Summer School with Chris Gray

We had a brilliant two-day summer school with Chris Gray last week-end, held in the lovely rural setting of Leek Wootton deep in Warwickshire countryside.  Chris gave us two days of expert and entertaining tuition on stamping and stitching, along with lots of tips and anecdotes, to make unique folded books on a theme of our choice, which - if they turn out anything like Chris's own - will become beautiful keepsakes.  

Chris brought everything we needed, from a wide range of wooden stamps, stencils and paints to her vast stash of hand-dyed fabric, beads, sequins, threads and wools.  We spent a happy and very busy couple of days creating patterns, motifs, re-arranging layouts and then stitching and embellishing.  All works to be completed at home, of course, but we felt we’d had a really indulgent and satisfying time. 

Decisions, decisions, which motifs to use?

Deciding on the layout

Preparing to stitch

The fun part is selecting the threads and embellishments

A very varied collection of themes shaping up

Chris is a generous and very helpful tutor, and she has been kind enough to put a very complimentary post about us on her blog, with some photos of work in progress:

I had a wonderful time with the lovely ladies!

 They did some absolutely stunning work...

 ...and I've blogged it this morning...

 ...copied to Facebook page as well.

Chris

Textile Butterfly - Lovely-Leamington

National Celebration of Stitch, 6th August

We celebrated National Stitch Day by holding a drop-in day for visitors at Charlecote Park while our Capability Brown exhibition was still on display in the Orangery.  We were delighted to welcome 87 visitors - young and not so young, male and female, stitchers and ‘non stitchers’ – who popped in long enough to add a stitch or two, or sat stitching for nearly an hour embroidering leaves, deer, flowers or the ‘Charlecote Bayeux’. 

When completed the Bayeux will be on permanent display at Charlecote. 

Throughout the exhibition, our JETS group’s panel depicting pike, which swam in the River Avon in Capability Brown’s day and also feature on the Lucy family coat of arms, has been on display in the summerhouse nearby.