July Meeting - The Fulford Tapestry

The Speaker at this month's meeting was Mary Ann Dearlove, one of the embroiderers involved in stitching The Fulford Tapestry.

Details taken from the tapestry

Mary Ann brought the entire tapestry with her and it took up most of the stage. The pictures show just some of the tiny details which make up the overall work which depicts the Battle of Fulford in 1066. This is the 'forgotten' battle which took place before the more famous Battles of Hastings and Stamford Bridge at a small river ford on the edge of York.

More gory details!

Apparently, so many dead bodies fell into the ford at the site of the battle that the ford became known as the 'Foul Ford' which over time became corrupted to 'Fulford'. We don't just do embroidery at Embroiderers' Guild meetings!

Mary Ann also talked knowledgeably about the stitches - mainly stem stitch, laid stitch and open buttonhole (for the chain mail) - and the learning curve when sourcing the best wool yarns and natural dyes to create the vibrant colours used in the tapestry.

It took a small group of dedicated embroiderers nearly seven years to stitch the tapestry; fund raising is now being undertaken to  create a display stand for the tapestry and it is in search of a permanent home. Finding a venue is proving quite a challenge. To read more about the tapestry and the vast amount of time and research which has gone into the making click here. A very interesting talk.

Other Things (in no particular order)
At the September meeting in addition to the Ida Barber Trophy (awarded for the best original design) there will be a competition - with prize(s) as yet unspecified - for the best name brooch made using the York Embroiderers' Guild badge as its centrepiece.

Name badges are really helpful to the committee, so please try and make one.

Subscriptions are due in September. Subscription is made up of two parts. The major part which will be £30 goes directly to Embroiderers' Guild Headquarters to support the charitable aims of the Guild. The branch subs will be £10. This money goes towards the costs of the monthly meetings and includes room hire and the cost of the speakers (who are generally excellent - scroll back through the blog to see what a wide range of topics we have covered this year). Unfortunately, it isn't possible to be a member of the branch without also being a member of the Guild. The treasurer asked if we could remember to bring our cheque books and pay by cheque, as this makes banking easier.

The Regional AGM is on 11th October 2014 in Scarcroft. The current branch project needs to be completed in time for the AGM. More bodies (stitched and embroidered) are needed to go with the beach huts. These should be finished and brought to the September meeting and hopefully a working party will get everything together for October. I think there is an element of surprise to this project, so I will post photos when the 'Grand Reveal' happens.

It was proposed and accepted that the Branch AGM will take place in October not just this year, but in subsequent years.

Next year - 2015 - is exhibition year. Our triennial exhibition will be held in the Guildhall in York in June 2015. Dates are still being finalised. Fundraising ideas to help towards the cost of staging this exhibition are needed.

If I got this right, there are still places available on the Residential Summer School this July. Details are in the Regional Handbook or at this link on the Guild website.

And last, but not least, the Chairman's Award was won this year by Celia. The criteria was to use the Die Cutter and incorporate these cut shapes into a finished piece. Celia was inspired by a visit to the Royal Armouries museum in Leeds.

Celia's winning piece

Next year's theme is still to be announced.

June meeting - Julia Triston

Julia's talk was entitled 'Identity and Intimacy' and was a look at the influences behind and development of her work.
She talked about how her travels to places such as India and Peru had influenced her use of colour and how the idea of upcycling or reusing textiles had a major bearing on her work.
She began to consider gender and identity and the difference between the 'ideal' and 'real' woman. This resulted in a series of dresses made from bras and bunting made from knickers.

Julia with 'Push my Button' - 100 metres of knicker bunting

Needless to say, not all the components were her own, as she appealed to friends, family and the wider public including celebrities for donations towards her creations. The interest created in her work led to her having an hour on the Fourth Plinth in Trafalgar Square. Further images can be found here on her website.

Julia had brought delicate sketchbooks for us to look at and more recent pieces of work including smaller stitched pieces concentrating on the seams and evidence of wear of original garments which had been deconstructed and re-assembled. It was a very enjoyable and interesting talk which gave us a real understanding of the themes and influences which run through her work.

Other things:
The library will be back to 'normal' next month, so if you are 'looking after' books it will be ok to bring them to the next meeting.

There was a reminder that it is the 'Chairman's competition' next month (see the Programme page for details) and in September, in addition to the Ida Barber trophy being awarded, there will be a separate competition for 'best' name badge incorporating the York Embroiderers' Guild badge.

The July meeting is on 5th July which is the day of the 'Grand Depart' for the Tour de France and cyclists will be making their way from Leeds via Harewood and Skipton up to Swaledale and finishing in Harrogate. It is likely (ie definite I would imagine!) that other traffic in these areas will be disrupted, so plan your journey to our meeting with this in mind.

The North West region of the Embroiderers' Guild is having an exhibition Tied by Stitch at Lancaster's Storey Gallery from 26th May to 21st June.

