Morning workshop - 'Canvas Gardens' led by Sue Abbott Afternoon talk - 'My Blackwork Journey' by Liz Almond

After the welcome and notices with a reminder of the Chair’s Challenge for the June meeting - a mixed media luggage tag - the groups divided into the back room ladies (doing their own thing) and the Canvas Garden workshop led by Sue Abbott.

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Sue showed us her own and her friend’s work entitled a canvas garden - an intricately stitched piece showing a wide range of textures and stitches.

She explained we were going to work on a 5” x 5” square on 16 count canvas. We chose our garden picture and on paper marked out the 5” x 5” square.

Then looking carefully at the picture we had to block out our areas. These blocks would be stitched before any detail is added. Next we had to find the middle of our canvas and mark out the square checking the horizontal and vertical position and transfer our blocks.

From then on stitching began. All types of threads could be used and Sue gave us a list of suitable stitches for each stage of the embroidery: The background could use Arrowhead stitch, Tent stitch, Cretan stitch, Long Cross stitch and Fir stitch to name a few. Stems could then be added with Feather stitch, Couched threads, Stem stitch and Straight stitch. Finally flowers can be added using French knots, Bullion knots, Seed stitch, Long-tailed Daisy stitch and Detached Chain or Lazy Daisy stitch.

Lunch time came so quickly before we had really begun. We all agreed it would be lovely to have another session with Sue at a later date to help us complete the intricacies of the embroidery. In the meantime we vowed to continue stitching the different layers.

Thank you to Sue for a really enjoyable and inspirational workshop. Meanwhile in the back room lots of different projects were being stitched - from patchwork to samplers.

After lunch Liz Almond talked to us about her Blackwork Journey- one which had begun over 30 years ago when she discovered Blackwork and completed an embroidery of Hugh Starky, a gentleman usher to Henry VIII. She used blue linen fabric, a book of stitches and needle and threads and knowing very little about Blackwork explored the possibilities of this style of embroidery.

Her first designs were free style along the lines of the Elizabethan period. These would be outlined with Stem stitch and then shapes were filled in. But Liz’s passion for Blackwork was born out of Moorish patterns and her foreign travel, especially the visit to the new Abu Dhabi mosque. Here the architecture and designs inspired her whole approach to Blackwork.

She explained she felt Blackwork is simple to construct and an extra stitch can change the pattern and designs. Almost everyone can do it. It doesn’t have to be black. Red, green, maroon and even variegated and metallic threads can be used and designs can be enhanced with beads. She said start simply and as your confidence grows move onto more complicated designs.

Liz then went on to explain what she does with her work. Well she sells her designs to magazines all over the world. She has developed work packs too. Liz showed us towels, cushions, pencil pots, pin cushions, mats and trays that she has done. She added it is versatile, cheap to do and can be integrated with other techniques.

Her advice for good embroidery practice - not just Blackwork - was:

• Check your threads are colourfast.

• The back of an embroidery should be as good as the front.

• Don’t use knots but leave a thread and weave it into the back of the stitch later.

• Date and sign your embroidery as all pieces are heirlooms of the future.

She ended by showing us a couple of pieces she is working on- a lady for Hugh using copper threads as well as black and a very modern design of Cheryl Cole taken from a photograph.

Thank you to Liz for a really stimulating afternoon and enabling us to look closely at her work on display.
... and thanks to Ann Reading once again for a lively and interesting account of the day. The feedback from the day was very positive and I'm only sorry I missed out on all the fun!
Margaret

I've held this post back in order to tell you all about an amazing exhibition to be held at the Harris Museum soon. Last week a small group of us went to look at the samplers which are going to be on display in the Gallery this summer. Entitled 'Family Threads', the exhibition features stories of "faith, love, separation and loss in Preston families through a selection of embroidered samplers from 1800 to 1918".

The photograph shows a small group of us who went to meet Gillian Hunt and Caroline Alexander to talk about the two workshops to be given by Chris Cannon and Barbara Ryan on Friday, 31st May and Saturday, 15th June from 10am - 12 noon. We were taken to see a small selection of the samplers which are going to be on display and which we can view at the workshops. 


To say we were 'mind-blown' is no exaggeration. The work done by schoolchildren as young as eight put us all to shame. (It made some of us feel that calling ourselves 'stitchers' was a bit pretentious???) 


We hope to create an opportunity to share some of this work with our members and are liaising with Gillian and Caroline to arrange something soon. Watch this space.


There is a lecture on Wednesday, 15th May from 2 - 2.45pm with Keith Vernon, entitled 'Plain Sewing for plain girls: Needlework and girls' education in Victorian England'. I know it's short notice but it sounds very interesting? I, for one, want to know more about how and why the samplers were produced with such skill and precision. I'm sure the human stories behind the work are well worth listening to? Hope to see some of you there?


Margaret