Christmas update

Our branch Christmas party last Saturday, 6th December, was a really enjoyable, activity-packed event.  Lunch was followed by the eternally impossible Christmas quiz set by our Chairman (sorry Anne!) and a dip into Secret Santa's sack for everyone -  all the gifts (textile-related, no more than £5) were beautifully and creatively wrapped, almost too good to open.

This year's Christmas challenge was to make a cracker - textile, of course.  There were some beautiful and colourful crackers on display, and the winner was Jenny's:

The winner is decided by people voting for their favourites by putting coins into a pot next to each one.  Members can vote as many times as they like, and the winner is the one with the greatest number of coins. The winner donates all the money collected to the charity of their choice: Jenny's choice was the Air Ambulance.

Here's a photo of the jolly crowd of us who had just enjoyed an excellent meal cooked by caterer, Cheryl (who also doubles as photographer), and accompanied by Bucks Fizz, wine, coffee and chocolates:

You can just make out that Helen, standing in the centre, is holding one of the lovely table decorations made by Jean (second on the right, middle row).  A few lucky people with winning tickets took home the decoration from their table.  Winning cracker-maker, Jenny, is seated far right.

Further good news on the day was that joint Programme Secretary, Gill, had that morning collected an award from the Mayor of Rugby, Richard Dodd, for her textile piece called ‘Printed Garden’ in Rugby Art Society’s Annual Awards.  This is the second year running that Gill has won this award.

Gill used live plant material from her garden earlier in the year to print both positive and negative images on cream fabric before colouring it. Besides lots of detail with free machining and hand stitching, she also added organzas, velvets and embellished fabrics. 

The prize - a meal for two - was awarded by the restaurant Cafe Vin Cinq, who sponsored the awards. Gill's piece will be on display in the restaurant for a while following the exhibition, on floor one of Rugby Library, which finishes this Thursday, 10th December. 

Anyone visiting the Library should also take the opportunity to see two fantastic pieces on floor two, by branch member Janet Rose.

We wish Leamington & District Branch members and 

all our other readers a very 

Happy Christmas and New Year!

Looking forward to 2016 ....

We can certainly look forward to a packed and interesting Members' Day on Saturday 9th January, which will be our first meeting of the New Year.

We will meet at 10.00 am as usual, and the main activity will be to make a 'crazy patchwork' panel, using the lucky dip packs that were left over from Regional Day. Members have received the instructions and requirements list, but do get in touch if you have any queries. 

Alternatively, if you have opted to have a lesson in free machine embroidery, you will be shown the basic techniques and create a sample of stitched doodles.

In addition:

• Sue Cooke will update us on CB300 - don't forget to bring any work you've started based on Capability Brown at Charlecote Park; 
• Ruth Humphreys will bring her portfolios and tell us about the Distance Learning Course she is working on; and 
• West Midlands Regional Chairman, Stephanie Harper, will join us for our regular Shared Lunch (please don't forget to bring a plate of food to share).  
• After lunch, we will discuss the proposed changes to the Guild constitution, and continue with our crazy patchwork panels.

A great opportunity to catch up with each other again, and start a new creative year ...

Leamington Junior Embroiderers have been busy ....

At their October workshop they made some colourful and original gift tags  - all sorts of embellishments were applied to painted luggage labels.  One enterprising young person was clearly getting ready early for Christmas:

and in the November workshop, the focus was definitely on Christmas preparations.  These little stockings are ready to be filled with sweets or a gift and hung on the Christmas tree ...

Branch news update

Don't forget to come along to Judith Rowley's talk next week - Friday 6th November, when she will describe her Creative Journey as a textile artist.  Full details are in the previous post.

Exhibition

If you have an opportunity, do look in at Zero 5 Textile Group's 'Second Chances' exhibition at The Mill Arts Centre in Banbury (postcode: OX16 5QE).  One of our members belongs to this group, and it should make an interesting visit.

The exhibition starts on Wednesday 28th October and runs until 30th November 2015.  EG members are invited to the Open View between 6 - 8pm this Wednesday (28th), which includes a glass of wine.

More details can be found at www.themillartscentre.co.uk (What's On\ Exhibitions).

25 years with the branch

This is Leamington & District member, Ros Pratt, who was recently presented with her badge and certificate for 25 years of Guild membership.  That makes five of our members who have celebrated their Silver Anniversaries this year.  Congratulations, Ros! 

My Creative Journey - Talk by Judith Rowley, Friday 6th November

Judith creates beautiful and tactile surfaces with natural fabrics and fibres that she manipulates in a range of ways.  She then embellishes them with hand and machine stitch to transform them into works of art.

