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.

October 14

A short blog post today catching up for our October meeting. Show & tell for the day included the following:-

Above is Susans's 'Earth Stripe' bag. It is her own design, which she has crocheted in a variety of yarns. It has been lined with fabric, which has  also used to make the shoulder straps.  The finished bag has been decorated with a variety of beads and buttons.

This is Gerri's Russian doll  which has been worked from a pattern in Knitting and Crochet magazine.  The doll was completed in a couple of days.

These faces are Sheila's Travel stitching project. They are hand appliqued  using scraps from previous quilting projects, and were inspired inspired by Charla Khanna.

These two pieces are by Wendy, who has been having fun playing with thread, fabric and stitch.

This is Annette's work in progress after  misreading/misremembering the instructions for using thin fabric, wool fleece, dyed cheesecloth and kantha  stitching.  Unknown end result at this stage.

This is Dianne's 'Backyard View' - a class sample in development.

The beginnings of Robyn's Dresden embroidery begun in a class with Christine Bishop.

Our group will be meeting again in a few days. Our collaborative project has been shown & exhibited & we should have our pieces back at our meeting. So come back in a few days and all may well be revealed.

September 14

It was a small group of only five of us last Saturday. Some of us were working on our collaborative project, while others had finished, and were setting into other projects. All will be revealed on this project in the near future.

Show and  tell on the day included the following:-

Jenny had finished a Bedfordshire lace (a form of bobbin lace) bookmark. The pattern is by  Olwyn Scott and  Robyn Hueppauff, published in Australian lace, 2005, and came with no instruction at all. Jenny is grateful to all the members of this group for all their help and encouragement.

Wendy had started her "New Life", a tree fern bud found in Bermagui at the "Four Winds" music festival.

Donna had been given some lovely black and white fabric scraps by Wendy. After looking at them for a while, she decided to work a free form pattern in white on black, incorporating the fabric scraps. The plan is to continue to stitch for a while, add batting, a backing and a bind.

Donna had also made these cacti by binding aluminium wire with Paverpol  (a water based fabric hardener) dipped cloth. The first one has been  made by wrapping aluminium wire around a polystyrene ball, then covering with T-shirt fabric. Inspiration for these two cacti came from a wool wrapped cactus that Donna had seen on-line.

This is Susan's "Earth Stripe Bag" in the making. Using double crochet stitch variations in the round in a variety of yarns, improvizing the stripes as it is worked.

Next month may be the big reveal of our collaborative project. Please come back for another visit to see what this could possibly be.

August 2014

Our August meeting brought seven members and one guest.

Show and  tell as always is a major part of our day, with this month being no exception.

 Susan had finally finished her Candy Crochet Throw. The throw is finished beautifully with a seven row border, including a ruffle. Made with 18 balls of cotton yarn that she wanted to use up, Susan created the pattern as she went along. Great fun was had working out which yarn to use where, and the main aim was achieved which was to use up the  yarn.

Sheila has been stitching for sheer pleasure using raised chain stitch, and adding in found objects as she works.

 Donna had been playing with colour,  and enjoying a few quiet evenings, dipping into a grab bag of threads. The result are these fabulous Dorset Buttons.

 Jenny had finished another pair of socks. These are her first 'pretty' pair, and  have been knitted with  'Araucania', a 4 ply sock yarn from the UK.  It is 75% wool and 25% polyamide, and supposed to wear better than 100% wool.  The next pair will feature some cables.

Robyn had been playing with Sashiko designs. This bag  features Sashiko stitching ( seen close up below). 

This bag, is also by Robyn, is a work in progress featuring a  Sashiko design being worked in white back stitch.

This bag has been made by Sheila, and is her version of a bag by Jean Griffiths.

I wonder what we we all get up to next month? Come back for another visit to find out.

July 2014

At our meeting this month, we had much discussion re our collaborative project, when it is due, how to display, a name etc, etc, All will be revealed in good time. There was also a small discussion re a money making/publicity exercise, and more may be revealed about that one too at a later date.

For show & tell, their were eight of us present.

Sheila had been making faces to make into brooches. Based on an unknown artist's work, the faces were first stencilled onto fabric then stitched.

Sheila had also made this bag using a  foundation pieced centre left over from an earlier quilt.

Jenny had finally finished her bobbin lace fish. Made from Guttermann sewing machine cotton, using a pattern given to her by her lace teacher Ethel Zuccolotto,  this fish was a challenge in more ways than one. More details may be found on Jenny's personal blog .

These socks were also made by Jenny. Knitted in Shepherd Baby Wool Merino, these socks will be ready for when the snow falls next, not too far away. They are the first socks that Jenny has knitted in approx 30 years, and there will be more to come.

Annette had been weaving. These two pieces had been done at a Start Craft Workshop Winter School in July with Kaz Maddingan, from Old Bar, in country NSW.

This is Dianne's tambour sample. Simple chain and beads have been worked with a tambour hook, and the sample has been a huge distraction to all of Dianne's other pieces.

Show & tell is a huge feature of our day, so please make us another visit to see what we get up to next month.