News - Page 6 - Southdowns Creative Stitchers

Textile Art Exhibition at Ely Cathedral

As a change from writing about other peoples’ work, here is some information about an exhibition that I’m taking part in, with our exhibiting group ‘FIVE’. We’re really pleased that our textile art exhibition ‘A Special Place’ will be taking place at Ely Cathedral from 9th – 22nd March 2022. Please come and visit!

‘We all have a secret somewhere to go to for comfort, inspiration or happiness. In this exhibition, five textile artists explore their own inspirational locations.

This fascinating collection of work ranges from handmade felt to goldwork through mixed media to quilting. The work is based on local gardens and faraway places. Many of the exhibits will be available to purchase.

Barbara Deacon, Cheryl Montgomery, Elaine Grahame, Jane Robinson and Suzanne Ball have worked together for ten years. This is their third group exhibition, after previous successful exhibitions in Worthing & Milton Keynes’.

I plan to be at the Cathedral on some of the days we’re open, so do let me know if you plan to visit in case we can meet up. There is more detail on the Cathedral website, for example opening times etc. Entry to the exhibition is free, and there’s a charge of £8.50 to visit the rest of the Cathedral. The first week of our exhibition coincides with an exhibition by the Royal School of Needlework, so you could get two exhibitions in one visit. If you want to get to Ely by train from Sussex, on some days there is a direct train to Cambridge that you can pick up at Brighton or Haywards Heath, avoiding London and the tube. Then it’s an easy connection on to Ely.

Talk by Zara Day

This months talk by Zara Day was very well received. Sadly I missed it so I can’t give any details, except to say that I’ve heard really enthusiastic comments from those who attended. Zara was invited to talk to us by popular request, after several members attended online courses with her during lockdown. Zara teaches a wide range of courses, both online and in person. Zara has sent details of her new courses (see below). The website link below goes through to a message saying it’s a new website and to try later. You can ask our Secretary for Zara’s phone number which I won’t put on here, or you can contact Zara on Instagram or Facebook at; https://www.instagram.com/zara_day_embroidery_design/

https://www.facebook.com/zara_day_embroidery_design-109307824065963

I have decided to repeat the new courses I offered in January as they have been so popular, and the outcomes are brilliant. If you have done Course 1 with me, you may be interested in Course 10. Several members had asked me to reinvent this course as they had really enjoyed it. So, Course 10 explores a different range of hand embroidery stitches and how these can flow across a piece and be inspired by our natural landscape. Course 11 looks at creating either imaginative or realistic birds inspired by a mixture of tropical and native bird species in 3D. Where we will use a variety of decorative embroidery stitches and beading on top of a fabric sculpture. During Course 12 I will be sharing some of the techniques I use to create fabric designs for some of the pieces I have produced for my bespoke embroidery design company Rosemaryrose. These designs have been commissioned by interior designers for products such as cushions, chairs, and headboard designs.

I am running my Mini Make – Tree Bark Examined If you enjoyed Course 10 you will like this course as I share lots of different techniques inspired by the patterns, textures and colours found on tree bark. I take you through ways of creating a piece of textile art that looks realistic or abstract.

As before all courses consist of sessions lasting for around an hour and a half, on the same day and time each week. They are conducted through zoom in small groups in real time with live demonstration, artist inspiration, feedback on work and advice how to progress further, time to chat with other members and be inspired by each other’s pieces and knowledge. I have attached the information sheets about each of them.

March Timetable

Course 10 – Ebb and Flow – Tuesday 8^th March – 4.30pm – 6 sessions £45.00

Course 11 – Decorative Birds – Wednesday 9^th March – 4.00pm – 6 sessions £45.00

Course 12– Layering and Cutting Away – Thursday 10^th March – 4.30pm – 6 sessions £45.00

Mini Make – Tree Bark Examined – Monday 7^th, 14^th, and 21^st March + 11^th April – 4 sessions £40.00

Places are limited for each course so if you would like to reserve a place, please email me. I will be reserving places on a first come basis, it may take me a couple of days to get back to you to confirm the place depending on the number of emails I receive. But I will work through them in date order. You may want to give me your first and second choice.

