Our March Meeting

Our March meeting saw the first session of the new stitch club course with Eileen tutoring a slow stitching project and Colleen’s group working on contemporary canvas work. By the end of the morning members had made a great start on their pieces. We’ll be posting photographs after the April meeting. We also had the final postcard swap in what has been a very successful project. The cards produced have been much admired, so varied and clever. Those of us taking part will  no doubt treasure the cards we have received from our fellow members. Many thanks must go to Chris Beavers for providing us with such an enjoyable and creative project. Given that we’re going to be busy producing pieces for the exhibition, including the stitched stage musical competition pieces, Chris wisely decided that the next batch of swaps won’t start until September. The theme this time, "Wings", will surely stretch our imagination and creativity. 

Our exhibition, A Celebration of Stitch, featuring work on the theme of hedgerows,  will be held from 24th to 26th June, and at the meeting members were asked to sign up to help with stewarding, serving refreshments, baking  etc.  

The speaker after lunch was Christine Plummer. We were most fortunate to get her thanks to Jacqs who had spent a lot of time trying to find a replacement for Heather Ritchie.  Heather had to cancel at the last minute. Christine makes the most beautiful books. Perfect for containing small pieces of stitching, or photographs, or anything special one would want to keep. Such as postcards.  She paints the paper for the book covers, and then stitches it with skill and an artist’s eye for colour and design. Her paper is all recycled by her, everything from used envelopes to pages from garden magazines. Members queued up to buy her kits, and I treated myself to one the books she had brought to sell.  Christine was very generous in sharing the techniques she uses to produce her lovely work, as is often the case with textile artists, and she encouraged members to have a go at making books for themselves. 

Another busy day, with members enjoying being together and doing what they love. Stitching! And at the April meeting there’ll be a lot of stitching because we’ll have a workshop in the afternoon with Alex Hall. Look forward to seeing everyone  there.

Chris