April 2015

Our April meeting brought only a few of us in the morning  as other members were in attendance at another meeting. The morning was spent quietly stitching and chatting, then at lunch, visiting members joined us and there was much chatter. Show & tell came after lunch when our other members returned.

Jenny had been making owls. There were six of them in all, and all six were double sided. Using applique, and machine embroidery, the owls were layered together with padding between, stitched together, trimmed then satin stitched around the edge. The owls will eventually form part of a mobile.

Annette had been knitting a lace pattered baby shawl. Using 3ply natural superfine wool, a knitted edge surrounds the main body of the shawl

Above are two more pages from Sheila's "Drawing a Day" challenge.

Donna has had an enjoyable month reading and working through "A method of Creating Design" by Adolfo Best Maugard. Adolfo suggest that we can create designs using seven motifs, - a spiral, a circle, a half circle, two half circles in a "S" shape, a wavy line, zig zags, and a straight line. When combined they create an endelss number of patterns. Above is Donna's play with this suggestion.

We hope you all enjoy this small show and tell for this month, and come back for another vist in My to see what we have got up to.

March 2015

 Our March meeting brought seven of us in attendance with a number of visitors.

Show and tell for the day brought the following:-

Jenny had been playing some more with filet work. This time it was to weave a flower into her hand-made mesh in linen stitch. The challenge here was to leave holes in the weaving. What looked like a simple design woven in separate sections proved more challenging than it looked. Most of that daisy flower was woven in one continuous weave, and Jenny had to work out a complicated weaving order to achieve the finished result.

Susan had finished her cross stitch variation circle and had started a second one in surface stitching just for fun.

Robyn was continuing working on her 'walkabout' project from last month.

Donna had made this little clutch purse while on holidays a few weeks back. Using scrap fabric and a grab bag of textured threads, Donna has used couching and other surface stitching to create the flap.

Donna had also been playing with fabric weaving. After beginning with cereal boxes,  fabric was then cut, woven into patterns and stitched to hold it together .

Jenny had begun knitting another pair of socks on a recent trip away. Using a 4ply Lincraft Lullaby, the pattern is the "Cirque Socks",  a free pattern from Knit Picks .

Sheila was continuing on with her daily drawing practice which is her personal challenge for the year.

We hope you have all enjoyed our show and tell for March , and come back in April to see what we get up to.

February 2015

Welcome to another year of show & tell by Stitcher's Plus. We are a creative group of the Embroiderer's Guild NSW and play with all kinds of art. This year is the year of the personal challenge. 

Congratulations go out to our member Susan, who applied for, and received, the position of Guild Secretary at our headquarters in Concord West. 

Last Saturday was our first official meeting for the year, with seven of us in attendance. Show and tell is a major part of our day, and as our last official meeting was way back in November,  there was some great show and tell to be feasted on.

Robyn had finished stitching her lady, who will eventually adorn the lid of a work box.

Robyn had also finished her needle case featuring Afghanistan reversible stitch.

Donna had been playing with running stitch, exploring what could be done with it. The little bird at the top of this set was inspired by a Mexican ceramic tile, while the remainder were inspired from doodles. Exploring running stitch is Donna's personal challenge for 2015.

Jenny's personal challenge for 2015 is to explore the technique of filet lace. In this sample, Jenny has made her own mesh by withdrawing threads from fabric, bound them into a mesh formation, then worked a dragonfly in linen stitch. The dragonfly was first drawn, then charted into a graph which was then used to chart the linen stitch working order. The working order of the linen stitch has to be precise for the under/over sequence of the linen stitch to happen.

Jenny had also been adding to her sampler with a band of Wessex stitching. The sampler began eight years ago, and Jenny has decided that 2015 is the year to finish it. The whole back story can be found here, and by following the links within the post on Jenny's personal blog.

 This table mat is being worked by Jenny  from a Christine Bishop workshop that she had attended back in September 2014. The piece is inspired by Dresden Embroidery, and features both pulled work and surface stitching.

