Our group had twelve attendees this month, including another new member, a visitor from Canberra, and a young family member of Wendy's. Susan and Donna also joined us via Zoom.
Show and tell this month begins with Marina who is undertaking the Creative Correspondence Course ( CCC) through the Embroiderers Guild NSW. One of the exercises was to explore Chain stitch
The clutch purse above is Marina's finished exercise, worked in various forms of chain stitch.
Marina saw this stitchery and decided it was just her, so she bought it and stitched it. She has made it into a bag
to take her projects to classes and groups. The words say:
‘I cannot count my day complete ‘til needle thread and fabric meet.’
Sheila found woven picot stitch from last month addictive. She stitched on a natural dyed raw silk fabric using her hand dyed
threads. She will continue filling in around the lighter areas and then decide
what to do next.
Jenny had been working on a piece of Ukrainian Whitework, but in colour. A counted thread lover, Jenny was inspired by her friend Robyn's piece of coloured Ukrainian Whitework from a few years back. The piece is being worked on blue even weave linen in a variety of threads including Anchor Perle 8 variegated and DMC stranded.
Sheila has finished her entry for The
Embroiderers' Guild of NSW Margaret Oppen competition. The works will be
displayed in October at Gallery76. She has also completed her Quilt NSW
entry for the annual suitcase challenge. Only the back can be revealed at
this stage, and is shown above. She used the design on the back to quilt the work.
Sheila has also been making butterflies for our exhibition in May of next year. The first
butterfly has stitching on a coloured paper towel. The paper towel has
been mounted onto iron-on interface for stability when stitching. The
second butterfly is machine applique using the positive and negative
image. More butterflies are in the planning stages.
Sheila's
daily practice for September was to create a collagraph each day printing with
a gelli plate. She incorporated Birgit Koopsen's Instagram challenge
prompts into the activity from day 3 onwards. Interpreting the prompts in
a way to incorporate the collagraph has pushed her creativity into new
territories.
Sheila's
work can be found at:
Gerri has revamped an old bag which she loves with some butterflies to brighten it up.
Annette H has finally finished one of seven cot panels bought by her mother before her death. The idea was so she could hand quilt them and give them to her grandchildren when they had a baby. Annette and her sisters have worked on them when the occasion arose and Annette has finished this last one for her new grandson .
Although Annette Y was unable to join us in our meeting, she has been working hard on her Introduction to Embroidery course. The above four photos show her final applique pieces that were submitted for assessment. They demonstrate the techniques broderie perse,
mola, needle-turn and the last has over stitched raw edge pieces.
Project 3 from Marin's CCC was her own choice. The task was to design the lid of a box. Romanian, Cretan, fly, and running stitches have been used.
Project 5 from Marina's CCC was 'Waves'. Marina used couching for the task which was to make a design depicting waves. Her inspiration came from seeing a surfer surfing through a tunnel. After many attempts, this was her favourite
Project 1 from Marina's CCC was leaves in running stitch. The task was to walk around a park and pick leaves, draw them then make a design using a leaf or leaves. Marina's is gum leaves, which have been stitched in green, and the lines in between depict different gum tree barks.
The activity for the meeting was picking a stitch name at random from a
box then stitching it. Marina is continuing to pick stitch names and when finished, will make it into a little purse.
Project 2 from Marina's CCC was the sun.
The task was look at pictures of the sun and design a depiction. Marina's is the sun in the centre with warm colours on one side warming half the earth and cool colours on the other side cooling the other side of the earth. Fly stitch has been used.
The beginning of the butterfly adventure by Annette H.
Butterflies start life as an egg, then become a caterpillar. This piece started life in our
simple exercise class on circles that Jenny gave us. Her scribbles translated
beautifully into a caterpillar of a non specific type. So far it is felt shapes
on cotton fabric that will be embossed with stitch.
From the back of Annette H's cupboard, a UFO in Mountmellick work which she will try to finish. Worked on cotton fabric in Perle 5 thread, the piece has a buttonhole edge rather than the traditional knitted edge.
Annette H's chosen stitch for the day was feather stitch. She tried it using 3 different
threads, then tried Cretan stitch after reading about it in an old 1967 copy
of the Record.
Susan has been exploring crochet, to expand her skills. She is trying medallions from
Nicky Epstein's Crochet on the Edge, having fun with the textures and
other techniques.
Susan also tried some 'inchies challenge' after Sheila's practice last month.
One of Susan's drawings from her regular Tuesday Drawing group in Bathurst.
Jenny is on another learning curve, trying out a new bobbin lace edge design. It is design No7 from Pamela Nottingham's book 'Bedfordshire Lacemaking.
Gerri has been busy making teddies, towels and owls for a stall that supports cancer care patients.
It is wonderful to watch our new members grow in their stitching, and fabulous to see how our monthly exercises can take us in new directions, both up and out. As our numbers grow, our skills grow, and so does our creativity. So come back next month to see our creativity in action, and see which direction it will take us.
