The 1st of May, May Bank holiday weekend but still many of the group joined us once again for our ‘Zoom’ meeting.
After welcomes, Helen Barnes was introduced to the group. Helen has grown up loving the textures and colours of fabric, stitch patterns and motifs used to create beautiful textiles. A passion that has grown with her through the years.
As an Art and Textiles teacher she continued her interest by studying City and Guilds Embroidery Part 1 and 2, and more recently she has been awarded an MA in Art and Design from the University of Leeds.
She has been fortunate enough to travel extensively, researching textiles in far reaching places and recently she has been investigating her own heritage of the North Country quilts.
After welcomes, Helen Barnes was introduced to the group. Helen has grown up loving the textures and colours of fabric, stitch patterns and motifs used to create beautiful textiles. A passion that has grown with her through the years.
As an Art and Textiles teacher she continued her interest by studying City and Guilds Embroidery Part 1 and 2, and more recently she has been awarded an MA in Art and Design from the University of Leeds.
She has been fortunate enough to travel extensively, researching textiles in far reaching places and recently she has been investigating her own heritage of the North Country quilts.
It is with the travels that Helen began her talk. Inspired by the skills and techniques of villagers in India she collected a variety of pieces showing Shisha work, chain stitch and sequins. She was amazed at the beautiful colours that were used and how the villages co-operated with each other to support their work. In a later visit to Bengal, she was once again intrigued by the Kantha work of the area. It wasn’t just running stitch but intricate embroidery of animals, flowers and pattern work.
Another visit, this time to Peru, also inspired and amazed her. Again the embroidery she saw was bright, colourful and showed how pieces of lace or gold would be added so nothing was wasted.
It was at this point that Helen decided she should look into her heritage and that is where her fascination for North Country Quilts began. As a child she always loved the quilt on her bed-it was a totally cotton cloth quilt, including the wadding. As like most North Country quilts (which includes the areas of Durham, as well as Cumbria and Yorkshire) it had a flower in the middle and shapes called flat iron, shells and feathers. These are traditional designs which are repeated and shared with generations and throughout villages giving a real sense of community.
There are several traditional types of quilts from everyday stripy quilts to Patchwork and Club quilts but they all have one thing in common. They are hand quilted with traditional patterns like running feather, trail and cable, flowers, hearts and semicircles as well as the square diamond. Helen suggested if you come across a quilt to look at the back, especially to see the range of the stitched designs.
Helen makes her own quilts usually about one metre square and she uses her own templates in the traditional fashion by folding paper (like a snowflake as we have done many times as children) or by using old pennies and half pennies, wine glasses ,plates and iron plates to design cables, feathers and flowers. Her designs are planned on paper and card, which she moves around until she is happy with the layout. She has made samples of 50 patterns, which she is hoping to put into a book. It seems the stitchers changed some of the general designs to make their own. Maybe there are still more out there!
Helen makes her own quilts usually about one metre square and she uses her own templates in the traditional fashion by folding paper (like a snowflake as we have done many times as children) or by using old pennies and half pennies, wine glasses ,plates and iron plates to design cables, feathers and flowers. Her designs are planned on paper and card, which she moves around until she is happy with the layout. She has made samples of 50 patterns, which she is hoping to put into a book. It seems the stitchers changed some of the general designs to make their own. Maybe there are still more out there!
Many thanks to Helen for her inspiring and informative talk. I am sure someone in our group will try out this type of quilting in the future.
After Helen left us we showed our Monthly Challenge pieces, which this month had to include a textured surface. Take a look below.
After Helen left us we showed our Monthly Challenge pieces, which this month had to include a textured surface. Take a look below.
Sandie: Sue and I did a project last year she saw on line, it could have been Janet Brown but cannot completely remember! I have done two lines of about 6 inches wide x 6ft to go down each side of my cabinet. The technique really is to cover the fabric with Suffolk puffs, strips of fabric gathered with running stitch and then beads can be added. In fact you can use any technique you want until the whole of the fabric is covered.
Margaret. G: April showers - although we have been very much without rain this month. April is usually a month of sunshine, showers, primroses and blossom. I have added clear glass beads to the single strand rain.
Kath R: The textured piece is just rough dry paint on linen. Then beads and threads were used for a dandelion clock.
Mel C: April – I used padded satin stitch, Casalguidi stitch, spiders’ web, French knots, fabric manipulation and edging stitch.
Margaret. G: April showers - although we have been very much without rain this month. April is usually a month of sunshine, showers, primroses and blossom. I have added clear glass beads to the single strand rain.
Kath R: The textured piece is just rough dry paint on linen. Then beads and threads were used for a dandelion clock.
