Leamington Member's Rugby Award

Leamington & District Branch member, Gill Dakin, was a few minutes late for the branch’s annual Christmas lunch on 6th December for a special reason. We asked her to write a small piece to explain:

“Earlier this year I planned to enter the annual Rugby Open exhibition, but it did not take place. In my disappointment, I hurriedly decided to make a first-time entry to the Rugby and District Art Society Annual Awards Exhibition, held on floor one of the Rugby Art Gallery, Museum & Library.  (The exhibition closed on 11th December.)  I have been a member of this society for about three years.  I entered two pieces under the heading of ‘mixed media’, because they contained some paper. 

"I was surprised and absolutely delighted to win the President’s Award for my entry entitled 'Autumn Robin', which I created using a dry point etching technique. It has not photographed well, unfortunately, as you probably cannot make out the robin in the bottom right hand corner of the second photo below. My other piece was called 'Poppy Field' [shown in the lower centre of the photo here], and was started on a recent branch workshop led by Amanda Hislop, which I enjoyed very much.

"Poppy Field" by Gill Dakin

"I attended the awards ceremony on the morning of Saturday 6th with my husband, Martin, and was presented with my award by the Deputy Mayor of Rugby, Richard Dodd. I managed to be only slightly late for the start of our lovely Christmas lunch day and was delighted with the warm and positive response I received from everyone regarding this award. 

Gill Dakin with Rugby Mayor, Richard Dodd

"Many thanks to all the committee for everything they do throughout the year, which makes our branch such a great group to belong to.  I’m looking forward to next year with the EG."

Happy Christmas everyone!

Gill Dakin

Branch Christmas Lunch, 6th December

Our annual Christmas lunch is always an enjoyable and convivial get-together.  As well as the main elements of good company, food and wine, we're kept well entertained by the Secret Santa exchange (must be an inexpensive textile-related gift) and by an extremely taxing Christmas-themed quiz compiled by Treasurer, Anne.  No-one has ever got the answers to all the questions!

We also set ourselves a little challenge each year with a competition to create a seasonal item - this year's was a decorated gift box lid.  You can see some of the lovely results below.  Votes are cast by members putting coins into a dish against their favourite/s, and this year's winning design was Jenny Archer's Christmas Tree gift box - shown here.

Christmas Tree box, Jenny Archer

The choice wasn't so easy, though, as a variety of techniques was used to create some lovely box lids, which must surely delight any recipient:

The voting with coins amounted to £31, which Jenny is donating to Warwickshire Air Ambulance.

Young Embroiderers are getting ready for Christmas ...

Our Young Embroiderers Group were busy making Christmas gift bags on Saturday morning.  They measured and cut out their bright Christmas fabrics, then made up a fabric motif - quite a few snowmen :-) - which could be appliquéd to the front of their bags.  There wasn't quite time to finish all the bags in the session, so we hope to get a few photos to add to the blog once the bags have been made up at home, in time for Christmas of course!

Please note: there will be no meeting in December.

November riches

We had a fabulously rich week-end - on Friday, listening to Ann Rodgers' fascinating talk about the collection of bags she has created for each of Shakespeare's heroines, and on Saturday being guided by Rose Woodford to turn a dull and unloved 'wardrobe wallflower' into a vibrant want-to-wear blossom.

Firstly, Ann brought along her collection of beautiful and witty handmade bags.  She explained how she went back to the text of Shakespeare's plays to find the essence of each of his female characters and then set about incorporating their qualities and references in individual bags.  There was Bottom's light and airy dreamcatcher; fragile wings on the Midsummer Night's Dream fairies' little silk dolly bags; Queen Anne of York's subtle reversible bag, with the red Lancaster rose on the outside and the white York rose on the inside, or vice-versa according to her allegiance at the time!  Cleverly designed masculine/feminine bags for the female characters who were played by boys, but often appeared in disguise as the 'opposite' sex, hid secret features that revealed their true identity.  There were too many more to list here or do justice to among this extensive collection, so perhaps there's a follow-up talk in the making, when we can hear about all the ones there wasn't time to investigate in detail in this talk ....


Then Rose started us off on Saturday morning by prompting us to think about what we wanted to achieve before we set about trying to transform our 'wallflowers'.  Did we want them to be glamorous, quirky, colourful, bold, interesting or just a bit different?  She showed us some vibrant examples from her own wardrobe that had had 'the treatment', and which were all eminently wearable and stylish.

We considered what we wanted to gain from the day - whether what we wanted most was to have fun or to produce a finished article.  Most people opted for a bit of both, so, with nothing to lose we set about our own unloved garments.  Inevitably it wasn't quite as easy as Rose had made it seem, but she gave us the benefit of her experience and plenty of hands-on help.

Where to start ... how is it going to look ... ?

Rose even lent herself as a model to aid visualisation 

Although not all of our transformations were complete, the workshop had prompted us to look at our garments in a new light and give them another chance.

  Above all, we had a really fun day!

November Talk and Workshop reminder

All the details of this month's talk and workshop are in the next two posts below.  Do come and support Ann and Rose - both local girls. :-)

If you have any completed gold slips, please bring them with you.  We are now amassing a satisfying pile, and it's good to know how many more we need to make ....

Wardrobe Wallflowers, a workshop with Rose Woodford

Saturday 8^th November 

There are a few places remaining for this workshop.*  

Why not come and join the fun!

This Saturday workshop sees a welcome return from ‘Recycling Rose’ – remember Rose Woodford’s workshop a couple of years ago, when we made the wonderful recycled ‘sweater bags’ that were a wow at our 2012 exhibition?

Rose is coming back with inspirational ideas for embellishing/recycling a garment.  Revitalise your neglected clothes into glorious garments that express your individuality and creativity. We all have ‘wardrobe wall-flowers’ in our cupboards that hardly ever come out. Why not transform them into ‘morning glories’ you can’t wait to put on, by using your own creative touches?

We will look at a range of techniques to add character and quirkiness where needed.

You will need a wardrobe wallflower, basic sewing skills and some imagination.

N.B. This is not a workshop in tailoring, major altering or repairing of clothes.

* If you would like a place on the workshop, please contact:

Jenny Archer on 01926 338987 (please leave a message) or jennyarcher401@gmail.com

Member fee: £22.50; Visitor fee: £25.00