September 2016

Our group met at Jenny's home this month, with  six of the group attending. Morning tea of orange cake and pistachio & white chocolate biscuits preceded show and tell. 

Sheila had made a number of brooches that featured her now famous faces. All featured applique and surface stitching.

This is a portion  of Wendy's play attempt from "Stitch and Play In the Mountains", held on the 12th March 2016, with Effie Mitrofanis. Wendy enjoys trying new ways with different thread, and the colour and texture made it fun.

Jenny had been using up scraps of linen and had completed this Hardanger book mark that was started last month. Using a dark green Perle 8 thread, a variagated Perle 8, and a pale green stranded  thread, the book mark was stitched on white linen fabric. The full story of this bookmark can be read on Jenny's personal blog.

This is just part of the progress that Susan had made on her "Memory Quilt". The quilt now has 130 different fabrics made into 1,017 hexagons, of which half have been stitched together. It may become bed sized eventually.

Gerri had finished this blanket made from 28 knitted squares using variegated Acrylic yarn. The squares are crocheted together to give an effective border, and  the finished blanket will be given

to "Wrap With Love"

Jenny had finished the front of her new jumper started last month on the train to Wollongong. It features a cable pattern on one side, and is made from "Savanah", an 8 ply yarn from Bendigo Woollen Mills.

Annette had also started a new jumper in 12 ply Jet, with a pattern sheet from Lincraft. So far she has completed the lace sleeve.

Sheila had made a pencil case using the instructions on Julie Fei Fan Balzer's blog. Sheila is looking at the possibilities of decorating it with stitches.

Sheila had also made this bag using instructions from a Quilting Arts website. The flap could have decoration, while the bag could have a clear pocket for a name tag. This would make it useful for meetings, conventions etc. It is big enough to hold credit cards, money and lipstick.

"To be on Earth, the heart of God" is the motto that is reflected in these hearts that Gerri was making. The fabric is indigenous in design, hence the connection back to the earth and land with a hint of the creation stories. The hearts will be used as gifts.

Another successful day by all who attended. We enjoyed lunch in the sun on Jenny's back balcony, a 'show & tell" of Jenny's sewing room, and some of her pieces that she is most proud of.

An Exhibition

Back in July, we wrote about our collaborative project for an Exhibition, and now has come the time to reveal what we did.

Our collaborative piece was displayed as part of the Biennial Embroiderers' Guild NSW Exhibition, which was held on the last weekend of August. Thanks go to Wendy and Annette who hung the work on our behalf. The were able to creatively layout a mix of techniques, colours and shades to show the works beautifully.

This collaborative work began last year when the question of whether to exhibit or not was raised. " I will be lucky to stitch a 2inch square" was one member's comment. And so an idea was born. That member did manage three squares!

Members could use any technique, any colour and any material, as long as each piece measured
2 inches or 5 cms on each side.

It was fun to see the pieces come together for a test run at our July meeting. We also discussed the title of the work and agreed on " From Little Things". These words came from the Paul Kelly song "From Little Things, Big Things Grow"

At the exhibition, several members were able to explain the work to the public and other members of the Embroiderers' Guild. We received many favourable comments.

We are now looking forward to see where each of us takes our individual pieces. Several members plan to make their works into books, others might join the pieces to create a larger work, and others might use their pieces as starting points for larger works. The possibilities abound.

The big question: will we plan another collaborative piece in two year's time?

A big thank you go out to Sheila who wrote these words, and to Wendy & Sheila for taking the photos.

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. 

July 2016

For our July meeting, four members travelled to the southern highlands region for a meeting at Annette’s home.  Annette’s warm welcome countered any winter chill in the air.

We began our gathering with a delightful morning tea, then it was time to begin stitching and show and tell.

Susan had been English piecing hexagons using fabrics in her stash.   We were impressed with Susan’s novel use of a thread organiser to contain her hexagons that are ready to stitch.

Geri has been given a commission and provided on overview of her plans and design.  Unfortunately, she cannot reveal any details.  Sourcing Geri’s preferred fabric has been a challenging issue.

Annette and Sheila both made bags using a multilayered design.  Annette incorporated a previously stitched needle-laced square into an overall bag design.  

Sheila continues to use her favourite raised chain stitch to decorate the bags she made.

Last month, we all looked at a bag design to determine how it was assembled and Sheila had made a sample.  The zipper wraps around the bag from one point to the opposite point.  Now to work out how and where to add the handle to it.

Sheila had been to  Melbourne and was able to view ‘The Dressmaker’ exhibition at Rippon Lea.  Rippon Lea is a National Trust property in Melbourne.  ‘The Dressmaker’ is an Australian movie starring Kate Winslet and a host of well known Australian actors.  The actors were dressed in a combination of vintage clothing and clothing designed specifically for the movie. 

 Then it was time for lunch, followed by delicious cakes compliments of Annette and Geri.  Annette’s collection of vintage place-mats were an added bonus to lunch.

After lunch, we assembled all of our works for our collaborative piece for the Embroiderers’ Guild biannual exhibition.  The details of that are under wraps until the exhibition is opened in late August.  It was exciting to see most of the works and determine the best arrangement for display.

The details of our collaborative piece will be revealed next month.

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.