November 2012

Last Saturday was our last meeting for the year, that ment Christmas Lunch with an amazing array of  food. Everything from crackers and cheese, dips, cold meats and salads, fruit and pavlova, fruit mince slice and biscotti, not to mention the coffe and mints. Yummo! Of course, that also meant that there were 10 members present.

Show and tell as always provided some goodies to excite us.

Gerri had nearly finished a quilt for her son. Made from a class in 2009/2010, the quilt features a 3D colour arrangement of blocksbased on "Y" seams.



Donna had been making postcards based on drawings that she had done on holidays to the Cook Islands. The postcards will be for the "Going Postal" challenge due next year.

These block prints are by Donna, using Easy Carve and block printing ink, acrylic paint and lots of enthusiasm.

Jenny had been playing with some digitizing, changing a butterfly design to something more suited to it's end result. This one still needs some tweaking and will eventually be stitched out in white on pink fabric.

This is part of Jenny's Byzantine Lefkara Lace piece that she started in September with Chrishine P. Bishop.

"Jack's Chessbord" by Gerri is a story board of things about Jack, his big trips, his likes, sports and heratige with Granny.

During the day there was much talk about the Capital Campaign and ways to raise money for out new Center of Excellence, also how to raise awaeness to our cause. Anyone wishing to contribute a donation towards our new Center of Excellence can do so here. Donations over $2 are tax detuctable and well worth the investement to ensure the future of embroidery lives on.

There were also discussions about our "Going Postal" challenge for 2013, but you will all have to come back next year to see what that challenge may produce. Until then, Seasons Greetings to all.

October 2012

The Guild AGM was on at the same time as our meeting this month so many of our members chose to go to the AGM instead. Consequently, there were only two of us present for the morning and  four for the afternoon. Robyn was de-cluttering and had bags of goodies for donating. These included books, magazines, and packages of fabric, braids and lace. There were also many members coming and going, so lots of people to chat, say hello to, and catch up with. So there was plenty to entertain us as well as any stitching we chose to do.

The following day, Sunday, saw the announcement of the winners to our "Changing Of The Seasons" challenge, with an award presentation & morning tea. Wendy & Donna had been working hard for some time to get this challenge underway, resulting  in numerous entries being contributed from all over NSW, as well as Queensland and Victoria. All the entries are currently on display at the Concord Library until next week, when they will go on display at the Five Dock library until 26th November.

Wendy had the pleasure of announcing the following winners:-

First Place                - Margaret Smith

Second Place           - Marie Laurie

Third Place               - Jenny Bargh

Highly Commended  - Judith Langdon

Below are photographs of our own members entries.

Jenny's 3rd place winning entry "Seasons of Sneezes".

Gerri's beautiful handmade box.

Wendy's "Grevillia Poorinda"

Susan's "Memory Of Trees"

Donna's "What Spring Means To Me"

Sheila's "Seasons of Age"

The dispaly in the library.

Show and tell for our meeting day provided the following:-

Sheila's quilt, "Life On Mars" using her own rust stained silk with hand embroidery and machine quilting.

Jenny was playing with some more teneriffe lace.



An update on Susan's "Spring Walk" project, where the stitching has been finished and decisions are being made as to how to finish it. 

We have one more meeting for the year, so come back in November to check up on our progress.

September 2012

Our meeting this month saw 9 members and two guests, a total of 11 people in all. Our two guests were sisters of two of our memebers, one all the way from Canada, and  the other from Tamworth in the New England region of NSW.

 
Show and tell as always filled the day. Susan's canvas work is a work in progress called "Spring Walk". An abstract interpretation of the glorious spring - flowering gardens that she walks past at the moment.

  The above is the beginnings of a journal cover by Donna using raised chain band. A lot of fun, and with some luck Donna will remember how to work raised chain band forever.

Jenny brought in her reticella table mat for some of our members who had not seen it finished. The piece had recently been on exhibition, and the full story of the piece, as well as other pieces of Jenny's in the exhibition, can be read about on her own personal blog.

Both Robyn and Jenny had been to a private, invitation only, workshop with Chrishine P. Bishop in Byzantine Lefkara Lace. The workshop was over two days. The above piece is Robyn's WIP while Jenny's can be viewed on her own personal blog.

Wendy had been making bookmarks in various techniques using silk thread on linen fabric. Being free in design, the bookmarks will be displayed at Concord and Five Dock libraries during October and November, along with other embroidery works and textile books.

