Design for Stitch is a six week "in house" course tutored for our Guild members by Chris Cook.  Below are the first session results of black and white, a combination of print and stitch.

Ros

At Marlborough & District Embroidery Guild we are fortunate to be able to invite nationally and internationally known speakers and tutors.  This week has been no exception as a group of us had the opportunity of attending a two day workshop with Ruth Issett.

Ruth’s work is instantly recognisable because of her use of vibrant colours and she has written a number of books on colour, dyeing and printing.

The two days were centred around printing on paper and then material using acrylic and fabric paints. We used a variety of print blocks, print rollers and mark makers and Ruth circulated the room making suggestions and passing on her years of experience.

Having produced a number of printed samples we ended the workshop by applying procian dyes to our fabrics.  We rolled each one up separately in polythene and Ruth advised us to try and wait for 48 hours before rinsing out the excess dye.  My samples are currently on my utility room floor and I look forward to seeing the end result tomorrow.

Fortunately a visitor, Pippen was very well behaved because he would have made some wonderful paw prints had he got into mischief!

On behalf of all participants I would like to thank Ruth for leading a most enjoyable workshop and for being so very generous with her time and techniques. We do hope that you will return one day and teach us some more.

Ros

On Monday we held our AGM with several Committee Members retiring and new ones taking over.  After the formal meeting we enjoyed a  talk by Christine Seager, one of our regular members and the person who has kindly created our Marlborough & District Embroidery Guild website.

It is always interesting to hear how people became interested in embroidery and this was no exception. Living in South Africa Christine’s mother made all her clothes and when she attended a convent in Northern Rhodesia (now Zambia) the strict nuns taught the children to make a sewing bag at the age of 5 and a horse at the age of 6. Both these  treasures were passed round.  

Christine obviously learnt a lot and at an early age she went into business making dolls clothes for friends using her mother’s  sewing machine.   By the age of 11 she was making her own clothes and struck a wonderful  bargain with her father  who promised to buy her new material once she had completed an outfit. She then went to boarding school but  unfortunately was not allowed to use a sewing machine so she lost interest  and  it was not until she got married and her husband bought her a machine  that it  returned.

She lived abroad for a number of years and when  she returned she joined the Maidenhead Embroidery Guild, attended various  workshops and followed a City & Guilds course with Siân Martin.   She did not enjoy the structure of this qualification but successfully  went on to complete the Open College of Arts Textile 1 and 2 courses. 

Christine then discovered Committed to Cloth and  did a one year course learning to dye fabrics.  She made us laugh by saying it was wonderful having the opportunity of learning, experimenting and making a mess  in someone else’s workshop.

When Christine moved to Devizes she discovered Urchfont Manor  and, because she was keen to make a corset, she enrolled on the Historic Heirloom course tutored by Janet Crowther. 

At this time she went to a talk given by Marie Roper through  Laura Kemshall.  Christine liked  the technique and started quilting.  Researching more she found Nancy Crow’s website in the States but soon  realised that the cost of two back to back courses, the cost of the flight and accommodation was going to be prohibitive.  Christine has now embarked on a project  following Nancy’s principles and has now completed 4  black and white quilts and has just progressed to adding a colour – red. 

In August this year Christine had two quilts displayed at the Festival of Quilts, one on the Contemporary Quilt stand  and the second was chosen to be included in the Fine Art Quilt Masters. (See more details on the August Blog write up).   With success like this I think we can safely say that Christine has now  found her voice in life.

Before concluding Christine answered various questions about her techniques and emphasised how important she  has found it to stick to the design principle of the rule of thirds.
 
The next Guild  meeting will be on Monday 4 November at 14.00 hours when the speaker will be  Helen Mortimer and her talk will be entitled “ Silk Routes - A Personal  Journey”.  Doors open at 13.30 hours.

Ros