Great to all be back together again after Christmas. We all enjoyed hearing tonight from two of our members, Kay Fuller and Jayne Hill, talking about their life in stitch and sharing some of their lovely work.
Kay’s presentation was informed by reflecting on why she stitches and the influence of family experiences. Her grandmother was a tailor and her mother a knitter. Kay took up embroidery, concerned that she may not be precise enough for either of these activities. She shared with us a piece completed at school when she was just 10. The work included the figures of two fishermen. Impressive for her age, although several in the audience thought that one of the figures was sporting a turban! She said that there then followed a long gap, until she made a piece for her sister’s 40th. She later made a piece based on the tree of life, using fabric from her sister’s clothes.
Kay did courses at the MAC, including creative embroidery with Jackie Lawson. She painted on silk but wasn’t over impressed by her resulting painting, but then cut it up to make a new successful picture. During a felt making workshop she was influenced by the colours of her mother’s favourite Landscape. A picture of the resulting ‘Neliphant’, again pictured below, was originally a sea scape and as Kay put it an example again of surprising things revealing themselves. A stained glass window from the church her father attended inspired another piece, which she has started working on again, sometimes at our monthly sit and stitch. The final piece that is pictured below, is a political, work inspired by the inequalities she saw when visiting the Bahamas. Kay sees her work as informed by her politics.
It was clear in Jayne’s presentation that she was also influenced by family stitchers. Her mum was a dress maker and her nan a knitter. As a teenager Jane began completing kits which she sometimes amended as she grew in confidence. As her interest in stitching grew, she also learnt from classes and workshops at the MAC and later many organized via this group (previously the Birmingham brand of the Embroidery Guild). She was introduced to free motion machine embroidery and mixed textiles. Jayne now focuses on machine embroidery, including an effective technique using thicker thread in the bobbin but still enjoys some hand stitching and is open minded to new ideas. She likes her pieces to be useful and has made bags, and contributions for our exhibitions and enjoyed working on a project making tactile books for visually impaired children, which she was involved in as part of BETA. Both day workshops and mini workshops have had an influence on her work, including a mini workshop, with one of our longstanding member Betty using felt soldering. When lucky enough to win a raffle bag the contents have inspired other pieces of work.
We held our usual raffle, this evening with two lovely bags completed by Hel and Laura. Maybe the contents will inspire one of our lucky winners. Meriel also talked us through some important notices, reminding us of upcoming workshops and possible mini workshops. Details of the latter will be sent out on email.
Our next meeting on 12th February 2024 is on ZOOM avoiding us going out in potentially bad weather and allowing us to access a really good speaker, who otherwise lives too far away, Mandy Portillo. There is therefore no raffle in February. The March raffle bags will be orange, contents appreciated. We also will not exchange traveling books in February so everyone who participates has two months to complete their next contribution. The March meeting will be activity based, with three tables we can move around, including needle felting, Mandalas and making little pictures. Members will just need to bring a basic sewing kit. Our summer competition is ‘Beta in Bloom’.
Birmingham Embroidery and Textile Art 