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/
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.