Our April Meeting

 The speaker at our April meeting was Dr M Faye Prior, textile curator at York Castle Museum. She talked about the acquisition, conservation and display of museum textiles, with the emphasis on 17 century raised work, more popularly known as stumpwork. We saw images of beautiful caskets and mirror frames and Faye gave us a deeper understanding of the design process, stitch techniques used, and the stories these pieces told. 

We also had the competition for a piece done from a kit, book or magazine, with Jacqs’ 
delightful doll the winner. She is a lady of a certain age and looks a touch eccentric. I mean the doll of course!  The entries were varied in style and technique but all equally cleverly stitched. We always enjoy seeing each other’s work so many thanks to those who entered. The draw for the bursary of up to £100 for a course or workshop was won by Denise who is to take an RSN workshop on, coincidentally, raised work. Thanks to all those who entered. There’s always next year! 

Two new stitch clubs begin at the next meeting, Jose’s stitching small  and Chris Beaver’s embroidered dolls, and the speaker will be Tanya Bentham. Tanya is sure to be highly entertaining as well as informative on mediaeval embroidery. There’ll be more examples of the 52 stitches challenge for us to see and be inspired by. 

YES is thriving, with new members joining each month which is very pleasing.

Our March Meeting

 What a super meeting on 4th March. Excellent attendance, and a busy productive day. The  morning stitch club with Liz on book binding and Jane on hardanger continued with lovely results, followed after lunch by a very interesting talk and workshop from textile artist Liz Almond. Liz is a long experienced authority on Tudor blackwork but in this instance her topic was traditional Japanese embroidery. She told members about the origin and development of sashiko, boro and kogin embroidery and had prepared kits for members to produce several different pieces of Japanese embroidery. We all started with the kogin piece. The display of her own work was  most inspiring. So skilled and aesthetically pleasing. There was much concentration when work started on the kits, but not so much that we couldn’t also enjoy a chat while we worked! 

The sales table continues to provide all sorts of useful material for members and a welcome contribution to YES funds. We really appreciate those who run the stall and those who bring and buy. 

Our speaker on 1st April will be Dr M Faye Prior, textile curator at the York Castle Museum, adding to the wide variety of 2023 speakers. We will also have the competition for a piece produced from a commercial design such as a kit or from a magazine etc. Members will vote for their favourite and the winner will receive a £20 voucher for The Viking Loom. So another meeting to which we look forward. 

Our February Meeting

Another enjoyable meeting on Saturday. The book binding and hardanger stitch clubs continued. Thanks to Liz F who tutored this session on Annie’s behalf. We had the last postcard swap on the theme of wings. What a fabulous variety of cards we’ve had. Those taking part will have some beautiful cards to treasure. Thanks to Chris B for all her work on this. She’ll have another group project for us later in the year. It will undoubtedly be fun to do and very well organised. 

After lunch six members gave a Show and Tell presentation. Six very different types of work but all skilfully stitched and lovely to look at. Thank you Viv, Barbara, Heather, Liz F, Maggie and Pauline S. Thanks also to Moira who brought a selection of the wonderful work by the late Niki Brown to show us, and who paid tribute to a very skilled, creative and loved long-term York Embroiderers’ Guild member. 

This Saturday's Meeting

 Our February meeting on Saturday and we’re looking forward to stitch club in the morning and a show and tell from six of our members after lunch.  We’ll also have a display of some of the wonderful work of the late Niki Brown. Moira has put together a small  collection representing Niki’s stitching life and will say a few words about this remarkable lady.  See below.  And of course there’ll be more super postcards for the monthly swap. 

Postcard Photos

Our January Meeting

 A super January meeting with new stitch clubs in the morning and an excellent talk after lunch by Anne Brooke, some of whose work is shown below along with a couple of lovely postcards from the January swap.  A great start to 2023.  Annie’s stitch club group worked on bound book covers and Jane’s group on hardanger. The meeting was very well attended. Fifty- six members and four visitors, three intending to join us. 

You can find Anne on her Facebook page, her website, Instagram and her YouTube channel, click here to visit Anne's website. Her various series of YouTube tutorials during the pandemic period were hugely popular and greatly appreciated by the many hundreds of people who took part, amongst whom were some of our members.

Our next meeting on 4th February will feature a Show and Tell with varied and interesting short presentations by six YES members. 

                                                                    Some of Anne's work

 

                                                          A couple of the January postcards

                                                                          Stitch Club

Niki Brown

 Niki Brown was a long-standing and valued member of the City of York branch of the Embroiderer’s Guild. We were very sad to hear of her death in December 2022. Here is a short tribute from YES member Moira Wood. 

