'Sparkling organza Gingko Leaves' - day school with Susie Stehli

 We had a lovely sunny day for our class, and the gorgeous array of sparkling yellows and greens of the vast array of organzas Susie brought made us feel that Spring is nearly here. Susie brought a large picture of gingko leaves she had made (first photo), and we made a more modest picture using either hand or machine embroidery. Susie had brought our chosen colour of background along, all ready cut to size and prepared with backing, ready to go in the frame she also supplied.

We selected paper templates of the leaves, which we drew around on the background fabric, and then arranged little snippets of various fabrics in the outline, to make some texture and shadows. We added pieces of larger organza in layers to build up the form of the leaves, pinned it on and then stitched the edges and a few of the veins. Once this was done we could use different threads to build up texture and tones to create the leaves. The machine stitchers had the advantage of greater speed than the hand stitchers, and one or two people actually got as far as framing their picture. The photos below show some of the stages of building up the piece, and some near completion.

It was a lovely day, thank you Susie, and thanks to the ladies who brought fruit cake and homemade biscuits!

'From Jewellery to Textiles - a Journey' - talk by Sam Townsend

 Sam gave us a lovely and interesting talk about her career from making jewellery to making quilts. Having been told at school by one of those wonderful inspiration teachers (there's one in every school) that she couldn't draw, Sam went on to go to art college, first interested in ceramics, but then finding her metier in jewellery. She had brought along examples of pieces made in silver that she had designed herself, and her sketchbooks showed wonderful drawings of concepts and workings out of her creations. For a while she worked for a jeweller, but then went freelance, running a successful business in Edinburgh.

Unfortunately arthritis crept up and made this line of work painful and difficult, something we people of a certain age can empathise with! Sam had always stitched, but she then did various courses on different types of quilting, and she had brought along a large selection of her works. It was interesting seeing the progression from more traditional patchwork quilts as her art background came more to the fore and the design morphed into more free and experimental quilts. Many of the quilts had painting on, such as the owl and the tree, beautiful. It was such a colourful and inspirational collection. There was such a variety, from little miniature quilts, to one made with sashiko embroidery. The photos below are a small selection of what she brought, and when I have located her Facebook page I'll post it here so you can see more.

Update: Sam's Facebook page is DesignedbySam, you can see more of her work and her work process.

'Crewel Work', - day school with Isobel Law

 Isobel did a well attended day school on crewel work and stump work, which had been postponed because of the snow. I wasn't able to attend, but thank you, Jean, for the photos, I will try and get some more if anyone has them.

Christmas Party

 On a day where the countryside looked suitably Christmassy, all white and glistening with frost, we had a few hours full of colour and good food. Pat made beautiful table arrangements and it all looked so festive and welcoming. A lovely buffet lunch provided by our tried and trust caterers, with salmon,  coronation chicken, ham, salads, quiches and potatoes had us thinking we had no room for more until the four puddings came in, and some people managed to find space for a bit of all them - no names will be mentioned!

We then played a couple of quizzes, (thanks to a eg for organising them) pass the parcel, name that (Christmas) tune, and the highlight was a 'recycled' fashion show. We had brought in sparkly and gorgeous fabrics and trimmings which were laid on table, and we divided i to team of four. One member was picked as the model, and the other members had to raid the tables and dress the model in items snaffled from the array. Then they each did a catwalk sashay accompanied by an hilarious commentary of another team member. We had a Roman emperor (who won the prize), Worzel Gummidge, a green witch, Fatima from the kasbah, can't remember what the other two were, got lost in the laughter (sorry). Well done Nancy for thinking this one up, it was a lovely way to finish for Christmas.

Stencilling Fabric and Making a Lampshade or wall panel x day school with Astrid Weigel

Debbie's report on the day school - thanks Debbie!

We were asked to draw a design onto paper to make either a panel or lampshade, once we were happy with it we had to re-draw the design onto a freezer paper template.
We then had to cut out the design and iron the freezer paper onto the calico, wax side down, to temp. stick it to the fabric.
Then came the fun part! Painting in the template using fabric dyes. These we're then dried before removing the freezer paper. Once it was completely dry the fabric was ironed to 'fix' the dyes.
The following the instructions, and a fair bit of help, from Astrid we made the fabric into the lampshade or panel.
I really good day where everyone went home with a finished item, for a change!

‘Reverse Applique’ - day school with Morag Gray

 On yet another dismal day of interminable rain we cheered ourselves up using lovely fabrics to learn this technique from Morag. The first four pictures below are examples of Morag’s work, where she shows how to make the appliqué 3D and textured.

We were provided with a piece of velvet which we trimmed and edged to stop fraying. The idea is to layers contrasting fabrics on the front of the velvet and cut through them after stitching to reveal the velvet. The inspiration of Morag's pieces was Moroccan tiles. We cut a piece of paper to make our design shapes on, and then transferred the design to the back of the velvet. We pinned our contrasting fabrics onto the front, and machine stitched from the back along the lines of the design. (I finally discovered that using metallic thread in the bobbin, instead of on top, took all the grief out of using metallic and sparkly thread - thanks, Morag!)

Once we had attached the fabrics together we started to cut out some holes to fray and decorate. Most of us didn't get much farther, so I have only posted some of the works in progress below as nobody finished their pieces. I hope to add some finished work as when they are completed.

Thanks to Nancy for the lovely cakes!