December 11th  Meeting 2014

There was sadness in the air as Margaret Brown , a long standing and highly valued member had passed away.

The main business of the meeting today was a talk by the national Chairman of the Embroiderers' Guild, Christine Poole.

I was unable to attend this meeting but was sent the photographs and have heard comments on the meeting from various members  all of whom had thoroughly enjoyed Christine's talk and illustrations. She took along various samples of her work over the years, some finished and some not. We all have those!

The Christmas trees mentioned in the previous post were brought along so all members could have a close view.

Thank you Christine

We know what a busy schedule you have!

May I wish everyone a happy and peaceful Christmas and New Year.

The Christmas Tree Event 

Early December 2014

Rochdale Parish Church

As mentioned in the previous post, many of the members had decorated rings in any way they chose and those were taken by Daphne Abbott and Laura Brown, two very talented ladies.
This is what they produced !!!!!!!!

Aren't they absolutely stunning?
What an original idea!

Thank you so much ladies for your inspiration and hard work.

 Meeting on November 20th 2014 November

Everyone was busy today as we had two workshops going
There was also a busy sales table.

Many of us were bust having snowflakes from plastic canvas This workshop was led by Kathryn Butterworth with help from Muriel Hardy.

Some of the other members were busy doing smocked Christmas baubles. This workshop was led by Hilary Wilson, who is an active ember of the smocking guild. They are charming aren't they?

At this meeting we also brought back our contributions for the Christmas tree event at Rochdale Parish church in early December.

Here are some of the contributions lined up in the church.

We had been asked to decorate rings of three different sizes in any way we wanted but using mainly green.

These will then be used to make up two trees for the event.
More of this later.

Branch meeting Oct 16th 2014

The members  work table

Two of our members brought in the tassels with Ribbon embroidery that they had made at the workshop with Nicola Hulme, 

As usual with creative people there is a variation in interpretation but both are lovely.
Our talk today was by Wynn Ingam who knows a lot about Casalguidi embroidery.

Her talk, however, ranged across many skills and outlined her journey in stitching

Wynne brought along a lot of samples of different things she does workshops in and was soon signed up for a workshop in the New Year

That will be eagerly anticipated

Sept 18th AGM 2014

Before the meeting began we took a few moments to think about two of our members who had died over the summer.

This was a busy meeting
The first part of it was the annual AGM when our new Chairman, Hilary Small, took over.
After the official business the monthly meeting began with a number of items on the agenda.
The members work table looked particularly good today with many things which members have been busy with over the break

The picture of Joyce Bargh's wonderful Japanese embroidery ( she said she has been doing this on and off for quite a while) is not as good as it good have been due to light reflection.

Anne Whaley's button brooches were inspired by the last edition of Stitch magazine.

Also on display at the meeting was a large display of doodle pictures which people had been working on since the workshop.

It was amazing to see the different colour combinations, textures and interpretations which appeared

Barbara Bauckham has taken them all away and will decide how she is going to assemble them.

Can't wait to see the finished product!

Thirty poppy brooch kits were sold to members at a £1 each. ( This money will go to the British Legion)

Members soon got busy starting to make their brooch.

Perhaps we will see people wearing them at the October and November meetings?

June meeting 19th June 2014

June 19th

Two workshops
Introduction to crotchet taken  by Jillian Holden
Non fattening chocolates, taken by Meg Starkey

I failed to take a camera or phone to this meeting which was a bit of a hectic one.

Many people were eager to learn to crotchet
I think it is a very difficult skill to teach, I had to sit with a book and learn by trial and error so I really admire Jillian's skills in passing on her knowledge
Maybe there will be examples of members work that can be included in the blog at a later date

This is a picture of some non fattening chocolates that I took along for inspiration

Cream Tea June 7th 2014

This year we held the cream tea at the new St Andrew's church
It was amazing how easily we were able to adapt to the new building.

 The entrance and some of the main hall providing sitting area for those having their teas with room in the entrance hall for raffle tickets and entrance tickets to be sold.

Inside the main hall stalls were set up to sell bric a brac and tables for members to work at to show visitors some of the things that have been worked on at the guild meetings.

There was also a smaller hall for an exhibition of members' work which had an enormous variety of the wonderful work done by our members.

The event was very well supported by the members of the congregation and we need to give huge thanks to Beryl Sampson and her husband, Neil, for all their practical help

April and May meetings

April and May meetings

April 17th Introduction to Doodle embroideries

This session was led by Barbara Bauckham 
We had been asked to choose from one of several options for a doodle embroidery and today we got our square, with doodle drawn on and a chance to do some planning for our embroidery.

Much more interesting for this blog will be the results of members'  efforts which are due to appear at the first meeting of the new year, in September. Watch this space
Barbara will take the completed 'doodles and assemble them into a hanging

15th May

Mad hats ad beautiful things.
 Heather Wilson

Those who are regular visitors to Hebden Bridge may well be familiar with Heather's work as many of her hats and other artefacts are displayed in the Art centre there.

Heather entertained us with tales of her trips to India and explained how they had provided inspiration for many of her pieces, either in colour or form.

Heather is probably better known for her mad hats and we were also able to few some of them

This is a stunning example

We were also honoured to have a visit from the mayoress who came to view our branch banner which was inspired by photographs taken at Rochdale town hall.

Here you see the mayoress, Monica Rush, standing near the banner with Jean Goodchild who not only took the pictures that inspired the banner but undertook the assembly and faithfully brings the banner to each meeting and function.

