Branch meeting June 20th 2019 calico gardens with Liz Almond

 Branch meeting 20th June 2019 

Calico gardens with Liz Almond

How lucky we have been to have two successive branch meetings led by the  multi-talented Liz Almond.

Last month she led a day school concerning pulled threads in blackwork but this month, in spite of having a troubled month of family problems, she arrived with numerous examples of her take on calico gardens. 

Liz

As the workshop progressed Liz explained the rational behind the examples and very clearly explained the possibilities available using the kit she had provided.

Everyone was soon busy creating their own calico gardens, encouraged at every step by Liz

Members work table

Some of the things on the work table showed examples of work inspired by Liz Almond on her previous visits but others illustrated the depth of talent amongst the members

Our very talented vice chairmen is here modelling the jacket she has made which is embellished with Kogin embroidery

We have a break from branch meetings until September but hope that members and visitors will join us at st Andrew's church for National stitch day this coming Saturday, 22nd June and for the Cream tea on Saturday 13th July

Branch meeting Feb 21st 2019

Wet felting and social stitching

Barbara had a lot of notices to give us today but everyone was seated ready for action either with Bev and her wet felting workshop or at a social stitching table where a whole lot of  various types of stitching were going on.

Members table

Joyce puts us all to shame . She always has so many beautiful things to put on the members' table and at a time when she has some issues in her life.
You are a constant inspiration Joyce.


I especially loved the hedgehog

These delicious looking chocolates reminded me of a workshop we did a few years ago

very tempting Carole

Soon it was time for the workshop

How do you choose from such a wonderful selection of colour?

These were the wonderful wool tops available to those doing the workshop

Soon people were beavering away laying out their wool tops ready for felting

Now we have to wait for some of their finished creations to appear on the work table

It was also good to see Paul and Jean today. Alhough they are no longer members it is good that they drop in to see us

The day that we went Parbold

The day that we went to Parbold

Following a visit, last year, of two members of the Parbold branch who gave 

us a talk about some pieces from their recent exhibition, on Sat 9th February 2019 eight members of the Rochdale branch made the journey to Parbold to return the favour.

We had decided to take some examples of collaborate pieces of work.

We were welcomed by Nicky , their chairman

After that, Bev  spoke about our forthcoming exhibition at  the Littleborough coach house.

The exhibition will run from April 6th to May 5th

All are welcome!

Marie was the first from Rochdale to speak. 

She spoke about the pride and joy of the branch ........ The branch banner. Marie explained that photographs  were taken in and around Rochdale town hall and the volunteers from the branch were asked to do a  piece of needlework inspired by one of the pictures.

Marie went on to explain that decisions had to be made about joining the pieces together.

The banner is put up for all our branch meetings and there is a file which explains about the processes in creating the banner.

Next up was Barbara, our chair. She spoke about the cloth that was made form "scribble" embroideries. At a branch workshop Barbara presented the idea of creating a piece of work from some examples of scribbles (or taking a pencil for a walk). People were asked to stick to a colour scheme and plan which  stitches were to where. It was just amazing to see the colourful and varied results and at each of the meetings the cloth graces the members' work table.

When we celebrated our twentieth anniversary, four years ago, it was decided to do a collaborative piece to commemorate it. There was quite a lot of discussion and people remembered about doing the rainbow squares some years ago. There were decisions to be made about colour and it was decided to make a list of different embroidery techniques and people could sign their name  alongside one of them.The colour scheme of red with any metallic additions to be gold.

Jan spoke about this and here you see her standing beside the finished banner. 

She also explains that the frame was adapted from an old frame which she had in the attic and also how the inspiration for how to join the pieces came from an Australian magazine.

The last thing that we had taken was our bunting which we had draped around the hall. You can see it in these pictures  (The bunting is broken down into three pieces to make it easier to manage and to hung in smaller lengths)

I spoke about the Bunting
It was an idea by our previous chair, Hilary, following a conversation I had with her about doing a similar project with a small group I belong to. She decided to ask us all to do our own pennant, in any media we chose, based on something inspired by the month of our birth. What an amazing set of results we got and were all amazed by the things that resulted.

