Baltimore Quilt Raffle Draw

December 1st 2012.
Jean Graves drew the winning ticket in our 2012 Raffle for the Baltimore Quilt. It was successful beyond our wildest expectations and raised over £2,600 for the Bursary fund. 

 The winner Cindy Rochester of Market Harborough is delighted. She bought her ticket at the NEC Birmingham Festival of Quilts in August. Her prize is on its way to her.

 A great time was had by branch members on Saturday. We took part in Christmas workshops and enjoyed Liz Lumb's delicious "Partridge in a Pear Tree" cake.

A young visitor votes in the competition.

 Nicki Brown won the Christmas competition entitled "A Partridge in a Pear Tree"

Chairman Shirley Smith presents Nicki with her prize.

November Catch Up

Hi everyone, I thought I would say how brilliant Kaffe Fassett was last month - his lecture was interesting,witty and very entertaining.

He had loads of great slides of his very colourful work. It was all quite inspiring.

Brandon was really good at his job too.

I thought the whole day went really well,it was well organised and very well supported.

See you all at October meeting.

Pauline Twyman

Tracy Franklin Workshop - Saturday 13 October 2012

Tracy day will be held at Hart Rigg Oakes from 10 am to 4 pm. Contact dulcie on 01274 862 152 or dulcie@bdnleach.co.uk or you  can sign up at the next meeting on Saturday 7 October. See requirements for the day below.

Refreshments will be available during the day, please bring a mug/beaker and a packed lunch is advised.

Workshop Offer

There is a workshop Wednesday 18 July 2012 at The Design Suite. Josie Storey

will be tutoring this worshop "Working with Funtex" the time will

be 10am till 4pm including Tea & Coffee.

I have attached the leaflet for all the details.

Members are offered this as at a special price of £25.00

per person. The website details are www.designsuite.org.uk

Regards Angela Feather

News from a very wet and miserable York!!

I' m getting really fed with all this precipitation but the good news is that we had a successful Exhibition at the end of June - don't think we are going to break any records but we had a lot of lovely people come to see our work and talk with us.

Speaking of the work the standard, variety and breadth of the work was excellent - there was something for everyone so well done to you all and a huge thank you to all that helped in whatever way to make the Exhibition a success.

One of the real highlights for me and for many others was the work of our Young Embroiderers' who had chosen to use York's 800th centenary celebrations as inspiration and gave us a spectacular view of costumes throughout the ages - fantastic!!!

Another highlight for many of our visitors was our Competition "A Cushion fit for a Regal Bum!!!!!"   It was hard this year.  Moira who had organised this thread of the Exhibition sent me the answers on the Monday after the Exhibition and it is solely tardiness on my part which has made you wait so long for the answers but here we go:-

I will try to match the correct photo to the correct answer - apologies for some photo quality -I was using my phone.

 No 1      Sandra Atkin         King Solomon

No 2     Gina Smith        Snow Queen

No 3     Kath Potter      Queen of Sheba

No 4      Anne Bryszkiewski     Queen Anne

No 5       Carol Wilson       Eleanor of Castille

No 6    Shirley Smith    Queen Mab

No 7  Maureen Fawcett   Queen of the Night

   No 8   Christine Addley  

                                     Elizabeth, Queen Mother                                                                     

No 9    Colleen Nicoll  Anne Boleyn

 No 10  Ruth Edwards   Queen Victoria

No 11 Susie Bayley    Queen of Hearts

 No 12   Bertie Harte   Richard III

 No 13   Sheila Wade   Cleopatra

No 14 Viv Stamford   Mary Queen of Scots

No 15    Pauline Twyman   King Harold

No 16  Judith Johnson     Boudicca

No 17   Moira Wood   Nefertiti



 And there we have it - I won't publish the winners as that will spoil the surprise or they may alreadt know but I suspect results will be announced on Saturday.

I am sure that there will be more photos published here but that is all I have for now - am now going to lie down in a dark room having wrestled with uploading photos!!!!!
Please accept my apologies if I have got anything wrong it was and is unintentional.

What a busy month - preparations are well on the way for the exhibtion. Carefully wrapped packages of all shapes and sizes were arriving at the meeting last week. Watching them going into the cars was fascinating - it was just like being at IKEA as someone tries to put the double bed in the boot of a mini and wondering if it would fit. Which of course they did - each piece carefully handled as they were kept safe and dry under the umbrellas (yes it was raining again). The team will begin to display all work on Thursday.
The exhibition will open from 10.00am on Friday morning.  We are delighted that the Lord Mayor will officially open the exhibition. Having typed over 250 labels (well actually I had a helping hand) there were some very intriguing titles and I can't wait to see the finished products. There have been some very industrious people.

