September 2022 meeting

September saw us meeting in Cotteridge for a talk by Ninya Mikhaila about the Black Prince’s Jupon. Ninya recreated the garment for the BBC TV Series a Stitch in Time.

The talk was fascinating as Ninya explained that steps she took to recreate an authentic garment using the techniques of the time, not modern techniques.

Ninya also brought the Arnolfini Gown that we’d heard about on a Zoom talk during lockdown and it was wonderful to see it for real.

Below are some pictures

Details of the ruffles on the gown
All the gown including the faux fur lining.
A close up of the Fleur de Lis
Fleur de Lis and Silver band denoting a son of the King.
The 3 leopards (heraldic term)
The full Jupon

If you want to see more of Ninya’s work or watch the programmes they are available on her website. http://www.ninyamikhaila.com

Sit and Stitch is Back!

We’ve found a new venue for monthly Sit and Stitch sessions.

We will be meeting on the 1st Saturday of the month, at Northfield Arts Forum shop in the Grosvenor Shopping Centre, Northfield

We will be there from 11am until 2pm on the 1st Saturdays of the month.

The community space is the Grosvenor Shopping Centre opposite Poundland and Card Factory – its close to the Church Road Entrance. 

There is parking at the Grosvenor Centre – and you can pay by card at the machines. It costs around £2.00 for the time you’d be at Sit and Stitch. 

Anyone is welcome to come along with their latest project. If you’re new to embroidery we will have a small project you can try if you drop in.

Any questions please use the “Contact Us” details.

Rag Books are not just for Babies

This was a workshop originally planned for March 2020 and it was a joy to finally welcome Judith and makes some rag books. 

It was a lovely relaxed day and everyone went away with a book they had made, and several of us with ideas for other ones. 

Judith was a great tutor, explaining everything well, so we all understood the processes and helping out with any technical challenges during the making, 

Two of the people attending hadn’t done many workshops before and had been hesitant about attending however their friends had convinced them that they’d be ok. 

They were both more than “ok”, thoroughly enjoying their day and realising that workshops are nothing to be scared of. So hopefully we’ll see both of them at other workshops soon. 

Margaret has already completed her book with small stitched pieces, while Diane and myself are using ours for stitch samples from an on-line course we are both doing. 

Enjoy looking at the photos of the books made on the day, and hopefully we’ll see you at a workshop soon. 

All of the books
Close Up of some of the books
Close up of the rest of the books

June meeting and Workshop

Hi everyone

At our June meeting on 13th June we are welcoming the textile artist Sarah Harper, who will be talking about her work and recent commission with Birmingham Royal Ballet. If you would like to find out more about Sarah and her work, her website is here: http://www.sjharperart.com/

The next workshop is with Judith Rowley on Saturday 25th of June. Judith will be demonstrating how to make beautiful fabric books from cotton. Make your own fabric book out of Indian cotton supplied by Judith. Tickets are £30.

The raffle bag for June is turquoise so bring any stitch-related turquoise items for prizes.

And from the archives… some of your beautiful lilac embroidery:

Processed with MOLDIV

Embroidery – a general appreciation

A great embroidery overview form the Fishink design blog today. 😍😍

Fishink's avatar

Hi everyone. Before I present my post today, I feel like I would like to say a few words. The past few years for all of us have been difficult indeed. Having to deal with things that we could not have envisioned makes life both unexpected and traumatic. I am someone who tries to create a ‘safe space’ around me and also here on my blog, a place where people can visit and hopefully just loose themselves in the joys of art and creativity.

I don’t wish to discuss politics or news here, this isn’t the place for it and as it pervades every other aspect in my online and physical world, I strive hard to keep this place largely ‘news free’ and concentrate purely on the discovery of art and artists. The sharing of their skills and imagination is what drives me forward.

I am also a designer and…

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A Tale of Two Members 2022

Always a highlight of the year, the presentations for 2022 from Brenda and Betty last night were highly informative and entertaining. Thank you to both.

Betty deserves special thanks for introducing the Tale of Two members all those years ago. It’s been a success ever since.

Thank you also to Anne for introducing Lily Waldron’s archive of beautiful embroidery and dressmaking. The samples were available for us to take away as inspiration for the summer competition and will be there again at the March meeting if you missed them last night. One of Lily’s perfect examples of dressmaking was modelled wonderfully by Bernadette, as shown in the photo below.