Our March Meeting

Spring was in the  air for our March meeting.  Members enjoyed continuing their own projects, sharing skills and ideas and catching up with friends.  So many inspirational traditional and modern techniques!

Two morning stitch clubs ran, firstly stumpwork with Annie where participants satin stitched small flowers and learned to wire leaves.  Josie demonstrated how to use a special tool to create a raised surface and make a needle-woven mushroom cap which was amazingly lifelike.  

Diane making steady progress with a stumpwork pomegranate - getting ready to attach tiny beads to the fruit to recreate the look of seeds

The second stitch group was Wessex Stitchery where participants made progress with this colourful counted thread technique.  

Dawn found Wessex stitchery (a new technique to her) pretty and addictive. 

Having learned the stitches (practice piece above) Dawn was moving on to design a piece worked on a smaller scale.

There were many lovely projects being worked on in the room.  Helen's stitching caught my eye this month.  Helen had cut small pieces of Shibori fabric (approximately 6"x 4"), stitched a backing to it and was appliqueing coloured fabric pieces to enhance the shapes.  On closer inspection she had also added metal fastenings and beads for texture.  She didn't have a plan for the pieces (a fabric book maybe?) but was enjoying the creative process. 

Helen's improvised embellished fabric pieces

Serena Partridge "Collaborate"

The afternoon speaker was Serena Partridge who gave us a slide show which showcased her many talents.  She also displayed examples of her work and some of the projects she has worked on as an Artist in Residence.  Serena studied Design Crafts at Hereford College of Arts and currently has studio space in the Art Happens Here Studio Collective in Malton.  Her early work featured exquisite mixed media miniature gloves and shoes.  She continues to create small-scale accessories and ornaments inspired by historical costume and story telling as well as larger scale installations. 

Examples of Serena's miniature wonders!

However the focus of Serena's talk was the varied collaborative projects that she has been involved with over the years.  She has been artist in residence in a number of places in England, Scotland and Newfoundland, responding to the local landscapes, working with children in schools, young people in youth groups and adults in an integrated way to produce thoughtful art.  

Fabric pieces designed by children but stitched by adults 

Serena showed images of a major project that she undertook as artist in residence at a National Trust property, Gawthorpe Hall in Lancashire  This is home to a wonderful collection of intricate lace, embroidery and needlework amassed by the house's Victorian inhabitant, Miss Rachel Kay-Shuttleworth who was herself a collector, maker and teacher.  In work titled 'Luminary' Serena created work on a larger scale, making a series of embroidered interventions in rooms around Gawthorpe Hall.  These used vintage materials with embroidered and reflective threads.  These can be seen in situ on the Arts & Heritage website www.artsandheritage.org.uk (search for Serena Partridge or Gawthorpe Textiles Collection) 

Cyanotype print of lace from the Gawthorpe Textiles Collection - Serena Partridge

Embroidered 'place' mats - made for the Luminary commission - Dining room mixed media, hand stitched - Serena Partridge

Piano keys and textile tools - celebrating the life of Rachel Kay-Shuttleworth at Gawthorpe Hall, Lancashire 

More recently Serena had worked in Selby abbey as part of the Selby Stories cultural activities and events.  She showed photographs of a number of her miniature embroidered pieces that had been placed in small nooks and crannies in the abbey.  These celebrated animals and people relevant to the story of the abbey and are still there. I certainly felt inspired to go down and look for them.

Serena Partridge in Selby Abbey with one of her miniature embroidery pieces

Our February Meeting

It was lovely to see a large turnout for our February meeting.  There was a lot of colourful work being done in the room in defiance of the grey weather outside!  There were two 'stitch club' options running, the first being Stumpwork flower pinwheels with Annie.  Stumpwork is  a dimensional embroidery technique that originated in the mid-1600s in England.