To secure you place, payment for the course needs to be paid by the 25^th February and I will send out the zoom link and all the course information on the 28^th February.

I look forward to hearing back from any of your members if they have any questions or would like to reserve a place on one of these courses.

Zara Day, Founder, Zara Day Embroidery Design

zara@zaradayembroidery.com

Trying something different…

The speaker for our January meeting on Tuesday 11th is Angie Hughes, who will be talking about ‘Creative Ice-breaking’. We will be trying a new format this month. Angie will be speaking by Zoom from her own studio, which you can join either from your own home, or by watching on the big screen at the hall. Her work will be shown on screen, so if you choose not to come to the hall then you will still see exactly the same as the people in the hall. Members will receive a Zoom link by email. Due to Covid rates, the numbers in the hall are strictly limited so that we can maintain more social distancing than usual, so please contact our Secretary to ask to book one of the places. If you are a non-member who would like to attend by Zoom, you would be welcome to attend for a small charge. Please send a request via the ‘contact’ page on this website, including your email address. We look forward to seeing as many people as possible through one route or the other. We can still all wave to each other via the screen! If you are a new member and would like to join us, please email our Secretary Sue for a link on sec.southdownscreativestitchers@gmail.com

You can see Angie Hughes work on her website: https://www.angiehughes.com/

‘A lifetime of looking’

We had a wonderful talk this month by one of our own members, Julia Brown. Julia specialises in exquisite landscapes which she embroiders on her trusty 1970’s Bernina sewing machine. Julia comes from a family or tailors and sewers, and has stitched since childhood. She showed us a sweet tiny needlecase that she stitched as a young child, and spoke about how important it is to share our love of stitch with children and to pass our skills on. She also spoke about the importance of tutors, and she particularly acknowledged the influence of local machine-embroidery tutor Wendy Dolan.

Julia has found her niche in machine-embroidered landscapes. It combines three key things that she loves: sewing, painting and landscapes. Sewing started in childhood, and for many years Julia has made and embroidered wedding dresses professionally. Her love of painting underlies her embroidery work (for example a knowledge of composition, colour mixing, where to put a focal point etc.). She lightly paints her fabric before stitching, leaving lots of space for stitching it afterwards.

Julia studied Geography at University, and her love of landscape is what has led her to this particular aspect of stitching. She is interested in the underlying geology, as well as the human influence of things like tracks, hedges and fields. A recent influence is the wonderful book by Robert Macfarlane: ‘The Old Ways, A Journey on Foot’. This exploration of the ancient tracks and landscapes encourages the reader to slow down and really look at the world around them. It’s a lovely book, available from most good bookshops.

Julia showed us how she builds up layers of different textures before starting to stitch, using fabrics such as crepe bandage, scrim, dish-cloth etc. She then adds even more texture and detail with stitch. Many thanks to Julia for a very interesting talk, and for showing us your lovely work. To see more of Julia’s work, go to her website or FB page: https://www.facebook.com/JuliaBrownStitched/ https://www.facebook.com/JuliaBrownStitched/

Alex Waylett workshop

Some wonderful work was created recently in a workshop with Alex Waylett. Alex had visited us several years ago for a one-day workshop. Members enjoyed that so much that by popular request she was invited back for a two-day workshop this time. After delays due to Covid, Gay was finally able to make this course happen, and the feedback that we’ve had is very enthusiastic.

