Change to the talk this Friday, 3rd July

Unfortunately, Kathleen Laurel Sage cannot be with us this week-end as planned, owing to an accident.  Kathleen has injured her knee, and we send her our best wishes for a good recovery.

We are indebted to Leamington member, Ann Rogers, for stepping in at this short notice to give us the second part of her very popular talk on the bags she has made for some of the female characters in Shakespeare's plays.

Part Two: Shakespeare's Women with Attitude  

deals with heroines who are 'naughty' to downright evil, as well as the characters who are victims. Ann gave us the first part of this enchanting talk, Bags for Shakespeare's Heroines, in November last year, when we got the chance to see some of the bags close to, and we've been eagerly awaiting the sequel.

Ann has not attempted to make her bags historically accurate in style, but has used her imagination to  illustrate the heroines' characters through the bags.

We're looking forward to an extremely entertaining evening, and welcome visitors and friends who would like to join us.    The talk starts at 7 pm on Friday 3rd July at St Mary's Hall, St Mary's Road, Leamington Spa CV31 1JW (Visitors: £5 on the door).

"Extrav-Organza", Talk by Kathleen Laurel Sage

Kathleen Laurel Sage is a freelance textile artist, designer and enthusiastic embroiderer. Her inspirations are captured from carvings and ornate plaster work depicting patterns from nature and from the natural environment around her. Kathleen's fascination for working with organza fabrics has produced work ranging from conventional items through relief to exciting three-dimensional embroidered structures, such as floral vases, fashion accessories and unique jewellery.

In this friendly and relaxed talk, Kathleen outlines her transition from hand-worked embroidery in the form of stump work to machine-embroidered organza. She explains how she works and combines these techniques into dimensional and structural artworks.

Visitors are very welcome to come along to this talk on Friday 3rd July, which starts at 7.00 pm. We meet at St Mary's Church Hall, St Mary's Road, Leamington Spa - there is a map on our How to find us page.  Visitor charge: £5.00

There are also a couple of places available on the follow-up workshop on Saturday 4th July, in which we will make either small bead-like elements to form unique jewellery, or work a panel on a larger scale. If you are interested in this, please contact Jenny:
jennyarcher401@gmail.com. 

Junior Embroiderers' wedding bunting

We are just sharing pictures of the lovely bunting made by two of our Junior Embroiderers, Evie (11) and her sister Milly (8), for their Aunty's autumn-themed wedding.  The bunting was much admired by the family and other guests.

Friday 5th June, "A View through the Window" - Talk by Susan O'Grady

Susan says that the images she creates begin with the wildlife around her home and garden.  

"I develop my observational drawings as freely as possible into fabric paintings in a range of sizes.  These initial paintings are then embellished with fabric collage, machine stitching and additional paintwork."

Recent Recycled Books Workshop

We had a great time sticking, stitching, tearing paper and assembling our books - a bit like being at play school again.  As well as the benefit of her experience, Christine fortunately provided us with a kit of materials, or we might have been spent an awful lot longer at play!

Christine Plummer showing us how to line up our book signatures for stitching

A small sample of the results from the workshop can be seen below.  What a great feeling to be able to produced a completed article during the workshop and not have to finish off at home.  The books are a great opportunity to use up those stashes of hoarded and recycled papers, and there's plenty of opportunity for customisation.

The previous evening's mini workshop to make gift tags had got us warmed up to the task, and there's now no excuse for not bringing all those lovely bits and pieces out of the closet.

Junior Embroiderers' Ruby Banner

Our young members produced a banner to celebrate the 40^th Anniversary of Young Embroiders in 2014 which has since been exhibited at various Embroiderers' Guild events.

Each member began with a 9” square of calico which was tied, folded or scrunched and dyed red.  The resulting piece of fabric was embellished with hand or machine stitching and finished with beads, sequins, etc. The resulting pieces were then assembled and stitched onto a background and finished with hand-made cords, paper beads and appliqued flowers. The final result shows a wide range of skills which our young members are developing.

If you were at last year's West Midlands Regional Day, you may remember that Michael Brennand-Wood had some very positive comments to make about the banner.

It is still ‘travelling’ but it will be back in Leamington to display at Regional Day on 20th June.

Christine Plummer workshops in May

Mixed media artist Christine Plummer will be here in Leamington to lead not one, but two workshops.

On Friday 8th May there will be a mini workshop
to make personalised gift cards and tags for those special presents.  This promises to be a fun evening, and quite a change from our usual talks.

If you would like to attend this workshop, please contact Janet: j.seaton@open.ac.uk, since we will be meeting in the upstairs room at St Mary's Hall on this occasion, and want to ensure we make room for everyone.  

Times are 7 - 9 pm.  Member's fee: £4, Visitor's fee: £5.

Requirements list

• Thread, needle & pins, scissors
• Kitchen knife for cutting paper (pre-coloured paper supplied by Christine)
• Luggage tags - any size (Christine will have a variety for sale)
• Buttons or found objects small enough to fit on your tags.
• Christine will also bring her sewing machines, so you don't need to bring yours!

This links well with the
Saturday workshop on 9th May, 'Recycled Books'
                     - the requirements list for this has been sent to attendees separately.

Christine is a member of Lincoln Bailgate branch of Embroiderers' Guild and runs their Junior Embroiderers' group.  She also belongs to Jeudis, an exhibiting group who are often to be seen at the NEC and other venues.

Working primarily with papers, fabric and thread, Christine dyes, paints and prints them to give a cohesive colour palette.  They are then assembled into patterns and abstract designs which form the basis of pieces of work based on or around a theme.  She has a special interest in books and collecting items to go in them, so quite often her work reflects this.  The covers are embellished with buttons, beads, overprinting and stitching to create unique personal journals and notebooks.

April - Guild AGM at Birmingham Library

There will be no branch meeting this month.  It was due to be a Members' Day on 11th April, but in view of the date clash with the Embroiderers' Guild AGM* at Birmingham Library, it was decided it would be better for everyone to have the chance to attend the AGM, especially as it's almost on our doorstep this year.

We do hope as many members as possible will take the opportunity to go and hear firsthand the changes that are being proposed to the Guild structure.  Remember, though, that entry is by ticket only, so you need to book up beforehand - there's still just time.

Hope to see you there!

*Note: the national AGM is quite separate from the Branch AGM, which will be held in September.

"Homage to Van Eyck" wins Julia Caprara Award

For the second year running Leamington member, Sue Cooke, has won the Julia Caprara Award for Use of Colour in the Guild Members' Challenge 'All that Glistens'.

Homage to Van Eyck, Sue Cooke

You may have seen "Homage to Van Eyck" if you went to the Fashion, Embroidery, Stitch Show at the NEC recently, where it was on display on the Guild stand.

Sue says, "I used the pomegranate motif because this is popular in Renaissance painting.  I'm also fascinated by the way these artists reproduced gold just using layers of paint, so this seemed to tie in with the competition title.

"The background paper was stitched in white before painting and then some transfoil added. The applied motif was machine stitched onto vanishing muslin, burnt to achieve the distressed look of Renaissance fabric before wrapped cords were added."

Congratulations (again), Sue!

Travelling Books

Leamington Branch has two avid Travelling Books groups, who swap books every month.
One of the groups has just finished their first year and is looking forward to starting again in May. Everyone is very pleased with their book, which now contains several mini works of art.

Although no themes were stipulated, some members decided to follow their own theme, such as countries, flora or day school inspiration.  Others created as the mood took them.

Here is a small sample of some mouthwatering pages: