Architextures 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? 

Our March Meeting

Stitch clubs were in full flow this month.  Helen's group were very busy creating foundation-pieced trees and stars.  Helen had brought additional tree samples and new star templates. Some of the group continued piecing trees whilst others had a go at stars.  Diane had been particularly industrious in the past month finishing six small blocks and making them into a bag.  Diane had used a William Morris fabric charm pack for her patchwork so the colours were very soft and harmonious.  

Helen's small but perfectly pieced samples

Diane's bag made from foundation pieced blocks

In the other stitch club Eileen was encouraging those who were working on their boro pieces.  Chris had retrieved a piece she had started some time ago and slung in the back of a cupboard!  Although it wasn't her usual style of work she was giving it another go in the spirit of 'make do and mend' which she had embroidered onto it.  The small and tidy stitches were starting to harmonise the piece nicely.

Chris's sample of boro

Elaine was also making steady progress with a colourful piece of boro.  Her process was to tack colourful patterned fabric scraps onto the base and then to attach coloured buttons.  She was matching the colours of the embellishments to threads which she intends to use for the stitching. 

Elaine's boro with embellishments 

Not all members choose to participate in a stitch club.  Many enjoy coming along to sit with their friends to chat and sew.  There is always a productive buzz in the room with a wide range of stitching going on.  Jill was sewing a piece of 'chicken scratch' embroidery which she was working on a small piece of gingham.  Barbara had got her started on the technique and Jill was enjoying the emerging lacy effect so much that she was considering using the technique to sew something original for our upcoming exhibition.

Jill's 'chicken scratch' embroidery

March competition 

The competition requirement was for a commercial design from a book, kit or magazine and a great variety of pieces were submitted.  It is always lovely to see finished work and every piece had merit.  The competition was judged without anyone knowing whose work was being presented and voting revealed three entries with the most votes.  However Angela's whitework drawn thread sampler (from a pattern designed by Linda Driskell) was our ultimate winner.  

Angela's drawn thread sampler.

 Runner up pieces were Celia's reworking of 1930's transfers and Monica's satin stitch and goldwork flower.

This month the 'Travelling book' featured fabric collage researched and created by Jill.  

Our afternoon speaker - Gill Roberts - "The Corset Unlaced"

Gill Roberts gave a wide ranging talk on corsetry in the afternoon session.  She is an embroiderer as well as a dressmaker and the first part of her talk was about the history of corsetry.  We learned that even before Victorian times people (mostly women) wore foundation garments to conceal their bodies, fit themselves into clothing and be presentable according to the fashions of the time.  However corsets were also made for men and children and the styles altered over time as new materials were discovered and garment fashions changed.  Many of the images she showed of corsets and advertisements for them were bizarre to modern eyes and possibly detrimental to health but that's fashion for you!  

Gill moved through the ages to explore recent couture designers' use of corsetry on the catwalk and its evolution to wedding and occasion-wear.  Gill took a very non-judgemental approach to corsetry and its links to lingerie, burlesque and fetish-ware for both men and women.  She described how some people today alter their bodies in quite radical ways through the use of tight lacing in corsetry to please themselves and also to present themselves to the public gaze as an artistic endeavour.

Nowadays mainstream corsetry is designed to enhance and celebrate the body and be very much on show.  Gill's own work certainly falls into this category and she had brought along examples of her beautifully embroidered dresses which feature made to measure and very flattering corsetry.  By basing her garments on historical patterns she was able to explain how complex and labour intensive it is to create a corset even using modern materials.  For Gill the smooth surface of a corset provides a canvas for embroidery and embellishment and we greatly admired her skill.  

Occasion wear corsetry embroidered by Gill Roberts

Our next meeting

We will meet in Haxby Memorial Hall on Saturday 5th April.  Visitors and new members are very welcome to come along and meet us.