October's meeting

There were five of us at October's meeting, where we were producing appliqué designs based on photographs. I was working on a sunflower picture and used it to demonstrate how to simplify the photograph into pieces that can be cut out of fabric. Here you can see the original photograph, an outline drawing and where I am starting to put together the petals on a piece of parchment paper.

Catherine was working on a picture of beach huts. Here she is auditioning fabrics.

While Helen picked a challenging picture of a phone box. Here is her progress on the day.

Lis was working on appliqué leaves, while Liz was piecing using striped fabric.

Stitching with found objects - April meeting

Inspired by the workshop with Alice Fox, Abigail brought along a whole pile of interesting things and we continued experimenting with found objects at our April meeting. Here is a shot of the things we had to play with:

And here is a collection of the samples that were produced during the day:

We also admired Helen's curved piecing from the previous meeting, which she was embellishing with postage stamps:

 

And Abigail showed us some samples of what we'll be making at the next meeting:

Liz will shortly be sending round details of what you will need to bring.

See you all on 21 May! 

Alice Fox workshop at Parbold Embroiderers Guild

Five members of the group did a workshop with Alice Fox on 18 March, where we were stitching with found objects. Here are a couple of pictures of the results.

I have a feeling we'll be doing something similar at the April meeting.

Thin strip insertions - February's meeting

I was sorry to miss last month's meeting, but Lis has sent me some photos to share with you. The session was lead by Lis and she was demonstrating how to make thin insertions into a piece of fabric. Here are some of the results.

Thanks to Lis for leading the session.

Dyeing a rainbow

Thanks to Lis for leading a fun session using Procion dyes to colour natural fabrics.

The main activity was dyeing a rainbow of 12 colours which form a colour wheel. Then we could try out other ways of mixing colours. I did some 'parfait' dyeing, where you alternate layers of fabric with different colour dyes.

Here are a couple of photos from the day, first adding the dye to fabric.

Four of the colours mixed and added to fabric.

Here are my rainbow fabrics (just got round to ironing them)

And results from the parfait dyeing

Don't forget to bring your fabric along to the next meeting.

Playing with threads at the November meeting

For the November meeting, Abigail set us the challenge to make a range of different types of cord and then to use them to decorate a frame. She brought along a whole load of bits and pieces that could be incorporated and Lis brought along a pile of frames she had been given.

We started off making cords, and here are some that we made:

Then, when we had made quite a few of these using different techniques, we turned our attention to the frames. Catherine was working on a 3-dimensional frame using an embroidery hoop:

Liz had constructed an irregular frame from stretcher bars and started to add cords and other bits and pieces:

Hilary used scarves to wrap her frame and some wooden rings, putting together the following piece:

An interesting and creative day was had by all who were there. Our next meeting will be on 22 January 2017, when Lis will be showing us how to dye a rainbow using fibre-reactive dyes (Procion). 

Meeting dates for the rest of the year can be found by clicking on the tab above labelled 'Meeting dates 2017'.

Follow-up to last month's meeting

Abigail sent me this picture of a purse she made with her free-machine quilting sample.

Our last meeting of the year will be on 27 November, and I will shortly be adding next year's meeting dates to the blog.

Free machine quilting in October

It was my turn to lead this month's session, which was all about trying out some free machine quilting exercises. We started off with trying to get our machines stitching nicely. Some were more cooperative than others!

The first exercise was to get the tension (approximately) right and then to do some doodling in thread. This one has some nice trees and also shows how difficult spirals can be.

These have some more doodling and practicing with July's printed designs.

In the afternoon we moved on to filling patterns either based on a grid of dots or freestyle. Here are some of these samples.

I hope you all enjoyed the day. See you next month!

Fabric stabilisers at the July meeting

I would like to thank Margaret for leading an interesting and informative session at last Sunday's meeting. It was all about stabilisers and Margaret shared with us her experience of using a range of products and showed us some examples. 

