Sharman's Coat - Pat Kelly

Pat has very kindly sent me these images of the piece of work that she is entering for the exhibition at the Laxey Mills. We wish her every success.

Monica Selway - Manipulative Techniques

We had an opening evening on the 22 October with Mrs Monica Selway who gave us and interesting talk on American Smocking and did a presentation on her work.

On the day of the workshop Monica taught us how to do the wave, honeycomb and flower pattern. Sheila Dove had a break through moment when she created a new design and adapted the sewing technique for the left hand members of the group.

Helen was in her element as Monica created her patterns on graph paper and Helen's Engineering background was called in to place with straight lines and precision sewer. As a more organic sewer I am still trying to catch up but all in all we had an enjoyable day.

Barbara Kelly

Monica Selway - American Smocking

We had an opening evening on the 22 October with Mrs Monica Selway who gave us and interesting talk on American Smocking and did a presentation on her work.

On the day of the workshop Monica taught us how to do the wave, honeycomb and flower pattern. Sheila Dove had a break through moment when she created a new design and adapted the sewing technique for the left hand members of the group.

Helen was in her element as Monica created her patterns on graph paper and Helen's Engineering background was called in to place with straight lines and precision sewer. As a more organic sewer I am still trying to catch up but all in all we had an enjoyable day.

Barbara Kelly

Bits and Bobs from Barbara

After a successful AGM on the 24th August. Mrs Theresa Saxon is taking over the role of Workshop Books and Mrs Sheila Dove will also be joining our Committee. A big thank you to Janet Williams who has hung up her committee boots.

On the evening of our AGM we had a very entertaining talk by a Prof. Trevor Norton, who gave us a very jovial insight to life as a writer which we all enjoyed..


Our first workshop of the year was a half day session with Liz Brand our Chair Lady. We made Lavenders Bags with a twist and we enjoyed doing a spot of painting and beading create a very unique piece of work. It was a very relaxed afternoon and enjoyed by all.

Lacy Lavender Bags - Liz Brand

My husband was invited to do some work at the University of the Sunshine Coast in Queensland, Australia. We spent several months there and while he was busy I had to amuse myself. I found a branch of the Embroiderer's Guild ten minutes from where we were living. I was made extremely welcome and went along every week. One week there was a workshop making these pretty lavender bags. I thought how wonderful it would be to show our branch how to make them so I sourced all the materials and left them to be packed to come home on a sideboard. Unfortunately my dearest thought it was a bag of rubbish and threw it in the bin!

Sheila's Workshop

We spent a very relaxed and friendly day going back to basics by producing a simple back stitched design big enough to insert into a patchwork cushion or get framed as a picture.

Learning to use Equipment

This evening proved to be very enjoyable with Sheila showing how to use a rotary cutter properly, Jane showing us how to produce embroidered postcards ready for the Guild project, Janet and Rachel demonstrating lacemaking, Dee was on the braidmaker and Angela was happily heating up Tyvek.

The Royal Agricultural Show

The couple of days spent at the show were very worthwhile as a great deal of interest was shown and we hope to get a few more members from our time spent there. Many thanks to all who manned the stall. Fortunately the weather was lovely this year.

Julie Fayle Degree Show

If you'd like to see Julie's work click on the link below:

http://www.jctextilearts.com/degreeshow2010/

The Queenie Festival - Port St Mary

Thoughts from Angela Teago:

Just thought you may be interested to know that the Queenie Festival was a great success.

Weather on Saturday morning was diabolical but people were very cheerful and we still had interest in our display. Saturday afternoon cheered up and volunteers on the stall set to work in explaining all that we are about.Sunday was a lovely day and we all thoroughly enjoyed the activities that were going on around us. There was tremendous interest in all the work on display and we were all kept busy in chatting to people coming into our tent. We feel we have encourage a few people to come along to a branch meeting and others to go home and get out old works left unfinished!! Overall we felt the whole two days was worthwhile.

Thanks to all who volunteered or offered to come if we were short - a good two days and perhaps we may feature in the newspaper when the Festival is reported on so look out for that.

The spot that we were allocated was next to the tea and cake stall so extremely well situated. We had a great deal of interest shown in the suitcase collection and our team of members were kept very busy answering questions about the various examples of embroidery that had been generously lent by our members. Although the Saturday was very damp to say the least, it did not dampen the enthusiasm. The sun shone on the Sunday bringing over 2000 people to the Festival so by 5pm the helpers were hoarse but still enthusiastic and convinced that they had encouraged a few ladies to come and join our happy band.

Please now start thinking about the Royal Agricultural Show and what times you can give to man the stand there.

Princess Lace - Carol Wlliamson

On Friday 21 May we had a lovely evening, Lady Haddack our patron joined us at our meeting. Sadly we had only a few members with us on the night but it was a very enjoyable and light-hearted evening.

Mrs Carol Williamson was our speaker for the evening and her talk was very informative but at the same token gave everyone an insight into how Carol got started on her road of creativity and lace making.

Carol's display of work was amazing to say the least and of course if your an addict crafter like me (Barbara) it gives you that heady rush of enthusiasm of wanting to create a piece of work on the spot. I am looking forward to our day of handsewing, hang the house work, the gardening and all the other chores in life - just a day of pure sewing indulgence will be bliss...................

Sheer Creations - Sue Hinde & Sara Rakeshaw of Golden Hinde

Just my view on the workshop....................Barbs

The Sheer Creation workshop was a weekend of inspiration and creativity which resulted in the production of some very beautiful pieces of work.

Sue and Sarah worked hand in hand to give us individual attention and showed us how to use a soldering iron to create pictures using sheer fabrics, we had a choice of very vibrant colours and we gain a skill which we can now transfer on to other embriodery projects if we wish in the future.

It was good to meet up with everyone and its enjoyable sharing ideas and gaining confidence using new techniques and most of all its lovely having time to sew without any interruptions,

Rosemary Latimer - Quilting for all Seasons - Christmas gift bag

Our Christmas Party

Our Mulled Wine and Mincepie evening was great fun. Nina played Christmas music on her keyboard while we all felted round stones! These were the beautiful results.