'How to Take a Good Photograph' - talk by Jeni Reid

We enjoyed a very interesting and helpful talk from Jeni on taking good photos with our phones. Jeni is a professional photographer and takes stunning pictures, but her tips and advice were geared to us 'happy snappers'. She explained how to choose good compositions and to edit these to get the best components of a picture. 

Advice on looking in the every day for our inspiration, and thinking about whether homing in on a subject or drawing back would suit it better. 

Looking at the light and shadows to achieve a particular ambience, and how to choose the right setting to take advantage of the light, to make the subjects softer or crisper, and the effect of the colour or the light, e.g. cold winter light or warm lamplight.

Taking photos from a different angle, such as kneeling g or even laying down to get a different perspective on the subject.

Tips for taking photos of people included not posing them, but snapping them while they are doing something and are unaware, as we all tend to 'freeze' when being posed.

And a clever tip for a group photo to avoid someone having their eyes closed - tell everyone to close their eyes, count to three and open them, and take the snap - simple and brilliant!

I shall definitely take these tips on board, and hope my not very great photos will improve.

Stitch And Chat

 Around once a month we have a 'Stitch and Chat' - an informal meeting where everyone does their own thing, bringing along whatever they are working on, having a cup of tea and biscuits, and a good natter. It's great way for anyone to get help and advice from other more experienced ladies, and see all sorts of other ideas, and spend a couple of hours with likeminded friends.

'Using a Photographic Image as a Basis of a Stitched Piece' - day school with Andrea McMillan

 Andrea brought along a large selection of her beautiful art quilts to inspire us to use a photo as a basis for a quilt or wall hanging. She provided photo of a sea stack on a beach (the first picture below), which we used to make a small A5 sample or her technique.

The technique involved tracing the image, transferring it to paper, and then making a collage with tissue paper (second pic), in order to see the areas of the photo as 'blocks' of colour, enhanced with coloured pencil, and not get bogged down into detail. We then traced the blocks onto Bondaweb, which we adhered onto fabric scraps according to our colour scheme. Everyone's was different, even though the picture source was the same. It's always fun choosing a fabric to portray a piece of beach, say, and seeing the choices everyone makes from the fabric stash. Using more bits of fabric to add detail means less stitching, or we could keep the larger pieces to fabric patches and do more stitching, so it will be exciting to see the end results of everyone's choices.

We all had our pieces more or less glued down, ready to take home and finish at our leisure. It was very interesting learning a new technique.

Sally went 'off piste' and is doing her dog on the beach. I did too, but haven’t got round to cutting out yet.

'Using your Scraps - day school,with Nancy Craig

 Nancy taught a useful day school on how to utilise those annoying bits of fabric that aren't big enough to be used on their own. Here are some pics of cute wee hearts, sachets and bags.

Day School with Linda McIntyre - Making a Table runner

 Some photos here from a day school on making a table runner. Hope to have more to add when more are finished!

'Travel Without Leaving Home' - talk by Andrea McMillan

 On a dreich, foggy November day we were treated to a riot of colour with Andrea's beautiful art quilts. A great traveller, visiting family in far flung parts of the globe, Andrea has a massive collection of photos from around the world to draw on for inspiration. These photos were a boon when we all went into lockdown and couldn't travel to the shops, never mind getting on a plane. Andrea had more time to sew in her lovely wooden cabin studio, and made a series of quilts and hangings during this trying time.

Andrea gave a very professional presentation depicting the creation of the quilts from conception to finished item, starting with a brilliant sketchbook detailing the working out process. She had a slide show showing the various stages of a number of quilts she had brought along, so we could see the progression and the finished quilt, exactly how it was put together and stitched, which was so useful. Many questions were answered.

Andrea is giving us a day school in February, which is something to look forward to.

Day School,with Morag Gray - Village Draught Excluder

 Members enjoyed a day with repeat tutor Morag Gray, making a draught excluder for those chilly winter nights. Lots of different fabrics were used to create houses from imagination, including especially some lovely tweeds. The first picture is by Morag herself, the finished item. 

The photos following are just a few, showing different stages. I hope to get some photos of people's finished work when they are completed at home.