Currently all face to face meetings are on hold, but:
We are Zooming!
Please click HERE TO SEE OUR CURRENT PROGRAMME
We are please to announce that our programme will continue beyond April 2021 under our independent stitch group. Further details will be published here as they become available. If you want to join us at one of our zoom meetings or want more information on how to join our group please get in touch by emailing derbyshireitrep@embroiderersguild.co.uk
To see our monthly stitch along 'Twinchies' - including links to interesting and helpful videos click Here. A new stitch will be released on the first of each month
May 8th 10.30 - Jenny O'Leary
'Landscape Batik and Lockdown'
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The hand in date was the end of January for the Chairs competition but many members are still working on pieces that will be exhibited at the hospital later in the year. Choosing a winner was incredibly difficult because the standard was so high and the entries were so very diverse. The talents and expertise demonstrated in all the entries is amazing. My thanks to everyone who send a piece for the challenge. The winner was taken from real life. A cleaner working in the hospital keeping everyone safe from the virus with his mop and cloths. The portrait had so much character and demonstrates the point that heroes in our hospitals are working in many diverse and critical roles to keep us all safe. Many thanks to Julie for creating the beautiful piece above.
Circles
Twinchies (Stitch Along for 2021
Spring is Sprung
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NEW BRANCH PROJECTS for Spring 2021 Now our Friendship circles are almost complete we have two new individual branch projects for members to enjoy alongside the larger Hospital Heroes and Thank you Medals projects (click the name above to view). The first of these new projects, "Spring is Sprung" is a short project for the Spring season where members are making 3D flowers to display in their windows.   We are also running a monthly stitch along " Take one Stitch (or more commonly known as Twinchies) where we explore one set stitch a month on a 2 inch square of fabric. This latter project will last a year and will enable members of all abilities to practice stitches in their own style whilst sharing expertise and ideas with other members. More information on these and our other projects can be found on our Projects Pages. We will post our work on this page each month for you to enjoy.               Friendship Circles Over the past 6 months we have individually made friendship circles. Later on these circles will be interlinked and will represent our friendship and support for each other during this period when we can't physically meet up. Maureen ran a session on Sashiko earlier this year and it inspired Tricia who made some drawstring bags.   ..................... Continuing with the topic of Sashiko Janet told us that One of her prized possessions is this Sashiko cushion which she won at an East Midlands Regional Day raffle some years ago.  .....................
Hilary has created this fabulous piece below for a friendship cushion.  Hilary: Piece for a Friendship Cushion. ..................... Members Challenge 2020 Jennie Riley won the Challenge this year, pictured below.  Jennie R: Pelargonium Jennie says "The 2020 Challenge title was My Favourite Things so for me the obvious subject was Pelargonium. I love their vibrant colour and interesting leaves, often sketching and sewing them and with this panel was flattered to be a prizewinner. My methods are very straightforward simply building up colour with multiple layers of sheer appliqué followed by free machine embroidery". Regional Day Competition 2020. Even though Regional Day was cancelled this year the Competition went ahead and Derbyshire's Heather Derry came joint second with her piece 'Environmental Impact' pictured here below. Each piece was accompanied by a 'back story' and Heather's read 'My focus was the environmental impact that trying to eradicate one species has upon our environment, & the impact we have upon the environment of such a beautiful creature, both ‘pretty deadly’! I’ve used a combination of textile art, FME, hand stitching & fabric paint.'  Environmental Impact Memory Bears Mo made some ‘memory bears’ from shirts; apart from the ‘lady bear’ with wings that were made from a favourite jumper.  Memory Bears: Mo ..................... Poppies Vivienne made these Poppies from Zeelon to raise money for the British Legion.  ..................... Hospital Heroes Exhibition: Eve's Addition Eve has been inspired to create additional images of a bouquet of flowers as a way of showing our appreciation for NHS workers and is considering the use of appliqué, felt, cross stitch, patchwork, machine embroidery or hand stitch to create an additional A4 piece for the exhibition. For more information about the Exhibition please click our Branch Projects page. ..................... Dress Making Pat made this simple dress using hand dyed sand washed crepe de chine silk.  Pat told us that she really liked the pattern which can be made with short sleeves or long sleeves or as a top. The pattern is called “The Raglan” from a small company called The Avid Seamstress and can be found on this website by clicking here. ..................... Diane's created this Cockerel  Diane: Cockerel ..................... Results following Online Courses Some of our members attended the on-line courses run by Zara Day with the following results. Glass Vase cover: Alison For information on Zara’s online courses please click here ..................... Mo and Rebekah took part in a project "Textiles in Lockdown" which focussed on researching and sharing textile practice during the pandemic lockdown. This was commissioned by the Gawthorpe Textiles Collection and led by the textile artist Ruth Singer. Both Mo and Rebekah's pieces featured in the e-book by Ruth.  Mo  To find out more about the project, and see the ebook, (particularly page 47), and the podcast please click here Eve designed and made this tent  Eve's Tent ..................... Heather created a Christmas Quilt from a design by Andrea Walpole.  You can see Andrea's work on her webpage by clicking here Here's the Link Blog and Facebook page You can buy Andrea's patterns here ..................... Elizabeth has been working on Colin the Rooster Design from Hazel Blomkamp’s book “Crewel Birds” and sold as a kit  Here's the link https://www.hazelblomkamp.com/shop/kits/crewel-birds-book/ Jane H won a yellow raffle bag over a year ago and turned the contents into a Patio Heater Cover seen here.
