February meeting

Our February meeting was a members' day where we all brought our own work to do.

This was one member's contribution to our Regional Chair competition.

We also talked a lot about our forthcoming Exhibition, which will be held at the Tithe Barn, Nether Poppleton from Friday June 22nd to Sunday June 24th this year.

There will be a Coastal theme to part of the exhibition. There will also be an exhibition by our Young Embroiderers Group who will be busy making Seascapes at their February half term meetings next week.

Image taken from our branch facebook page

This is some of the fabric that the Young Embroiderers will be stitching on - dyed at our morning session.

The exhibition will also have a series of stitched postcards, with a competition to guess each place in Yorkshire that is depicted - this could be realistic or cryptic, so thinking hats will be needed.

There will also be more general (but still as special and interesting) work on display including some of the work that was included in the 'Capability Brown' exhibition. The adjacent St Everilda's Church will be hosting a display of the Stamford Bridge Tapestry alongside our branch exhibition, so there will be plenty to see.

Keep checking the Exhibition tab at the top of the page for more information.

In other things . . .

We do encourage members to wear name badges to meetings. These don't have to be embroidered, but if they are, so much the better!

Lynda Kinnard will be speaking at the March meeting. There is also an accompanying day school on the Sunday.

There will be a demonstration of how to use the die cutter at the morning session of next month's meeting. The die cutter is then available for loan to members for a small fee.

Don't forget we also have a facebook page.

February meeting update

Sadly, our speaker for tomorrow has had to withdraw, we will be having a working day.

It will be a good opportunity to  work towards the exhibition, or the 3" squares we are producing towards the Region Banner, and / or the Guild's 100 Hearts (registration last day on Monday). Plenty to work on!

And don't forget, if you have any pieces for the summer exhibition which you have finished, please bring them along on Saturday if you can. We are looking to photograph finished pieces to use in our publicity for the exhibition.

January meeting - Pearl Loves Paisley

Our speaker this month was Justine Warner. Her first foray into textiles after moving to Sheriff Hutton involved stitching into men's ties, and then adding some pearl embellishments, hence the name she uses - Pearl Loves Paisley.

Celandines in Spring
 (image taken from Justine's website)

Justine initially used ties because they were to hand, when she wanted to make something to enter into her local village show. This piece was a cushion, and the talk illustrated her creative development from this early piece to the framed textile landscapes she creates today.

Incoming Storm Applecross Scotland
 (detail - image taken from Justine's website)

Justine talked about the elements she incorporates into her pieces, including felting, free machine embroidery and found items such as bark and feathers. We were treated to many handling samples which were enthusiastically passed round the audience. She then went on to detail her forthcoming classes and exhibitions. It was a very interesting and well received talk.

In other things . . .

First Aiders are needed for our branch exhibition in June. If you can help in this way, please let the committee know

December Meeting - Christmas

The December meeting is a 'Members' Day' when we get a chance at the afternoon meeting to work on a little project, and chat with other members.

This year the theme was Shisha.

One of our visitors, Carol, had brought some beautiful embellished cushion covers, which included Shisha work, and these were widely admired before we started on our own creations.

We only had a short amount of time, so these are some of the 'works in progress' achieved on the day.

There was also cake, a raffle and a bran tub.

Kath won the Christmas competition, by popular vote. This year the theme was 'A piece of jewellery'.

In other news . . . 

The speaker in January will be Justine Warner.

In April 2018 and May 2018, the Folk Hall will be closed completely, and our meetings will be at New Earswick Methodist church. We have been advised that parking will still be available at the Folk Hall

The Embroiderers' Guild is running a major project called 100 Hearts War Stories (click here for details). Details have also been emailed out by Heather to branch members. If we have your email address, but you haven't received the email, please check your junk/spam box.

The Chairman's Challenge for the Region will involve each branch in the region making a sampler of 3" squares. Further details next year.

Happy Christmas.

November meeting - Corinne Young

Our speaker this month was Corinne Young. She was known to some of our members already, as she was one of the tutors at this year's Regional Summer School.

