A warm and friendly evening with lots of treats to eat and a chance to chat and look at and enjoy the work of other members.
We began with the AGM and the major result is that the current committee will serve another year with the very welcome unanimous addition of Hel who will be a real asset in developing our ability to promote our groups via a range of social medial channels. We will summarise and respond to the results of the feedback sheets once they have all been read and considered.
We also ended our cycle of travelling books this evening. A new cycle will resume at the October meeting. A small sample of some of the lovely pages included in the books shows the variety of approaches to be found.
The highlight of the evening was the competition: ‘Vintage With a Twist’. Everyone had a chance to look carefully at all the entries and cast their vote. Ruth has provided a great summary of the entries, beginning with her comments on the wonderful standard of entries overall. Meriel was the winner with her very effective and witty piece ‘Vintage Port with a Twist of Lemon’. This piece included fabric collage and appliqué with machine lettering and free machine embroidery.
A range of styles and techniques were used across the entries. Rowan’s submission ‘Crinoline Lady Strikes Back’ used mixed media, with a playful interpretation of traditional design. Janets’ ‘Willow Pattern with a Difference’ was based on the much loved and familiar images with appliqué and Kantha bringing them up to date. Brenda included canvas work and appliqué in her work ‘At Last’. The title was a comment on how long it took her to finish. She included a quilt from the 1920s, tapestry from the 1990s, and a bird collage started in 2018.
Lynne’s piece included elegant gold work in an appliqué landscape ‘Braided River. Diane skilfully used a variety of stitches to complete a piece based on vintage candles with LED light bulbs again a witty title, ‘ Let’s Twist Again’. Cas submitted a hand stitched blackbird using mixed media, antique textiles lace and pearl buttons inspired by an Anne Kelly workshop
The evening also included the raffle with Deed making the large bag and Kay the small one, both very desirable prizes.
Our meetings begin again on September 8th 2025 with a talk from Nicola Davies which looks fascinating, on a subject probably new to a lot of us. The raffle colour is purple/mauve/ violet please bring contributions to the meeting.
Birmingham Embroidery and Textile Art 