The mayoress was not simply a 'polite' visitor but was very enthusiastic in her enquiries about everything to do with the guild and chatted enthusiastically to many members, particularly those who had contributed to the banner.

 What a pleasure to have such a friendly visit

It would be great if she joined us!

The Big Day!!!!!!!!!!!

North West Regional day April 27th 2014

A year of preparation and many meetings, visits and much planning came to fruition at the Norton Grange hotel.

We were pleased to greet fellow members of the guild from our branch and other branches in the North West.

After morning coffee  and the business of the day including Roll call ( special mention of the journey undertaken by two members from the Isle of Man) the first speaker, Gillian Lonergan from the Co-operative trust imparted her knowledge about the banners made for the Co-op guilds.

We learned so much from Gillian whose in depth knowledge is impressive and it was particularly good for her when one of our visitors pointed out that her mother had been involved in the stitching of one of the banners.

A delicious buffet lunch, a visit the traders, examine the wonderful entries in the Embroidery competitions and buy raffle tickets were all accomplished over the two hour break and then it was time for Anne Brooke an up and very coming textile artist from Brighouse, who crossed the border and came to talk to us about her personal journey in textiles.

She is an accomplished artist and a really entertaining speaker.

You can see some examples of Anne's very unusual work her and also she is presenting an award to a young embroiderer.

Barbara Jepson did a workshop with the young Embroiderers.They produced some wonderful felted pictures as you can see

It was a pleasure to see how everything came to gather on the day and we received many cards, emails and good wishes on the success of the day.

I am very proud of the committee who worked so hard to organise the day and all the branch members for their wonderful support

Branch Meeting Thursday 20th March 2014

Take inspiration

Nicola Hulme

We were retreated to a lovely talk and chance to view  Nicola's work

She took us through her journey and provided wonderful samples of her work to view

March 13th 2014

These ladies are relaxing after the branch annual lunch at the Church Inn at Birtle. This annual event started off as a Christmas lunch but,for various reasons, is now held in March.
It is a really nice opportunity for a get together with knives and forks instead of needles in hand.
Thanks to Joyce Sankey for organising it for us.

Branch meeting Thursday 20th February 2014

Although it is always enjoyable to do a workshop or listen to a visiting speaker it is always  special time when we are just members all together as in this meeting.

Three members did a Show and Tell

Jan Mellor related her experiences with a 'travelling' book, a concept that was introduced to all branches by headquarters. Jan has a wonderful book called 'A Woman's Touch' which is a result of its 'travels' round another group to which she belongs, When the regional day is over it may be that some of our members would like to join such a group within the branch.

Jean Handley brought along her unnamed teddy. Jean had deconstructed some men's ties and remade them into a very delightful teddy. She explained its provenance and life experiences but told us that he was, so far, nameless.
Very swiftly came the suggestion of Tyrone, so now he is Tyrone Teddy.

Laura Brown was at first reluctant to show us her wonderful knitted bag but then warmed to the idea. The bag was made from a kit that she purchased in Canada. The whole idea was to knit the bag and then felt it in a washing machine. Floral decoration was made and added separately.

I am hoping to get these three people to bring along their objects to the next meeting.
I had forgotten to take a camera to the meeting and I know pictures of the objects would greatly enhance the blog.


Anne Whaley had brought along some wonderful pictures of all the things that are to be put in the raffle bags on regional bag.  They were SO impressive and a wonderful reflection of the goodwill, skills and generosity of our members.

Many of us chose the basic pattern for the doodle pictures for the April meeting workshop which has been planned and prepared by Barbara Bauckham. Barbara is planning to join all our efforts together as another collated record of the skills and imagination of our members.

Thanks to all of these people for their contributions.

The rest of the meeting was spent in social stitching or having a chat and catching up with other members.

Before our next meeting we are to enjoy our annual lunch outing at the Church Inn, 

Rochdale Branch Meeting Jan  2014

Our first meeting of 2014 was a talk, and what a talk. I had been lucky enough to hear Linda Barton speak on this subject before ( at the AGM in Southport) but she is certainly worth hearing again.
Her subject was the Stephen Simpson's gold thread works in Preston.

The  processes in the production of gold thread/wire are quite amazing  and Linda bought home to us the wide use of the braids and threads produced at the works.

She traced the rise and fall of the works in some detail and illustrated it all with some excellent photographs.

The use of gold thread on naval uniforms is illustrated here. The days when the gold was used are sadly over we learned and nowadays lurex threads are used.  This is not always popular with some high ranking people we learned!

 Here are some of the samples of wire that Linda brought along. We learned of the long, skilled and highly complicated process of producing the wires and threads

  A gold tassel. You can see the thickness of the individual strands used in the tassel.

The freemasons and other organisations used 

Simpson's and their skilled embroiderers and machinists to produce  banners and emblems.

Although the facts and pictures were, on their own, interesting , the whole subject was brought alive by the manner in which it was presented. Linda's enthusiasm for her subject shines through and her delivery is well paced and vibrant.

Linda told us that she has been so busy giving talks that her personal life has been curtailed and she feels that it is time to have some time to pursue other things.

How lucky we were to have booked her for this talk before that happens!

NW Regional Day. Sunday April 27th 2014

The preparations are well under way now. We have done everything as much as we can  but continue with some fine tuning.

The imponderables are :-

How many tickets will be sold?

How many people will enter the competitions?

How many young embroiderers will come along?

Theses are things that cannot be pre-organised 

Time will tell!

February Meeting 

Is show and tell and social stitching.

Don't forget to hand in the survey so that they can be sent off to be studied and have contents analysed.