Pat Round

It is with great sadness that we have to announce the death of one of our members.  Pat Round was a long-standing member of Leamington & District Branch, and had also been a member of Solihull Branch.  

Pat died on 25th November after a long battle with illness.  Her funeral will take place at 12.45 pm on Thursday 5th December.  Please contact Chair, Mary Holden, for more details if you plan to attend.  (Family flowers only are requested, but there will be an opportunity to give a donation to a charity.)

Pat will be much missed by everyone who benefitted from her extensive experience of embroidery and textiles.

Summer School reminiscences

As we sit huddled against the November cold and damp outside, it's nice to think back to the summer and the really inspiring summer school we had with Linda Miller.  Although early August wasn't exactly blazing with sunshine, it has to be said that it was much warmer and brighter than it is just now!

Two whole days devoted to machine embroidery was a real treat, and I'm sure I can say that we all thoroughly enjoyed the sessions and learned a huge amount from Linda about creating little works of art on our machines.  Linda was extremely patient and always enthusiastic; she managed to see the positive points of some fairly wonky efforts (speaking for myself here), and showed us how to achieve a professional finish to our creations.

You can see from the photos below what a wide variety of subjects people chose to execute, and it's all credit to Linda that she managed to encourage everyone to be brave and go for it!

Linda (standing left) encourages us to 'show and tell' our finished or nearly-finished pieces

Judith Lovatt: 'What If?' talk and 'Compose and Distort Dayschool, 1 -2 November 2013

What a coincidence that Judith Lovatt came to talk to the Branch on Friday 1st November as both the feast of Diwali and Guy Fawkes were being celebrated!  As the fireworks were going off outside, she used the word “explosion” as she demonstrated ways of pushing the boundaries of drawing, design and embroidery in our work. 

The work shop on Saturday 2nd was fun and experiential. We were all working at various levels and Judith coped with all our diversities. She also gave us time to talk about our emerging samples of work with each other, which proved to be another learning experience.  See some examples of these below.

Judith is an excellent tutor and ran a very comfortable workshop.


Trial prints on fabric, using paints, inks, crayons and various techniques to create surface texture:

Woven paper collage designs:

Using photos of previously stitched work

A mix of images and crayon rubbings creates a very textured collage

An alternative way of combining images

A combination of two different street images gives an interesting view

Michala Gyetvai talk and workshop. 4/5th. October

We were very fortunate to have Michala with us on Friday and Saturday. Her talk on Friday evening was fascinating and inspirational. We heard about her formative years as a stitcher and the inspiration behind her works, many of them springing from her childhood memories and experiences. She talked through pieces of her work and showed us her sketchbooks- pieces just dashed off. If only we could all dash off such wonderful pieces of artwork.

Saturday came with some trepidation as we were expected in work in the dreaded sketchbooks. However, it proved to be somewhat easier than expected although still scary!! Michala was on hand to give help whilst still allowing us to work at our own pace.

Some demonstrations occurred about how to work with the felted blankets, adding extra texture and features with further hand felting. It was amazing to think that Michala uses hand felting techniques even on her large pieces of work. Evidently a tufted doormat comes in handy for those!

We all had the chance to try hand felting although some managed to do more than others. It was reassuring to be told to work at our own pace.

By the end of the day, everyone had achieved something, whether being a little less afraid of their sketchbooks, being able to hand felt without personal injury or just generally a feeling of a good day. We were certainly exhausted.

So, if you have a chance to attend one of Michala’s workshops do!

Stitcher at work

 A selection of materials.

 Sketchbooks and the start of the felted pieces

 

Coming to the end of a great day.

Friday 1st November: Talk by Judith Lovatt, 'What if?'

Pushing the boundaries of drawing, design and embroidery.

What if?

A question we ask ourselves every time we design, draw, paint or stitch...

Judith’s talk will show you how to question the way you work. 

She will bring her portfolio of embroidery, prints, sketchbooks and other work, which show a plethora of techniques.  

Leamington Branch Member Commended in "Stitch" Competition

The recent "Stitch" magazine competition, 'Blooming Marvellous' challenged stitchers to create a piece of work inspired by flowers or gardens.  Branch Member, Jenny Archer, received a commendation for her piece called 'Sea Holly'.

Jenny says:
"I had started a piece at the workshop tutored by Stephanie Redfern in July 2012 and decided to finish that off and enter it.  I called it 'Sea Holly'.  

"I hand dyed the background fabric, the leaves and stems and flower heads were bondawebbed on. The flower heads were stuffed from the back - I think that is called Trapunto work but don't quote me on that as I am not sure, and covered in French knots and beads. The spikes on the leaves were sewn using a straight stitch. The piece was then stitched onto a navy blue quilted background."


The competition received 72 entries and Jenny's piece was singled out for a commendation - her name is listed on the EG/Stitch website.  There were 8 commendations altogether, along with a 1st, 2nd and 3rd prize and a highly commended.

Here are a couple of pictures of the beautiful piece - rightly Commended!

Sea Holly, Jenny Archer

Sea Holly, detail

Leamington Branch Member's floral talents

12th - 15th September is Heritage Week-end in Warwickshire, when many venues, some not usually open to the public, open their doors and welcome visitors.  