May Meeting - Claire Spooner

Today's talk had been billed as 'In miniature' but it turned out that it should have read 'Millinery in Miniature' as our speaker today, Claire Spooner makes bespoke millinery.
She also has an extensive collection of historical hats and it was a 'miniature' look at the history of hat making and styles that was the subject of the talk.

Claire with some of the many hats from her collection

Claire brought hats from the mid 19th century to the late 20th century and explained how the style of hat changed over time as the overall body silhouette changed with new fashions. As a practising milliner she was also extremely knowledgeable on construction techniques used within the hats and how this then helped the hat 'sit' correctly on the wearer's head. We learned (among many other interesting things) that Plumassier was a real word and was a skilled profession. This was a really informative yet light-hearted talk with Claire modelling many of the hats she had brought along.

Other announcements
The date of the branch AGM has been moved to the October meeting and will now take place at 1.30pm on Saturday 4th October 2014. (This is so important it also has its own separate blog post!)

The branch library is being rehoused into a new storage space at the Folk Hall. While this changeover is in progress, please keep any books you have borrowed at home.

Sue gave a report of the Embroiderers' Guild AGM at Wyboston and Kath gave a report of her recent meeting with Terry Murphy. Both these reports should be available to read if required.

The beach scene is progressing very nicely. Beach huts are nearly finished, but more people are needed. As a guide to scale, the logo on front of the branch programme should be used as the size of the head of the stitched people.

Sue is organising tickets for Regional day. This clashes with our June meeting. If you would like a ticket, contact Sue (phone number on the printed programme).

Stitch Club, our morning workshop will, from September, run alongside two more formal classes.
The first is a 5 session introduction to goldwork, the second is a series of masterclasses of crewel work filling stitches. Sheila G has further details.

If you want to knit a bike for the Tour de France coming through Yorkshire, the next meeting is at the bike shop in Micklegate 2-4pm on 10th May.

Textile Experimental Group has an exhibition at West Ayton Village Hall 10th and 11th May.

City of York branch revised AGM date

The date of the branch AGM has been moved (again). It will now be immediately before the October meeting on Saturday 4th October 2014, starting at 1.30pm.
As there is no longer an AGM in September, the September meeting will start at the usual time of 2.00pm

April Meeting - Ailish Henderson

Ailish Henderson, a textile artist from Gateshead, gave a very interesting talk about how she came to textiles from a fine art background. She was introduced to stitch by Julia Triston and studied for her City and Guilds with Julia and Tracy Franklin. She is now studying for a BA and teaching textiles.
She encouraged us to be more active in our observation of the world around us and to use this as a basis for introducing a personal story into our work.

Some of her work has recently been displayed in the 'In Dreams' exhibition at the Customs House in South Tyneside, where she took the personal themes of age and dreams to depict the emotions of life and to consider 'Where do you wear your story?'.

Child's dress - keeping her life in her pocket

A young woman's shirt wearing her heart on her sleeve

Two of Ailish's pieces from the exhibition which she brought to show us, with images taken from her blog.

Other Things
A reminder that the pieces being made for the Regional Competition need to be brought to the May meeting.

Folk Hall refurbishment - Storage solutions needed!

We wish to alert you to the fact that important decisions need to be made at our next meeting on Saturday 5th April. We have been informed that as a result of the refurbishment of the Folk Hall, our storage space is going to be severely curtailed. We will only have sufficient room to store the absolute essentials we require for meetings. This will not include the library or the sales table stock, the screens and exhibition equipment, and various other sundries we have stored there. If you are unable to be present at the meeting and have strong opinions or good ideas, please contact any member of the committee by email.

March Meeting - Rachel Lombard

We were especially pleased to welcome Rachel Lombard as our speaker this month as she had to cancel her original booking last year.

Rachel firmly believes that everyone has creative ability of some kind or another. Telling us of her initial, thwarted desire to study patchwork and quilting, Rachel related how she reluctantly took a creative embroidery course, and has never looked back!

It was a delight to see inside Rachel's sketch books, and she emphasised the importance of recording the journey from concept to stitch, and also the value of evaluating ones work along the way, and to reflect on completion.

As well as a most informative presentation, Rachel delighted us with an extensive display of her work.

Mirrors............

more mirrors, boxes, albums and sketchbooks.



Other Things

Yorkshire Branch at Leeds have invited us to celebrate their 80th birthday with them, and have invited us to their meeting at St Columba's Church, Headingley , Leeds on  June 28th. We have been asked to RSVP, so if you would like to go please could you let Stevie Rodgers know. the meeting begins at 11.30, includes lunch, and the afternoon speaker is our very own Diana Barrett.

Details of the Region Summer School and application forms are available from Stevie.

Ryedale Branch has an Exhibition In the Band Room, Farndale on Friday 11th and Saturday 12th April.  10.00am - 4.00pm.

The dates for York Open Studios this year are  4th,5th, 6th April and 12th, 13th April. Further details - www.yorkopenstudios.co.uk