Gerri's samples above are a work in progress from a class in Ukranian Insertion stitches. For Gerri it was a breath of fresh air to learn new things.

Sheila had recently been on a trip to Uluru and Kata Tjuta in Cental Australia. The above drawing is one in her travel diary where she used sand from the location to colour the page.

This is a fabric rubbing done by Sheila using oil pastel on cotton fabric. The design was on a bench in Alice Springs.
I wonder what our next meeting will bring. Be sure to pay us another visit to find out.

August 2012

There were nine of us at our August meeting, all with show & tell a-plenty. This was the last meeting day before our pieces for the "Changing of the Seasons" challenge was due in. The challenge is open to all members of the Guild and will displayed at the City of Canada Bay Library, Concord Branch in October 2012.

Jenny had finished her "Changing of the Seasons" Challenge piece, titled "Seasons of Sneezes". Above is only a small snippet of the full piece which features Reticella & creative modern black-work. The full piece can be viewed at the Exhibition in October.

Susan had also finished her entry '"Memory of Trees- Autumn". A 3 part stitched canvas hanging, expressing her delight in the ephemeral beauty of autumn.

Annette was also getting ready for an exhibition, "Embroidery - Beyond Fancywork", to be held at the Mittagong RSL, Friday 24th & Sat 25th Aug 10am - 4pm. Her piece, the fillet lace lace above, was started in a class with Margaret Morgan through the Australian lace Guild.The piece is worked on 14 count purchased net in perle 12 thread.

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The book page above is also by Annette. "Ghosts of Past Embroidery" has evolved from a class with Kath Wilkinson during Summer School which  included converting unfinished embroidery into book pages. The above book page features withdrawn & pulled thread work, as well as a small piece of Brazillian embroidery. The background to all the pages is a French fabric from mid 1800's old undergarments, threadbare & patched.

Robyn had finished her Thracian embroidery roll. Started in a workshop with Allison Snepp, the piece will be on display at the "Coral Calypso" exhibition. This exhibition is showcasing works of the Panania Group & will be held at the Padstow Babtist Community Church, Friday 24th & Saturday 25th August, 2012.

Robyn had also finished the beading on her leather, ready to be made into a phone case.

Donna had been inspired to make this journal cover after attending a weekend workshop with Judith Langdon. It features her practiced blanket stitch variations.

Gerri had been having fun with twirls & swirls, knitting with bright coloured yarns with friends in mind. these scarves were introduced to her by her sister & will be presents ready for Christmas.

Cathy had to been to Context Art Forum with Kim Tittichai & produced this waterfall. It features painted lutradur, stitched, burnt & manipulated to form the waterfall.

While she was at the Forum, it was raining, inspiring this piece of painted vlysafix with the addition of hydrangea flowers, foils & metallic leaf.

So much to see & do. Come back next month for some more inspiration

July 2012

 

Our meeting this month brought eight members and four visitors. Roz came to see what we were about and is thinking about joining us, while Wendy was playing hostess to some English viitors, including Kath Danswan, and her partener, who came in to meet us all. Kath is an English textile artist, and brought some of her hand made bowls to share with us (seen above). Silk caps, layered between water soluble fabric and machine embroidered. More of her work can be found on her personal blog.

The brooches above were also made by Kath. We were privliged to have Kath speak to us and show us her work

Show  and tell, as always, was worth seeing.

Sheila had been busy making more book covers. the top one featuring her own hand dyed fabric and  threads with chain stitch. The blue one above features layered and frayed fabrics with couched gold thread.

Gerri had finished "Farmer Sheaf", an exercise and play on sheaf stitch, to find how many ways, and variations  the stitch could be used.

Dianne had been playing with colour V's grey, a visual demonstration of how the two could be used.

Donna had created this "face" pin using a mold by Pearl Moon. Beaded to ensure the face holds to it's background of hand felted wool background.

The above shawl was made by Roz. Inspired by the Citron Shawl, (a free pattern from Ravalry) Roz hand spun & hand dyed her own merino and silk blended yarn.

This rose basket 3D fower block is also by Roz. Originally planned to go in a Baltimore quilt, it is now destined for further embellishment and to be made into a cushion.

The two pannels above are also by Roz and are part of a series to go into a quilt. Using Moda towelling fabric, the original designs are stitched using Finca Presencia No 16 in a number of shades of red.

Jenny had been fixing and adding to a counted thread band sampler. The full story can be found here on her own blog.

Another great day. Perhaps you would all like to come back next month to see what we get up to.