Next month's speaker and the future of the group

A super speaker at last Saturday’s Zoom meeting. Alison Wake who is based in the Peak District, described  her work as ‘painting with yarn’. Her talk was perfectly structured for a Zoom presentation and was obviously much enjoyed. We’ve had lots of enthusiastic  feedback from members. She can be found on cognissart.co.uk.

We’ve also had lots of support for the creation of an independent embroidery and textile art group in the light of the recent Embroiderers’ Guild crisis and the consequent closing of all EG branches. Given the financial predicament in which the EG finds itself and the EG Trustees’ legal obligation to protect the charity, the closures were inevitable. However, the news came as shock, though on reflection not really a surprise. As well as the desire to have an independent stitch group there have been offers of help with activities such as running workshops and financial donations to help us get started which is immensely encouraging.

The committee is investigating possible venues for the group and looking at the various aspects of its organisation including subscriptions and a monthly programme. We’ll keep in touch as we go along.

Our next Zoom meeting will be on 3rd April when Emily Harvey will talk about print and print making.

March Meeting

 Our March meeting will be on Saturday 6th. As we are still in lockdown at the time of writing, this meeting will be via Zoom, and joining details will be emailed to members nearer the time. Our speaker will be Alison Wake. Click here to visit her website.

You may have seen that our Exhibition, planned for 2021 has, not surprisingly, been postponed until 2022. That doesn't mean that work has stopped though! Here is an image of some work in progress from Moira, for our Hedgerow theme.

February meeting with Amy Butcher

 Hi everyone,

A reminder about our Zoom meeting on Saturday, 6th February at 2pm It has soon rolled round. We are delighted to be having Amy Butcher as our speaker and at our Zoom committee meeting yesterday Nicky told us about the super visuals Amy has prepared for her talk. Liz will co-host the meeting so that Nicky can assist with these.  Nicky will email the meeting ID and password for the meeting to you.  This meeting will be free to all those on the 2019/2020 membership list, plus new members.

We would like to continue to hold the April competition for the best piece of work from a commercial design. These can be done from a kit or something from a magazine, or a workshop etc. This  year we would like members to send Nicky a photo of their entry, or entries, to cityofyorksec@embroiderersguild.co.uk by 30th March at the latest. She will show them onscreen, without names, at the Zoom meeting on 3rd April. The committee will then choose the winning entry. Won’t be easy! 

Speaking of images, we would love to have images of members' work on the blog.

Send them to me please, at csmall044@gmail.com with your name and who took the photo. This latter is only for Diana’s records   because of copyright law. Don’t ask! 

The blog has been devoid of images for nearly the whole year, so to get the ball rolling, here are pictures of work by some of our members.

From Gina

From Moira

Also, don't forget that you can see work from other branches by checking out the links on the blog.

From Jacqs

The committee has made  the decision to cancel the exhibition for this year, and to hold it in June, 2022 instead.  Very disappointing, but under the circumstances not unexpected. We kept hoping but it became  obvious it just wasn’t realistic. We know that many members have produced work on  hedgerows so we will keep what is any case  a lovely theme, as well as the exhibition’s overall title, ‘Our Celebration of Stitch’ . And  we’ll book the Tithe Barn as before.

From Nicky

Finally, another reminder of the fortnightly  Zoom Social Stitchers sessions, next one on Monday, 8th February. These are proving increasingly popular, a great way to keep in touch with our fellow stitchers. Details will be emailed. 

Very best wishes to you all,

Chris

February Meeting

 It was super to have so many members join in when we had our first Zoom meeting in January, and we are very much looking forward to the next one. On February 6th our speaker will be York textile artist Amy Butcher. Amy was a guest speaker a few years ago, since when she has had great success with her charming and beautifully executed work. So, see you all on the 6th.

As with the January meeting, joining details will be sent via email to members. For further information see our Programme Page, or our About Us page for contact details.

We're back!!!!!

I'm very pleased to say that meetings of the York branch will be resuming in 2021.

We have a full programme for the year; for details click here.

Because of the ongoing pandemic, the first two meetings of the year will be via Zoom. The venue for the following meetings will be announced here and via our facebook page, with joining details for zoom meetings (if needed) being emailed to members.

Our first speaker of the year is Ailish Henderson. Ailish has visited us before. This talk is entitled: Journey through a BA

If you'd like further details, please contact us, using the details on the About Us page.

September Update - Sadly meetings cancelled until 2021

The covid-19 pandemic continues to disrupt the opportunity to hold monthly branch meetings. Behind the scenes, the committee is still working hard. This is an update from our chairperson Chris:

The committee met on a lovely  afternoon in Sue's beautiful garden. As well as being good to  see each other, and the tea  and cake, and the chat, it was a very productive meeting and we got a lot of business done. 

It's sad but hardly surprising that all our meetings for the rest of the year have been cancelled. We hope to resume in January and followers of the blog will by now have seen what an  excellent  programme  we shall have. 

With the resignation of Sue from the committee, and our Programme Secretary Gina and our Treasurer Lilian resigning with effect from October, we have three places and two roles to fill.  Jacqs and  Liz  have volunteered to take these roles on and will be duly nominated. Their names and any other nominations will be put to a vote, which  will have to take place using email or post. We don't have to hold an AGM but we do have to have an election for any new committee members. Ingrid will be emailing everyone with the details and I shall contact those members not online. 

We decided that because we have missed so many meetings we would like to reduce the individual subscription to the branch by £10. More on this to members from Ingrid via email and from me where necessary in the old-fashioned way. We agreed to offer a textile student bursary in 2021, and this will be advertised via social  media eg Instagram.

Our next committee meeting will be via Zoom. Hmm, must look around the house for  a suitably impressive background. Or a tidy one at any rate.

Chris

As a PS, the sale of goods belonging to Barbara Douglas (see previous post), due to take place on Sunday 27th September has been cancelled.

Latest News

We are still not certain when meetings will be able to resume, but we do have a full programme ready for the remainder of this year, and next year. Click here, or on the 'Programme 20-21' tab for full details,

Sadly, one of our long-standing branch members, Barbara Douglas, died in February. She was also a member of Ryedale branch, and they have arranged to have a sale of her textile materials. Update: 23rd Sept. No doubt due to the increase in restrictions due to the pandemic, this sale has now been cancelled.

Apparently, there is quite a quantity of items (I'm sure we can all relate to that!) and it is hoped that a good sum of money can be raised to support the charities mentioned.