February 2019

Welcome to a new year of Stitchers Plus. We had our first official meeting for the year  this month with lots of catching up, new challenges, positive notes and new faces. So welcome to our new members. We had nine members in attendance, including three new people.

After some introductions and finding out a little about our new members, we had some business to attend to, then Sheila led us through a design challenge using collage . Using a packet of mixed collage papers, we glued a piece down and then drew a line in relation to that piece.  Then continued gluing and drawing until we felt we were finished.   Below is look at the designs we all came up with.

 Then began show and tell.

Annette has finally finished and framed her pulled thread work piece of a peacock feather, a  design in old Needlecraft magazine. She was encouraged to work it after showing the design to Introduction to Embroidery - stitches and techniques students,  pointing out it was worked in coloured thread not tone on tone.  The piece has been worked with DMC stranded thread on 28c linen. 

Jenny had turned this blackwork sample onto a needle book. The piece began life way back in 2012 as a sample of stitches for another piece she was  about to do at the time. It had  been packed away since then, and found  again by accident looking for something else. All that need doing was to add a lining, some Dr's flannel, a back stitched edge, and a fastening. She now has another pretty needle case to use.

A little thread bag  by Jenny which began life back in September 2018 as a design exercise by Robyn. Some thought went into what it could possibly turn into, it was too big for a needle book, and there was not enough fabric to make a hem with a drawstring. So one side of the piece was hemmed, another piece of fabric was cut exactly to size, folded and worked with a pulled hem, then added with an insertion stitch. A twisted cord was made using some of the threads in the stitching.

Above we see the front and back view of another needle case by Jenny. This one began life way back in 2007 as a resist dye sample for her 'Summer Santuary' piece. Some drawn thread stitching and a hem had been worked onto the sample, then it waited over 10 years to be made into this needle case. All that was required was some lining, some Dr's flannel, and a closure. 

This doily is also by Jenny . Given a whole pile of stamped doily's some years ago, this is the only one that has been worked. Jenny found it cleaning out her UFO cupboard. It only needed  the crochet edge to be worked to be usable, but Jenny has other plans for it other than just a doily. The crochet edging is worked in No 20 crochet thread from her stash, and the pattern came on the instruction sheet with the doily.

This piece of FME is my new member Janet . At this stage it is a work in progress and she is hoping it does not end up as a UFO.

A  crocheted baby shawl is the reason Jenny did not achieve her personal challenge for the group last year. It has been made using Bendigo Woollen Mills Luxury 3 ply yarn and uses a pattern from the Shepherd Baby Shawl Collection Book 1. Although is may look simple to do, the shawl was actually quite a challenge.  The shawl is now with it's new owner. 

Whilst drinking coffee on a sunny morning Robyn sketched some flowers. When home, she added a watercolour background and acrylic paint to the flowers. Placing the sketch on a fabric background, she then  stitched through he paper adding texture to the finished piece.

Robyn has expanded Saturdays exercise, using a magazine cutting and doodling over the rest of the page. The page is still a work in progress.

Robyn’s Stitch Meditation, just playing with felt, fabric and stitch.

The above  table napkins are by Annette, and are samples of 20 napkins completed for the Christmas table. They are 100% cotton napkins purchased from Kmart. The designs are mainly from a Better Homes and Gardens magazine owned by her sister in law,  date unknown. Thread used was DMC Mouline Special ETOILE. Stitches used are back stitch, stem stitch, chain stitch, satin stitch and french knots.

Another  knitted baby shawl by Annette  is one in progress of 2 needed for 2019. The pattern is from Traditional Knitted Shawls by Martha Waterman. It is a square shawl knitted on circular needles starting from the centre with 8 stitches. Patterns are narrow cat's paw and old shale. Needle size 4.50 and wool is Bendigo Mills classic 3 ply machine washable.

The above two photos are of Susan's  first peg loom weaving, complete, and a detail. Susan calls this 'The Coming of Plants', an abstract landscape/geological history. Her main reason for working on the peg loom was to use up fancy knitting yarns she had for decades.  A ball of this, a ball of that, and a whole pile of cotton a broders, all in browns and landscape colours. Peg loom weaving is fun, and used up such a lot of yarn!

Above is a  photo is of a couple of sketches Susan made while on a recent trip to N.E. Victoria. She  did a few sketches to be made up into a concertina book of  her trip. The top sketch is of part of Lake Hume, so dry it has exposed the old river bed. The bottom sketch is of Chiltern-Mt Pilot National Park, just trees, and no vista where she sat. It's landscape was supposed to be good for birds, but Susan  visited at the wrong time. She really enjoyed sketching in landscapes of different kinds and  wants to do more.

