November meeting

An inspiring full day workshop using die cutting machines was led by Jane Hadfield. 

No, we didn't use the machines to cut out card or fabric shapes, we used them to make collagraph style prints using scraps of lace and braids and carbon paper. Who thought that carbon paper would make a comeback, and that it was available in such a variety of colours.

Jane was, of course, very well-prepared, presenting us with carbon paper, some card with which to create our print plate, a card envelope for passing through the machine. and a variety of ready-cut papers.

Here are some of the resources that Jane brought for use in making the print plates.

This was definitely a process in which experimentation was the key and could be a bit hit-and-miss trying to get the right combination of carbon paper (it can vary so much!) and correct pressure on the print plate. But... we all achieved something that we felt we could build on, and, in the afternoon, some of us moved onto using several different colours, overprinting, and even printing on fabric.

Here are some photos from the morning, unfortunately, it was a very dull day and lighting in our meeting venue was appalling, so nothing from the afternoon.

Thank you, Jane, for a great day.  Christmas cards are calling, and the multicolour pack of carbon paper arrived yesterday........

Exhibitions: Out and About from Manchester

62 Group - Making as Learning

At: Salts Mill (Roofspace), Victoria Rd, Saltaire, Shipley, BD18 3HU

Open: Now until 3 November 2024, Wednesday to Sunday, 11.00 am to 4.00 pm

Free entry, exhibitions, shops, places to eat.

It's 62 years since the formation of the 62 Group, this is a huge exhibition with many site-specific and large pieces.

https://www.62group.org.uk/

https://www.saltsmill.org.uk/

Threadmill - Remember, Re-act, Retell

At: Farfield Mill, Garsdale Rd, Sedburgh, LA10 5LW

Open: Now until 22 December 2024, Wednesday to Sunday, 10.30 am to 4.00 pm

Free entry, exhibitions, studios, shops and tea room.

An exhibition celebrating the heritage of the woollen industry or Cumbria and the Yorkshire Dale.

https://threadmill.org.uk/

October Meeting

Going Crazy over Patchwork

Our morning started with an introduction to crazy patchwork from Jean, with some examples (some more organised than crazy!) provided by Joy and Lynda.

Members were soon hard at work putting together their own pieces using an incredible range of fabrics. Not enough time to finish is a two-hour morning session, but a good start. Thanks, Jean, hope you're going to monitor progress at future meetings!

Velvets, silks, prints, faux leather (!), a Hardangar sample..........anything goes when you're going crazy!

Our afternoon speaker was Gale Owen Crocker, Professor Emerita of the University of Manchester, formerly Professor of Anglo-Saxon Culture and Director of the Manchester Centre for Anglo-Saxon Studies. Gale has written and contributed to many books and research papers on the period. She specialised in interdisciplinary research and this was evident from her talk.

In a well-illustrated talk, Gale told us about gold embroidery, in what is now referred to as the Early Medieval period, starting with the re-discovery of the Maaseik embroideries in Belgium through to the 'St Cuthbert' maniple and stole in Durham, with interesting diversions into tablet-weaving, stitches and gold thread manufacture.

Although there's no gold, Gale couldn't resist also mentioning the Bayeux Tapestry, on which we'd previously had (a much less researched!) talk and from which we'd stitched some small samples. 

Thank you, Gale, for a great talk.

If you want to go down memory lane to Bayeux, look at Ro's stitched book cover in the March 2023 meeting post and the October meeting post, where there's also some modern interpretations of Bayeux stitch.

North West Textile Open Day 2024

This was a great opportunity to catch up with other North West textile groups, display samples from our workshops over the last couple of years and sell some surplus books, magazines, fabrics, threads and beads.

Many thanks to members Anne, Clare and Jayne for their help and to Sue S-C for organising.

 

September meeting

We were off to a flying start ........

making butterflies for the Butterfly Effect, a charity project organised by Helen Birmingham at Untangled Threads, where Megastitchers has a group membership. For more information about the project and Helen's other work, see

https://www.untangledthreads.co.uk

The butterflies are easy to make and just large enough not to be too fiddley.

Our afternoon speaker was Christine Stanford with a talk entitled A Stitch Back in Time. Christine's presentation, unfortunately, was hampered by IT problems, but we gained an insight into the development of her practice starting with a visit to Platt Hall Museum of Costume as part of her Textile & Embroidery BA degree at MMU.  Since then, social history has formed a significant part of Christine's inspiration, whether it be that of the elegant costume wearers or of millworkers.

Christine was one of the founder members of Decorum Artists who have exhibited at a wide variety of venues across the country.

At the end of the talk, we were treated to a demonstration of Christine's signature textile technique of trapping papers and fabrics between layers of paper, which are then waxed and stitched.  A sneak preview of the workshop that Christine will be providing for us next May.

For more information about Christine's work and that of Decorum Artists, see the links below.

https://christinestanford.uk

https://www.facebook.com/search/top?q=decorum%20artists

North West Textile Open Day 2024

Megastitchers will be taking part in the 2024 North West Textile Open Day in Barton, Lancashire on Saturday, 21 September.

Ten stands run by various groups - mainly former Embroiderers' Guild branches - showcasing workshop pieces, with sales of fabric/thread inspiration packs, project packs, cards, books and magazines. Demonstrations and a raffle. For more details look for the poster under 'Exhibitions' to the right of this post.

 

Happy New Stitching Year

Tomorrow, 1 September, is the start of our new stitching year. To get things off to a good start, there's a preview of what we'll be doing until July 2025 under the 'Programme' heading to the right of this post.