Annie's beautiful examples were certainly inspiring but the process seemed quite daunting because the scale was so small (the pinwheels being only 3 1/2" or a little over 8cm).  Some elements are worked flat whilst others are made on 'scrap' fabric before being applied.  Raised elements can be stuffed or wired as well as embroidered. Eventually everyone in the group chose the design they liked, instructions were given by Annie and preparation, wiring and sewing started.  Josie (who has a wealth of experience with Stumpwork) was on hand to offer advice and encouragement.

Annie's stumpwork flower pinwheels and needle cases

Instructions for making a pomegranate stumpwork piece 

Sally made a start on wiring an acorn leaf 

Dilys outlined some thistle heads ready for embroidery

The other 'stitch club' option was Wessex stitchery with Angela.  This group got started in January and everyone had made good progress and were enjoying the counted thread work.  The motifs were built using (relatively) simple stitches like back stitch, fly stitch, long tailed chain stitch and Algerian eye stitch.  As with all grid based counted work it needed precision and care.

Jane's colourful stitch sampler on pink aida using two strands of embroidery thread.  

Gill's stitch sampler on evenweave using a tonal colour palette

As usual there was a lot of lovely independent work going on in the hall.  This 'retro' piece caught my eye this month although the photograph doesn't capture the subtlety of the colouring very well. 

Laura's cushion front - a Studio Flax kit with linen threads worked on linen fabric.

Jessica Kinnersley "My Journey in Textiles"

In the afternoon Jessica Kinnersley came down from Northumberland to talk to the group about her work and career in textiles.  She brought many examples of her early and more recent work for us to pass around and enjoy.  Jessica initially trained as a surface designer and worked as a freelancer producing embroidered and appliqued samples for the textile industry.  The commercial process required her to work to design briefs based on mood boards/forecast trends/colour palettes provided by her agent who then sold them on her behalf to London buyers who could use some (or all) of the design elements in domestic textiles such as curtains, upholstery fabric or bed linen.    After around ten years Jessica moved into teaching art/textiles at a school and found that she really enjoyed working with young people.   She worked with groups making art accessible in the community as well as continuing her commercial work with a book publisher.  Over time she was able to take on a studio space at The Hearth Arts Centre in Horsley, Northumberland and concentrate on developing an individual style using vintage linens, papers and found objects.  It was fascinating to see how her practice had changed over time and how varied her journey has been so far - clearly she has a great future ahead of her and we look forward to seeing what she does in the next 20 years!  

Jessica's slow stitched textiles and paper collages exploring nostalgia and narrative

Jessica's sketchbooks and  mixed media work

Jessica's work in progress of a bowl Spring bulbs using vintage textiles, applique and hand embroidery

jessicakinnersleytextiles.com  

Jessica Kinnersley Textiles, Paddock Studio, The Hearth Arts Centre, Main Road, Horsley, Northumberland, NE15 0NT   Workshops, sales and open studio visits.

Our next meeting will be on Saturday 2nd March.  Visitors are always warmly welcomed so if you have an interest in stitching, textiles and embroidery do come along.  

January Meeting

In January YES members got together to enjoy some stitching and to catch up with friends.  

In the morning Angela started a group off with Wessex stitchery. Designed by Mrs Margaret Foster in the 19th century, Wessex stitchery is a counted thread technique based on a set of simple stitches that can be combined to make diverse patterns.  

Angela's sample piece for stitch club

A piece of Angela's Wessex stitchery sampler

Many members worked on their own projects during the morning session.  Pauline's work caught my eye.  She was continuing with a lovely 'memory' textile.  It had been started some time ago in a workshop with Jessie Chorley who specialises in contemporary illustrative embroidery.  Pauline wanted to celebrate the life of her mother by incorporating textile pieces (including netting from a hat, fabric from a dance dress and items from her inherited sewing box).  It was being created with a lot of love.  

A section of Pauline's textile piece

As we were talking about this piece Celia brought over some small pieces she had been working on.  After clearing out her mother's house she had kept a lot of photographic negatives and was wondering what to do with them.  Noticing the holes on the sides she thought she could stitch into them - very innovative! 