As a branch we are very proud of these pieces and they are now a part of the life of the branch

We were extremely well rewarded for making the visit
 by an excellent afternoon tea kindly donated by their members. Thank you so much 
.

Persian delights Nov 15th 2018

Persian delights

A talk by Hilary Naghashi

What an interesting talk we had today !

Hilary has been married to her Iranian husband for forty years and during that time she has amassed  a large collection of Persian textiles, some of which she brought along to illustrate her talk.
They ranged from sample of carpet through wall hangings, sheep head-dresses, bags to hold precious salt and containers to drape over the arm to hold seeds at sowing time.
 Some of these samples were antiques.


We were fascinated to hear that the carpets for which the region is renowned are often finished of by having buckets of soapy water thrown over them or being laid down on a road for vehicles to drive over thus locking the knots of the carpet into  place.

Hilary had some very interesting slides, some of them cataloguing the journey made by her and her family (In a 20year old car with no air conditioning) to some of the remote tribes of Iran) 
Some of her samples illustrated textiles created by the tribes people























We were shown a hanging which had been made from recycled 
clothes ( This is the blue and green coloured piece in the picture in the middle  the left)




She visited the city of Isfahan renowned for its bazaar with wonderful crafts being created
Two of these techniques are shown here.









Some of the tiles she saw inspired a piece she made for her City and Guilds award some years ago and it has been shown in stitch magazine

My first meeting this year

Thursday 18th October 2018

Great members work table today showing a variety of skills.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!!!!

Our chairman had a lot of announcements to make today including the news that we are to visit the Altrincham branch in July 2019 and they will come here to Rochdale in October.

We were visited earlier this year by Parbold and look forward to visiting them in February

We heard that a few of our members are having health problems at the moment and we wish them all well.

The workshop today was taken by Kate Philbin and was entitled "Fragments of the past. Most of the pieces involved printing photos onto fabric. What a lvely way o reprsent old memories!!!

Here are some of the pieces in the making

We hope to see some of the finished articles on the members' work table.

Its great to be in the Rochdale Branch

Sadly, I missed Joyce Bargh's talk on Chinese Embroidery  in November

In December Laura Brown had prepared kits for felt Christmas tree decorations

Just look at the things on the members work table
All stunning!!




Lindsey said these had taken months to bead I'm not surprised!!! You can see the details on one of them but they were all stunning!!

Smocked Christmas baubles done by Hilary Wilson

Anne Whalley"s beautiful Christmas tree

2018

It is great to belong to a branch like Rochdale and be able to enjoy so many aspects of textile art with like-minded people.
Our speaker in January was Liz Almond who is well know for many things but mainly her skills with blackwork. I was personally astounded when listening to her and hearing her accounts of her work and way of life. I was not surprised to hear that she is a lady who does not need a lot of sleep.

This is a part of the display of work she brought with her. If you look carefully you will see that some of the designs are conventional while others, like the shoes, are more individual and modern looking.

The sheer size of some of the pieces of work was awesome!!


Liz is generous with her advice and skills and her on-line business has many ideas for work.
Whilst she was with us she told us of her forthcoming trip to the third world to fly the flag of needle art there


Some of our members Brought along their work too
Two of them were inspired another another textile artist who has visited us, Nicola Jarvis

Liz's talk was called "Carry on Stitching"
With such as her to inspire it is a message that will be heard.


Bev Elliott lead the workshop "Encrusted stitch" In February
These are the starts made by some

 



















Hope to see some of the finished projects on the members work table later

These were on it in February

 

March

We had a great time in March!
Visitors from Parbold ( Our NW chairman Sue Chisnall-Sumner and Tracey Ramsey) brought along work from the exhibition that Parbold mounted in Southport



Our own members staged a mini exhibition with examples of their work, too numerous to be shown here
but then ....
We had Afternoon tea!!!

 I wouldn't mind if it became a habit!