August 2017

Our group met in Wollongong This month.  Gerri very kindly organised a meeting room at the Xavier Centre which was a well situated venue for us.  And we started with a yummy morning tea thanks again to Gerri.  After catching up on social  events, we shared the work we have been doing in the past month.

This quilt has been made by Gerri for her Grandson. It includes school photos throughout the years, family, beach, thongs, cherries for Young where he spent his younger years, and his love of combi vans.

 This is the back of the quilt .

 Gerri had also completed this comfort crochet blanket from the "cake" seires of wools from Lincraft.

 Jenny had completed her scarf ready for next winter. Knitted in a drop stitch pattern, two different yarns have been used, one plain, and one variegated to give an interesting result.

Sheila had a day space dying threads, fabrics, tapes and laces.  The techniques used have been used by our group in the past.  Sheila's favourite stitch, raised chain, looks fabulous when the space dyed threads are used.  The fabrics, tapes and laces will find their way into quilts and and embroidered projects.

This bag is one that Sheila has made using hand dyed upholstery fabric, and some of the tape and threads from the above dying day. The tape has been decorated with raised chain band, using a variegated knitting cotton which was also over dyed in the space dying process.

Created for the annual Quilt NSW challenge, Sheila's quilt addresses the issue of ageing and memory.  The full quilt will be revealed after the challenge is judged in October.  The threads used were hand dyed and shown in our July post.  Raised chain stitch gave the quality of stitch required for the quilt.

QuiltNSW can be found at:  https://quiltnsw.com/

After Gerri and her husband, Graham, provided lunch, we were delighted to attend the Lateral's exhibition at the Old Court House in Wollongong.  The Laterals is a well established creative group within the Embroiderers' Guild of NSW.  'Off the Rails' showcased the group's work from the last year or so.  Details of the monthly challenges along with the works completed by the members answering  the challenge were displayed together.  This gave the viewer the opportunity to see the varied ways in which the challenge was realised by the members.  For the viewer, it was interesting to see embroidery taken to three dimensions in a number of the challenges.  We had the opportunity to meet with friends in the Laterals and discuss the works, the group and it's dynamics.  It was a fitting end to our day in Wollongong.

It has been fun finding new venues to have our group meeting. Next month we hope to be in our new space at our re-vamped and updated  Guild building.

May 2017

Our meeting this month was held once again in Wendy's home, with  five of our members attending. First up was some yummy morning tea provided by Kathleen and Jenny. Then with clean fingers and hands, we began show and tell.

Kathleen had finished a quilt which utilised her squares from last year. Adding in some other shapes as well as the squares, Kathleen went through her stash to see what colour fabrics she had that would work. The fabrics were machine pieced, then hand quilted around the shapes.

Annette had been working on another robyn. This time in blackwork, still using the same greeting card as inspiration. Annette is trying to use the blackwork stitches to capture the contemporary stylised mood of the greeting card.  

Robyn had been working on this  small surface stitched piece which will be made into a phone/Opal card bag.

This clam-shell piece is Kathleen's problem piece. Using lovely soft colours and the clam shell shape, Kathleen is making this quilt for her Mum. With ideas from our group members, Kathleen will now  finish it to be a knee quilt so it doesn't need to be too long.

This little cardigan is one that Annette has made using variegated wool for Morris & Son's. The ruffles on the sleeves need to be removed as the Young Lady for whom it was made  bites at the ruffles when she wears it.

Jenny had been knitting more hats for winter. This one uses left over yarn form a jumper that she made last year. Jenny made use of the beginnings of a circular shawl pattern to begin this hat with double pointed needles. She then knitted out to the width she wanted, then decreased back to her head measurement and made a rib band. The hat is flat, a beret style which Jenny loves.

This is another hat that Jenny has knitted using the same idea as above, this time in a blue colour which she found in her stash. It is an 8 ply pure wool from Lyncraft.

Robyn is in the process of knitting a scarf from cotton yarn. The Willow leaf Scarf pattern is from the book 'Dyeing To Spin & Knit' and will be space dyed when completed.

Jenny has been making crochet Granny Squares using a pattern she found on Pinterest. The center flowers are from a single ball of Norro yarn that she bought on holiday some years back, and the blue is left over from her stash. The granny squares were meant to be made into a bag, however the problem exists that there is not enough of the Norro yarn to complete the number of squares required, nor may there be enough of the blue left in the stash to complete the project. So Jenny has added another colour of Norro ( also from her stash) and has decided to add some mustard to the mix to give the bag some life.

Our little group still  needs to be creative with our meeting space. Next moth will will be coming to you form the beautiful Southern Highlands of NSW. 

August 2016

Our meeting this month was held in the beautiful Illawarra. Four of our members travelled to Wollongong to meet for morning tea, show and tell, lunch, and then a visit to The Wollongong Art Gallery.

We met at the gallery, and migrated to a little coffee shop just down the road , where  morning tea was the first order of the day. Show and tell followed.

Sheila had been making a journal cover using her favourite stitch of raised chain band around the outer section of the circles, and imitation bullion in the centers.

Jenny was getting in early on stitching a new Christmas decoration for her tree. This one is a Hardanger design found through Pinterest here. The little heart shaped decoration has been stitched onto a scrap of linen found in her stash, and still needs to be finished off by cutting, and applying a backing.

