Hardanger History & Contemporary Cutwork: October talk and workshop - places available

Friday 3rd October

Vicki Mansfield will talk about 

Hardanger History & Contemporary Cutwork 

Vicki has been designing embroideries since she was a child, and set up in business under the name of India Grace Designs in 2004. She initially started designing cross stitch, but soon found that the speciality stitches appealed more and she is now known for her Hardanger and Speciality Stitch designs. She has had pieces of her work published in the UK in "Stitch " magazine and in Australia in "Creative Embroidery and Cross Stitch" magazine. 

Vicki loves to work with colour and shape and is on a constant quest to discover different styles of embroidery to work into her designs.  Her talk will show that there is an element of past and future in her work and that it is not all about the history. We will look at cutwork embroidery and the regional variations that arose as it spread throughout Europe, including well-known styles such as Hardanger and some rarer gems, showing how these styles have influenced her work and how she has played with them to create contemporary designs from traditional arts.

 Saturday 4^th October 2014

Workshop with Vicki Mansfield 
Hardanger with Sparkle

 We will take traditional Hardanger skills and will be adding a bit of sparkle for a modern finish.

There are still a few places available on this workshop.  

If you are interested, please contact:

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

Member fee: £22.50; Visitor fee: £25.00

 Additional fee for materials £5.00 for full kit, £2.50 fabric only

Highlights from September 2014 AGM

It was lovely to see all the members who came along to our AGM on Saturday.

We worked through the morning's business pretty smartly, and heard reports from our Branch Committee summarising the past year's activities, highlights and achievements.  It's useful to keep abreast of things that are happening 'behind the scenes'.

Three of our members were awarded 25-Year Certificates this year:

Helen Bright, Marianne Pitts and Pat Slessenger.

Pat, pictured here proudly showing her badge and certificate,

was involved in the creation of the Quaker Tapestry,

which now has a permanent home in Kendall.

We also heard that the 40th Anniversary wall hanging created by our Young Embroiderers group was displayed at this year's West Midlands Regional Day, and received praise from speaker Michael Brennand-Wood, who was impressed by its design and execution.  Well done, YE's!

(Work started on the hanging back in April.)

Once we had concluded the business part of the day, we browsed the bring-and-buy stall, the 'Created by Us' table featuring recent work completed or in progress by Members, and tucked into a very convivial bring-and-share lunch.

'Created by us' - some of the members' work on display

Well fortified, we delved into our own and the Branch's stash of gold fabrics, threads, ribbons and cords to start making a pile of 'slips' which will feature in our own Regional Day/50th Anniversary celebrations next year.  There were lots of lovely bits and pieces to spur the creative juices ....