She started off by giving us a handout listing 19 different stabilisers (and this from just one company) - who would have thought there were so many? These included ones that stay in as a supporting layer, as well as those which wash or tear away after stitching.

Then we all started stitching a flower brooch where each petal had a different machine-stitched design. The design was printed onto Sulky Sticky Fabric-Solvy, which is a wash away with a sticky back. We each made a quilt sandwich using cotton fabric, thin wadding and couture interfacing (a very fine iron-on stabiliser), stuck on the design and then tried to stitch round the lines. Here is how far we got on the day.

In the afternoon we had a go at making a 'mug rug' with scraps of fabric and thread. We layered these between two sheets of a heavyweight soluble stabiliser, then stitched a grid on top. Here are some examples (several of us, including me, didn't get far with this one at the meeting). Of these three, only Catherine's star has had the stabiliser washed out.

I enjoyed the meeting, and I'm even starting to learn how to use my newish sewing machine.

The next meeting will be on Sunday 18 September, when the topic will be finishing edges, adding hanging sleeves etc.

A few photos from the last two meetings

At March's meeting, Julie lead a session on making designs from 'doodles'. Here are a few of the results.

Then at April's meeting, Ann led a session on making cartonnage bags. Here is a picture of all the bags festooned with pegs and clips to hold them while they dried, and a picture of Lis's finished bag.

Next month we will be meeting on 22nd May, when Lis will be demonstrating ways to print photographs onto fabric. Hope to see you all there!

Printing with acrylics on paper and fabric

At February's meeting we experimented with printing on paper and fabric using simple shapes. Here are some examples from around the room (in no particular order):

Do bring anything you make from your printed pieces along to a future meeting, we'd love to see them.

Karen

Disappearing blocks at January's meeting

Hi everyone,

Liz showed us how to design 'disappearing blocks' using paper and masking tape at the meeting in January, then we all experimented with some designs. Here are a few examples.

Four-patch block with straight cuts

Four-colour, four-patch blocks (two identical blocks) with diverging cuts and the centre sections swapped

A variation on the last design

This one gives a basket-weave effect (which might be more visible with the right choice of colours and tones)

And finally a nine-patch block (two identical blocks, diagonal cuts and alternate pieces swapped over)

At the next meeting, we will be trying out some simple printing using every day objects. A requirements list will be posted here shortly and also emailed to members of the group.

Please make a comment below if you would like to receive information about the group.

Best wishes

Karen

Making simple books - November's meeting

Eight members of the group met up at Croft in November for a session on making simple books. Julie B led the session and demonstrated the techniques.

We started by practicing mark making on strips of paper. Then did a group exercise, where we made marks on a sheet of paper, then passed it to the next person. Each piece finally ended up back where it started, with marks made by everyone on it.

The strips were then made into little concertina books like these and we learned how to make evenly-spaced folds.

Then we made the other sheets into little 'one sheet' books by folding and cutting. Here are some examples.

And here are some more. The black one has panels from the mark making added after making the book and would be a good way to present small samples.

After lunch, Julie demonstrated two ways to stitch pages into a book. One was created from a single signature stitched along the fold (including the cover) and the other used a Japanese stab stitch binding to join unfolded sheets of paper. Here are examples of both.

Thanks, Julie, for an enjoyable session.

We will next be meeting up after the break in January, when the session will be on designing disappearing patchwork blocks.

Best wishes for the holidays and I hope to see you in the New Year

Karen

Transfer prints from September's meeting

As promised, here is another instalment from the backlog of photos I have taken at recent meetings. This time it is painted papers, printed fabric and stitched pieces produced as a result of September's meeting. Thanks to Ann for leading the session.

Painted papers

Some people ironed their papers onto fabric on the day

Helen and Liz had already stitched into some of their fabric

Thanks for visiting. The next photos will be from October's 'Beyond Celtic' session.