Our July Meeting

We met in Haxby on 5th July and were pleased to welcome several visitors who had attended our recent exhibition and been tempted to join us.  

A new set of stitch clubs kicked off.   Sally got a large group started with Stitching with Packaging and Paper.  Sally had provided project packs and the group were very intrigued by the processes and materials involved.  They made marks on paper with coffee stain (to be the pages of a book) and cut collages out of foiled coffee packaging.  These were ironed onto khadi paper and were then ready to be embellished.  The process was great fun and by the end of the morning members had their insert pages drying and were able to start stitching onto their book covers. 

Sally's stitch club materials and samples

Packaging being collaged and stitched

On the other side of the hall Angela had provided wool and mono canvas squares for a group who were learning and/or improving their canvas work. Over three weeks they will widen their  stitch repertoire and in the first week they learned diagonal stitch, shaded diagonal tent stitch and Rhode stitch.  The first step was to decide on a colour scheme and prepare the design.  As with any counted work, concentration and attention to detail was required so members were kept very focused and the morning sped by.

Workshop materials for Canvas work

Close up of Angela's sampler

The first week of stitch clubs involves a lot of preparation and we look forward to seeing work progressing next time.  Stitch clubs are not compulsory!  Members can work on their own projects and be companionable or simply work quietly.  Anne was 'playing' with different stitches in shades of blue on a printed fabric panel.  She intended to make two book covers out of the completed work - practical and beautiful gifts for the intended recipients.  

Anne's tonal stitched sampler

 Jessica Aldred - Traditional Embroidery in a Modern World

Our afternoon speaker was the very talented Jessica Aldred who was a Royal School of Needlework apprentice 2001-2004 and has since applied her professional embroidery skills to a wide range of projects. She gave us a brief history of the RSN from its origins in 1872 and the different routes into professional embroidery it offered.  During her illustrated talk she explained how modern professional embroidery features in Haute Couture, Wedding clothing, Film and Television and Military and Ceremonial settings.  Indeed she herself and her fellow RSN trained embroiderers working in the RSN Embroidery Studio have created many stunning pieces and we enjoyed hearing her talk about a selection of these, including her contribution to hand embroidering bespoke lace on the wedding dress of HRH The Duchess of Cambridge.  She had also worked in Costume at the Royal Opera House and taught embroidery alongside undertaking commissioned work.  

Jessica has a wide range of personal interests and uses her considerable skills and enthusiasm to inspire others.  She has worked in prisons with FIne Cell Work, teaching prisoners embroidery to help them earn a little money, develop skills and appreciate the mental health benefits of hand work.  She also works for a charity providing creative education to learning disabled and autistic adults as well as running her business, House of Heyday.  In 2011 Jessica co-authored a book  'Adventures in Needlework' with Emily Peacock who designs contemporary needlepoint.  

Jessica brought along a selection of her work, some she had made during her RSN apprenticeship and some to illustrate her more recent work, including a ribbon work kit designed for the V&A  Museum as part of their exhibition 'Frida Kahlo: Making Her Self Up'.  Clearly she is wonderfully skillful and we admired her exquisite stitching.  

Jessica's fabulous hoop embroideries

Jessica's exquisite goldwork

Jessica's fine whitework

Award winning embroidered banner for Fine Cell Work

Designer, Embroiderer and Artist Jessica works as House of Heyday and further information is on her website which is houseofheyday.co.uk

Our next meeting 

If you are interested in embroidery or any form of sewing and stitching, or if you would like to hear one of our 'afternoon speakers' (check the Programme for details) do please come along.  We will meet on Saturday 9th August in Haxby Memorial Hall, York and visitors and new members are welcome.  

Arcitextures Exhibition 2025

The Tithe Barn at Nether Poppleton provided a stunning backdrop to our Architextures exhibition which took place 27th to 29th June.  The sun shone, the exhibition looked fabulous and we welcomed lots of visitors who were both impressed and inspired. Many people stayed to browse the sales table, try their hand at our 'guess the fairy tale' competition and enjoy the 'calorie free' baked goods with a cup of tea!

The photographs above give an overview of the Exhibition but special mention goes to members who made items to fit the theme and a selection of these appear below.

Over the three days we welcomed lots of lovely visitors and appreciated their positive comments.  Here is a small selection from our visitor book.

"Beautifully crafted work, congratulations on a wonderful exhibition." 

"So inspiring thank you."

"Thank you very much for a wonderful display of embroidery.  It is fantastic to see a wide variety of techniques."

"Lovely exhibition, stunning work.  Very inventive and skillful.  Enjoyed the cakes as well!"

"As usual, an excellent and inspiring display.  Looking forward to the next one!"

"An absolutely awesome inspirational exhibition.  Well done! Great! Warm welcome - beautiful homemade treats and very friendly."

