As the world continued with a pandemic of COVID 19, Australia was beginning to come out of lock down, and our group was looking forward to meeting in reality once again. However, a second wave of the virus spread from a southern state back to Sydney, and we were all on notice again. We decided it was better to forgo our reality meeting, and to continue via Zoom for the time being. Six of us attended, with much show and tell. 

Jo had been playing with machine stitching on silk and tulle to produce this 7cm x 7cm sculptural object which looks remarkably like a flower.

Jenny had pulled out another UFO of Ukranian Whitework to finish. The piece is being worked on denim coloured linen in a variety of coloured threads.

Suganthi's work in progress is sampling for the metal threads module of the Contemporary Stitch and Design course that she is doing with Sharyn Hutchens at the Embroiderers Guild NSW.

The last two months has seen Sheila working on a queen sized bed quilt.  The design is a variation of the Wild Goose Chase block which came from 'Enduring Grace, Quilts from the Shelburne Museum Collection'.  Sheila converted the pattern into a foundation pieced block.  She used fabrics from the Thimbleberry range which she won in 2002.

Sheila's on-going covid19 project is growing larger.  Every day, she marks each death on the graph printed in the daily newspaper.  The paper is trapped between the base fabric and the organza and then the french knots are stitched.  The blocks are sewn together into weeks and then joined with the previous weeks.  She started this project as a way to make sense of the growing numbers by comparing one day to the next or one week to the next.  Sadly, the numbers continue to rise.

Sheila's daily practice for July has been to continue creating an Index Card A Day, ICAD. Her structured card designs have used limitations on concepts and mark making but yet have allowed for a wide variety of creations.  It has been a challenging yet fun process.  Sheila's further work can be found at:  https://www.instagram.com/thingstitcher/

Lesley's 15+ year old jacket that has been deconstructed and re-knitted. The Jacket had been washed in a washing machine after a camping trip, instead of being washed by hand. It shrunk, and the wool looked very matted. Lesley was about to donate it to the charity shop, but decided to pull it apart and re-knit it, using the same pattern, and is very happy with the outcome. The wool has regained its texture and elasticity and looks smart enough to wear around town.

Rhonda has been knitting for family and friends using Bendigo Woollen Mill yarn

Jenny has also been knitting squares form her scrap yarn. At present there are 64 squares of varying yarn. Some wool, some acrylic, some textured, some plain. When joined together it should make an interesting knee rug. 

As Australia watches and waits to see how this pandemic will play out, our group continues to create at home. Please come back for another visit next moth to see what we have been up to. 

March 2020

Current times call for current measures to hold creative meetings. The world has changed since our last meeting, and we now have a world  pandemic crisis with a tiny virus called COVID 19 to deal with. We are advised to stay home and to avoid crowds and meetings. So, did this tiny virus stop us? Of course not! We as a group decided to social distance ourselves, and to meet via Zoom. Three of us got together with the help of the internet, and video conferencing, and had a very quick show and tell. The three of us were all in the safety of our own homes away from the virus, one in Sydney's Eastern Suburbs, one in Sydney's South West, and one in the Central West of NSW.

So without further ado, may we present show and tell for March 2020, all with the help of the internet.

Sheila's quilt, 'I Can See Clearly Now' has been selected to tour with the Vision 2020 exhibition. The quilt is made of hand dyed cottons with foiled spectacles.  The quilt is  machine quilted. Details of the tour dates can be found at https://vision2020textiles.com/

Jenny had finished off  a UFO. This work pouch was started a few years back, and was inspired by the work of Effie Mitrofanis. It had been sitting waiting for a few months just for a zipper and a lining. It features hemmed strips joined together with insertion stitches, then added surface stitching down the centre of the panels.

Annette had started this Virgin Mary piece in a class with Alison Cole during 2019 Summer School. The class was Opus Anglicanum,  worked in Split stitch in Au Vere A Soie Paris single strand and couched gold thread.

Alison's design has been modified to suit the appearance Annette  wanted her Virgin Mary to appear. After reading the English Medieval Embroidery at the V & A Museum exhibition, Annette realised Mary needed a more subdued cloak than the one worked on the sample and she needed a halo.

Annette's attempt at a fashionable hoop embroidery. It features appliqued gold silk on silk organza. The shape has been couched in place. The coloured stitches  are split stitch in Au Vere A Soie Paris. The body bits satin stitch and french knots.

Jenny's second UFO. This bag was started back in 2017 with one ball of Norro yarn that had been purchased some years previously. Jenny had combined the variegated yarn with a plain navy wool  to crochet  square flower motifs. The motifs had all been finished for some time, and had been joined onto the bag shape. The bag just needed a lining and some handles to be finished. Some tassels were added for decoration.

