Beautiful Bags

I really enjoy my weekly machine embroidery class at The Letchworth Settlement but it is not without its challenges. About half a dozen of the ladies have been coming to the class since I started teaching there but each term we also have another half dozen new ladies, some of whom are complete beginners. So my challenge is to come up with something interesting enough for those with experience but not so difficult as to put off the newcomers.

 

 

I usually start with some sort of sampler of free machine stitches and this year we have appliqed strips of coloured fabric to a felt backing and worked a variety of free machine patterns over the surface. Plenty of opprtunity to practise! We have then used the resulting fabrics to make a simple bag consisting of two circles based on the petal bag in Jenny Rolfe's lovely book of Embroidered Bags. Making bags has also given us the opportunity to make cords and tassels.

 

I made a couple of samples...one large bag from circles about 6" wide and then a second smaller bag from 3" circles.

 

The ladies in the class then set about making their own with these fantastic results. Not all of them were finished when I took the photos but you can see what a brilliant job they have done. I thought I would remember whose was whose when I took the pictures... but now I'm not so sure!

 

I'm pretty certain the collection above are Jean's but everytime I look at the following five photos I change my mind as to who made which bag. Sorry ladies... they are all fabulous!

 

Just remembered that the one below is Jan's... maybe?

 

And this one is definitely Margaret's...

 

Because she also made these very clever scissor keepers from her smaller bags.

 

And this gorgeous multi- coloured bag is Di's because she also made a very clever beaded button closure as well as a beaded tassel.

 

And Marian made this one with a beautiful twisted and beaded cord (all done on the sewing machine)

 

One of the other "challenges" of this class is they like to come up with things for me to do while they are busy stitching. Someone will casually throw out a suggestion... and before I know it I've taken the bait! This time someone thought that the smaller bags would look good as little gift bags for the Christmas tree... and then someone suggested a collection of then would be rather nice as a Christmas garland...

 

So here they are... I made six mini bags, finished off with beads rather than tassels...

 

Just waiting for a suitable cord from which I can string them.

 

I did however, resist the suggestion that I might make twenty four of them as little Advent bags. A step too far even for me I think!

Just Popping by...

I know I said I was away... But I made record time back from Yorkshire this evening (The roads were very clear... I wasn't speeding... honest) and I thought that if I didn't share the photos of the work made in the class today right away, by the time I got around to it there would be something else to post about and then I wouldn't get around to it at all... you know what it's like.

 

 

So here we are... fifteen lovely ladies in the beautiful village of Snape in North Yorkshire working on a Tyvek playday... and these are the results of their endeavours.

 

They made fabulous flowers, scrumptious seedheads and beautiful beads.

 

I can't give credit to many individuals because I confess I did not learn very many names but the seedhead above and the work in the previous photo belonged to Julie who incorporated silk fabric and lace into her seedheads with amazing effect.

 

As for all the others... just enjoy the photos of their wonderful work...

 

I must mention Nancy who made the flower above despite not really enjoying machine stitching at all... but I did let her stitch the petals together by hand!

 

This pair of seedheads looked really frosty in real life with their silver stitching.

 

I was well looked after by Diane, who provided a super lunch and afternoon tea with cake for us all today as well as feeding me and giving me a bed for the night on Friday. Thank you Diane and thank you to all the ladies of the Snape Textiles Group for working so hard and making it such a fun workshop.

 

Now if you'll excuse me I really do need to go to bed!

It's Official...

I'm turning into a grumpy old woman.

 

I treated myself to day out at the Knitting and Stitching show today. Something I usually look forward to with relish... all those gorgeous fabrics and yarns and glorious exhibitions of innovative textiles. But somehow it just didn't do it for me this year. There was nothing I really wanted to buy... my purchases extended to four reels of thread, a box of machine needles and two pieces of wool felt! It was hot... it was too crowded... my back ached and after two hours I'd had enough. Even the quick cuppa I had before leaving cost me £1.70 for a tea bag dunked in hot water with UHT milk... which I had to drink standing up!

 

But there were some fabulous exhibitions and people whose work I had not seen before, so before you write me off as a complete misery moaner let me show you some of my favourites.

 

 

The first person I spotted when I entered the textile gallery was Fleur Oakes whose work is pictured above. She was showing the most exquisite little embroideries, beautifully displayed and in particular I loved her buttons.

 

Buttons were obviously very appealing to me today as it was the buttons of Alice Colson that attracted me to her stand as part of the Graduate Showcase. Beautiful machine embroidered fabrics, some of which she had used to cover buttons.

