Printing and pounding

We enjoyed a busy, interesting and, at times, noisy meeting on 14 June.  Chris Harris brought along a banner made by the children at Kettleshulme School, which was much admired:-

Members could choose from two different activities - printing onto fabric, or flower pounding.  Ann led the printing group and they quietly produced some attractive and accomplished work:-

 

At the same time, the members at the noisy end of the room were busy hammering flowers onto fabric - a great outlet for the day's frustrations!  

Again, some inspirational work was produced:-

 

We are now very much looking forward to seeing these samples when they have been further embellished.

May meeting - guest speakers from Merseyside

At our May meeting we were treated to three absorbing talks from members of Merseyside branch.  The speakers were Gill Roberts, Val Heron and Elsie Watkins.  Gill talked about her fabulous work as a corsetiere.  She is often commissioned to design and create bridal pieces:

One of Gill's other skills is in the creation of handbags for special occasions:

Finally, Gill displayed a beautiful quilt made by their members from fabric purchased at a Kaffe Fasset workshop:

We then heard a very interesting talk by Merseyside member Val Heron, who looks after a prize-winning group of Young Embroiderers.  She told us about all their achievements and we saw photographs of some of the work they have done.

Next, we listened to Elsie Watkins who is a skilled textile artist and who showed us many examples of her outstanding textile art:

 

Glossop members spent the rest of the meeting admiring the beautiful textiles.  We all send our thanks to Merseyside branch for travelling to Glossop and speaking as our guests.

Calm During the Storm - stitching session

We met at Ashton Art Gallery to stitch modern interpretations of the silk postcards sent home by serving soldiers during the First World War.

These postcards were very popular with British soldiers who often sent them home, enclosed in a letter.  The exhibition illustrates how the skill of stitching continued throughout the World Wars, even when the threads and materials were scarce.

This beautiful cushion cover was worked by Katherine Powell, who was born with only one hand and spent the First World War painting numerals and letters on compasses for the Royal Flying Corps:

Here is a selection of samplers produced during the First World War by Louise Pesel, who canvas work designs were used to produce embroidery packs for servicemen:

Two large, beautifully hand stitched banners:

We attracted a range of interested people who wished to stitch a flower, similar to those on the postcards, to show their appreciation of beautiful work, created in some very challenging circumstances.