Our first 'meeting' of the year - and weren't we glad to be sitting in the warmth and comfort of our own homes without having to venture out into the South Manchester fog!
We started with an interesting talk from Helen Birmingham of The Stitchbook Collective/Untanged Threads. Helen's Sawdust Hearts project, based on WWI sawdust hearts, in 2018 involved an enormous number of participants with 1,568 hearts being completed and money donated to the charity, Combat Stress.
Helen stressed the importance of using stitch as a meditative practice; it's OK not to have an end in mind but to enjoy the calming effect of putting needle and thread to fabric. Just as important is the support that comes through working on projects with like-minded people and being kind to each other.
Through her HMB Stitchbooks project, Helen has developed a way of binding calico pockets into books. The pockets can be decorated with stitch but will also store small samples. As an added bonus the pockets are ethically produced in Pondicherry, India. There is a membership fee to join The Stitchbook Collective, with a members' magazine being published each month and the ability to purchase kits for the books.
Thank you, Helen, for a thought-provoking and inspiring talk.
www.untangledthreads.co.uk
www.thestitchbookcollective.com
After Helen's talk, Jean started us off on the felt, folded sewing case for which instructions had been sent out before Christmas. It was also possible to use fabric other than felt. An opportunity for some simple, mindful stitching to start off the New Year .......unless you chose to focus too much on the past of not being able to stitch in parallel lines and insufficiently in the moment of making the next stitch correctly!
Photos are of Jean's non-felt sample and Sue's back and front. More to come in a future post. Looking forward to the inside pages at a future meeting, Jean.