One of Celia's pieces using old photographic negatives and sewing box items attached to a painted calico background

"Belles in Bloomers" - Meredith Towne

In the afternoon we gathered round to listen to a guest speaker.  Meredith Towne is a dress historian and Costume maker and her focus in this session was the cycling craze of the 1880's/1890's.  Drawing on contemporary sources (books, magazines and newspapers) she vividly described how women's lives in particular were influenced at that time.  Although predominantly a middle class hobby, cycling permeated much of society and allowed people to travel more widely and independently.  What women could wear whilst cycling was subject to societal pressures and over the course of her talk Meredith transformed herself from a modern, lycra-clad athlete into a stylish cyclist of a bygone era!  We enjoyed hearing about liberty bodices, woollen stockings, corsets, leg-o-muffin sleeves, brogues and hats.  Using a pattern from the 1890's Meredith had recreated a fabulous costume (bloomers and jacket) fit for a "New Woman" of the era who could be a fashionable yet respectable intellectual, worker, suffragist and cyclist. 

Meredith in her cycling costume and straw boater hat

Items from Meredith's collection of historial cycling artifacts

merithtowne.co.uk

merry@meridithtowne.co.uk

Our next meeting will be on Saturday 3rd February.  Visitors and new members are very welcome.  

Our December meeting

 Well, this was the last meeting of 2023, and it was an excellent end to the year.

We all had the chance to make Christmas cards, following examples shown by Nicky.

Her cards were a mixture of block printing and embroidery, and a wonderful collection of bits and pieces was provided.

Diane made several card fronts using a variety of techniques

Some members were following their own ideas, but carrying on with the Christmas theme.

We had a Christmas competition for any item of embroidery with a Christmas theme, providing it wasn't a card. We had lots of entries including wall hangings, a quilt and baubles, but the winner (as voted for by the members) was this:

Next month we will be starting new stitch classes - available in the mornings - though of course, members can just continue with their own work and enjoy the conversations! This is an example of the raised work that will be taught by Annie

Of course, with all this activity we needed fortifying. The committee had made a fantastic collection of cakes (both Christmas and Victoria) and mince pies to go with our tea and coffee. The only drawback being that we were too busy enjoying it to take a photo!!

We meet again in January on the 6th. Happy Christmas and New Year.

Our November Meeting

In November we had an enjoyable day sewing and socialising.  Members worked on their own projects or joined a stitch club for the third and last session in 2023.  

Sharon's group continued working on their stitch samplers aiming to complete their colour wheels with couching, fly stitch, running stitch, seed stitch, bullion knots and silk shading. 

Angela's work in progress

Meanwhile Maggie's group continued to work on their printed pieces.  Some stitched into fabric printed in previous sessions whilst others got messy with paint and experimented printing Autumn leaves.

Tina's tonal leaf printing

Eileen's leaves contained mottled colours and gold highlights (which the photo doesn't do justice to).

In the afternoon Christine Plummer, mixed media artist, joined us.  She had given a talk to the group on a previous occasion and had been persuaded to return to give us an opportunity to make our own folded keepsake books.  

Christine Plummer's work

One of Christine Plummer's sample books

Alongside her lovely tonal and textural books she brought some samples for us to see and handle.  She also provided everyone with a starter kit of waxed papers, boards and embelishments to create our own concertina fold books.  We all got busy and everyone went home with a 'festive' book to fill with our own materials.  It was fun to be able to have some creative play time and amazing to see how varied the finished cover designs were.   

I was so preoccupied making a book that I forgot to take photos of the finished books. Fortunately they are appearing on Christine's Instagram pages christineplummer7 and our own Instagram pages yorkembroiderersandstitchers - well worth looking at and following! 

The 9th December is our next meeting.  Members are reminded to bring a Christmas decoration to enter into the competition.  The sales table will be open as usual and there will be other festive activities and refreshments. 

Visitors are always very welcome so if you are interested in stitching and making please join us. You can find out more about us and our meetings by clicking on the "about" tab above. 

