March 2019

Our March meeting brought seven members attending with Susan joining us via Zoom. Show and tell as usual is always a treat.

Annette had finally finished  her CWA handicraft day group project.  Individuals worked on their version of a Sue Spargo sewing roll featured in an Inspirations magazine. Annette decided to use up  some of her stash and changed how it was made. Of the 12 started there are 7 completed after 12 months.

Above is a canvas work cushion cover by Susan. The cover has all been worked  in a rice stitch variation, using up to 6 different threads for each part of the stitch. Susan played around with pattern by varying the colours  used each time, using up various Appletons wools she has leftover from many other, earlier projects. So easy and quick to do,  another has been started.

Sheila has been working on a major embroidery destined to be shown in the Bainz Gallery during the Stitched Up Festival.  The festival is held every two years in the city of Wangaratta Victoria.  For information about the festival visit:  https://stitchedupfestival.com/

Sheila's work is now completed and mounted onto a stretched canvas.  The work has been stitched solidly covering an area of 50 cm by 50 cm.  Raised chain stitch has been used throughout the work.  The work is not for public viewing until the opening of the exhibition but Sheila can show the back of the work which can be seen above.

New member Merina is undertaking the Creative Correspondence Course and has completed a design for her first project . The theme was leaves and the stitch was running stitch. 

Marina had also used stitcheries that she had completed to make a bag to carry her projects .

This Mountmellick bag is by Annette and features a typical floral design. Stitches include stem, cable chain, mountmellick stitch, coral knot and bullions. The stitches have been worked with various thicknesses of broder cotton, and the bag  has a traditional knitted fringe worked with no 4 knitting cotton.

Above is Donna's 'An Unkindness at Uranquinty'.   A group of ravens can be  either an unkindness or a conspiracy.    Donna stitched on a furnishing fabric sample with  a lovely weave that reminded her of clouds. The piece is  mounted on a black felt covered canvas. The scene is loosely based on views from the car when driving.  Uranquinty is a small town/area on the way to Wagga Wagga from Albury.

'Process' is Donna's  word for the year.  Her personal challenge is to explore what process means to her, and her practice.  A small painted canvas with small scraps of fabric, painted paper and tyvec stitched onto it, a face which she cast in polymer clay, bibs and bobs and the definition of process cut from an old dictionary.

Above  is a small cross-stitch project by Lesley - one piece of homework for the Counted Thread Module of the Introduction to Embroidery Course she is doing. Her  inspiration for this piece is Van Gogh's Fishing Boats on the Beach at Les Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer

Robyn's  train doodle, including painting, collageing and Zentangling. This piece has been created  on the train as she travels  to and from work.

Sheila maintains a daily art practice outside of her stitching activities. The activity for the practice is changed monthly and may be used to extend and enhance her textile works.  The activity for February was paper collage placed onto pages in a pictorial diary.

Sheila's practice for March is to work in a mixed media journal. Anything goes in this journal.

Annette's  shawl is finished and blocked ready to be given to the expectant Mum and Dad. Washed and blocked it measures 105 x 105 cms. The outer edge is finished with a crochet-off edge. 2 knitting stitches from the left needle were placed on the crochet hook and the supply yarn pulled through. 5 chain stitches were worked and 2 more stitches were taken from the knitting needle and caught with a single crochet stitch. Not as quick as it sounds but a very pretty edge.

Jenny had started herself another cardigan while away on holiday. 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 .

Gerri had finished this quilted banner with hidden running stitch around the flowers.

This cushion cover is also by Gerri.

Above are just two of the Twelve Apostles's that Gerri is sketching, tracing, and embroidering to her own design. She is using single strand DMC thread over laid chain stitch for the raised areas, and completed with long and short stitch.

The above are some placemats that Gerri has put together using prairie points for the first time. The hexagonal ones are an experiment using a triangle template.

 A basket that  Lesley has 

crocheted, made from window sash cord and some leftover charcoal grey knitting wool. It is very soft and quite organic in shape.  It will be used to store magazines, cards, and other resource material that Lesley will use "one day" for collage work.

Annette conducted our monthly activity giving us a stitch to learn.  Known as zigzag chain or Spanish knotted feather, the stitch required a bit of practice to develop a rhythm.  Some stitchers required lots of help while other stitchers were able to quickly work a satisfying rhythm.  We were then given the opportunity to attempt cable plait or braid stitch which is used in Mountmellick work.  Annette gave us a challenging stitch and bravely used her teaching skills to keep some of us stitching.

As you can all see, our little group is growing, and we all continue to play with  needle, thread, fiber, and anything else that takes our fancy. As our monthly activities are continuing to spur us along, so please come back next month to see what we get up to, Until then, happy stitching.

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.