 

There were also some lovely group exhibitions and one of my favourites was by REVEAL. All of the work was beautiful but I especially liked the machine embroidery of Kerry Mosely,pictured above, combining stitch onto knitted wire. Some pieces looked like lace and other pieces were very figurative but all stunning.

 

The other exhibition which was totally eye catching was the fantastic display by Ann Small and Sue Walton called Jabberwocky. It was a fun, surreal tableau inspired by the imagination of Lewis Carroll. The work of both was brilliant but I was especially attracted to Sue Walton's felted pieces and neutral palette.

 

Another graduate whose work really caught my eye was Ayasha Wood whose beautiful colourful embroidery on traditionally tailored menswear was colourful, fun, lighthearted but exqusitely executed.

 

And last, but not least there was this brilliant cross stitch on an old metal van door. My kind of cross stitch!

 

So as you can see, there was actually plenty to see (and I've only picked a few of my favourites... there were others) and so the fact that I was grumpy was obviously just down to me. And I have come home inspired to stitch and work in my sketchbook, which is good... except I'm off teaching to North Yorkshire for a couple of days and then whizzing back down south to Oxted on Monday before back to my regular class on Tuesday and meeting up with a friend on Wednesday. Perhaps I should pencil in next Thursday for some stitching and sketching of my own? I'll be back when I've got a minute!

Today...

I have been to a very special graduation ceremony.

 

 

Sam Morris, Master of Arts (Distinction)

Playwright, poet and published author.

Short story writer and magazine contributor.

Blogger.

 

 

I'm a very proud Mum!

Falling Leaves

I promised you more posts with photos of last week's activities and this is the first with work from my Young Embroiderers group who met on Saturday. Our branch of the Embroiderers Guild is having an exhibition next year and the Young Embroiderers have been invited to take part in a group challenge and have their work exhibited alongside work from our "Old" Embroiderers.

 

 

The challenge is to produce an A5 sized piece of work to the theme "Arboreal". Given all the lovely Autumnal leaves starting to appear I thought it would be fun to do some printing with leaves as well as introducing the girls to the tradition of Kantha stitching. I very quickly made the sample above (I own up, it was Friday night, the night before our meeting) to give them an idea of what they might do... and this is what they came up with...

 

Lorna, a brand new member finished this beautiful piece of stitching above.

Shaan also finished her piece... another example of beautiful stitching. I bought some new variagated thread for the girls to use and underestimated how popular it would be. They all wanted to use it!

 



 

The piece above is by Martha who had very definite ideas about having her leaves coming off the edge of her frame with minimal stitching... very effective too. I think she has achieved a really modern looking piece of work.

 

Bluebell, one of our younger members finished her piece with these lovely lines of stitch (in that variagated thread again!)

 

And Francesca, another of our younger members finished hers. I have a sneaky suspicion that Francesca enjoyed the printing more than the stitching but she has still managed a beautiful piece of work.

 

I should also mention Hannah, who not only has almost finished her beautiful piece of embroidery - I love the movement she has achieved in her stitching - but also helped me teach the session. As part of an art award that she is doing at school, Hannah has to share an art skill, so she stood up in front of the group and very ably demonstated how to do the printing with the leaves. Well done Hannah!

 

Ten of our members still have to finish their embroideries so I will no doubt be showing you those in the future, but they are not alone. I started another piece in class (pictured above) and still have to finish mine. I'm rather addicted to the patterns formed by the Kantha stitch.

 

When I was picking up supplies for the Young Embroiderers from Art Van Go on Friday (are you impressed how well I plan ahead), I also managed to have a look around their current exhibition "Making Stories" which is fabulous and well worth a look. Lots of stitch and mixed media work. It's on for another two weeks... so do try to pop in if you live nearby!

Birthday Boys!

Well I'm not entirely sure where the past week went...

There was some rather super machine embroidery from my class on Tuesday (photos for another blog post) and a lovely Young Embroiderers meeting yesterday resulting in amazing work (more photos for another blog post), not to mention meeting up with bloggers, our first Spectrum meeting since July, as well as other work related stuff... but mostly this week seems to have been dominated by family birthdays.

 

 

On Wednesday, my youngest boy celebrated his 20th birthday... there was a special meal with a toffee cheesecake. And then today we had a family gathering with twelve of us here for Sunday lunch...

 

 

Because my biggest boy is thirty on Tuesday... not really a boy anymore I guess.

 

But never too old to blow out candles!

Happy Birthday Ben and Jake!