Gerri had been busy making quilts. Made by machine featuring an appliqued ballerina , a removable tutu and a hand made wool flower, this quilt is for her grand niece. 

This Black Panther quilt is also by Gerri for her grand nephew. The center block was  imported from the USA, and uses basic piecing, assembling and quilting.

Similar to the previous quilt, this quilt was also made by Gerri  for her grand nephew number two.

February is collage month for Sheila's daily practice.  Her designs tend to be abstract.  Her collage papers collection shows no sign of diminishing though.

Sheila continues with her daily practice.  In December, she did stamp carving.  Her favorite stamp was based on an expanded square or 'notan' that she created last year.  Sheila's stamp carving continues to improve and she is slowly using up her stash of erasers.

Sheila also enjoyed carving leftover scraps and created a simple but effective design.

A great day was had by one and all, and we all look forward to meeting again in March. I wonder what we will get up to over the next month? 

November 2018

We welcomed Joyce and Lesley to our November meeting and look forward to getting to know them and their work in the future.  Our last meeting of the year was a big day with our normal activities and the added bonus of Christmas lunch.

The first activity of the day was our mini class conducted by Susan.   The exercise was based on one for border pattern - making from N.I. Cannon's "Pattern and Design" .  Inspired with nine given elements , chosen combinations were combined with continuous lines to create interesting border designs.

For the design exercise, Sheila took two of the elements and developed variations for each iteration.

Robyn's interpretation of the exercise.

The two pages below are Lesley's interpretation of the exercise.

Susan's interpretation of her own exercise below.

Show and tell occupied the remainder of the morning, and without a meeting in October, there was a lot of catching up.  ​We also talked about our personal challenges that we gave ourselves at the beginning of the year.  Because we are all different,  progress was different for all of us.  

Personal Challenges

Sheila's personal challenge for the year was to have a daily artistic practice.  The focus of the practice was changed each month so Sheila could try a number of different things that were on her 'to do' list.  There was the added bonus of using some of her supplies.  This daily practice was deemed a success and will continue to be a part of Sheila's artistic development.

The daily practice for November is collage using a 1995 Anne Geddes diary as the base for the collage.  The photo on the opposite page may, or may not, influence the collage.  The diary tells us that Sheila was doing the basic course with the Embroiderers' Guild in 1995.  Proof that her artistic journey has grown since then.

Jenny's personal challenge was to complete a specified list of ten UFO's. Only five UFO's were completed, three off the specified list, and two others that were found along the way looking for other things. Life sometimes gets in the way of our personal goals, and a new baby in the family will usually throw everything out the window. Hence, a new baby shawl was started (and nearly completed ) instead of the remaining UFO's. 

There was also an OS trip to throw a spanner in the UFO mix. Jenny always has to take something to do when she goes away, and not knowing the lighting situation, it has to be something easy to see. On this trip, Jenny took some Lincraft Sorbet cotton/acrylic blend 4 ply yarn, a crochet hook, and an old trolley mat pattern of her Mother's dated 1947, and produced some motifs that will have an end life decorating a bag. They turned out much larger than expected.

Susan's personal Challenge  was to create some works exploring chain stitch, particularly for the Bathurst group display at  the Heritage Trades weekend in May.  Developing ideas for a series of quote embroideries was added  to the agenda mid year. Susan  did finish a few pieces, all of which appear in earlier blogs, and is happy because she created quite a few more works than she has in a long time .

Gerri's personal challenge was to work on HQ tasks and UFO's.  Life does sometimes get in the way, and although Gerri may not have been stitching much , she has completed lots. The list reads :- 
24 Christmas ornaments

30 tiny teddies

30 Christmas pillow cases

8 towels

8 face washers

8 hand towels

3 quilts

16 shopping bags made from coffee bean hessian sacks lined with fabric to form a three way inside out bag

16 table runners

2 dolls

1 rabbit with dress and crocheted blanket

Two knitted beanies and scarves 

Some of Gerri's work is shown below.

Lesley may have just joined us, but she has been busy stitching. 

The stitch samples and the stitched portrait are part of the Sue Stone course.

We all contribute to our shared Christmas lunch which was delicious as usual.  It is always a lovely way to end our year.

The afternoon continued with more stitching and more socialising and too soon the day was over.  We are all anticipating another year of creativity and personal development with an emphasis on stitch.