After all that excitment don't forget your entries for the July competition. The Chairman’s Award  for excellence in a pre-selected technique will be Crewel work.  Judging will be at the next meeting on Saturday 7th July 2012. Happy stitching.

June Catch Up

Good afternoon

At last I am reconnected to the website. I have been waiting for my 23 year old IT techie to complete his studies and take up membership of the new boomerang generation who return to live at home with parents.

Much has happened since my last posting.

Heather Gatt’s workshop was enjoyed by all and produced some really great creations.



Our set of Guinea postcards are now on their journey around the country as part of  “Stitching a Welcome to Athletes of the World”.

I went to view them at the Lawrence Batley Theatre in Huddersfield. Thanks to the hard work of colleagues they have been displayed on every level of the theatre’s public areas.

I understood it took over 7 hours to complete the task. It was a magnificent sight and a truly celebration of member’s talents and skills. 

Celebrate in stitch – The Triennial Exhibition

Thank you for all your completed forms. There are over 220 entries displaying the diverse work of the branch.

2012 Bursary Information

Details of the 2012/13 bursary can be found below.
You can highlight the application form and copy to your word processor to fill in an electronic form.

Hello everybody-just thought I would tell you about the workshop last weekend with Heather Gatt doing some batik dying.

The day went really well,we started just doing some doodles on a piece of framed up cotton. Using a variety of tools to make marks,then we painted on some dye and different colours.

Our next go was doing a design,I used the kitchen paper on the table as my inspiration-it had seed heads and leaves on.This time we painted the fabric first then drew on our design then dyed,then more waxed design and continued to build up the picture.

My third attempt was a design of leaves,in shades of purple.

I was really pleased with all three pieces.The only downside was I forgot my rubber gloves so had to go home with purple hands!!! But by monday morning they were back to normal.

See you all in June.Pauline. (treasurer)

A Celebration in Stich

A Celebration in Stitch

City of York Embroiderers’ Guild

Trienniel Exhibition

June 22^nd 23^rd 24^th

10am -4pm

York Guildhall

The Exhibition will include

Member’s Work

    Challenges

         ‘We don’t just Sew’

‘    'In the style of Kaffe Fassett’

 Competition

A Cushion fit for a King or Queen

Special Display

Postcards of York people and places

Sales Tables

The Yorkshire Ones in Antarctica Exhibition in Hull has been extended until the end of May

'The Yorkshire Ones in Antarctica'
 Art exhibition
 Hull Maritime Museum
 Community Display Area

 The display is inspired by Antarctica and timed to coincide with the centenary of Scott's failed attempt to be first to the South Pole.
On display are hats by Sue Bradshaw, embroideries by Viv Stamford, enamels by Avril Cheetham, silver jewellery by Jackie Warrington and felt by Sue Nicholson. There are also cyanotype prints by Cathy Corbishley Michel who will be speaking to the Guild about her work next year.
The exhibition is free and is open from Monday to Saturdays from 10 am to 5pm. and Sundays from 1.30 to 4.30pm. until the end of April 2012.

A bit of a delay!!!

Those amongst you with sharp eyes and a sense of timing will have noticed that there has been a bit of a time delay - I did write up the Blog on Sunday after the meeting but then I could not remember all the other ancillary information (fortunately for me Shirley has posted all the important stuff!!) and then I went on a few days break so have just got around to pressing the button to post the Blog - Sorry!!!
Chris

Two months running!!

Hello girls and all followers of our Blog.

My plan was to really shock and have the meeting info up and on the blog the same night as the meeting and all was going well until I booted up my computer only to find I had security problems I had to deal with and when I had sorted that out I really could not face all the typing as we had quite a busy meeting.

However owing to the postponement of the workshop today owing to inclement weather I find myself with the dog in front of the fire (looking at the snow) and thought I could usefully spend my time getting you all informed of what is going on.

