Christmas meeting

 

A wonderful lunch was shared by members - a delicious range of foods .... and we also watched a fascinating DVD about the Fishguard Tapestry.. read more here

 

In between we also stitched, chatted and had fun with the secret Santa raffle. We look forward to 2014 and our 3rd exhibition at Lydiard House and Park, which starts in April 2014.

Mini patchwork

 

We had a great session with Marie leading us -----investigating a novel method of making mini patchworks. Marie asked for permission from Paula Doyle to show us this way of working... have a look at her website here

Kate Dowty workshop

Our workshop with Kate Dowty -- called --- Scrappy quilts

 

 

We had a wonderful time with Kate  who is a very supportive teacher, and we all worked very hard without realising it. The results of the day were most impressive. We were all left with a little work to do... but with clear guidelines from Kate about how to finish our individual pieces.

 

 

Kate clearly demonstrated what we had to do - every step of the way. Which was much appreciated.

Kate's examples were a wonderful inspiration and we all thoroughly enjoyed our day.

 

Maggie Grey visits GWE

     

 

 At the September meeting in Cricklade we were very pleased to have Maggie Grey ( with her presidential West Country Embroiderers hat on) visiting us.

 

(Maggie H's demonstration)

With the help of Margaret R,  we both demonstrated how to do mono - printing on fabric to the group. It was lots of fun.

 

 As you can see... everyone managed to print out at least 2 pieces of fabric.. ready to be stitched.

 

We also bought along our finished tapestry weaving from the July meeting with Sarah Beadsmore, and it was good to see the pieces finished.

 

Much too soon it was time for Maggie Grey and Clive to leave, and we did enjoy seeing them and the opportunity to have a chat. Hope to see you both again soon.

Tapestry weaving with Sarah Beadsmore

 

 

 

Sarah Beadsmore was very generous with loaning us tapestry frames and all materials to get started with our workshop on Tapestry Weaving. 

 

It took a great deal of concentration to get started, but Sarah was incredibly patient with us. Unusually the room became very quiet at times !

 

We had a wonderful time and agreed it was one of our best days yet. We look forward to seeing the finished tapestry weaving in our September meeting.

 

Meanwhile Maggie Harris ( founder member of GWE) has a joint exhibition at Bampton Library running the whole of July. Maggie is stewarding on a number of days.. so check with her for a catch up.

 

 

Maggie is also taking part in the Swindon Open studios in the first 2 weekends of September, and had a reference to her studio in the local paper Swindon Advertiser. You can find the article ...here.



Creative textile Day ---- June

We were delighted to welcome Harry Fleetwood to our Creative Textile day for an informal chat and question session. Harry worked at Lydiard House from 1953 to 1960 for the then Swindon Corporation. Harry is a carpenter and joiner and had the task of working to help restore  Lydiard House. It was fascinating to hear his recollections of the house when Swindon Corporation first bought the property for just over £4,000.

The roof had to be repaired first and then, they started work on the windows, which happen to be the original sash windows from the time when the house was originally built. The ceiling in the library had to be rebuilt from the bedroom floor above.. and Italian craftsmen were employed to repair and remake much of the mouldings to the state rooms downstairs. the stairs had to be extensively refurnished. There was no electric and the lighting was oil lamps. There was no heating either. ..... and then there was the ghost!!!!!

 

Lots of sketchbook work underway in preparation for our next exhibition.

Stitch Day

 

 

It was wonderful to catch up with everyone today, and chat about items bought at the NEC show in Birmingham and the great exhibitions seen there. To chat about the on line sketchbook workshop that some members have joined for the April session with Dionne Swift. ..... and generally to stitch, sew and be messy. As it was the Easter holidays, we also had a few younger artists join us.... in fact the 6 year old had such a wonderful time, she asked if she could come again next time. ;o).... Ideas and designs are starting to emerge for the next exhibitions we have set up.

Stumpwork -

 

To celebrate our recent very successful exhibition at Malmesbury, we settled down to a meeting of stitching and learning some new techniques of stump work.. many thanks to Maureen for sharing her expertise with us. We had great fun! Will stump work be a feature within our next exhibition? ...............maybe!

 

Thanks also go to Margaret G for the most wonderful lemon drizzle cake.... made the meeting into a true celebration. Work which did not sell at the Exhibition was collected by members and lots of discussion took place about details of our next exhibition  Spring 2014. Watch this space! We also warmly welcome 3 visitors today, and are pleased to announce, they have joined us. A big welcome and we hope you enjoy stitching with us.