Happy New Year Everyone!

The year 2016 ended on a high note for our Branch, when Angela Teago's piece, which she stitched for our "Capability Brown Exhibition" at Milntown, was selected to be shown at all the Knitting and Stitching Shows, in London, Harrogate, and Dublin. A real feather in our caps. Well done Angela and thank you for putting us "on the map".

Let us try to make 2017 another successful year for the Isle of Man Branch. That will need you to support the meetings and workshops we have planned. (See side bar)

Christmas Celebration

Last Saturday we enjoyed a convivial lunch followed by a fun workshop, for which we were joined by the Young Embroiderers.

Provided with wire shapes, tree and heart, we set to, with copper wire and beads, to create decorations or brooches. The YE members were much more exuberant in their designs. You can guess from the photos below, which examples were theirs!

A happy Christmas to everyone and a healthy 2017.

26th November Talk and Workshop

Our monthly meeting was held on the Saturday morning prior to the Upcycle to Recycle Workshop.

Our visiting speaker was Myra Gilbert, whose work has been closely influenced by her fascinating life-story. So, she illustrated her talk with family pictures as well as with pictures of pieces she has created and also with tangible examples.

She is not only a designer but also a wordsmith and she pays tribute to the women who have sewn, through the ages, out of necessity rather than for pleasure, by inscribing a special Japanese tissue with lines of miniscule, carefully chosen wording. From this tissue she fashions doll size dresses, based on the dresses she and her sisters wore while growing up.

Everyone was amazed at this unique and painstaking work and the sentiments behind it.

The workshop that followed was designed to use as much as possible of a de-constructed man's shirt in order to create other useable items. Although by the end there were no finished items, most ladies were well on the way to finishing the component parts for an attractive cushion and there were also attempts at encrusting the collars and cuffs with beads. So, most went away with "works in progress"

and photos may be added at a future date, when pieces are finished!

Felt-making Workshop October 2016

Judging by the photographs, this was an enjoyable and productive workshop. What a variety of shapes and colours! It also looks to have been very companionable.

Corset Belt Workshop 24th September 2016

Gill Roberts tutored a fabulous workshop on Saturday to make a corset belt.

It was a big learning curve on how to bone a bodice and put in eyelets; but everyone accomplished it and we were so engrossed that the course over-ran as no-one wanted to leave!

 

As you can see from the photos, everyone reached the final stages of construction and had a wonderful day. The photo of the corset is one of Gill’s fantastic creations, which wasn’t shown the previous evening during her informative talk.

 

 

The talk had ranged widely over the history of corsets – originally they were meant to disguise the female shape, so as not to inflame men's passions! Gradually this changed, so that the waist was emphasised and the bust lifted. There is also a darker side, as corsets, with their lacing, play a role in dominatrix fantasy - but no one could possibly see a dark side to Gill's beautiful and intricate corset/bodices, which she has created for wedding dresses and formal wear.

 

Thank you, Gill, for travelling over the IOM. If you want to see more of her spectacular creations, please visit her web site www.belladonna-roses.co.uk

A new hand on the keyboard.

Jean Shimmin is now taking over from Janet Thompson as IT representative for the Guild.

This post is a trial run to see how the blog works!

Theresa's piece at the exhibition was not on the last post, so it is included here. We couldn't show all of the pieces. You need to go yourself and appreciate all the work that has gone into making a good show for the IoM Branch of the Embroiderers' Guild.

'Landscapes & Gardens' Exhibition

 

 

 

 

The IOM branch of the Embroiderers’ Guild’s launch of their “Landscapes and Gardens” exhibition at Milntown  was very well attended by both current and past members as well as representatives from other crafting groups and of the trustees of Milntown Estate. 

Unfortunately our Patron, Lady Gozney and her husband the Lieutenant Governor were unable to attend due to a double booking. 

 

Eleanor Roome, our Chair, praised the members for all their hard work and enthusiasm in putting this exhibition together.  There are almost 60 pieces on exhibit from the Guild plus 11 pieces from the Young Embroiderers.  The exhibition reflects the changing seasons of Milntown with both vibrant colour and soft hues.  There is an amazing range of technique and skills encompassed within the pieces which highlights just how talented our Isle of Man branch is.  It is interesting also to see just how widely the branch has interpreted the theme.

 

Below is just a small sample of the wonderful and varied work on display.

 

 

 

 The exhibition remains open until Monday 17th October and is open each day, 10.00 a.m. to 5.00 p.m., except Tuesday when Milntown Estate is closed.

Exhibition at Milntown

Royal Agricultural Show

Once again our branch took part in the Royal Agricultural Show at Knockaloe with  members demonstrating a variety of hand embroidery techniques alongside the small exhibition of 4” squares and a selection of some completed projects from the wide variety of workshops the branch has run over the past year.  Our numbers were boosted each morning with some enthusiastic Young Embroiderers who demonstrated needle felting, making a variety of interesting animals such as sheep and turtles.  The stand attracted quite a lot of interest so lets hope for some new members!

Clasp Purse Workshop

Saturday workshop – designing and making a clasp purse – Saturday 30th July

 

Hilary Cairns led a very productive, and very popular workshop, on how to design a purse or bag to fit variously sized purse or handbag clasps. 

 

Once Hilary had explained the principles involved members began their design work followed by embellishment before getting to the central task of fitting their embellished fabric into the clasp purse/handbag fitting.