First the talk - one of our members Cluny Chapman spoke to us about how she takes much of her inspiration from Archaeology and then how she translates those images into embroidery.
She began by giving us a brief resume of her credentials both in the world of  archaeology and the world of embroidery and then was straight into the body of the talk which was well illustrated  and supported  by a PowerPoint presentation. This talk really impressed the teacher in me as it was well structured and followed a time line throughout from 30,000 years ago to Medieval times and on that journey we visited a wide variety of venues and artifacts: we learned about various archaeological techniques both above and below ground: and most importantly we saw how many embroidery techniques could be used to interpret the source  material.
Cluny brought with her many examples of her work which was all of an excellent standard and covered a wide variety of techniques including goldwork, feltmaking, whitework, lacemaking, mixed media, canvaswork and machine embroidery.
I have to hold my hands up at this point and tell you that I have been good friends with Cluny for many years but even with that in mind I enjoyed the talk and would happily recommend Cluny to all you Programme Secretaries out there.

The Baltimore Quilt
 The Quilt has been living with me for January and I have to say lots of people came to help me stitch - lured here with the promise of good biscuits and the chance to meet my fantastic dog - the upshot of which is that we have made fantastic progress this month - so a big thank you to all who helped.  One of my regular attenders, Liz Lumb had an absolutely cracking idea -  to mark each uncompleted square in some way to help us find them more easily. To hand was some blue ribbon and safety pins so this was what we did and then the natural extension of this was that if you completed a square you could then remove the ribbon and pin it to your chest and wear it with pride!!!!!!!    I have to tell you that one person (the chair!!) who was present at this new innovation promptly went off, found two nearly completed squares, finished them and claimed two blue ribbons!!  -

Notices

Hello Everyone

I was very conscious on Saturday that you were bombarded with an awful lot of information, so I thought I would summarise some of it here for you.

FIRST AID - the course will take place at the Folk Hall at 9am on the 5th May.

GUILD NEW CHAIR AND PRESIDENTS - Christine Poole was elected as the new Chaiman unopposed. Jan Beaney and Jean Littlejohn have agreed to become joint Presidents for an initial period of 3 years.

VISIT TO ACKWORTH - As part of the marking of the tenth anniversary of the region, a visit has been arranged to Ackworth to view the Samplers and partake of lunch. This will take place on 12th April, meeting at the school at 12 noon. Price £20. For further details please contact me. (01759368785/ shirley.smith2@btinternet.com)

MEMBERS' CHALLENGE - Details of the challenge for 2012/13 are now available on the Guild website. If you are unable to access this please contact me.

VISIT OF KAFFE FASSETT - Tickets (for members only at the moment) are available from Liz Lumb.

I hope that is helpful for you.

Workshop - posptoned until better weather

Due to the inclement weather and road conditions the workshop with Cluny - Postcard inspirations Sunday 5 February has been postponed. Sorry to disappoint you eager beavers but the safety of members is paramount. Rescheduled date will be published later.
Take care and have a good day.

Workshop Sunday 5 February

Cluny Chapman will be providing a workshop on Sunday 5 February.
She will be inspring ideas to produce a postcard for the Exhibition pieces - "York People and Places in Stitch".
This will take place
from 10.00 -4.00 pm
at the Old School Hall, Wigginton, Near 13 Mill Lane, YO32 3PU.
The cost is £17.

Don't forget your lunch and a mug. Tea/coffee freshemnts will be available all day.

You might find it helpful to bring
A sketch book/paper for background such as cartridge paper
Drawing/colouring materials - your preference.
Selection of coloured/patterned papers if you wish to use collage for your design
Glue
A note book for recording ideas.
Any books/guidebooks on York.
There will be a photocopier available - small charge.

It sounds a great day - look forward to seeing you there.

Aren't we a happy group listening to Dionne Swift at her talk- Devore Magic?

It was a very interesting topic and enjoyable session .

Exhibition 'Reflections on Colour'

This exhibition by members Carol Coleman and Sandra Middleton,together with Nadine Saupe is now open,and will be on until February 3rd, with the exception of Mondays and Tuesdays, when the venue is closed. Opening hours 10.00am to 4.00pm.

Please check before travelling 01904 612613 Web site www.grayscourtyork.com

I hope you will be able to support this event by visiting the exhibition when you are next in York.

Raffle Tickets for the Quilt

You will be pleased to know that we have permission to sell raffle tickets for THE QUILT at the Festival of Quilts in August at the NEC and also at the Knitting and Stitching Show in Harrogate in November. we will also be selling them at our Exhibition and the Regional Day. 500 books of tickets have been printed so let's try to sell them all. The quilt deserves it.

January meeting.

Well here we are at the beginning of 2012 and may I send you all good wishes for the coming year - we are in for a busy one!!!!!!