Those of us lucky enough to stay at the Embroiderers' Guild were able to attend the artist talk by Michelle Belgiorno whose installation of sennenbari is currently on display in Gallery76.  Michelle told us about her inspiring and emotional journey to distribute and then collect the stitched sennenbari.  The installation was created to commemorate the Japanese mini submarine bombing of Sydney Harbour in 1942 . https://www.embroiderersguildnsw.org.au

2019 promises to be another exciting year, with maybe a few changes thrown in the mix. Please come back next year to see what exciting things we get up to.

October 2018

Most of our members had other things on this month so our blog post for this month comes to you all via technology.

This chain stitched piece is Susan's second quote embroidery. This time the quote is from the artist Lloyd Rees. Susan likes the quote as a reminder of how wonderful the universe is, and the joy of living that is easy to forget. The piece is worked totally in  chain stitch as a solid fill, using colours from her collection.

Sheila had finished Robyn's activity from last month and turned it into a Journal cover.

    

Robyn has been working on a Kantha pouch flap, started at a workshop with Helen Nott.

Sheila had attended the same annual stitching retreat at Ferndale as Robyn  last weekend. Helen Nott presented a workshop using supplies from our cupboards. Sheila took some samples removed from Colour Streamers brochures and attached them to the base fabric then added more squares in stitch. It will be turned into an envelope pouch for sewing supplies. 

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This insertion stitch sampler is another UFO being finished by Jenny, inspired by the work of Effie Mitrofanis. Jenny hopes to add stitching to the panels in between the insertions, but is yet to decide what to turn the piece into.

This little bobbin lace book mark is also by Jenny. It is her third attempt at this pattern by Olwyn Scott, and features double eyed spiders which have yet to be mastered. This one is worked in Gutermann Sulky Cotton No 30 with  two strands of Gutermann quilting cotton as a gimp down each side. 

A little crocheted cot sized blanket made by Jenny. Jenny had purchased three yarn cakes on impulse to make something out of. The yarn was equal to a 10 ply, and one of the thickest that Jenny had used to date. After completing the squares, there was barely enough yarn left for a border, so a navy 8 ply from her stash was used with the remainder of the yarn cakes to create the edge. The squares are from a pattern in the Shepherd Baby Shawl Collection 1 book, they have been sewn together. The blanket has now been donated to charity.

After looking in her stash to find some yarn to create a border for her blanket, Jenny decided to use the same navy acrylic to make a hat. No pattern was used, just cast on six stitches, knit in rounds increasing in every second row until big enough, then decrease until it fit her head circumference, and work a ribbed band. The finished hat is in the beret style. This was another spur of the moment decision to make one for an upcoming trip away where the weather will be colder than home.

Sheila is participating in Inktober this moth for her daily practice. She is doing self portraits in ball point pen

A bag of goodies  received by Sheila for attending  the Bernina birthday celebrations. The party had lots of fabulous machines on display, demonstrations of the capabilities of the machines, and displays of machined textiles and postcards. An enjoyable celebration including Cake and champagne.

Our little group may have all been busy with other things on our meeting day this month, but we have still managed to create.  Come back in November to see what we get up to over the next month.

September 2018

 For our September meeting, Robyn led us through a creative stitching exercise. There were three categories that we drew out of a hat, then used as inspiration to stitch onto fabric that we had brought. The categories included shape, two stitches, and either a positive or negative approach.

Above are  our works that we began creating on the day.

There may have only been  four of us on the day, but show and tell as always is worth a look see.

Sheila had made this book cover using last moth's activity presented by Wendy. The final stitched piece was inserted into another piece of fabric, which was then turned into the book cover.

The Embroiderer's Guild is displaying poppies for the 100th anniversary of Armistice Day. The display will be in the Gallery window in November. Sheila made one sheer fabric poppy using a stencil cutter to create the petals and beaded the center. The brighter red poppy was created using four Suffolk puffs, felt and french knots.

On an impulse buy, Jenny succumbed to  purchasing three yarn cakes from Lincraft while they were on sale. The crocheted squares above are from the Shepherd Baby Shawl Collection 1 book, and are being sewn together to form either a knee rug or baby blanket.

Quilt NSW is collaborating with Arterie Lifehouse to create a patchwork wall hanging for the State of the art building. Sheila has completed blocks from kits that were distributed by Quilt NSW.

Sheila's daily practice for August was to create a fun foam stamp every day. This flower shape was created with a single stamp printed multiple times. 

Our little group had another fun day, with a creative exercise, some oohing and arhing over pieces in the collection room, to stitching an chatting to visitors in the the Gallery. I wonder what we will get up to next month?