 

This workshop was a very “full-on” experience of measuring, designing, embellishing and then the critical skill of fitting the finished piece to the clasp mechanism.  Not an ounce of time was wasted other than concentrating on the task in hand!  I think that all members learnt a most valuable lesson in the time involved in construction, without design etc, of making a handbag or purse – so, all members will now appreciate exactly what is involved in any purse or handbag that they purchase!

 

 

Charity Day Presentation

Presentation of cheque following on from the Jean O’Neil Memorial Charity Day to the Breast Cancer Unit – Friday 29th July

The July meeting of the Embroiderers’ Guild started with a presentation of a cheque for just over £325.00 to the Breast Cancer Unit raised through the Guild’s June charity day in memory of Janet William’s sister, Jean O’Neil.  The charity’s  representative, Barbara Thorne, explained about how progress had been made in the research and improvement in breast cancer treatment and survival, an illness which can and has touched so many members and how much all contributions were welcomed and valuable.

 

 

The handover of the fund raising cheque was followed by a most interesting and stimulating talk by professional weaver, Louise Martin, who contrasted her work at Stirling Castle, weaving the replica medieval tapestries, with her on-going travels and exploration of more contemporary weaving techniques based on her travels to countries as far a field as Mongolia and Turkey.  Louise’s talk followed a series of weaving workshops which she had given on the island over the previous few weeks and thus had subsequently  attracted many visitors to her talk.

Charity Day Presentation

Presentation of cheque following on from the Jean O’Neil Memorial Charity Day to the Breast Cancer Unit – Friday 29th July

The July meeting of the Embroiderers’ Guild started with a presentation of a cheque for just over £350.00 to the Breast Cancer Unit raised through the Guild’s June charity day in memory of Janet William’s sister, Jean O’Neil.  The charity’s  representative, Barbara Thorne, explained about how progress had been made in the research and improvement in breast cancer treatment and survival, an illness which can and has touched so many members and how much all contributions were welcomed and valuable.

 

 

The handover of the fund raising cheque was followed by a most interesting and stimulating talk by professional weaver, Louise Martin, who contrasted her work at Stirling Castle, weaving the replica medieval tapestries, with her on-going travels and exploration of more contemporary weaving techniques based on her travels to countries as far a field as Mongolia and Turkey.  Louise’s talk followed a series of weaving workshops which she had given on the island over the previous few weeks and thus had subsequently  attracted many visitors to her talk.

Paper Mania Workshop

Mary McIntosh, visiting City & Guilds tutor from Sudbury, Suffolk followed her Friday May talk to the Guild entitled “Adventures in Textiles” with an inspirational workshop on the Saturday with the theme of  “Paper Mania”. 

 

Mary brought a great variety of her work to show on Friday, and explained, not only her sources of inspiration, but  her working methods.  Members were thoroughly impressed with Mary’s work and agreed that her work was “truly different”.

 

This set the precedent for the Saturday workshop, where, after Mary’s instruction, members went to work interpreting Mary’s designs and instructions with such concentration that for the most part the workshop was quiet!  Throughout the workshop, Mary was attentive, and, so, at the end of the workshop there were many completed pieces of work to show!

 

The workshop consisted of mixing pre-painted newspaper, layered with three to four layers of lustrous chiffon which was then stitched and the layers of chiffon removed to varying degrees using heat tools and additional stitching added as required.

 

As you can see, there was an overwhelming degree of success with this workshop and we were all very appreciative of Mary’s expertise.

 

Charity Day

This years Jean O’Neil memorial charity was the Breast Cancer Unit at Nobles Hospital and the day was once again organised by Janet Williams in memory of her sister and is now in  its sixth year.

 

There was an extensive raffle prize table as well as a sales table with lots of threads etc. and a lovely sharing table of food. 

 

Members could either make a name badge as this years charity project or bring their own sewing. It was very good to see that some were industriously working on their pieces for the forthcoming Milntown “Landscapes and Garden” exhibition beginning later in the year in mid September!

 

 

 

Haldane Fisher very generously donated the cost of hiring the hall so all proceeds will go toward the Breast Unit.

Free Machine Embroidery Workshop

Nine members took part in the April workshop which aimed to experiment with the technique on both traditional fabrics and soluble fabrics.  The following images show how hard everybody was concentrating!

Experience of members ranged from complete beginners to very knowledgeable but the major conclusion at the end of the day was just how very different each sewing machine was when it came to setting tension up for free machine embroidery - this took some time for some machines!  Experiment is the key because every machine is different.

Jean worked steadily throughout the day and has kindly shared her finished workshop piece on soluble fabric.

Other pictures included samples of Maureen Kennaugh's (the tutor for the day) own work so that construction could be seen.

This was an exciting and successful workshop which was much enjoyed and the participants were very grateful to Maureen for sharing her knowledge and enthusiasm.

March Workshop - Shibori Dyeing

Julie Fayle gave a very informative demonstration of two Shibori techniques -Itajime (folded Shibori) and Arashi (winding technique) and Guild members, as you can see, produced some very colourful and experimental pieces, some of which will form the basis for work inspired by Milntown Garden and Landscapes exhibition from mid September to mid October 2016.

The Itajime technique required more precise ironing and folding than the Arashi technique which produced a much more sophisticated result.

This shows work in the process of dying after the silk had been folded and ironed and then 'scrunched' tightly around a wooden pole and then dye added - the is the Arashi technique.

Complete work

 

 

Young Embroiderers January Workshop

This was a 'Valentine' themed workshop based on counted stitch work.  The main stitch being cross stitch but Hardanger was also chosen by some of the girls whose ages ranged for 8-18 years.

Here is a photograph of  a  piece of  Hardanger that was completed at home - well done!.