August 2020

As we in Sydney continued on a second wave of hot spots from Covid 19, our group decided that once again we would meet via Zoom. Two meetings were scheduled, with a small break in between for drinks and snacks. Seven of us attended, some for a short time, some for the whole time. It was good to catch up with show and tell.

Jenny was finishing of samples that she had done for a major piece, and was turning them into pin cushions. The first one featured a square of reticella, and was finished off with a needle lace edge.

Jenny had also finished off this work bag that was started over nine years ago. Born out of a Counted Thread Round Robin that went around the world, The piece had come back home with holes and broken threads in the fabric. Jenny mended the fabric, fixed up holes, completed the stitching, and turned the piece into a work bag. The piece had travelled to USA, Canada, England, and parts of Australia, and features many forms of counted thread techniques such as Hardanger, cross stitch, blackwork, Wessex Stitchery and Drawn Thread.

Suganthi had finished one stork and had one still in progress. 

They have been worked in stranded cotton, long and short stitch on pale green silk and 

will eventually be cushions for her sister.

Following the completion of her quilt, Sheila used the leftover fabrics and wadding to create three shopping bags.  The cut lengths were joined together somewhat randomly and then she used a quilt-as-you-go method to make the bag sides.  Two of the bags used the leftover fabric for the gussets and a furnishing fabric was used to complete the third bag.  The fabrics are from the 'Thimbleberries' line that Sheila won in 2002.

The above  is Jo's sample using ‘Shosenshi’, a  translucent paper yarn, made with linen. Jo also, added a single strand of silver metallic thread with the yarn to do the stitching.

Jenny had used scrap yarns from her stash to finish this blanket. Her son has christened it 'The Homeless Blanket', though has claimed it for himself.

Sheila's daily practice for August is to stitch on paper.  Years ago, she had marked a large heavy weight paper with india ink.  It was torn it into double page spreads and each day of the month, a simple stitched design is added to one side of the spread.  The pages will be made into a book at the completion of the project.  Sheila's further explorations can be found at:  https://www.instagram.com/thingstitcher/.

We as a nation are still waiting and watching as this second wave of Covid 19 keeps raising it's ugly head. In the mean time we still keep stitching at home, and are planning our upcoming exhibit.