 

NIKI  BROWN

I feel as if I had known Niki for most of my stitching life in Yorkshire but, in fact, we met at the City of York branch of The Embroiderers’ Guild in the late 1980’s.  As Niki lived in Malton and I lived in Helmsley we formed a small group of like-minded stitchers with a core group of Anna Rowntree, Julia Ward, Niki and myself.  We met in each our houses and were joined at various points by other stitchers keen to stretch the idea of embroidery and employ various techniques which were quite experimental for us.

Niki was trained in art and developed a series of ‘paintings’ which involved painting and layering of nets which she called ‘netties’, always enjoying the play on words this involved.  Niki took part in various life drawing classes where she interpreted the subject in layers of nets and thread, much to the amazement of the tutors.

Our core group of stitchers decided that we would benefit from the advice of a professional textile artist and in 1994 we formed a group which we called Ebor mentored by Hilary Bower. Niki was an extremely important part of this group although she was always very modest about what she could produce that would be suitable for exhibitions which we undertook following encouragement from Hilary.  Niki’s contributions were always a delight with a level of detail, humour and invention which were a wonder to behold.  

Niki could always be relied on to entertain us at Guild meetings with unfailingly humorous and informative talks.  I particularly remember her Alphabet talk which I heard more than once but enjoyed it just as much the second time around.

Niki had health issues for much of her life, but she always approached all activities with enthusiasm and humour. Latterly Niki had become housebound but she was still stitching when I met up with her and still in exquisite miniature detail.

Niki Brown – the best of friends.

Moira Wood

Our December Meeting

Members enjoyed a very pleasant Christmas meeting on 10th December, though sadly a number, of whom I was one, couldn’t attend because of coughs and colds. Those there made lovely fabric wreaths, and enjoyed this relaxing activity while chatting to each other. They also enjoyed cake and tea, and looking at the entries in the competition for a Christmas card. The  winner was Marina, whose charming depiction of a house in snowy mountains was the favourite.  As ever, all the entries were imaginative and skilfully stitched..

At the  next meeting, on 7th January, our speaker will be Anne Brooke. We have had to wait patiently for Anne, she is in such demand. A super way to start the new year. 

 Chris

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Our November Meeting

 Our November meeting was a bit of an embroidery marathon with stitch club in the morning and a workshop after lunch. It was the last session for Jill’s fabric books and Barbara’s chicken scratch aka depression lace. Their sessions have been much enjoyed. We really appreciate those members who run these stitch clubs, and new ones will start in January with Annie’s book covers and Jane’s Hardanger.  It’s lovely to see the tutors share their skills and enthusiasm with fellow members.

In the afternoon the demonstration and workshop was conducted by Heather Lewis, a Royal School of Needlework graduate and tutor. Heather showed members how to make a very pretty gold holly leaf decoration after which they got down to making their own using Heather’s kits. Lots of concentration needed. Could have heard a pin drop! 

We’ll be making Christmas rag wreaths at our meeting on December 10th and enjoying seasonal refreshments. The competition is for a homemade Christmas card and members will vote for their favourite. 

Exhibitions

Do try to catch the super exhibition by Decora at Nunnington Hall near Helmsley.  Called Stolen From the Skies, it finishes at the end of the month so better be quick. I went twice because I enjoyed it so much and wanted to take a closer look at everything. The work is beautiful, with varied and clever interpretations of the theme of endangered British birds.  There’s lots of it and very well presented. You can check out Decora online. Take a look at their Facebook page. Some of the group  were once members of York EG. Congratulations to them all. 

For those of you who like the more traditional type of embroidery and who haven’t come across Mary Corbett, ‘NeedlenThread’,  may I recommend her website and Facebook page? Always something of interest. Some beautiful images plus her tips and techniques pieces are worth a look. 

Chris Small

Our October Meeting

October 1st was our AGM and subscription time. The second AGM for YES after a very successful year. We had the first postcard swop on the new theme of wings. Not surprisingly there was lots of creative interpretation from planes to dragonflies, plus delightful birds and bees. Before lunch work on fabric books and chicken scratch, aka depression lace, continued in stitch club. One more session for these in November, but there’ll a new stitch club starting in January.

The existing committee members were happy to continue in their current roles, with Annie who had  previously been co-opted nominated and approved. After this we had the fabulous Dollybirds, YES members who had formed a doll making group in 2004, with the dolls getting more and more complex and varied, until 2013 when they left the dolls behind for art journal work. Their light-hearted and amusing presentation belied the skill and artistry of the many dolls they brought to show us which really were from the sublime to the ridiculous! So, another busy, enjoyable meeting, with one to look forward to on 5th November when we’ll have a gold Christmas ornament workshop with Heather Lewis. This meeting will be the first with our new timing of a 10.30 start and a 3.30 finish.

Here are some of the postcards

Dollies by the Dolly Birds

There's a story behind the one in the cardboard box...

Here's a short video showing the Two Sided Goddess of Droopy and Wonky Boobs. There's a story behind her, too!