September 2011

There were six of us present on Saturday to partake in Robyn's colour activity, where much was brought to inspire us. Everything from thread colour charts, colour wheels, colour exercises in fabric, pages from her own journals, books, magazines,  examples of her own stitching, & bags full of enticing coloured threads.

 

 We were given an exercise  to do, using a picture from a magazine & picking out the colours within using whatever colour sources we had available. Jenny chose a picture from a food magazine & picked out the colours using coloured pencils. Later, thread colours were matched & colour schemes & colour values discussed.

Show & tell brought this stitching from Robyn, using water soluble oil pastels combined with surface stitches.

Susan had used freely improvised applique & running stitch embroidery to brighten and give new life to this purchased top.  

  

Susan was crocheting this scarf using a free downloadable pattern from Interweave Crochet. The scarf starts with a foundation single crochet row instead of chains & uses a pattern with a 4-row repeat. Both these techniques are new to Susan, who is trying to do something new with each new crochet project she tackles.

Jenny had finished knitting her Feather & Fan scarf in a 2 ply cashmere yarn from Belisa Cashmere in Bundanoon. 

 Jenny had also been stitching as well as knitting. There were experiments in pulled thread work including  this cover for purse pack tissues ( yet to be made up)

This bookmark that still needs blocking & cutting,

and this tiny square which will eventually be made into a scissor fob.

Come visit us again soon to see what we get up to next

August 2011

Our August meeting may have had only 4 members & one guest, but we still had fun. Donna led us through an exercise on texture, bringing paper & fabric for us to play with.

Jenny chose to play with fabric & threads, using running stitch to gather & pleat, as well as fraying edges.

Robyn over-layed paper with fabric, opening up holes in the fabric to reveal the paper underneath.

Donna also mixed paper & fabric with stitch.

Susan tore paper & over-layed it over more paper.

Our guest Ester used torn fabric strips & textured yarns to stitch over paper. Ester was visiting us for the day from Neville, in the Central Tablelands of NSW. Her passions are spinning, painting & art .

Show & tell brought the following:-

Jenny had been knitting. The feather & fan scarf above is in a 2 ply cashmere yarn from Belisa Cashmere in Bundanoon.

This blue ruffled scarf is in an acrylic yarn while the pattern is from http://www.interweaveknits.com/

This green scarf is using a combination of two yarns, one textured & one plain. It is worked in a simple drop stitch pattern.

These gloves are an experiment with knitting gloves on four needles. Jenny's last red pair were done on two needles exactly to the pattern which created seams. This experiment is using an old pattern from Paytons but adapting it to use 4 needles so as to avoid any seams & to get a more personalised fit.

Susan had been crocheting.
This bag is her own design & consists of two panels in a hand dyed wool. An alternating stitch pattern has been used featuring double crochet & treble stitches . The gusset at the sides & the base, and the top band have been worked in a contrasting wool with the top band worked in the round. A welt pocket features on the inside of the bag & the button closure is a hand-made porcelain one from Carcoar.
This is a corner of the shawl that Susan is currently making. It is worked in a trellis stitch using a Sirdar Crofter yarn. The pattern has been adapted from "Vogue Knitting & Crochet Scarves"

Donna had been sketching and her lovely sketches can be seen on her own blog here.

I wonder what September will bring?

July 2011

A small group of only four this month, but the planned tonal exercise still went ahead. Sheila led the day using an exercise that was based on one presented in 'A Complete Guide to Creative Embroidery' by Jan Beaney and Jean Littlejohn. Copies of a large sketch were provided and selected parts of the sketch were chosen by each individual to represent in stitch. The aim of the exercise was to express the tonal quality of the drawing through stitch using density of stitch and/or colour of the thread .

Below are the results the girls came up with.

Donna

Donna

Sheila

Wendy

Anne

Show & tell included the following:-

Sheila's diptych 'Lost Stories' using rust stained fabric and stitch.


Donna's canvas work in progress based on a painting she has done.


A piece by Donna which she was not happy with, so cut down & framed.


Donna's completed tivaevae purchased 'ready to stitch' on her recent holiday.

June 2011

There were only five members present this month, and as the leader of our proposed exercise for the day was MIA, Wendy & Donna led an impromptu stitching exercise using a piece by Karma Victoria Baines as inspiration. A great day of stitching was had by all who were present.

Below are the pieces the girls came up with.

Sheila

Robyn

Donna

Cathy

Wendy

A collaboration of all the pieces for the day

Show & tell brought the following

Donna's Canvas doll with shells

Donna's applique from the Cook Islands

Cathy's piece from a workshop at Orange with Janet De Boer.

May 2011

A very quiet meeting this month with only four of us attending. We had prior notice of other commitments of some of our members so our planned exercise for the day was postponed.

Instead we had fun chatting over a cuppa, sharing magazines & discussing show & tell.


Sheila had created this face as part of a quilt for someone special. It features machine applique & free machine quilting.

Also using applique & quilting by machine is this cat quilt by Sheila, made for a baby.


The above book & single book page, also by Sheila, were made in a TAFTA Forum class with Liz Powell. They feature lino prints on various papers & backgrounds.


During the course of the day, Robyn continued to work on her needle-lace pomegranate seed pod. Worked in silk threads, the design is her own, and shows the cordonnet, lace stitched leaves, & free buttonholed stones.



Jenny was in the process of knitting this ruffled scarf with picot trim.


Over the course of the day she also played with some variegated knitting yarn. By home coming time had perfected & produced this triangular motif, inspired by one from an old Crochet Monthly magazine ( No 45) of her Mum's.

Come back next moth to see what we get up to in June.