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.