This is Annette's  6" square (approx)  of Robyn's 5 min lesson from our February meeting.  She plans to use it as a garden type background for a raised butterfly and dimensional flowers for our  up-coming exhibition. It has been worked on 21 count linen in a variety of Perle 5 and variegated threads randomly stitched.

Robyn has been back Stitching circles on Denim with navy and variegated thread. The finished project will be a work bag. 

Sheila continues her daily practice and for March she has been creating her own stencils.  She is using a hot tipped stencil cutting tool to cut the stencils.  More of her creative practice can be found at:  https://www.instagram.com/thingstitcher/

Sheila has  also been natural dying pieces of silk after she found cineria, a type of eucalypt, for sale in her local supermarket.  The plant material was wrapped in the fabric then bundled around a dowel, securely tied and boiled in iron water solution for two hours.  The cineria results in the orange colour.  Another eucalypt in her suburb was also used in the bundle with each side of the leaf providing a different colour on the raw silk.  Washers were added to another bundle.  The fabrics need to cure for several weeks before they can be washed and then used.

Jenny had continued with knitting her cardigan in Bendigo Woollen Mill "Bloom" - Blackberry Bliss. The back and one front has been completed.

So, a tiny virus has not stopped us creating. Who knows what will happen as this tiny bug creates havoc in our world. We all hope that you have enjoyed our cyber show and tell, and that you all remain safe and well to visit us next month as we show what we have created in self isolation and social distancing.

February 2020

Our group had our first official meeting for 2020 last Saturday. There were ten of us attendance, and Susan joined us via Zoom.

Show and tell is a huge part of our group, so join us below to see what everyone has been working on.

Sheila has finally hoop-framed her woven picot work from a group activity last year.  The addition of the stitches wrapped around the edge of the frame was inspired by https://www.instagram.com/feathercobbler/.

With the group's May exhibition fast approaching, Sheila has completed another butterfly.  This one has lots of sparkle with added beads and sequins.

Lesley had been working on collages for the Surface Stitching Module of the C Sand D Course. She picked a photograph, abstracted a small part of it, drew it and then created a fabric and stitch collage. Collage 1. above was inspired by an aerial photo of a dry river system between mountains.

 Collage 2 was inspired by a photo taken at Machu Picchu.

The bricolage was also a classwork exercise for the same course. For this, Lesley had to make a stitched composition out of various bit and pieces that appealed to her. Lesley's  included a torn piece of a watercolour painting, a fleecy covered wire, dress linen, upholstery fabric and leaves and seeds from a gum tree.

Our creative exercise for the day was led by Robyn, where she taught us to do a Pulled Back Stitch eyelet filler. Below are some of our efforts.

Robyn 

Suganthi

Jenny

Lesley

Jo

 Annette

Sheila

Jenny had completed a baby quilt for a new member in the family due in April. It was a panel purchased from Lincraft, which Jenny sandwiched with wool batting and yellow homespun, then quilted by machine.

The Southern Highlands group, which Annette is a part of, started the February surprise class by making cloth Singleton buttons. Both Singleton and Dorset buttons are an old British craft. The industry started in the 1700 and provided a living for many cottage crafters. 

Above is a sample of Dorset buttons. Annette  used the making of Dorset buttons for the February surprise class with the Southern Highlands Group. It was a very successful afternoon.

Jenny had also started a new winter cardigan in Bendigo Woollen Mill "Bloom" . Bloom is an 8 ply pure wool yarn with colour transitions that change within the ply to give a unique look . The colour way is ' Blackberry Bliss' and Jenny is using 'Dot Stitch'  to create a subtle texture.

Sheila continues with a small daily practice.  For February, she is stitching an alphabet on plant dyed paper using her hand dyed threads.  The plan is to make a book with the completed papers. The papers were created in an Embroiderers' Guild summer school with Samantha Tannous from https://dwellstudios.artweb.com/

A great day was had by all, and we were all buzzing over the ' Duality' Exhibition by Crossing Threads' in Gallery 76 downstairs. For details go to https://www.embroiderersguildnsw.org.au/Gallery76.

We are getting closer to our exhibition which will be held in May at 76 Queen Street, Concord West. It would be great id you could all come to see it, but in the meantime, check out our blog next month for more of our creativity, and like our Facebook page. https://www.facebook.com/Stitchers-Plus-638409429660889/

September 2019

Our group had twelve attendees this month, including another new member, a visitor from Canberra, and a young family member of Wendy's. Susan and Donna also joined us via Zoom.

Show and tell this month begins with Marina who is undertaking the Creative Correspondence Course ( CCC) through the Embroiderers Guild NSW. One of the exercises was to explore Chain stitch

The clutch purse above is Marina's finished exercise, worked in various forms of chain stitch.

