We had a relaxed evening with inputs from members and a sharing of ideas as the evening went on.
We began by hearing about a local Birmingham project ‘’Anawim’ which provides a range of support services, helping women understand the impact of trauma on their lives and beginning the process of healing and overcoming obstacles. One of our members Margaret is a volunteer at the project, running a weekly stitching group. She showed us the wonderful hanging pictured below, which is made by her stitching group with scraps of fabric. The frayed denim feathers are very effective. Stitch has been found to be a pleasure and a creative outlet for the women who attend, it can play a role in building confidence and skill as well as being fun. Beta members look forward to seeing other work from the group in the future and to finding ways to support the project.
We then enjoyed a stimulating and informative input from Anne, the chair of our group, with tips about how to mount and display work effectively. The photograph below shows how samples of stitch from a workshop Anne had been attending, were easily and effectively displayed on an artist canvas. Simple individual items, look so effective when put together in this way. One of the good things about BETA is the chance to get ideas and advice from others and this evening was no exception.
Finally we had our monthly raffle this time black and white was the colour for the bag. On this occasion it was stitched by Janet, and is very effective. As always it filled with goodies donated by members, matching the black and white colour scheme.
We are looking forward now to our November meeting, when we will have a speaker, Clive Garner, telling us about the history of silk. We will have silver themed raffle bags to admire and have the chance of winning.
Birmingham Embroidery and Textile Art 