Jean set up the group eighteen years ago (then called Young Embroiderers) and along with helpers, planned and organised the monthly Saturday morning workshops. Starting with just half a dozen children, over the years there have been as many as twenty members, and Jean has inspired many children to stitch.
The JETS presented Jean with a book of appliquéd and embroidered flowers that they had created and sewn into a fabric book. Jean was thrilled and will treasure her beautiful gift. She said she had greatly enjoyed teaching and encouraging the youngsters to sew, and also thanked everyone who has helped her over the years.
The branch presented Jean, who has been a member of Leamington & District for 25 years, with a book token and a "Jean" rose in recognition of all her hard work, dedication and enthusiasm as JETS leader. Branch Chair, Anne Prior, thanked Jean on behalf of the branch, saying how much the students had enjoyed her workshops, and that a number of students had gone on to pursue a career in textiles.
Currently, the JETS meet at St Mary's Church Centre once a month and the group continues to thrive. The children (aged 8 - 17) learn to stitch by hand and machine, dye, print and appliqué besides trying lots of other techniques, and many of their pieces have won awards.
(If you are interested in finding out more, please contact Janet Rose: jananjohnrose@talktalk.net / 01926 430120.)
Here's a look at the pages created by the girls for Jean's textile book:
Back to Members' Day (and perhaps we will be seeing a bit more of Jean in our workshops now ...), where we had a lovely day stitching, needle felting, chatting, enjoying a bring-and-share feast of good food, and swapping textile bits and pieces on the bring-and-buy stall.
Gill and Lucy had set up an inspiring display of winter-themed pictures and items for our 'Seasons' book project, and gave us a couple of very useful demo's on using threads trapped between soluble fabric sheets and how to use the Sizzix die-cutting machine to create fabric leaves and flowers, and to emboss fabric for texture.
Members had also brought in recent work, including some of the beautiful books started at last year's summer school with Chris Grey:
Details of February's talk by local textile artist, Maria Thomas, will follow soon.
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