..................... Pictured below is Barbara's first attempt at eco printing-using Autumn leaves and some flowers from her garden. ..................... Anita produced these helping hands as part of our Hospital Heroes Project.  ..................... | Pictured below are some images of what we've been making this month ..................... Dee embroidered this Kingfisher for her brother in law's birthday card.  Dee: Kingfisher ..................... Pat has been inspired by Anne’s “Sew4Soul” projects
 ..................... Jenny R was inspired by a carving in Italy, Colin the Rooster and the pictures in the book Crewel Birds by Helen Blomkamp to create 'Dennis the Duck'. You can access this book by clicking here  .................... Mary has made these beautiful mandala cards These designs were taken from the book 'Mandalas to Embroider', Mary has put her own 'spin' on the design.  .................... Alison attended The Coral Reef and ‘Thank you’, workshops run by Zara Day. you can find out more about the workshops by clicking here to contact Zara.  Alison: Thank You and Coral Wreath ..................... This gentleman was created from silk paints by Heather who was inspired following a discussion about how our pets bring us closer to like minded folk.  HEATHER .....................  Heather also completed her ‘calendar quilt’. She bought the EPP, (English Paper Piecing) monthly from ‘Sew and Quilt’ and sewed a strip a month. ..................... Mary worked on this Mandala over Christmas from the book “Mandalas to Embroider” by Carina Envoldsen-Harris, which includes large and small iron on patterns. The book is published by Search Press, click HERE for the link. The book  Mary: Mandala ..................... Vicky created a needle-case from machine made leaves.  Vicky: Needle-case ..................... Barbara created this bowl using free motion embroidery.  Barbara: Seaside ..................... Here is another Christmas decoration from Pam. Pam says that her Angel was started many years ago from a Kit dated1999. She is worked on an Evenweave Linen, with No 12 Perle and mainly a Hardanger Technique. The Kit is one of the 1999 Collections of Angel of Dreams by Ruth Hanke. Kits by Ruth can be found on her web page: www.hankypankycrafts.com The Christmas Tree at the back is one of Pam's own designs,  Pam: Christmas Angel ..................... Pam made Christmas tree decorations tor her niece, as Christmas presents this year. This is one of a pair.  Pam: Christmas Tree Decoration ..................... Alison and Dee completed online courses with Zara Day. Alison created this landscape of a walk she did on the Edges above Curbar.  Alison: Landscape redefined Dee learnt about mixing watercolours with embroidery on one of the courses and later produced this birthday card for her daughter in law.  If you are interested in courses run by Zara please email Zara at zara@zaradayembroidery.com or phone +44 (0) 7717 371668 ..................... Margery discovered a new use for Pam’s Yorkshire buttons. by increasing the size of the template to 10 cm and the number of notches to 16 and used a fine cotton wool. They make great looking cacti pincushions!!  Margery: Pincushions using Yorkshire Buttons ..................... Pam ran a session at our branch meeting on Yorkshire buttons and Julie made these from space dyed threads.  Julie: Yorkshire Buttons ..................... Elizabeth made this wreath with her granddaughter.  Elizabeth ..................... Elsie made these cushions from handwoven tweed.  Elsie ..................... Eve made these Japanese themed cushions  Eve ..................... Christmas Decorations Jenny found some Christmas wreaths that she made many years ago in an Adult Education Class at St Helen's House  Christmas Wreath: JENNY ..................... Elf Houses Elizabeth spent half term creating things with her grandchildren, including these elf house from self drying clay.  . ..................... Book covers Julia made these book covers as part of course she did some time ago, using saved selvedges of fabric.  Bookcovers: Julia
..................... Portrait Heather was inspired by an exhibition of 'self portraits to create this Vangough style portrait based on her granddaughter.  Portrait: Heather ..................... 'Poppy a Truly Fanciful Bird' Carol was inspired to stitch the bird below, designed by Hazel Blomkamp. The pattern for ‘Poppy’ is from Inspirations issue #107 by Hazel Blomkamp and you can access it by clicking  ..................... Christmas Framing Here's one of the pictures Heather framed; This is one of a trio of pictures she stitched just after last Christmas,  ..................... Stash Quilt Ann made this quilt from her 'stash'  ..................... Yorkshire Buttons Our Monthly Guild meeting was well attended this month and Pam taught us how to make Yorkshire Buttons. You can see the results below.  Here is a more unusual placement of a Yorkshire Button named Brillo by Jane, much to the amusement of the rest of her family!  ..................... Mo has been on a 6 week course on machine embroidery and has made some Christmas bunting. The course is run by Poppy Treffry from the 'Embroidery Club'. You can find out more about Poppy and some of her courses by clicking here.  ..................... Carol made these Christmas Trees out of felt, bits of lace and sequins and beads. They're filled with dried lavender from the garden. Carol explained that if several “flat” ones were made and threaded with ribbon through the loops the trees could be made into a banner to hang at Christmas.  ..................... Wild Layers Mo went to a workshop with Vinny Stapley called Wild Layers through the Stitch Club, which you can find by clicking this Link In this piece Mo used old bits of net curtains, some old sheeting and some chiffon type material, as well as a bit of muslin. The idea was to work with layers of finer more see through material.  ..................... Many of our members are busy making Christmas Cards  ..................... An update on Collin Elizabeth has been learning how to fill an area with raised chain stitch using two strands of stranded cotton. She noted that this stitch is often shown as a straight stitch in stitch directories but that it is a very effective filling stitch too.  Collin: Elizabeth ..................... Beverley visited the Cathy Reavy's 'thread workshops' website and learnt a new technique to produce some Mountmellick Whitework.  Cathy is running another Mountmellick workshop on Saturday 13th March at Alstonefield Memorial Hall. Alternatively you can buy a kit with online tutorial now. To find out more about the Mountmellick workshop click here Further information about Threads Workshops can be found here ..................... |
