Illuminated Letters by Anne Griffiths - 6 / 7 November

 Illuminated Letters

by Anne Griffiths 

Talk on Friday 6 November, 7 pm  &

Workshop on Saturday 7 November, 2 pm via Zoom*

Our tutor, Anne Griffiths, is an experienced textile artist, who has worked on a number of community projects and residencies.  She was Artist in Residence for Diamond Light Source, funded by the Wellcome Trust, and presented the project and a gift for HM The Queen on the opening of the installation.

Anne's Fine Art practice revolves around collections and taxonomy, and she hopes to extend her practice to include her love of both history and textiles.

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Friday 6 November - members should log into Zoom, as usual, from 6.45 pm. 

Anne will give a 25-minute talk using a Powerpoint presentation of a seasonal book she has made using illuminated letters, text and seasonal embellishments and images.

Following this, Anne will give a 15-minute demonstration of how to prepare a tomato puree tube and transfer and stitch a letter onto it. She will also demonstrate how to copy a design onto fabric. Both can be stitched either by hand or machine, and embellished with beads, stumpwork, contemporary or modern embroidery. The metal letter would be suitable for attaching to a greetings card for Christmas. 

Anne will set a small activity to be done on our own on Saturday morning, and the Friday session will finish about 8.15 - 8.30 pm.

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Saturday 7 November - log into Zoom from 1.45pm.

Anne will be present for a show-and-tell session and to answer questions.

* Members have received materials list and login details via email, but if you need these again, please contact leamingtondistrictdaysch@gmail.com

Support our local suppliers

Many members know Karen Delahunty's sewing machine shop on Warwick Road in Kenilworth, which also has a tempting array of fabrics and yarns.

Karen is in the process of extending the shop floor area and has just installed a brand new Mettler thread stand, which offers an exciting range of types and colours of thread. These include mercerised cotton silk in plain and multi colours, polysheen in plain and multi colours, and metallics.

It's well worth a browse.

A focus on decorative stitch and functional objects

Liz suggests that "We follow in a time-honoured tradition when we stitch to decorate functional objects" and she and Wendy spent some time collecting photos of some of the wonderful items members have been creating that are useful as well as decorative. This is no doubt only the tip of the iceberg, and our very productive members could showcase many more.

Cushions are a perfect item to demonstrate the art of stitch. Here’s a glorious example from Mary covered in a grid of different, carefully executed stitches.

Margherita's dramatic wool fabric cushion was made on one of Zara Day’s courses.

Another Zara project was this stool by Wendy.  Woollen fabric was used for the top and then it was hand embroidered.   She says the sewing of the stool was far more successful than the wooden base, as it has a very wonky leg!

These are Lucy’s amazing pieces transforming her television and hi-fi cupboard! They are a beautiful dimensional piece on a felt background with appliqué, reverse appliqué and both raised and seed beading.  

Here's a close-up, so you can really see the intricate work:

Having a crop of lavender flowers each year has encouraged Liz to make lavender bags. These are on linen in stranded cotton using Scandinavian inspired grid patterns.

These beautiful Dorset button samples are Gaye's work.  The tradition dates from the time when buttons were not plastic or mass produced, and you can see below a traditional white one worked large scale in its simplest form with a single length of thread and a ring. 

To create a traditional Dorset button like this: wrap the thread around the ring to cover it, several wheel spokes are then wrapped across the diameter of the ring and secured in the centre; the same thread is used to weave under and over the spokes to make a spider’s web design.  Using different types of thread, colours, changing weave direction and adding beads all demonstrate how this simple traditional technique can be brought up to date – the variations are endless, especially if you experiment with size and thickness of the rings or washers.

The fabric for this piece was begun in the Zoom mini-workshop with Jayne Emerson. Liz made it into a pen roll, seen here rolled up and ready to go.

The elastic was attached to the lining and to a piece of cotton wadding; the tapes were held in the side seam and the pieces assembled, bagged out and the turning space slip stitched. 

A cover for a sketchbook was made with a second piece. So she just needs to get sketching now! 

Bags of all sorts are always handy, from shoppers to pouches for small items. Here are some that members have been making. 

These two are from kits by Anglo Japan that had been waiting patiently in the cupboard for a rainy day. Covid-19 lockdown provided the incentive for Liz to get them put together! They were really fun little projects and are a useful size for slipping other projects inside! 

Gaye made this lovely hand felted bag, finishing it with another type of handmade button called a Singleton. These were a kind of Dorset button named after the Singleton family who first made them in the 1660s. This has a metal ring covered with black felt which has been embroidered in colours to match detail in the felt bag.