Her talk was a journey through her textile career, starting with gaining a degree in Textile Design from Bradford College, where her tutor was Diane Bates. After graduating, Corinne exhibited with the Society of Designer Craftsmen at the Mall Galleries in London, and as a direct result was commissioned to make several large hangings for the opening of Lord of the Rings the musical.

Passion flower (image taken from Corinne's website)

Corinne then started to make smaller more commercial pieces and revisited the botanical studies she had made as part of her degree work. This passion flower was an early piece. Corinne talked about the techniques and materials she uses to create the 3D elements in her work.

Further developments included these butterflies

Butterfly specimens (image taken from Corinne's website)

More recently her work has been fully three dimensional creating perfect little pots of auriculas.

Auricula theatre (image taken from Corinne's website)

Much of her work fits well in a domestic setting, and her home has been used for many photo shoots,  culminating recently with an article in the September edition of Country Living.  This has brought her intricately stitched pieces to a much wider audience, and it was a pleasure to be able to see these pieces up close.

In other news . . .

Next month is the Christmas Meeting. The theme is Shisha stitching. Please bring a usual sewing kit, and, if you have it, cotton perle threads, beads and sequins. Small wrapped sewing related gifts for the Bran Tub will be welcome. There will also be a raffle. The Christmas competition is for a piece of jewellery.

Jess Grady led a Young Embroiderers session over half term.

More pictures and further details can be seen on the Young Embroiderers page either by clicking here, or on the tab at the top of the page.

Our branch Triennial exhibition will be held 22nd - 24th June 2018, at the Tithe Barn in Poppleton, York. Further details will be published nearer the time. See the tab at the top of the page - 2018 Exhibition.

October meeting - AGM and Members' Reflections

Our meeting on Saturday, October 7 was our AGM. We welcomed two new committee members: Lilian Muir (treasurer) and Heather Cawte (secretary), and we awarded a bursary to Jess Grady.

Following this, we had a very interesting selection of short talks by members. Eight brave souls spoke for 5-10 minutes on an embroidery subject of their choice.

Jose Gledhill spoke about inspirational City & Guilds tutor, Jean Bowe. She read out a poem found by Jean’s husband after her death, a very witty look at City & Guilds from a student’s point of view. She couldn’t tell us who had written it, as there was no name on it.

The following speaker, Sheila Wade - who was sitting next to Jose - announced that she knew exactly who had written the poem, as it was hers! It would be lovely to be able to publish it here or on our Facebook page. Sheila spoke about how she became interested in modern embroidery through the TV series by Diana Springall, especially the projects from Julia Caprara and Jan Beaney.

Nikki Brown shared some beautiful pieces with us, which she had chosen because they reminded her of particular friends.

Pauline Twyman showed us her dolls in hoops, and told us about the Dolly Birds group and the Basic Babes competition.

Celia Ankers brought along some of the distressed and unfinished pieces of church embroidery she has rescued over the years. She is known in many churches now as “the lady who won’t let you throw anything away”! These are some of her treasures.

Josie Storey illustrated her fascination with the stitching and textiles produced by ethnic groups such as Native Americans, showing us pieces inspired by a visit to the Hancock Museum in Newcastle upon Tyne.

Jackie Shearman brought along a display about her glove making, which she has enjoyed ever since learning it during her time at Bath College.

Finally, Jean Graves told us about the Fair Trade movement, and what she learned from her trip to Vietnam, to look at the projects producing items for the Traidcraft catalogue.

Everybody enjoyed the speakers, and asked if we could repeat this kind of afternoon in future. It proved that we not only have a huge pool of knowledge and skills in our branch, but that these are on a huge variety of subjects.

(And I must add my thanks to Heather for providing the words for this blogpost, and Pauline for the images, as I wasn't able to be at the meeting. It looks like I missed a real treat.)

AGM early meeting start

Hello! This is just a little reminder that, as the October meeting includes the AGM, we will be starting a little earlier than usual at 1:30pm