Here are some photos of the pieces that people were working on (thank you to Alex for allowing the work to be shown here). If you would like your name added as the person who stitched one of these, please let me know. For those who missed this course, Alex also runs online workshops which you can find on her website: https://alexandrawaylett.com/

I don’t know who stitched this, but judging by the owls I would guess it was Annette…

Jane Baskerville

Gay found a wonderful venue for the workshop. I think members could get used to the luxury of Findon Place – what a treat. Here are some photos of the venue. Many thanks to Gay for organising the workshop, and for hosting Alex and taking care of everything. As a P.S. People sometimes email me with comments on a news post. However, if you could please put your comment in the ‘Comment Box’ below this post, then other people can read it too. Thanks!

Free short course on making fabric books

For those of you who haven’t already seen this on Facebook, here’s a link to a great short course by Isobel Moore on making fabric sample-books. https://www.isobelmoore.co.uk/courses/ It shows you how to make a little book to stitch into. And it’s free! I hear that several of our members are making these fabric books at the moment, and enjoying it. It’s a nice way to have something small and portable that you can stitch anywhere. While you’re on Isobel’s website, take a look at the other courses. Lots of us did the ‘spirals’ course during lockdown, and the others look interesting. Isobel also has an interesting blog, and a regular podcast with machine-embroiderer Gina Ferari https://www.isobelmoore.co.uk/podcast/

Richard Box talk

Showing Richard’s combination of painterly techniques with stitch and beading.

We had a very entertaining afternoon with Richard Box for our September meeting. Richard has inspired many hundreds of people with his combination of drawing, painting and textile art including hand and machine stitching. Richard was a funny and witty speaker, who held our interest all afternoon. As well as learning some useful tips, we also had a good day out.

More painterly techniques translated into stitch – you can see an impressionist influence in this one.

Richard told us some amusing anecdotes about his life and his art, and there was lots of laughter during his talk. His first experience of making something in fabric was a Cope for his Church of England father – but he admitted that his father ‘wouldn’t be seen dead in it’. Richard studied painting at art college, but counts himself very lucky to have been taught by Constance Howard, which really awakened his interest in textile art. His painting background can be seen in his work, for example his ability to really observe what is in front of him, and confidence in colour mixing. He spoke about doing art with children with special needs, and the spontaneity that they had to their art, and how he wants to try to help adults to have the same joy in creating things.

Rumour has it that this lovely puss was bought be a member because of the resemblance to her own cat!

Richard is well known for helping people to overcome their inhibitions about drawing and painting, and encouraging embroiderers to use their own observations and art work to make original designs (think ‘Drawing for the Terrified applied to stitch). He talked us through his own artistic process, starting either from real-life observations or from a photograph. He finds that drawing and painting the subject first is essential, as it helps him to ‘understand’ what he is looking at. Having done a painting of his subject, he then simplifies it into basic colour areas, and sketches or draws the main ‘blocks’ of colour which he then applies in pieces of fabric onto a hessian backing. More layers are added, machine stitching is added, and finally hand-stitching and sometimes beading. The photos below show his process, broken down into stages. Thank you Richard for agreeing that we could share these images on our website, and for an interesting and entertaining afternoon, and thank you Gay for organising the afternoon.

Initial bold areas of colour applied with pieces of fabric

More detail added to coloured areas with smaller pieces of fabric

More fabrics and background threads applied

First stitching on the sewing machine. Richard spoke about the importance of ‘blending’ colour from one area into another

The finished piece, with more hand-stitching details added

Summer Meeting

Our August meeting was a very successful afternoon in the lovely environment of Findon Village Hall. We had plenty of space to socially distance, and with windows and doors open and the sun shining in we had a chance to be together once again just like old times. It feels like a very positive time in the group: longstanding members are ‘re-connecting’ and at the same time, new members are joining. We took this chance to look back at some of the work that members have been creating during lockdown, and everyone enjoyed the pop-up display of work. If you scroll down, you will see some photos of the individual work that members exhibited on the day. Apologies if I missed yours, but do feel free to send me a photo to add. If I haven’t named your work, or if you know who made one of the un-named ones, please pop a message in the ‘Comments’ box at the end of this post. And here are a few photos of people chatting and enjoying the afternoon.