Mel C: April – I used padded satin stitch, Casalguidi stitch, spiders’ web, French knots, fabric manipulation and edging stitch.
Irene: The April page for my book shows surface textiles on the top left hand side using velvet and gauze. On the right I have machine embroidered a water coloured background.
Ann: This month I was inspired by the trees. Not just because of their lovely fresh green leaves but their amazing bark, so I went out and took some bark rubbings. It was good fun. I then used some of the ideas to stitch my piece. I wrapped string with variegated perlé yarn and some with variegated slub yarns and couched them in place. I then wrapped beads in chiffon and stitched some of these between the yarns. I filled in other spaces with fly stitch, line stitch and French and bullion knots.
Ann: This month I was inspired by the trees. Not just because of their lovely fresh green leaves but their amazing bark, so I went out and took some bark rubbings. It was good fun. I then used some of the ideas to stitch my piece. I wrapped string with variegated perlé yarn and some with variegated slub yarns and couched them in place. I then wrapped beads in chiffon and stitched some of these between the yarns. I filled in other spaces with fly stitch, line stitch and French and bullion knots.
Barbara: My piece includes calico covered in paint with dyed muslin. Using perlé thread I secured a pebble and then did drizzle stitch, bullion stitch, French knots and needle weaving and I finished it all off with a few beads.
Kath H: I used a mini loom to weave wool pieces and then embroidered these with flowers, April showers and Spring lambs. Each piece is mounted on covered clothing tags.
Edwina: I still have some more to do on my piece but the original was from a Regional Day workshop run by Sandra Kendall. Sandra supplied the blue fabric ready stitched with the 'hole' in the middle and showed us how to make the tree trunks. These are wrapped threads. I love bluebell woods and the bluebells were out in April.
Kath H: I used a mini loom to weave wool pieces and then embroidered these with flowers, April showers and Spring lambs. Each piece is mounted on covered clothing tags.
Edwina: I still have some more to do on my piece but the original was from a Regional Day workshop run by Sandra Kendall. Sandra supplied the blue fabric ready stitched with the 'hole' in the middle and showed us how to make the tree trunks. These are wrapped threads. I love bluebell woods and the bluebells were out in April.
And what else have we been up to?
Irene has been making novelty pincushions: flowers, bees and bags for the church sale one day!
Kath R has made a vessel in sheers and dissolvable fabrics, which were then machine stitched together before the dissolvable fabric is almost washed away leaving some behind. The vessel is shaped over a bowl covered in cling film and Vaseline and then allowed to dry.
Mel C has also made a machine embroidered thread bowl and a scarf which she dyed using leaves as prints with iron as a mordant. This was an idea was from a workshop with Maggie Pearson.
Her stitched wheel was a project run on YouTube by Cathy Reavy, and was started in January as a stitch sampler. Three new stitches were added each week on a Thursday. Lots of the stitches she hadn’t tried before, so a bit of a learning curve.
She has also completed four more tags with Anne Brooke 52 tags.
Liz has cross stitched these designs for a couple of T-Shirts, she also used the same technique on sweat shirts in the past.
“I wondered about using a canvas style pattern on a sweat shirt but don't know if I'd need to use an interfacing to stiffen the design once completed due to using longer stitches. Can anyone help?”
Irene has been making novelty pincushions: flowers, bees and bags for the church sale one day!
Kath R has made a vessel in sheers and dissolvable fabrics, which were then machine stitched together before the dissolvable fabric is almost washed away leaving some behind. The vessel is shaped over a bowl covered in cling film and Vaseline and then allowed to dry.
Mel C has also made a machine embroidered thread bowl and a scarf which she dyed using leaves as prints with iron as a mordant. This was an idea was from a workshop with Maggie Pearson.
Her stitched wheel was a project run on YouTube by Cathy Reavy, and was started in January as a stitch sampler. Three new stitches were added each week on a Thursday. Lots of the stitches she hadn’t tried before, so a bit of a learning curve.
She has also completed four more tags with Anne Brooke 52 tags.
Liz has cross stitched these designs for a couple of T-Shirts, she also used the same technique on sweat shirts in the past.
“I wondered about using a canvas style pattern on a sweat shirt but don't know if I'd need to use an interfacing to stiffen the design once completed due to using longer stitches. Can anyone help?”
Next month the challenge is to use shades of one colour in your piece. Can’t wait to see what you come up with.
We will also be taking part in a stitching activity. Information will be sent out to you in plenty of time before the zoom meeting. Until then keep safe and keep stitching.
AR
We will also be taking part in a stitching activity. Information will be sent out to you in plenty of time before the zoom meeting. Until then keep safe and keep stitching.
AR
RSS Feed
