Angie Hughes inspired us ...

In her talk last week Angie provided some practical suggestions for getting started at times when we may not feel motivated to stitch or when we need help to find a starting point. She also gave us a short demo of making simple print blocks using Funky Foam, and then block printing repeat designs.

Members found Angie's talk really inspiring, and enthusiastically took up the block printing challenge.  Here are some of the lovely, colourful results.

Judi didn't make her own stamps for the Saturday working session, but later found some Funky Foam and had a play.

"I really enjoyed the process and have completed two zipped purses/pouches. On both, I have used some free machine techniques and also appliqué and cord on the second one."

At Saturday afternoon's show-and-tell, Janet showed the piece she had printed in the morning, featuring a stamp she had made.  She decided subsequently that she didn't like the white cotton background, and so added colour after stitching it.

She has also added couched metallic thread around each square and sequins on the lower edges of the shells, lined it with a piece of blue and white batik cotton, and made it into a Kindle cover.

Sue C said she loved this workshop. "I have only done a sample at the moment, four stamps are machine stitched and four hand stitched, but I am really pleased with it."

Carol had never attempted using acrylics, fabric and blocks made from Funky Foam, and enjoyed just playing with the idea to get the feel of things. "Now I have experienced this, perhaps I will use the technique in a future stitchery project."

Sue B kept her design simple with a strict colour palette, and added some stitching to her blocks.

Gill's photo shows the pink piece on the left ready to go into her lockdown book.

She says, "I split my time during the morning: one hour making stamps, 1 1/2 hours printing, one hour sewing.  It was a thoroughly enjoyable week-end shared with everyone."

Caroline's trial prints:

Her fabric prints show the striking effect of a change in colour scheme.  As shown here, they are work in progress; one is machine stitched, the other hand stitched.

Shay made her prints into cards:

Still with cards, Shay has shared photos of some she made following our February "Take a Photograph" session, and which are also printed. They were made by pressing stamps into the little blue foam blocks (we've used these previously with Angie) to get negative prints, and stitched.

It's wonderful to be able to see so many members' fabulous pieces.  If you have further images to share, do send them in: leamingtonblog@gmail.com

Members are still busy stitching ...

Some lovely pieces to share and enjoy this week, showing some of the fabulous talent we have in the group ...

The first piece is Mary's "thank you", which she stitched following Zara's recent short workshop:

and this is her interpretation of the Corona virus ... 

Mary is sending both of these pieces to be included in a “Quilt of Hope”, which the Churches Together in Leamington are organising. 

Julia's piece came about as a result of our 'Take a Photograph' workshop. Her starting image is of reflections in the glass buildings surrounding the new New Street Station when it was still a building site.  The photo was posterized and cropped on Photoshop, and then Julia used a Geli plate to print onto black fabric with acrylic paints using a commercial stencil. 

She says, "It was a bit of a learning curve as I hadn't used one to monoprint before.  I found I could get a second ghost print, and negative and positive images.  I then played around with the shapes and used blue and yellow dupion silk to represent the colours in the image.  The crane was a sample of macrame using silk thread.  Once I was happy with the layout it was stitched with hand and machine stitch."

Susanna created her design using 'pages' (the Mac version of word). 

"I took a quotation and altered the font size and style until I was happy with how it looked. (I have quite a few of these that I use for stitch meditations) 

"I created the hexagons from a drop down shape tool and used plain colour fills to create a design similar to a hexagon piece of patchwork. I copied a few stray hexies and moved them around until it was pleasing to me.  Then I added a plain border round the work - it measures just less than A4. 

  

      "Once the design was created I printed it onto plain cotton by using a large A4 label. I stuck the fabric to the sticky side of the label and put it through the printer - so that the design was transferred.  I then embroidered and quilted the design using batting.

 

"I inserted a dowel along the top of the piece to keep the quilt flat and stitched some ribbon to hang it from."