January Catch-Up

Our little group normally has a break between November & February because of Summer School courses being held at Guild HQ ( our meeting place), Christmas, New Year, and members being away due to schools & workplaces taking breaks. Some of us feel that this break is too long & try to get together for a catch-up. This year there were four of us with show & tell.

Robyn had been playing with applique & FME to produce this vibrant design from her own original sketches. It will eventually be made into a skirt.

Then there was the ethnic designed crewel work on linen, inspired by the central mother of pearl bead on a vintage skirt.

Sheila had attended the "Remembering Kathleen & Constance" workshop with Dr Susan Wood at Summer School. There were design exercises, with a theme of choice, in paper. In Sheila's words, "Fun, fun, fun."

I had been playing with some drawn thread designs for larger open areas & corners. All were worked using my own hand dyed threads.

There was also this book mark made from my own created fabric, using surface stiching & a tassel to decorate.

Susan had used a quote from Julia Cameron's book "Walking In This World" to stitch on this self desighned sampler. Started as part of the Australian Quaker Tapestry Project in 2006, it is finally finished. Each leaf has used a different stich. The leaves can be seen in more detail here.

There was also this piece of canvas work by Susan. Titled "Life's Journey", it is a reflection on all areas of life, and the fact that most things in life are not black & white.

Our official first meeting for the year will happen in February, when we look foreward to welcoming a new member.

Our Tenth Birthday Celebration Project

Back in October, I mentioned the combined project that our group had been working on in 2008, to celebrate ten years of stitching together. So now is the big reveal ! Above is the front cover of the calendar that we produced. It consists of a patch-worked effect of 4 members work for our 10" square challenge that we did in 2007. It features the work of Jenny Bargh, Sheila Beer, Jessie Hosie & Robyn Johnstone.



January features "Portrait Of A Girl" by Donna Caffrey. Measuring 20cm x 26 cm, this piece is a canvas work interpretation of Donna's daughter.

February features "Jade Grid" by Jessie Hosie. 29.5cm X 21cm, this piece is surface stitchery & beading on silk.

March features "Glebe Terraces" by Elizabeth Low. Measuring 56cm x 35cm, this piece incorporates fabric manipulation & hand stitching.

April features "Fish Platter" by Sheila Beer. Measuring 28cm x 28cm, the piece uses goldwork techniques.

May features "Past Horizons" by Jenny Bargh. Measuring 33cm x 23 cm, this piece uses Jenny's own hand dyed fabrics & threads, and is made using drawn thread & reticella lace techniques.

June features "Eartha" by Robyn Johnstone. Measuring 13cm x 11cm x 8cm, this piece is beadwork & wire sculpture over stone.

July features "The Hole Piece" by Robyn Johnstone. Measuring 21cm x 30cm, this piece uses Robyn's own hand dyed threads with patchwork & reticella lace techniques .

August features "Flower Girl" by Susan Freeman. 33cm x 40cm, this piece uses applique & surface stitchery techniques.

September features "Stitch" by Sheila Beer. Measuring 40cm x 18cm, this piece features free machine embroidery in metallic threads.

October features "Landscape" by Donna Caffrey. The piece is a quilted fabric collage, using Donna's own hand dyed fabrics, and measures 20cm x 29cm.

November features "Grandma's Country Cottage" by Elizabeth Low. Using fabic manipulation, this piece measures 51cm x 34cm.

December features "Stubble" by Cathy Lean.. Using muslin shapes, wool tops, free machine embroidery & surface stitchery, this piece measures 21cm x 30cm.

October '08

It was the October meeting of our group recently with all of us attending. It was the day that all our pieces were due in for our combined project. OK, so what is this project you all ask? Well, all will be revealed in due time, just not today. But to give you a hint of what is to come, check out the pics below.

lace work in the raw

Spent a lovely week in West Gippsland with an unplanned stop at Warrigal. I took an early morning walk and was surpised to see many, many circular spiders webs.

September '08

Our September meeting was held last Saturday with all of us in attendance. During the day we were all busy stitching pieces for our special combined project, as well participating in show & tell, chatting over cups of tea & catching up with each other. Below is just some of our "show & tell" for the day.

Cathy had made this tree as part of an ATASDA charm swap. The tree is made from 50mm copper service cable, which had been untwisted & formed into the tree shape. The orange beads on the ends of the branches stopped the charms from falling off, while the other beads are just for decoration. The charms were made by Cathy and other members of ATASDA.

Cathy had also been knitting this cardigan using the variagated Italian 100% wool "Bizarre". We were all offering opinions as to how many buttons to use and in which colour order.

Sheila was back from a 3 month trip to Canada, where, as well as visiting family, she participated in a bookmaking course at Red Deer College with Michael Jacobs. Attending the course with two of her sisters, they were handed a challenge at the beginning of the course to create a "family" book. Below are pages 2 & 3 of Sheila's book about her sisters, using foam core bases, acetate windows, wire bending & paper.

I had been working on a wrap to wear to a family wedding. It has been made by withdrawing threads from a piece of raw silk, stitched with 4 sided & hem stitch, then fancy knitting threads have been woven back into some of the spaces.

This is just a closer view, and my experiments for this piece can be seen here.

Robyn was beginning to choose blue beads for her next beaded stone.

This one will be the third in a series, while the first of the series is this wave.

Donna had been making quilts for the "Exhibition Corridor" of St Vincent's Hospital, following the theme of "Arabesque". These two pieces have been inspired by Islamic/ Moorish tile patterns, and feature her own hand dyed fabrics with machine quilting. More can be read here.