2D and 3D art forms are 'painted' with fabric and stitch - either for exhibition or for her "personal journey journals", in which she captures her creative journey from initial inspiration to exhibition piece.  Judith's inspiration is drawn from the natural and built environment, from music, literature and family history.

Visitors are very welcome to come along to this talk on 

Friday 6th November, which starts at 7.00 pm. 

We meet at St Mary's Church Hall, St Mary's Road, Leamington Spa - there is a map on our How to find us page.  
Visitor charge: £5.00 (includes coffee and biscuits)

Hot Stuff with Pauline Barnes

Saturday, 3rd October, was a relaxed and enjoyable day spent with Pauline Barnes and 17 other members of the Leamington and District Embroiderers' Guild.
During the day we experimented with Tyvek, Lutrador, stencils, gesso, paints, heat guns and soldering irons. The techniques we were shown were varied and able to be applied in many contexts.

A work area during the day. We used so many techniques and materials, clearing up had to happen regularly.

Lutrador, printed using a stencil, cut into strips adn then distressed with a heat gun.

 

Layers of felt and sheers, cutting round a shape using a soldering iron and attaching the shape. 

 

Using gesso with a stencil on lutrador and then buring away.

Using the soldering iron to attach sheers to each other.

 Stitching on sheers prior to cutting out the shape.

 

It was a thoroughly enjoyable day and everyone gained something from it.

Designing for Stitch - Talk by Pauline Barnes, Friday 2nd October

Pauline explains in this talk that much of her inspiration comes from the architecture and culture of places she has visited - Peru, Italy, Thailand, Mexico and Egypt, among others - and more recently, abstract themes, such as secrecy and concealment, calligraphy and rain.

Pauline often uses geometric shapes and patterns, and usually plans her quilts on graph paper after a few minimal line drawings.  She makes lots of samples to find the best way to interpret a motif or pattern, and so creative thinking takes over and the finished quilt is often quite different from the initial design.

Visitors are very welcome to come along to this talk on 

Friday 2nd October, which starts at 7.00 pm. 

We meet at St Mary's Church Hall, St Mary's Road, Leamington Spa - there is a map on our How to find us page.  Visitor charge: £5.00

'Wired to Form' Summer School with Pauline Verrinder

Time is marching on and we've been so busy with the exhibition and National Stitch Day that we haven't yet shared the photos from our extremely enjoyable and productive summer school on 7th - 8th August with Pauline Verrinder, so here they are.

You can see that under Pauline's patient instruction, we made a variety of machine- and hand-stitched skeleton leaves

as well as some very colourful, wired and heavily stitched felt pieces, which will become more sculpted shapes once the stitching is complete, wire inserted and internal elements cut away.

Pauline specialises in creating all sorts of structures using wire, fabric and thread, especially in 3D. She says about her own work that inspiration "comes from the beauty and diversity which surrounds me in the natural world."  This was amply demonstrated in the beautiful sketch books she shared with us.

Besides being an exhibiting Textile Artist, Pauline is a very encouraging and  supportive Tutor, and she gave us a wealth of tips and techniques to help us to carry on and complete our own pieces - and start new ones ...

Exhibition in full swing

Leamington Embroiderers' exhibition 'Continuous Threads' continues at Arts Trail Gallery, Leamington until 29th August, open Tuesday to Saturday, 11 am - 5 pm (directions to the gallery can be found on the Arts Trail website).  

Here's a sample of some of the work on view.  

Our members are all ages and levels of skill - some are just beginners, while others have a wealth of experience to share.  Our regular talks and workshops are given by textile artists, who cover a broad range of topics and techniques, including hand and machine embroidery, mixed media, use of metals and non-traditional materials, to name just a few, and we are always keen to explore new ways of doing things.  We also have a thriving Junior Embroiderers Group, who meet monthly on a Saturday morning.

If you would like to see more of what we do and maybe get involved, why not come along to one of our Friday talks - details of when and where we meet are under the 'About our Branch' heading on the right.

(Please note: the exhibition closes on Saturday 29th August, 

not Sunday 30th as previously advertised.)

Mad Hatter's Tea Party

Thank you to everyone who came along on 1st August and celebrated National Stitch Day by making a card for the Mad Hatter's top hat, or if you just came to browse our 'Continuous Threads' exhibition on its opening day at Arts Trail Studios & Gallery.

