Talk by Jeni Reid - My Journey

 Today's talk was a bit out of the ordinary, we saw things we hadn't seen before in an interesting slide show. Jeni started her career as a photographer, and visited many places photographing artists and designers work, including lovely knitwear.  From there her interest branched out into cyanotypes, which we hadn't seen before, and is a process of applying a chemical to paper or fabric, after placing items on it to make a resist, or shadow, and then the material is placed under light and left to magically make an image as the chemical turns blue, leaving a negative image. She had brought along items made up from the cloth. Due to long term illness she has made many cloth and knitted items.

She had done some research into the transatlantic slave trade and how it affected people in Angus in the past, probably without their knowledge. Some people who lived in Angus owned over 5,000 slaves, who knew? Jeni had made up a load of postcards with photos of Angus scenery, and on the back is written a name from the slave returns to commemorate the individuals, and leaving the postcards all around the county so people can learn about this history.

Jeni is also passionate about the awful plastic waste that blights our landscapes and beaches, and has turned some of this detritus into rather lovely jewellery, made from things like bottle tops and toothpaste tubes. 

More of Jeni's work can be seen by searching for her on Instagram.

Welcome and Afternoon Tea

 After this indifferent summer it was lovely to see so many familiar faces, and some new ones (welcome to the new members!), and to catch up on all the news. Nancy brought us all up to date on plans for this year, and we had a surprise speaker, Beth, who has opened a lovely fabric shop in Keptie Street, Arbroath. Beth is a fabric designer with a passion for patchwork and quilting, and she had brought along a collection of quilts in gorgeous colours, and to talk about her shop where she will be offering classes, as well as selling kits, and having a 'craft cafe', which sounds wonderful. 

Do visit her excellent website at www.lovefrombeth.com and see a feast of colour and pattern. Some photos below of what she she brought.

We then had a delicious tea of home bakes, and a gossip, and some inspiration for the coming year.

Programme for 2024/2025 now published

 The new programme is now published in the headers at the top of the page.  Check out the treats in store, and book the dates in your diaries.

Looking forward to seeing everyone in September.

'The Gathering', Perth

 Ten of our members spent the day at the 'Gathering', a recently formed organisation uniting clubs of stitchers from all over Scotland. There were demonstrations, stalls and workshops, and a display of member's work on the theme of the Stone of Destiny. There was also a raffle, and our members did very well, Kate won a Husqvarna sewing machine!!! Hopefully more of us will make it next year.

AGM and Challenge

 Today was our last meeting, which was well attended (for an AGM!), we elected some new committee officers. Minutes will go out to members shortly.

The subject of this year's challenge was 'Flowers', and as you can see a really varied number of embroideries were brought, it's lovely to see the different interpretations of the subject. The winner was Joan with the gorgeous Little Rock garden. What a brilliant idea, and the stitching was so delicate. And no weeding to do! Tea and lots of scrummy cakes followed.

Hope everybody has a lovely summer, and will see you all again on the first meeting on 18th September.

'the Major's Wife' Spinning Chair' - talk by Sue McNab

Such an intriguing title, we didn't know what to expect, but it turned out to be a fascinating story, sprinkled with humour, of Sue's life journey starting with working in hospitality and ending up running her own soft furnishing and upholstery business. She moved around a bit, and in Marlow met her husband, who was in the Royal Drgaoons. This entailed more moving around, a placement in Düsseldorf, and then Deepcut, Dunfermline and Scone.  During these meanderings she took a City and Guild course in soft furnishings, learning how to make curtains etc. along with that course she did upholstery, and it became her principle love. She made the Victorian footstool below for the course, the fabric being crazy patchwork.

She particularly delighted in the old ways of the craft, using horsehair and tacks rather than foam and staples. The squab cushion below demonstrates how a piece of material can become a solid item when stuffed with horsehair and lots of stitching. Sue had brought along some of the tools of the trade.

Below are some unique chairs, the green one has a lozenge in the top of the frame which Sue replicated on the seat with trapunto.  The white chair is the subject of the title. It is a spinning chair made with scraps from bridal gowns, and the tacks are all covered with pearls. There  are two rows of pearls, as a nod to her husband's promotions, as apparently a captain's wife can wear a single string of pearls, but a major's wife can wear a double string!

Sue continues to run her soft furnishing and upholstery business, and also teaches upholstery.

'Terrific Transfer Printing' - day school with Gillian Cooper

 Twelve of us attended a creative day school about transferring painted images from paper to cloth. Gillian was an enthusiastic teacher and had brought lots of her own work to show the possibilities of this technique, and the paints and equipment to use ourselves.

The transfer paints were mixed from powder with water, and we used a basic range of colours to mix our own. The paint is applied to cheap copier paper, and we all experimented with mark making, and using various things to imprint and add texture to the paint. The paint looks very dull on the paper, and it is only when ironed onto synthetic fabric that they magically become bright. The fabrics have to be synthetic as the paints will not work very well on natural fibres. We all played at being 5 years old again, splashing the paint around with abandon on the paper, and making our table’s uncharacteristically messy!

Then we learned how to iron the paper onto various fabrics between sheets of silicon, and to use things such as leaves and feathers as masks. Layers could be built up with different papers, papers could be torn and arranged for different effects, and there was quite a bit of serendipity involved. The possibilities Gillian showed us were endless, with only imagination the limit. 

We didn't get round to stitching any of the fabrics as we were so engrossed in the painting, but we all went home with lots of bits of coloured materials to work on when we had peace to think about it. The photos below only show the prepared papers and the initial transfer printing, it would be nice to see finished items made with the painted fabrics. The green feather is Gillian's piece, so shows a finished work.