We would like to thank everyone who came.  We decided not to charge an entrance fee but to rely on donations.  Our chosen Charities (St Leonard's Hospice and Fine Cell Work) are the beneficiaries of visitors' and YES members' generosity.  

Our next meeting

Members and visitors are welcome to come along to Haxby Memorial Hall at 10.30 on Saturday 5th July.  

Our June meeting

The June meeting was atypical in that there were no stitch clubs running and no afternoon speaker.  It was a day to prepare for our upcoming exhibition and take stock of what's been achieved over the last year or so.  

An important job for the morning was sorting through all the threads, embellishments and fabrics that have been generously given to the group or donated by members from their own supplies.  These were sorted into 'Inspiration Packs' and packaged up ready to be sold at the Exhibition.  

Inspiration packs under construction

Everyone who is exhibiting also brought in their pieces so that an accurate list of work could be finalised ahead of label making.  There were a lot of bags and we anticipate that the exhibition will be fabulous!  For details, see the Architexture Exhibition 2025 tab above.  

Well wrapped work ready for the Exhibition

The upcoming stitch clubs were announced and we are delighted to have two options.  Angela will be running a series of three Canvas work sessions, each focusing on learning three stitches (so nine in total).  This will be a chance for members who enjoy traditional techniques and counted thread work to expand their skills.  Sally will be facilitating three experimental sessions under the broad title of stitching with packaging and paper.  Her samples based on coffee pods were ingenious and will certainly appeal to members who like to play with new techniques and unusual materials.   Both clubs start next month (July).

The winner of the June competition (using unusual materials) was Sally with her quirky forest scene. 

                                                       

Sally's forest scene

After lunch we regrouped for the annual 'Show and Tell' .  It is always interesting to see what members have been making and 'show and tell' gives people a chance to hear the stories behind the work.  Members who stand up often preface 'showing' with 'telling' that their work isn't very impressive or well done.  Not surprisingly it typically gets the opposite reaction with audience members being interested in unusual techniques, fabulous colours and evidence of great skills.  One of the nicest things about the YES Group is the variety of modern and traditional styles and techniques that members demonstrate.  People appear surprised that others appreciate their work far more than they do themselves.  However this is absolutely the case within our friendly and supportive group.  In addition to pieces we have seen under construction at the monthly meetings, members brought in work done at home, at workshops, unfinished pieces, and old pieces that had special meaning that they wanted to talk about.  We enjoyed hearing the stories and processes involved as much as the finished pieces.  Below are some of the lovely pieces - apologies for those missed/not photographed (Celia, Jill, Jill and Elaine) but we did appreciate them all!  

Jose's basket of embroidered books featuring meticulous stitching and gold work

Helen's peacock feather quilt (work in progress) applique and hand embroidery

One of Sue's studies of Paua (Abalone) shells

One of Lynn's canvas work American houses

Diana's Dala horse, felt with hand embroidery 

Barbara's vessel made under the guidance of fibre artist Gizella K Warburton 

Chris's freestyle embroidered garden on linen

Nicky's counted thread chessboard (work in progress)

Next meeting will be 5th July.  Meetings are held in Haxby Memorial Hall, 10:30 till 3:30.  Visitors are welcome to come along.  We are quite a large group (typically fifty at a meeting) and our members' work is very varied. We love to help people develop their skills so don't feel that you have to be good at any particular technique before you come along.  You can bring a kit with you or any projects you have got stuck with and we will find someone to advise/encourage you.  Alternatively just sit, stitch and socialise with like minded people and enjoy the afternoon speaker or occasional workshop.  All are welcome.  

Our May meeting

It was another lovely weekend in Yorkshire and our group met in Haxby Memorial Hall as usual.   The last sessions of the boro and foundation piecing stitch clubs took place this month.  Everyone involved had enjoyed them and made good progress and our thanks go to Eileen and Helen for generously sharing their knowledge and skills.  

Ann was working on a small elephant embroidery to go on her boro book wrap.   

Pauline brought in a beautiful finished piece.  She had followed Eileen's instructions and completed a fitted book cover with a very effective variegated zigzag edging.  The stitching was enhanced with needlework embellishments. 

On the other side of the hall there was a lot of detailed foundation piecing going on under Helen's guidance and encouragement.  Helen had also brought in fabric scraps and threads to demonstrate the process she uses when making small landscapes.

Helen's landscapes under construction

Stitch clubs are entirely optional and there is always a wide range of embroidery and stitching going on in the room.  Lucy was getting towards the end of her cheerful 'Early Bird' needlepoint piece designed by Hannah Bass.  Lucy had previously completed the 'Night owl' needlepoint by the same designer and found the stitching meditative.    I was very taken with Hannah Bass' modern and vibrant style and will be adding a cushion cover worked on one of her map kits to my 'wish list'! 

