Rochdale Branch meeting June 16th 2016

Hilary, our chairman) s opening remarks were mainly reminders of dates for the diary
Day schools July 7th
There are still places for "That darned stitch"
Cream tea  July 9th
Please take tickets and posters
Sign up to help
Bring work for exhibition
Raffle prizes needed
Capability Brown Pieces 
Should be brought to Cream tea

Day of stitch August 6th 10am to 2pm
To be held at our usual venue
All welcome
Opportunity for any 
one to have a go

We were also delighted to welcome to visitors, Wendy who will be joining us in September and Liz from Manchester
 We were all delighted to see Joyce Bargh back with us after her course of treatments and Helen Jackson after her road accident, both ladies expressed their thanks for cards and flowers received

Speaker Serena Partidge

This lady brought along some amazing samples of her work which is all in miniature
Unfortunately the technology wasn't all it should have been so we missed out on her slides but we were all hugely entertained by her revelations about her early and developing work and stunned by the intricacy and detail in her tiny productions

Examples of her work can be seen at the Bronte Parsonage until the New Year

Rochdale Branch trip to Browsholme hall, near Clitheroe June 6th 2016

This lovely day trip was organised by Joyce Sankey from a suggestion by Anne Whaley.

A 10.15 start at Rochdale Town Hall was followed by a trip through the stunning Ribble valley 
The views were superb ---dressed as they were by some glorious June sunshine.

We arrived in time for a drink ( I copied Marie and had a Pimms---lovely!!) and then a lunch with a first course of delicious quiche followed by lemon drizzle cake with all the trimmings was enjoyed before our guide invited us to join her in the walk over to the hall.




These are external views.

Our guide was extremely well informed and had a charming mode of delivery and we progressed through the hall gaining insight of it's history as we went.

This was followed by a walk around the gardens

What a "grand day out" Thank you, Joyce

New venue for NWEG Summer School3rd to 5th June 2016

With the closing of Alston Hall a new venue needed to be found for this annual event and eventually Waddow Hall, near Clitheroe, was decided upon. Many thanks to Sue Chisnall-Sumner for her role in securing this venue.
Two tutors were engaged for the weekend. Lynda Monks was presenting "Creative Surfaces" and Maggie Hickman Smith was presenting "Painting Garden Themes with Stitch"

This reflects my experience of the weekend.

I was a bit daunted when I arrived to be told that my room was on the top ( third floor) and there was no lift. I made the trip and found a cosy, spotlessly clean, single room with a compact but very adequate shower room. 

The view from my window was lovely. It is a bit hazy ( it

was a very warm weekend) but you can see the flag flying on Clitheroe castle.

A walk down the hill revealed this lovely weir

The food all weekend was really impressive and did nothing at all for my weight problem

 I was in Maggie Smith's group. an experience which turned out to be delightful.

On the first evening Maggie did a talk introducing us to her career and then we saw some of the many samples she had brought with her.

 These are samples of the work featured in her three part series in Stitch magazine.


The workshops were a mixture of demonstration by Maggie, and implementation by us.
We all painted a piece of calico and, in our own time, decided on our choice to stitch
I decided to try my hand with  a spray of Wisteria,

This was Maggie's sample of Wisteria

and this was my , somewhat more exuberant, piece.

For me the whole weekend was thoroughly enjoyable and I certainly hope to be at Waddow Hall next June.

Regional day
Haigh Hall April 23rd 2016

Twenty one of our members travelled to Haigh hall for the Regional day run by the Bolton branch

Congratulations go to Pat Blincoe who won third prize for her entry into the themed competition

'Under the sea'

 and to Barbara Bauckham who won second prize

.

Just two more examples that go to prove that Rochdale has talent

Rochdale Branch Meeting April 21st 2016

One of the things mentioned by the chairman today was that Joyce Bargh has had her stem cell surgery. We all wish her well.

Hilary, the chair asked for Branch support for the Capability Brown project and the cream tea to be held on July 9th 2016 so plenty of things to keep members busy.
The speaker today was Josephine Ormerod who started her textile journey about four years ago
She does a lot of work with coiled pots and let us in to some of her secrets.

Here is Josephine showing her technique for machining the coils together

This shows the pot near completion.

Some other examples of her work

Beverley Elliot, on of our members had also brought long some of the examples of her work that she did during and after her City and Guilds studies

Day school March 17th 2016

Crewel work--- Nicola Hulme

Nicola is no stranger to some of our members and fairly recently run a workshop on tassel making.

We quickly learned the definition of crewel work and were given to choice of two sample to work.




Nicola advised the left hand one for we beginners and the right hand one for the more ambitious.
Nicola had transferred the pattern on to the Linen fabric using Frixion pens and she explained about them to the uninitiated.

This board had some other examples of crewel work done by Nicola


Our first task was to select the colours for our work and that was a joy faced with such a rainbow of options.  Nicola advised on tone and variation.

As a real beginner to crewel work I was grateful for the step by step tuition we were given.

All instructions and demonstrations were helpful and instructive.

By the end of the day we had all been guided through the stitches needed to complete our projects and all went home with a work in progress.

A really enjoyable day!!

Branch meetings February and March 2016

The  last two branch  meetings have been mainly concerned with Workshops

One of these was an Introduction Yubinuki ( Japanese ring thimbles) which are illustrated above.
Kathryn Thompson visited us to teach the technique which required a lot of time and patience and kept her group very focused.

The other workshop was an Introduction to Hardanger, run by Hilary Small,

This also proved very engrossing and results were developing by the end of the sessions

I am hoping that the members worktable at the next meeting will furnish me with the opportunity to
photograph  the results of the workshops.

Branch meeting Jan 21st 2016

Happy New year to all our followers.

The first matter to be dealt with was the presentation of a welcome pack to new member Beverley and a warm welcome for visitors Jackie and Wendy.


After the business of the meeting which included reminders and some dates for diaries Hilary introduced our speaker, Katie Duxbury who spoke about her dressmaking journey into costume design.

Since her degree at Nottingham Trent Katie has pursued her career with stints at many different theatres including the Coliseum at Oldham
She showed us numerous slides of her costumes and resposibilies at her various posts

We were quickly made aware of a passion for repeating small shapes to make a whole such as is illustrated in this dress

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Katie also has an interest in the durability of clothing and she intends to wear this dress while walking hundreds of miles, to see the effect on the fabric.

This is another example of Katie's work

Unfortunately my i phone picked this day to take inferior photographs