December meeting

It was Robin Day! No, not the bowtie-wearing journalist and broadcaster but a day of making robins in various ways - decorations, Christmas tree ornaments and brooches. These are the examples made by Sue.

With lots of resources to choose from, members made a good start on their robins, before having a break for a very tasty 'Jacob's Feast' lunch and voting in our two competitions.

Then, it was back to some more stitching before the raffle was drawn and the competition winners were announced

Congratulations to Nicole (Kathleen Mason award for Stitching) and Christine H (Anne Mullins award for Design). Here's a section of Nicole's blackwork piece and the front cover of Chris's fabric book.

🎄🎄 🎅🎅 🎄🎄 🎅🎅🎅🎅 🎄🎄 🎅🎅 🎄🎄 

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to stitchers everywhere!

⛄⛄⛄⛄⛄

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.

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.

March workshop and talk

 In the morning we had a workshop led by Anne - another of her creative sessions combining mosaic and fabric and stitch, this time using Clarice Cliff as inspiration. As usual, Anne was well-prepared with lots of samples and colourful resources.

The session was only two hours long, so even with some preparatory thinking about design and concentrated effort, no-one completed their piece, but here are photos of all the works-in-progress.

Our afternoon speaker was mixed media artist Priscilla Edwards, whom many will know from her 'tea-time' pieces, one of which featured on the front cover of Stitch magazine for April/May 2012.  Priscilla took us on her textile journey from a BA at MMU in 1995 to the publication of her Search Press book Sculptural Textile Art  in 2022.

Priscilla's is an avid collector of ephemera, found materials and the 'lost and overlooked'. Her inspiration has ranged from the cotton industry, the war-time and post-war periods to pincushions from the Gawhorpe Hall collection. More recent work has been figurative with a (slightly scary!) dark, fairy-tale edge. As well as giving an inspiring talk, Priscilla also let us handle some of her work.

If you want to know more about Priscilla and her work, there's an excellent interview at https://www.textileartist.org . 

www.priscillaedwards.co.uk

More shadows!

At the March meeting, Linda brought in her pieces from the February workshop, together with some further developments she'd done.  Definitely an encouragement to look at how we can progress learning from from a simple session!

The top two are from the workshop and the lower two are from transfer printed rubbings and different organzas.

Another shadow

 Here's another photo of a (nearly) completed piece from the February shadow applique workshop. In this instance, Russell has shown that you don't have to use only running or back stitch to outline the shapes - he's included beads, as well as whipped and laced running stitch. Couching would also be good for a well-defined outline.

February workshop - In Clarice's Shadow

2C + 2H = U ≠ 2C !

Not a real mathematical equation....... but it simply means that if you use Clarice Cliffe's work (2C) as inspiration and add in your hand and your head (2H) you end up with your own design (U) and not a copy of Clarice Cliff.

As the theme for the day was Shadow Applique we started the session with a small exercise using triangles of fabric, scraps of organza and threads to explore the interaction between different colours and stitches (running or backstitch).

After an hour or so of fabric, we then moved on to using some shape templates taken from Clarice Cliff's work to create our own designs. Using paper and card, we flipped, repeated, enlarged and distorted and cut.

We relaxed over lunch and returned to then look at transferring our designs into fabric and stitch.

Lots of brilliant, bold colour from a really hard-working and fun group.

Covered in colour!

 All prepared for the workshop on Saturday.

Something to see in Salford

Salford Art Gallery and Museum

Peel Park, The Crescent, Salford, M5 4WU

Tuesday - Friday 9.30am to 4.00pm

Saturday & Sunday  11.30am to 4.00pm

Beneath Our Feet  (until Sunday, 5 May 2024)

An exhibition by the wonderful, local textile artist, Leah Higgins, inspired by local mills and collieries, and pottery from the Pilkington Tile and Pottery Company.

The museum has an excellent cafe with lunches, coffee and cakes.....

     and who can resist a visit to Lark Hill Place, literally a trip down Memory Lane!

www.salfordmuseum.com

Zooming into January!

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.