Lucy working on a needlepoint kit

For several years the YES group members have created pages in a 'travelling book' This month an 'old' book was on display .....

 Travelling book cover

Page about fabric collage (created by Helen)

Every May, funds permitting, we offer a bursary that a member can put towards a textile-related course.  This time the lucky recipient is Michele who intends to take 'An Introduction to Natural Dying: A self-paced online course' with Elka sustainable Textiles.  

Fran Brammer, Stitchy Me 

The afternoon talk was by Fran Brammer who is a landscape artist working in textiles.  She is a member of the York Artists Textile Group and regularly exhibits and sells her work.  Her fabrics are foraged, manipulated and worked in layers with paint and stitch. 

Because Fran is a local textile artist she is known to many YES members as she teaches others as well as producing her own pieces.   For our meeting she brought along a range of work including her early pictorial landscapes, recently finished pieces and work in progress.  It was interesting to hear how she works through ideas by sketching, memorising and absorbing familiar landscapes.  From her origins as an art teacher she explained how she had tried to apply foundational design and colour principles into her work with textiles.  This was a very challenging task (obviously threads don't mix in the same way as paints do and fabrics don't behave in the same ways as paper does).  She let us see and handle some of her exploratory stitched samples and talked us through the process of making them whilst emphasising that she loved to play and enjoyed experimentation.  Her exploration of hand and machine stitched surfaces was very relatable and she gleefully explained how grating, sandpapering and distressing fabrics in situ could change the feel of a piece.  She likes to work iteratively, revisiting work from previous years and trying new things. 

Fran Brammer - early landscape

Over time Fran's work has become less literal as she moved away from representing landscapes accurately towards trying to capture an emotional sense of place.  Her sense of fun was both infectious and inspirational and we are hoping that she will return and run some workshops for us in due course.

Fran Brammer - landscape

Fran Brammer - recently completed landscapes and work in progress

Further information about Fran Brammer can be found on her website https://franbramm.wordpress.com/

Further information about the York Textile Artists (who they are and upcoming opportunities to see what they do) can be found on https://www.yorktextileartists.com/

Architextures Exhibition

York Embroiderers and Stitchers will be welcoming everyone to their exhibition in the Tythe Barn, Nether Poppleton on 27th, 28th and 29th June (for full details see the tab above).  A challenge to the group was to individually produce a 'brick' that could feature in a 'wall' and lots of members have done so.  The next stage is to join them together ready for hanging in the venue. 

 

Do come along and see it in real life as the wall gives an insight into our wide ranging interests.  The exhibition as a whole will showcase traditional and contemporary Textile Art featuring work on a theme of architexture alongside other 2D and 3D pieces.  Admission is free and light refreshments will be available.  

We are always happy to see visitors at our meetings so if you are an embroiderer or stitcher do come along to our next meeting on 7th June. 

Our April meeting took place in lovely Spring weather and members were very pleased to see the sunshine.  

Eileen's boro stitch club continued in the morning.  Some people chose to do simple running stitches on their fabric whilst others used a wider variety of stitches and added button embellishments.  The process was both easy and conducive to chatting!  But what to do with the finished fabric?  Eileen had brought in her sewing machine and demonstrated how to create a book cover.  The fabric was bonded to pelmet vilene and then onto a cotton lining fabric.  The resulting 'sandwich' was cut to size, flaps created around a book and then the edges were satin stitched to create a neat and firm book cover.  

Eileen's boro sample next to completed fabric covered A6 sketchbooks

Eileen at her sewing machine

Fabric book cover

The other stitch club continued foundation piecing small blocks under Helen's guidance.  Some people worked on individual blocks whilst others were joining them together to make small hangings.  Small scale work requires a lot of concentration and careful hand stitching and     everyone involved made good progress.

Helen's star samples

Liz's trees and stars

Diane's star and rose blocks

Til Wright Upcycled Hats 

Til Wright is an experienced embroiderer and trained milliner.  She brought several boxes of hats with her and gave a lively talk about how she restored charity shop/unloved hats to make them wearable again.  She clearly loved wearing hats and had lots of simple ideas that could be applied to any hats lurking in the back of our cupboards. We learned that a good firm brush would improve felt hats, careful steaming could revive mis-shaped fascinators and hats, and that good quality ribbons could accessorize hats of all kinds.  We certainly have no excuse not to look fabulous at the next wedding or Ladies' day race meeting that we attend! 

Our next meeting will be Saturday 3rd May at Haxby Memorial Hall, 10.30-3.30.  Visitors and new members are always welcome.

Planning for the group's exhibition is well under way.  Full details can be found by clicking on the 'ARCHITEXTURE exhibition 2025' tab above.  Entry is free so why not come along?