A Grand Day Out

 25 YES members enjoyed a sunny day out in Halifax in October.  First stop was the Bankfield Museum where we saw (and were allowed to gently handle) a selection of antique British textiles, some of which are photographed below.

A pair of 18th century, Dutch influenced pockets.  Wool embroidered on linen, mainly satin stitch and chain stitch.

Detail of a ribbon work piece with stem stitch and satin stitch.

Button detail including bullion work from a heavily embroidered gentleman's court dress (jacket) of the mid 18th century.

We were also able to see items from the Edith Durham collection.  Edith travelled extensively in the Balkans in the early 1900s.  She donated her extensive collection of textiles, photographs, notes and drawings to the Bankfield in 1935.  Some of these are photographed below.

Detail from a man's gold braided short jacket.

Detail from a North Albanian woman's headwrap woven in Scutari,  Cotton and native grown and spun silk.

Detail from a shirt front of Orthodox man of Ragusa, near Dubrovnik.  Silk embroidery on hand woven linen.

We also saw several items of Oriental origin, now fragments from larger textiles.

Mixed Chinese embroidered pieces.  The fragments appear to come from a satin dragon robe with Buddhist emblems predominantly in satin stitch.  Lower edge of robe and a cuff with neck piece, possibly late 18th century.  The four-claw dragon emblem could only be worn by imperial nobility and high-ranking officials.

It was a privilege being able to closely examine the textiles.  There was much to admire, including an Autumnal pumpkin and bat.  

Detail of pumpkin (to the Chinese an

 symbol for prosperity, abundance, descendant's luck, illustrious children and enchantment).

Detail of bat (sharing a similar sound as the words for 'blessings' and 'riches' and one of the most popular of the Chinese symbols).

The group also enjoyed the special exhibition 'Opening the Wardrobe' which featured clothing from Lucy Adlington's collection.  Several group members were familiar with her popular costume-in-context presentations.  The exhibition runs until December 2023, more information www.calderdale.gov.uk/museums

In the fashion gallery we were amused by Godfrey and Cynthia, although traumatised by recollections of bri-nylon bedding!

Godfrey in mid-20th century flannel nightshirt, Cynthia in 1960's nightie, bed jacket and boudoir cap.

In the afternoon the group moved on to Shibden Hall which dates back to 1490 and was home to the noted diarist Anne Lister (1791-1840) 'Gentleman Jack'.  The main house contains original furniture and furnishings.  The barns are filled with carriages and rural craft displays.  The extensive grounds and lake are now a lovely public park.

There was lots to see and enjoy - definitely a grand day out!

October Meeting

Saturday was rather a grey day but there was plenty of colour in the hall with a wide range of stitched and embroidered work being done.  Some members brought their own projects to work on whilst others joined a stitch group to try something new. 

Maggie's group continued to experiment with printing.  Vintage glassware was inked up and printed onto fabric with acrylic paint to create textural images that could be embellished with stitch.

                                         Maggie's printed and stitched piece

Lynne's work in progress

Sharon's group continued working on their embroidered colour wheels using satin stitch, colonial knots, french knots and pistil stitch.

A display of members' work was set up in the hall. This showcased an inspirational and very varied range of work that had been made during the past year.  The photo below shows just part of a serene improvised piece Eileen created to reflect her love of the Greek coastline.

In the afternoon the AGM took place with reports from the Chair and Treasurer.  In summary the group is going from strength to strength, welcoming new members, running a varied programme of speakers and workshops and maintaining financial stability.  The Ida Barber Trophy was presented to Jacqueline for the lovely piece of crewel work that had been chosen in September.  Chris (outgoing Chair) and Jacqs (outgoing Programme Secretary) were thanked warmly for their dedicated service to the YES.  It is to be hoped that they will be able to enjoy more stitching time from now on!  Diane,  Angela and Jacqueline joined the committee.  Liz remained as Treasurer and Nicky took on the Chair role so the YES looks to be in safe hands.  We look forward to an interesting and companionable year ahead.  Visitors and new members are always welcome.  

Chris and Jacqs