Annette had been busy making her daughter's wedding dress. The hand beading on the sleeve and bodice echoed the pattern in the lace.

Sheila had made a new plaque for a young relative, using constructions by Jenny Cochran Lee in the September/October 2014 issue of Cloth Paper Scissors

Sheila's personal commitment for the year is to draw every day. At the moment she is drawing in a day book/calender.

This is Susan's sample of "Cross Plus Two Stitch", worked on Aida cloth. The piece is for the Embroiderer's Guild installation at the Craft and Quilt Fair, later this year in June.

Robyn was beginning to stitch on this Aboriginal panel, purchased from the Black Arts Markets. The fabric has been screen printed and will be made into a bag. This is one of four personal challenges that Robyn has listed for herself.

This bag was made by a talented Guild member and raffled as a second prize at the Guild's Summer School. It was won by Sheila.

Such a great start to 2015 by all our talented members. Come back for another visit in March to see how we are all progressing on our personal challenges.

November 2014

It was our last Meeting of the year last Saturday. Being this time of the year, a few of us had other commitments so there was only five of us for the day.

Our Collaborative Project had been shown in late October at "Surprise", an exhibition of the Embroiderer's Guild NSW Inc. For anyone who missed this delightful exhibition and our group display, our pieces can be seen below. Our theme - "Houses". All pieces were to have the same angle, so when placed in a row, a curved "Thread Needle Street" was formed.

"Little Green House" by Robyn

Painted artist canvas with surface stitching and stumpwork. 

H 18cm, W 36cm.

"House - Lost World" by Susan

Relief panel of mono print and appliqué.  House in shallow relief with embroidered details, and a 'sleeping beauty' garden in various couched threads and french knots.

H 15 cm, W 29cm

"Small Double Fronted House" by Wendy

Surface stitchery on linen.

"Holiday House" by Jenny

Coloured pulled work using blended threads and worked on linen.

H 31cm,  W 28cm

"Wicked Van" by Annette

"Tree House" by Sheila

Surface stitching, appliqué and  machine embroidery. Using her own hand dyed threads of various sicknesses, the tree trunk is stitched in raised chain band while the windows& doors are raised stem stitch and have appliquéd separately. The leaves are machine stitched using commercial threads on hand dyed fabric, mounted on wire. The ladder is machine stitching over wire.

H 44cm W 37cm

"No 23" by Robyn

Machine embroidery on red felt with beading.

H 41cm, W 17cm

"Windmill Home" by Gerri

"Road To Where ?" by Dianne

A birds eye view of a street scene. Surface stitching on Linen.

H 44cm. W 37cm

"Dog House" by Donna

Painted canvas, clay figure, appliquéd felt, and free form embroidery.

H 74cm , W 21 cm.

Show and tell for the day included the following:-

A page from Sheila's travel journal - watching people in the Flower Dome in the gardens by the bay in Singapore. Her husband was snoozing at the time.

Donna's crazy patchwork project incorporating her "An Apple A Day" personal challenge that she has set herself. On Saturday Donna managed to draw, stitch, and print an apple, and hopes to have a journal full of apples by this time next year.

A sample of Jenny's travel  knitting. Jenny needed something mind numbing to do on a recent trip away, but creative enough not to get bored. This drop stitch pattern provided enough interest without needing too much thinking, especially when incorporating three different colours.  Using all pure wool in a combination of 2ply and 4 ply, the end result will be a tubular scarf knitted sideways on circular needles.

Robyns Canvas work embroidery playing with stitches and threads.

Sheila brought in a little fun for us to participate in for the morning. Making stamps with some cheap foam pads and a ball point pen. The following are our efforts for a small part of the morning.

Following our fun with our own hand crafted stamps and stamp pads, discussions were held  as to our program for next year. We are all set on our thinking path, but to find out what this is you will all have to come back next year to continue to follow us in our journey.  Until then, we wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and creative 2015.