July meeting

Going all Gaudi!

Antoni Gaudi, the Spanish architect and designer, is our 'Artist of the Year' (for the next two years!). 

Our July meeting started with an introductory presentation about Gaudi from Ursula, one of our newer members.  This was an interesting and well-illustrated talk taking in some of Gaudi's most famous sites, with insights into his life and design stimuli.  It was amazing how little documentary evidence exists for someone who was so innovatory in his creations.  Using Gaudi as inspiration, we are definitely going to have a colourful two years!

Before breaking for lunch, we had our AGM where Pam and Jean set a new speed record. Welcome to our new Secretary, Chris.

Ursula then led our afternoon workshop where we took inspiration from the natural forms she provided.  Using organza sandwiched in a laminator pouch, then cut into shapes, we added our own beads and threads.  Ursula 'encouraged' us to think for ourselves by not providing any samples that we could sneakily copy! 

We only  time to make a small start, but what an inspirational beginning to our Gaudi gala!

June meeting

Vintage hand embroidery and dyed threads with Anne Brooke

What better way to start the meteorological summer than with a session putting together fabric and threads with Anne Brooke, who, as always, was chatty, friendly, supportive and generous with her stash.

Anne brought lots of her completed pieces, as well as fabrics, haberdashery, print blocks and 'messy' resources.

We started the morning by learning how to colour threads in an easy, minimally-messy way using Koh-i-noor dye-based watercolours. After a quick demo from Anne, we were soon mixing colour (and tea, intentionally or otherwise!) in pre-prepared trays, taking inspiration from some of the fabrics Anne had brought with her. Such an easy technique, but with great results. Colouring may have been easy, ensuring the threads remained tangle-free when getting them ready for drying was a little more problematic for some of us!

After a quick lunch and another demo, we dived into Anne's stash, combining pieces with some of those that we'd brought from home.   

Towards the end of the session, Anne provided more hints on adding fastenings and lettering to our pieces.  We didn't quite reach that stage, but we all finished with pieces we were happy to continue working on at home.

Many thanks to Anne, who posts regularly on Instagram and YouTube - look for Anne Brooke Textile Artist and hannemade by anne. 

Printing with Leaves

One Saturday in May ..........................

some Megastitchers members and a few friends met up in Poynton for a day of botanical contact printing with Maggie Pearson. It was such an interesting, informative and productive session!

Maggie came well-prepared with fish kettles, pans, hotplates and pre-mordanted fabric.  She started the day by giving us a brief overview of what we would be doing and the opportunity to look at and handle some of her work. All accompanied by step-by-step printed instructions should we with to do more at home. It wasn't long before we we arranging leaves on fabric and paper. 

Here are photos of some of the outcomes.

Maggie was an excellent tutor and paced the session really well.  If you want to do more contact her on https://www.bymaggienaturally.co.uk.

Thank you, Maggie, and also Joy for organising such a great day.

May Meeting

Messing with Mixed Media

Joy is well-known for her love of anything that involves heat guns and paint so introduced members to a technique for creating leaves from Lutradur.  She had pre-prepared the Lutradur with a machine-stitched length of wire for a central vein, so after an introductory talk everyone was soon able to make a start on cutting out leaves then zapping them with a heat gun. A fine balancing act between too little zap and not enough! Then, it was on to the paint and summer, autumn or frosty leaves were soon drying. A very informative and productive couple of hours.  Thank you, Joy.

Those members not joining the workshop made some progress with their current stitching.

 In the afternoon, Pam made a brief presentation about the four short-listed candidates for our next Artist of the Year.  Will it be Gaudi, Kandinsky, Mackintosh or the Memphis Movement?  Can't wait to find out in June!

Making an exhibition of ourselves!

 Three of us had a 'grand day out' staffing the Megastitchers' stand at the Manchester Antique Textile Fair last Saturday.  We had a good display of the variety of work we do - group projects, individual pieces from our in-house workshops and from other outside sessions members had attended. There was a good level of interest in our activities (ie non-stop talking!) and in our displays of old threads.  We also sold some of our old magazines, so the car wasn't quite as full on the way home.

Congratulations to the seven Textile Society bursary candidates who were awarded £500 each.  There was some amazing work.

Thanks to Ro and Petra for all their help on the day. Here are some photos from before the show opened.

Things to do and see this month

If you're looking for a textile/stitch day out you may like:

'Beneath our Feet' - the Leah Higgins exhibition at Salford Art Gallery & Museum.  It's on until 5 May and is well worth a visit.  There's an excellent shop and a cafe.  See the 26 January post for more details.

The Hebden Bridge WI Rag Market on Saturday, 27 April from 10.30am to 4pm.  This bi-annual event is a mix of professional companies and people having a stash clearout.  Three venues in the town this year, the main one being the Town Hall and it's only £1 entry, with lots of places to eat and drink around the town.

https://hebdenbridgewi.com and also on the Hebden Bridge WI Rag Market Facebook page.

The Manchester Antique Textile Fair on Sunday, 28 April from 10am to 4pm at The Armitage Centre in Fallowfield, Manchester. Entry is £8 on the door or you can book in advance online through Eventbrite.

Megastitchers will be there in the Showcase Gallery upstairs. Come and say 'hello'!

As well as displays of work, we'll be selling vintage magazines, books and some kits to make small panels.  The magazines are 'Needlewoman & Needlecraft' (including the first two editions from early 1940) and 'Embroidery', the Embroiderers' Guild magazine, again including the first edition from 1932 and others from the 1930s to 1960s.  We'll also have a display of some of the vintage threads advertised in the magazines. 

https://www.textilesociety.org.uk

April meeting

Another busy day at Megastitchers with a workshop in the morning and a speaker after lunch.

Lynda started us off with a really well-prepared and enthusiastic session on using rubbing plates, transfer-dye crayons, paper and organza, with plates based on Clarice Cliff pottery shapes. Here are some of Lynda's samples, including some of her work from Bobbi Britnell's (Ben Nicholson-inspired) course made during lockdown.

A 2-hour workshop definitely isn't long enough to do justice to the technique, but everyone had a great time making a start with their exploration.

In the afternoon, we had a talk from Alison Wake, a Buxton-based artist and stitcher about 'Painting with Yarn'.  Alison is a member of SEW (The Society for Embroidered Work) and Peak District Artisans.   Her inspirations are her grandmother stitched pictures, Impressionist art and the local landscape, which she photographs/sketches from unusual viewpoints and close-ups.  The use of locally-sourced wool dyed in a variety of colours along the skein (they were lovely!) allows her to create great depth in her work.  

Alison was generous in talking us through her process, starting with a sketch or photo traced on to canvas through to the mounting and framing.

Acknowledging that such finely stitched work is time-consuming and, therefore, expensive, Alison has produced smaller work and limited edition Giclee prints. In addition, she also has a range of fine art greetings cards, three of which are pictured below.

You can see more of Alison's work at https://cognissark.co.uk and on Facebook, Instagram and YouTube.