People had a lot of fun delving into the stash of ribbons, trimmings, buttons, threads and lace to create a unique card - either to take home and use on a special gift, or to add to the growing collection adorning the Mad Hatter (aka gallery owner, Gerry Smith):

'Continuous Threads' is on until 29th August, open Tuesday to Saturday, 11 am - 5 pm 

(directions are on the Arts Trail website).  

Do drop in and have a look at our members' work if you are in the area - we would love to see you.

"Leamington Observer"

Stitch with Leamington Embroiderers, 1st August

National Stitch Day, 1st August

We are launching our August exhibition at the Arts Trail Studio, Leamington with activities for National Stitch Day, which just happens to fall on the opening day, Saturday 1st August.

The theme for the day is 'Alice in Wonderland' (2015 is the 150th Anniversary of the publication of Lewis Carroll's book).  Just pop along to the ArtsTrail Studio between 11 am and 5 pm, and have a go at a bit of creative playing.  We will provide the encouragement and materials, and you can take home your small creation ...

Leamington & District 'Continuous threads' Exhibition, 1st - 30th August

Our sincere thanks go to Ann Rogers, who gave us a superb talk last week.  We probably learned as much about Shakespeare's heroines - both evil and innocent - as we did about her lovely bags, and an hour and a half flew by!  What's more, we had the chance to pass round the bags and inspect the exquisite details, which was a real bonus.

We're all now gearing up for our 'Continuous threads' exhibition in August.  Our 2012 exhibition was very well received, and this one is even more special, since 2015 marks the 50th Anniversary of the Leamington & District Branch.  Here's the flyer for it, and we look forward to welcoming anyone who is in the Leamington area during August.

We will also be marking National Stitch Day on 1st August - exhibition opening day.  More details shortly.

Directions to the Gallery are on the Arts Trail website.

Change to the talk this Friday, 3rd July

Unfortunately, Kathleen Laurel Sage cannot be with us this week-end as planned, owing to an accident.  Kathleen has injured her knee, and we send her our best wishes for a good recovery.

We are indebted to Leamington member, Ann Rogers, for stepping in at this short notice to give us the second part of her very popular talk on the bags she has made for some of the female characters in Shakespeare's plays.

Part Two: Shakespeare's Women with Attitude  

deals with heroines who are 'naughty' to downright evil, as well as the characters who are victims. Ann gave us the first part of this enchanting talk, Bags for Shakespeare's Heroines, in November last year, when we got the chance to see some of the bags close to, and we've been eagerly awaiting the sequel.

Ann has not attempted to make her bags historically accurate in style, but has used her imagination to  illustrate the heroines' characters through the bags.

We're looking forward to an extremely entertaining evening, and welcome visitors and friends who would like to join us.    The talk starts at 7 pm on Friday 3rd July at St Mary's Hall, St Mary's Road, Leamington Spa CV31 1JW (Visitors: £5 on the door).

"Extrav-Organza", Talk by Kathleen Laurel Sage

Kathleen Laurel Sage is a freelance textile artist, designer and enthusiastic embroiderer. Her inspirations are captured from carvings and ornate plaster work depicting patterns from nature and from the natural environment around her. Kathleen's fascination for working with organza fabrics has produced work ranging from conventional items through relief to exciting three-dimensional embroidered structures, such as floral vases, fashion accessories and unique jewellery.

In this friendly and relaxed talk, Kathleen outlines her transition from hand-worked embroidery in the form of stump work to machine-embroidered organza. She explains how she works and combines these techniques into dimensional and structural artworks.

Visitors are very welcome to come along to this talk on Friday 3rd July, which starts at 7.00 pm. We meet at St Mary's Church Hall, St Mary's Road, Leamington Spa - there is a map on our How to find us page.  Visitor charge: £5.00

There are also a couple of places available on the follow-up workshop on Saturday 4th July, in which we will make either small bead-like elements to form unique jewellery, or work a panel on a larger scale. If you are interested in this, please contact Jenny:
jennyarcher401@gmail.com. 

Junior Embroiderers' wedding bunting

We are just sharing pictures of the lovely bunting made by two of our Junior Embroiderers, Evie (11) and her sister Milly (8), for their Aunty's autumn-themed wedding.  The bunting was much admired by the family and other guests.

Friday 5th June, "A View through the Window" - Talk by Susan O'Grady

Susan says that the images she creates begin with the wildlife around her home and garden.  

"I develop my observational drawings as freely as possible into fabric paintings in a range of sizes.  These initial paintings are then embellished with fabric collage, machine stitching and additional paintwork."