Marina  saw this stitchery and decided it was just her,  so she bought it and stitched it. She has  made it into a bag to take her projects to classes and groups. The words say:
‘I cannot count my day complete ‘til needle thread and fabric meet.’

Sheila found woven picot stitch from last month addictive. She stitched on a natural dyed raw silk fabric using her hand dyed threads. She will continue filling in around the lighter areas and then decide what to do next. 

Jenny had been working on a piece of Ukrainian Whitework, but in colour. A counted thread lover, Jenny was inspired by her friend Robyn's piece of coloured Ukrainian Whitework from a few years back. The piece is being worked on blue even weave linen in a variety of threads including Anchor Perle 8 variegated and DMC stranded.

Sheila has finished her entry for The Embroiderers' Guild of NSW Margaret Oppen competition. The works will be displayed in October at Gallery76.  She has also completed her Quilt NSW entry for the annual suitcase challenge. Only the back can be revealed  at this stage, and is shown above. She used the design on the back to quilt the work. 

Sheila has also been making butterflies for our exhibition in May of next year.  The first butterfly has stitching on a coloured paper towel.  The paper towel has been mounted onto iron-on interface for stability when stitching.  The second butterfly is machine applique using the positive and negative image.  More butterflies are in the planning stages.

Sheila's daily practice for September was to create a collagraph each day printing with a gelli plate. She incorporated Birgit Koopsen's Instagram challenge  prompts into the activity from day 3 onwards.  Interpreting the prompts in a way to incorporate the collagraph has pushed her creativity into new territories.

Sheila's work can be found at:

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

Gerri has revamped an old bag which she loves with some butterflies to brighten it up.

Annette H has finally finished one of seven cot panels bought by her  mother before her death. The idea was  so she could  hand quilt them and give them to her grandchildren when they had a baby. Annette and her sisters  have worked on them when the occasion arose and Annette has finished this  last one for her new grandson . 

Although Annette Y was unable to join us in our meeting, she has been working hard on her Introduction to Embroidery course. The above four photos show her final applique pieces that were submitted for assessment.  They demonstrate the techniques broderie perse, mola, needle-turn and the last has over stitched raw edge pieces.

Project 3 from Marin's CCC was her own choice. The task was to design the lid of a box. Romanian, Cretan, fly, and running stitches have been used.

Project 5 from Marina's CCC was 'Waves'. Marina used couching for the task which was to make a design depicting waves. Her  inspiration came from seeing a surfer surfing through a tunnel. After many attempts, this was her favourite 

Project 1 from Marina's CCC was leaves in running stitch. The task was to  walk around a park and pick leaves, draw them then make a design using a leaf or leaves. Marina's is gum leaves, which have been  stitched in green, and the lines in between depict different gum tree barks.

The activity for the meeting was picking a stitch name at random from a box then stitching it. Marina is  continuing to pick stitch names and when finished, will make it into a little purse.

Project 2 from Marina's CCC was the sun. 
The task was  look at pictures of the sun and design a depiction.  Marina's is the sun in the centre  with warm colours on one side warming half the earth and cool colours on the other side cooling the other side of the earth. Fly stitch has been used.

The beginning of the butterfly adventure by Annette H. Butterflies start life as an egg, then become a caterpillar. This piece started life in our simple exercise class on circles that Jenny gave us. Her scribbles translated beautifully into a caterpillar of a non specific type. So far it is felt shapes on cotton fabric that will be embossed with stitch.

From the back of Annette H's cupboard, a  UFO in Mountmellick work which she will try to finish. Worked on cotton fabric in Perle 5 thread, the piece has a buttonhole edge rather than the traditional knitted edge.

Annette H's  chosen stitch for the day was feather stitch. She  tried it using 3 different threads,  then tried Cretan stitch after reading about it in an old 1967 copy of the Record.

Susan has been exploring crochet, to expand her skills. She is  trying medallions from Nicky Epstein's Crochet on the Edge,  having fun with the textures and other techniques. 

 Susan also tried some 'inchies challenge' after Sheila's practice last month.

  One of Susan's drawings from her regular Tuesday Drawing group in Bathurst. 

Jenny is on another learning curve, trying out a new bobbin lace edge design. It is design No7 from Pamela Nottingham's book 'Bedfordshire Lacemaking.

Gerri has been busy making teddies, towels and owls for a stall that supports cancer care patients.

It is wonderful to watch our new members grow in their stitching, and fabulous to see how our monthly exercises can take us in new directions, both up and out. As our numbers grow, our skills grow, and so does our creativity. So come back next month to see our creativity in action, and see which direction it will take us.