Table top display by Jean Myatt

Jean Myatt, Floral pedestal

Leamington member, Jean Myatt, who also happens to be the leader of our Young Embroiderers' Group, contributed two beautiful floral displays to the 'Leamington Life' exhibition in All Saints Parish Church, Leamington.  




The exhibition, which attracted considerable local interest, invited Clubs and Societies in the area to promote their activities, and Jean took the opportunity to represent the Embroiderers’ Guild.  If you look carefully, you can see Jean's delicate embroidered butterflies among the flowers.

Branch AGM and Demonstration by Stratford-upon-Avon Spinners, Weavers & Dyers

Holding our AGM on a Saturday this year enabled those members to attend who prefer a daytime meeting, and the broadened programme gave us more time to chat.  Twenty-one branch members attended, and we were joined for a bring-and-share lunch by the Stratford Spinners, Weavers and Dyers, who gave us an inspiring demonstration of their ancient craft afterwards.

From the business of the AGM we learned that:

• We are financially sound.
• We had successfully linked with HQ in sorting out issues over the new registration scheme.
• With expert guidance/training from a member of the Birmingham Branch, we set up a Branch Blog.
• Following the Committee’s review of the secretarial responsibilities, we now have four committee members sharing the load instead of one. The Newsletter Editor post has been established as part of this review. 

We listened with interest to the report on our amazing educational programme throughout the year, as well as the workshop and two members' days, which had given some of our own highly gifted members the opportunity to teach the rest of us. Our Young Embroiderers Group, too, had a very interesting year.

It was also reported that the highlight of the year was Jean Littejohn’s visit. Her Friday evening talk drew in the crowds, and her workshop was the best! The 20 members who attended were greatly inspired by her.

The achievements of the year included a member winning a prize for her entry in a "Stitch" magazine competition and two entries from the YEG to the Regional day were highly commended.

It was noted that Members Days and the Christmas festivity added a welcome social dimension for the branch.

The chairman thanked the Committee for all their work over the year and welcomed a new committee member. She also appealed for member support in planning the Regional Day and Exhibition in 2015 and also for their help in the running of the many Branch activities. 

In the afternoon we were all keen to have a go at spinning, ply splitting, making finger cords, kumihimo braiding, tablet weaving, among other techniques, and to see some of the lovely work this group produces.  Just have a look at the photos here to see how different it all was from our usual stitching.

Members concentrate on kumihimo braiding

Chair, Mary Holden tries her hand at spinning

Great fun once you get going!

A simple but effective weaving technique

A really distinctive luggage strap

Expert tuition on hand

Lunch was a great opportunity to chat and catch up

Branch AGM - Saturday 14th September

Calling all embroiderers!

The Leamington & District Branch's AGM is this Saturday - 14th September.

We have broken with the traditional format this year.  

Starting with coffee and biscuits at 10.30 am, 

the necessary business of the AGM will be followed by a

Bring-and-Share Lunch

The Branch Shop will be open for you to pick up threads, fibres 

and all sorts of useful bits and pieces

There will be a Bring & Buy Table 

(bring along those supplies you've never got round to using)

and do bring your recently completed pieces of work for the Show & Tell table

In the afternoon 

the Stratford Spinners, Weavers & Dyers 

will demonstrate their work.

Last, but not least, it's an opportunity to chat to fellow stitchers and swap ideas.

Do come and support your Branch, and have a say in what's happening.

October talk: "Seas of Grass" - Michala Gyetvai

We are delighted that Michala Gyetvai, well-known local textile artist, will be coming to the branch on 4th October to talk about her art work and what led her, since childhood, to work with the materials she uses - principally machine stitch onto wool blankets, following her studies in pastels.  Her talk will trace the inspirations and influences that led to the development of her textile work into the vivid and often large-scale pieces for which she has become known.

'Abbey Fields'

'Homage a Matisse'

Michala's work has been exhibited at the Herbert Art Gallery, amongst others, and featured in "Stitch" and "Embroidery" magazines.  Her talk on 4th October will be illustrated with some of the large pieces Michala is working on currently, together with her sketch books and paintings, and she will give us an insight into how she put her exhibition together (a very topical subject for our branch).









Don't miss what promises to be an inspiring, colourful and 'tactile' evening!

If you would like to see more of Michala's work, you can find it at: http://kaylacoo.blogspot.co.uk

Jean Littlejohn visit, May 2013

One of our recent Branch highlights was Jean Littlejohn's visit. Jean shared her extensive experience of stitch in the Friday talk, when she recounted her journey from art college to Co-President of the Guild, via Friends of the Titanic! Jean stressed the importance of observation and understanding what you want the stitching to do.  

Jean Littlejohn

At the Saturday day school, we benefitted firsthand from her expertise and artist's eye.  

Jean is very generous in her encouragement of tentative stitchers and has boundless enthusiasm for the art and craft of all types of stitch.  Everyone went away with some very useful samples - Jean insisted that we finish at least one piece - and fired with enthusiasm to develop our hand stitching.




See more of Jean's work on the Double Trouble website where you can also purchase books and DVDs by Jean Littlejohn and Jan Beaney. 

Jean Littlejohn