When you have gotten over the shock of me actually posting to the Blog on the day of our meeting you will be pleased to know that I have carried out my threat to invite more people to contribute to the Blog. I have asked members of the committtee to join me so that we can keep you up to date more readily this year as we are having the exhibition, Kaffe Fassett's talk and the prize draw for the Baltimore Quilt.

We had a excellent meeting today - the Speaker was Michelle Horton of Duttons for Buttons.
Michelle has came to speak to us last year when she gave us the first part of her excellent history of buttons (up to the end of the 17th century) and she continued from then up until the present day today.
I enjoyed both talks very much as Michelle has a wealth of historical knowledge combined with some very quirky facts which made her talk informative but yet remained entertaining.
Michelle started today by telling us about Dorset buttons which many of us will have made - the originals were surprisingly small and this cottage industry expanded very rapidly until the middle of 19th century when mechanisation came to the button industry wiping out the hand made element but introducing a much wider variety of materials from which buttons could be made.
Horn, Tortoiseshell, vegetable ivory(tagua nuts), glass, ceramic, rubber, silver, linen, Celluloid, mother of pearl, fabric and Bakelite were some of the materials used for the making of buttons during the 19th and 20th centuries.  She explained how fashion and changes thereof are reflected in the button industry and also how buttons reflect social history - finishing with a poem whose final line was If only a button was alive and could speak.......
Good talk which I enjoyed and I hope you did too.

Notices
Exhibition is to be held in the Guildhall Friday 22nd, Saturday 23rd and Sunday 24th June 2012 - to help and support members an Exhibition table will be present at every meeting from now on, manned by Chris Beavers, to disemminate information and give help and advice to members. Please come and ask any questions you have  - I can't help if I don't know what your problems are  - good I am telepathic I am not!!!!
At the February meeting I will be starting my stewarding list, giving out entry forms, asking for people to take publicity material to various areas and answering any questions you may have.

I would like to reiterate Shirley's words today that the majority of our exhibition will consist of work, be it contemporary or traditional, done by our members during the last three years which will reflect the skills and imagination within our branch - the York Postcards, the Regal Competition and the Member's Challenge are there as additional interest for our visitors and yourselves.
I should like you to consider my ambition to have a piece of work from every member in our exhibition - this has not yet been acheived but I am optomistic that it could happen!!

Tickets for Kaffe Fassett were on sale today for members only at £10 per ticket as they will be for the next two meetings and then they will be offered to friends and family and others at £12 per ticket.

Books of tickets for the Prize Draw were also available today and we are asking members to sell as many tickets as they reasonably can.

Two workshops were opened today - one to be led by Cluny on inspiration for the York postcards - these will be small 6"X4" pieces of work - any technique: subject matter to be based on any aspect of York. This workshop will be held on Sunday 5th February 10 - 4 (sorry I did not take any notice of the venue but I am sure someone will fill in that information)
The second workshop is one led by Tracy Franklin  - again I am sure someone will fill in the details.

The Beading group which meets each month has been renamed the very imaginative 2nd Wednesday in the Month group  and anyone is welcome to come along to do whatever they are working on - next meeting is this Wednesday 11th January from 1.30 onwards until Sheila has to go for her fish and chips!!!

Quilting Bee
We continue to work hard on the quilting of the Baltimore Quilt and this month it is residing at my house and it will be available Mondays and Fridays from 10 onwards for stitching starting Friday 13th January - please let me know if you intend coming either by phone or through the comments section on the Blog. It will also be available one Sunday 29th January for those of you who work through the week but would like to contribute.

If there is any information which I have got wrong please feel free to tell me or correct it if you have access to the Blog - apologies if I have missed anything.
Here ends my first missive of 2012 heres hoping that I can keep it up.  Chris B

Workshops

At last managed to acess our blog thanks to my 23 years old technical wizzard. We were on our way to be becoming Germanic.
What a great day we all had in December. I received a number of requests for more member's days. The calendar for 2012 is full and suggestions for 2013 are now being taken.
If we are to hold further members's days we will need ideas and tutors willing to take the sessions.So far the following idease have been made - weddign celebrations/ pin cushions for ... xmas, easter, springs.If you could lead one of these session that would be great.
This weekend I will be opening 2 workshops-
1. Cluny Chapman - Inspriations for workshops in the summer term. Completed work can be forwarded to th Maria- thank you.
2. Tracy Day 21st April 2012 - Improve your stitch technique. If you have any projects that require to fill now me=odeas./ indicsate Scotlasnd os sifferrifng form th gpus. from Tracy day -please briong it alongside your other ideas.