After  stitching the Hardanger Christmas heart, there was still fabric left in the linen scrap used, so Jenny also decided to make herself a new bookmark from the fabric that was left. Another Hardanger design, using a mix of threads in her stash, including a hand dyed one. 

Annette had been knitting using 4 ply wool. This cute little cardigan is for nine week old Eleanor.

Jenny had also been knitting a blanket. Using a pattern from the Shepherd Baby Shawl Collection 1 book. Jenny had struggled with the edge pattern provided in the book, so decided to use another one. The leaf and berry edge pattern is available free from here, but the pattern only contains instructions for the edge, not a corner. As Jenny wanted the edge to go all around the blanket, she devised a corner using a series of short rows, and the lace edge from the leaf and berry pattern.

Gerri was starting a new scarf cowl, finally meeting a new challenge to crochet something different than Granny Squares. The cowl will eventually look like the pic below. 

Gerri was also learning how to do diagonal basket weave crocheting, and was just loving it. 

Jenny had also starting knitting a new jumper. Using an 8 ply "Savanah" yarn from Bendigo Woollen Mills which is 70% wool and 30% alpaca. The pattern is also one from Bendigo Woollen Mills

Annette had been making the most delicious marmalade using an unidentified citrus fruit, possibly a tangerine, from her brother's tree. The tree had produced abundant fruit which was put to good use in 3 batches of marmalade and two batches of cordial.

Following show and tell at the coffee shop, we enjoyed lunch before making our way back to the gallery to view the exhibition ' Through The Eye of The Needle'. This exhibition is a body of works stitched by the members of the Embroider's Guild Woolongong Group. We were guided through this exhibition by the lovely Jan Williams and Sue Harper. The exhibition is free, and contains a number of collaborative projects, as well as traditional and contemporary individual pieces. 

Following this exhibition, we had a quick look at the 2nd Tamworth Fibre Triennial which was also on at the gallery.

A great day had by all who attended. 

June 2016

Our small group of five met at the Powerhouse Museum this month. After coffee, our group headed the the Collette Dinnigan exhibition where we spent several hours oohing and aahing over the displays.

We had lively discussions about construction techniques, luscious fabrics and accessories as we wound our way through the exhibition. The ensembles ranged from the beautifully simple to the outrageous over-the-top. A constantly changing montage of models in different outfits was playing on one huge wall space to compliment the static displays.

Sheila especially liked looking at the story board displays. Three sides in a "U" shaped room were filled ceiling to floor with inspiration ephemera, fabric samples, buttons, ribbons, laces and such.

The museum presented paper dolls and paper ephemera at the end so that visitors could make their own designs. These were cleverly mounted on a mini catwalk for all to see.

Then it was off to lunch and show and tell.

Susan's scarf is made from a silk/merino mix yarn, from a fair trade group from Uruguay, which she found at her local wool shop in Pennant Hills (Sydney). The pattern is one that Susan made up herself. The body of the scarf consists of two treble crochets with a one chain space, while each end has  two rows of treble crochet and a fringe. The fringe consists of two rows of double crochet, the second with an addition of long chain loops. Susan found it easy to crochet a nice scarf with a lovely yarn and a simple pattern. Her treble crochet may be unconventional, but when she is making up her own pattern, she can make up her own stitch.

Sheila had made a number of bookmarks using off cuts from fabric samples. The stitch used is one that she learned at the recent Convenor's meeting  held at Newcastle. The stitch was taught by the  Newcastle Group. The flowers are stitched by running the thread through a small piece of knitting ribbon, and taking the stitch down in the same spot. Three pieces of ribbon create a simple flower. The ribbon was hand dyed by Sheila.

Lunch afforded some photographic opportunities for inspiration purposes.

There was also time to look at a selection of ceramics from the museum's collection. This work caught Sheila's eye, but in her excitement, failed to take note of the artist.

The day ended with afternoon tea. We are all looking forward to our July meeting with the intention of meeting in the Southern Highlands for a touch of winter and a large fire to keep us warm.

Note:- This blog post was produced with great help by our member Sheila.

November 2010

This past Saturday was our last meeting for the year so Christmas lunch was in order, with everyone bringing a plate of yummy food to share. There were ten of us present from our group and one guest.

The day brought a new member to our group. After seeing our exhibition in August, Annette has decided to join us . We welcome her to our group & look forward to her participation. It was also great to see Libby back after a long absence.

In the morning, Anne directed us in a design exercise, while in the afternoon ideas were discussed regarding our next exhibition & some loose plans made towards it.

Show & tell brought this tote bag "Autumn Leaves" made by Susan. Using cotton fabric, the bag is Susan's own design & features patchwork, applique, machine embroidery& buttons .
Susan had also made this scarf using Paton's bamboo & cotton yarn. The trellis stitch has given a lacy look, while the picot arched edge has given a decorative finish to the ends.

Sheila had been making more book covers, first printing the fabric, then using running stitch to add more detail.

Donna had been painting these abstracts. Inspiration was gained from part of a chair, and the designs will be used later in some of her appliqué work.



Jenny had been playing with her camera, trying to learn about ISO, aperture, shutter speeds, & all the other little buttons that adorn it. Samples of her learning will be visible here.

On that note, this will be our last post until January, 2011, when the creative journey of our group continues. So to everyone who visits our little space on the WWW, we at Stitches Plus would like to wish you a very Merry Christmas, and a Creative New year. We would also like to issue an invitation to come back in January to continue following our creative exploits.