May 2014

Before we start into our May creativeness, whatever happened to April ? Our April meeting happened in the middle of Easter, and considering some of our members were going away, we decided we would have an excursion for those of us left. Five of us gathered at the Art Gallery of N.S.W. to view the  "Afghanistan: Hidden Treasures" exhibition. We met in the coffee shop for morning tea, and as we were leaving to view the exhibition, spotted another group at a nearby table. This group were a part of "Meet Up Sydney - Knitting In Public", and were having a wonderful chat, complete with lots of show and tell. So our visit to the Art Gallery was full of inspiration, not only from the exhibition, but also  from other creative textile workers.

Now to our May meeting.

There were only five of us for our meeting, but the show and tell and chat was certainly abundant.

Jenny had finished her Teneriffe doily. Started because she wanted something to take to a lace meeting one day, the doily is worked in DMC Cordonnet Special thread No 80. Each wheel is worked separately, then joined together. A filling has been  added to the center, then a final edge of detached buttonholed scallops worked to finish it off.

Donna's crazy patchwork piece which will end up in a Hussif, planned to be in a book form.

Robyn's corn pad inspired flower embroidery around a continuing crewel work piece. Note the fabulous  pattern darning giving the water ripple effect behind the body beautiful.

Dianne's corn pad inspired spiral design to front an embroidery roll.

Dianne's doily featuring Maderia work. The piece was worked in a class taught by Ellen Wells.

Jenny had been having some fun playing with her new digitizing program. This dragonfly is the first one that she had digitized, and above is the first test stitch-out. Although checking on-screen with a slow re-draw tool, the file still had some faults and will need to be fine tuned. The finished product is still usable and will be used to decorate a mug bag. The full story of this can be found on Jenny's personal blog.

Jenny had also set herself a new challenge, to knit a pair of gloves in 2ply yarn. After knitting a scarf in the same yarn, there was still plenty left over to make a pair of gloves. Knitted in Paytons Embrace, a 2 ply yarn of  90% Merino , 10%  Silk, the pattern came from a book " A Gathering of Lace" by Meg Swansen. The full story of these gloves can also be found on Jenny's personal blog.

Now for some pages of Susan's "Transformation" book, originally for the printmaking unit of he BFA course.The dust jacket was created from cut-out prints left over from another project, a close-up of a print created from a  'glue' collagraph plate, and the same plate over the end papers. This book is now an on-going project, further exploring the theme of transformation with prints, mixed media and even textiles.

I wonder what we will all get up to in June? Come visit us again to find out