April 2019

It was Easter Saturday, and we had nine attendees to  our group meeting, a great turnout for an Easter weekend. We also welcomed another possible new member in Lisa. 

Show and tell brought out a range of skills from our members.

 Jenny had appliqued her embroidered doily to a pieced background and turned it onto a tote bag. The doily had been given to her un-worked some years ago, the stitching done about ten years ago, and the crochet edge earlier this year. Jenny had raided her stash of fabrics to find the perfect colours, pieced strips together and added the doily. Shadow machine quilting holds the doily in place, and ditch stitching between the background strips holds it all to a backing fabric.

Gerri's landscape has been completed with fabric, fussy cutting and glue. It is her first attempt using the sewing machine to create. Seagulls have yet to be added.

Above is a  cot panel Annette is hand quilting for an expected baby in June. Her mother purchased cot panels for her grandchildren, and her intention was to hand quilt each one when expected great grand-children were coming. Some were completed and given before she died. Annette's  sister completed two after their mother passed, and Annette is  now completing one for her son and daughter in law.

 Sheila recently traveled with her quilt group to the small community of Picton to visit the local patchwork shop.  Lunch followed at the pub where Sheila collected a number of black paper coasters.  She has had fun doodling designs on them.  She might turn them over and doodle on the white side with a back pen next.

Jenny has been using up tiny scraps of even weave linen making small squares of Hardanger. Most of the filling stitches were new to Jenny, and after working quite a few in white, she thought, why not some colour? Jenny is still thinking what to do with them.

Leslie is continuing with the  "Counted Thread" - part of the Introduction to Embroidery Course - Year 2 she is undertaking. This sample above is a Hardanger design, which she  might make into something one day.

The above black-work sample is also part of Leslie's course. The stitching of the tree at the bottom is identical on the front and back of the fabric 

More completed canvas work embroidery for a second cushion by Susan. Last month's for a grey fabric chair, and this one for a burnt orange chair. Again, it was using up various Appleton's wools, in variations of rice stitch using up to six different colours for each completed stitch. There are about 16 different colours and shades used. The stitch is not a complicated one, covers canvas quite quickly, and many different patterns can be created depending on the colours chosen, and how they are used. Susan still has lots more yarn to use up, so is thinking of what next to do in canvas work. It's such fun!

Sheila's daily practice for the month of April is stitch collage, and she has decided to work an alphabet.  Using her hand dyed scraps of lace, ribbon, braids, trim and threads as well as scraps of commercial silk, she has created a letter of the alphabet each day of the month.  Sheila is undecided if the letters will be joined into a quilt or if they will be turned into a book of some sort.

More samples of Leslie's from her course . the one above is pattern darning.

Leslie's samples of cross stitch and Assisi from her course, and she has charted her own designs.

Baby knitting by Annette. A Kimono crossover baby jacket still needing buttons. 

Knitted with 3 ply Bendigo washable wool. This has been a favourite new born baby jacket with her own family's new mums.

Jenny has been progressing with her knitting. She has completed the back, one front, and started the second front of her new cardigan. Using a basic cardigan pattern from  the Paton's 'Classic Knits for Women - Book 1245', and a lace pattern from 'The Harmony Guide To knitting Stitches' , Jenny has created a border pattern to decorate her new cardigan. It is being worked in 8ply cotton from Bendigo Woollen Mills .

Susan had finished her  crochet scarf. The scarf is crocheted in Heirloom brand 8 ply  cotton. The pattern is her own, parts culled from several different books. The body of the scarf, in bright green, is a diagonal shell stitch, used 'extended' DC. This was then bordered in a light green  with DC stitches. The long sides were finished with a picot edging, and the short sides with a fringe-like edging created from chains and SCs, from Edie Eckman's 'Crochet Borders Around the Corner'.  It was supposed to be using up yarn, but Susan had to get extra for the borders, as she didn't have enough of the bright green. Now She will have to think of something to do with the less than 1 ball of cotton left.

Suganthi had been attending Lyall Willis's inktense classes on the 2nd Tuesday of the month at the Embroiderers Guild. She had been wondering how she might embroider/work on a butterfly, Lyall's class was the inspiration. Suganthi took this image   from the internet, which said the image can be used for free for personal use.

The image was then  copied  and coloured  using inktense pencils, then painted over with fabric medium - notice how very bright/intense  the painted colours are!

Suganti then  used split back-stitch in gold thread to outline.

Our activity on for the day  included "mock herringbone" stitch and also mixing threads in the needle. Both of these techniques are used by UK Textile Artist - Sue Stone - to create pattern and texture in her artworks. Above are our stitching results after a short period of time.

A great day was had by all as our little group grows with new creative members. The day went way too fast, as we all tried to catch up with what everyone had been doing.