Here is a collaborative project! Gill made the top from frayed silk squares and the bottom section was knitted by her Mum. It’s lined with red velvet and is a favourite. 

Dorothy's two pouches are made of sari silk strips woven together and then machine stitched. Even the dullest sari silks can be brightened up into something very colourful, and Dorothy likes to  use something special for the lining to give the opener a surprise. They can equally be made into bags and tablet/computer covers and given as gifts.

This wallet and matching sewing storage bag have a crazy patchwork outer. Gill said they were very enjoyable to make and she liked them so much she hasn’t used them!

Gill also stores her embellisher foot pedal and spare needles in this delightful sunny storage bag, which has zipped side pockets.  

Thanks are due to Zara Day for a number of functional items that have been made on her workshops, and here is Wendy's lovely spring-inspired lampshade using fabric embellished with embroidered designs.

This lampshade in subtle tones of grey was made by Gill at the beginning of lockdown. The fabric was woven on a Saori loom. She says it was a nightmare to stop the edges fraying even though it was stitched to a lightweight background on the sewing machine and it ended up being salvaged by a tube of super glue! But it was well worth the effort, Gill! 

Dorothy based this beautiful sewing kit on an idea from a magazine, but the stitching design is her own.  It neatly holds all the basic sewing requirements,

while a summer school by textile artist, Jayne Emerson inspired Margherita’s colourful needle case.

Wendy has created items that are not only useful, but mindful of resources by using vintage embroidered tablecloths and pillow cases for these padded coat hangers.  It can be difficult to cut into old items that have sentimental value, so it's best to choose some well-worn fabrics with tea stains or small holes! The small pouch was also repurposed from a table cloth.

Gill's hats are about to have their moment as the weather gets cooler. Gill made them by felting merino wool and they cost less than £5 to make, although they look top drawer! The deep pink one was made on a workshop with Maria Dent and the green one has some silk fabric detail and was made quite soon after to consolidate the new technique. 

Susan’s Kindle cover is another example of putting a piece of textile embroidery to a practical and unique purpose.

A footstool with a chequered history! Liz bought the kit at Charlecote Park many years ago when she was new to tapestry and badly distorted the piece by not working it in a frame. It was relegated to the back of a cupboard, together with the wooden proforma bought at roughly the same time. Added to the list of UFOs to be completed during lockdown, it was stretched; found to be too small for the stool top; new wool was purchased over the internet, hoping the colours were right! Then Liz chickened out of assembling it and took it to an upholsterer – and is so pleased with the result, woe betide anyone who puts their feet on it!

As was said at the start, once we start looking around our homes, we are likely to find numerous items that fall into the category of functional objects that have been decoratively stitched. 

We may also have items made before our times by family members or by friends that fall into this category. There is an abundance of hand-stitched table linen, of course - something not many of us stitch ourselves these days - sitting in drawers or cupboards, and it really seems a shame to keep all this treasure hidden away. Just a thought ...

A building and a book cover ...

... no, there's no connection between them.  They are simply two fabulous pieces completed by members.

Firstly, here is Jenny's finished piece from the recent Sense of Place workshop:

Jenny said she thought she had been a bit heavy handed with the paint, but the background beautifully sets off the stitched building.

Shay received a surprise phone call from a lady who had bought a piece of Shay's work at the last Textileplus Open Studios. The lady is an artist and her request was for Shay to make a book cover for a friend - also a textile artist.  So, no pressure there!

The cover was made from some pieces Shay had: some were tea dyed or painted with acrylic, and a piece from an old hanky.   Shay says, "I'm glad to say she was delighted with it." Hear, hear!

A Sense of Place: Talk and Challenge

Haf Weighton joined us by Zoom last Friday, when she gave us a whistle-stop overview of her career as a textile artist and teacher. Haf described her inspiring activities with the school children she has taught, and her favourite pieces of work, which were based on numerous and varied buildings.  

At the end of her talk she set us a small challenge, to be completed the following morning, prior to a show-and-tell session - again via Zoom - in the afternoon.

The challenge was to prepare a fabric background by dragging paint across the surface and then, using the photograph of a building, to trace its outline onto the prepared fabric. The piece would be stitched either by hand or machine, focusing on the main elements of the building. Further details could be added if there was time, or at a later stage.

Almost everyone who had listened to Haf's talk took up the challenge, with some very interesting results.  Here are a few we have received so far, and we are hoping that other members will share their stitched buildings with us.

Gill's piece is of Coombe Abbey, Coventry, which has special memories for her:

Lots more fabulous buildings (including works in progress) ...

Carol:

Cheryl:

Caroline:

Wendy:

Sue: