Nicola Hilton Workshop - June 2016

Photographs:

Left: Working on the padded beehives

Centre: James. a visitor, put us to shame with his embroidery skills

Right: Nicola helping Claire with the padded beehive

Nicola is a lively and experienced tutor. Many of us had admired her work when she came to talk to the Branch last year. We were a very mixed bag of students. Some of us, like me, had never done anything so small and careful before. I had begun to wonder when I saw how truly small a four inch embroidery frame actually is.

This was definitely a ‘How To’ day. Nicola had made a kit for each person. It was nice just to arrive with a hoop and a pair of scissors .She then carefully and steadily took us through each stage in the making of a small padded beehive with tiny bees flying round it. After lunch we tackled a much bigger and furry bee, using Turkish knot stitch. This became the cover of a needle case. We finished, or nearly finished, the whole project in the time.

Toni

Photograph: a selection of the nearly finished needle cases showing the padded beehive, tiny bees around the hive and the larger, furry bee made with Turkish knot stitch. Making the large bee involved holding ones breath while cutting off the loops of the knot stitch carefully and then fluffing up the ends with a tooth brush.