorations worked by four different members of the Southern Highlands Evening CWA group. 

A fun day was had by all. Please come back for another visit next moth to see how we are getting along with all our challenges