There will be more information in the next few months but the photo shows our group quilt which we are raffling for Sue Ryder Hospice at Home in memory of our much loved member Briony Coupe who died in 2023. Our tombola proceeds will also be in aid of Sue Ryder.
You can see the quilt at the Malvern Show in May as we have entered it as a charity quilt. Blocks were made by members and then it was assembled and quilted by our wonderfully gifted member, Vee Jenkins.
A group of us were lucky enough to have Mandy as our teacher for the day. Mandy is an exceptional textile artist and a wonderful teacher who inspires and challenges us in equal measure!
Our focus was on leaves and we spent the day hand stitching on a piece of silk organza using a range of techniques and natural threads. You can see some of our samples below. We looked at ways to outline different leaves, looked at negative and positive space, filled in all or part of a leaf, repeated the same leaf or tried a new one, layered leaves and layered different fabrics.
Mandy shared her huge range of threads with us and her vast number of samples and scrolls and books inspired many more ideas. We left at the end of the day with our heads buzzing!
If you would like to read more about her, there is an excellent article on textileartist.com below
Sue is a local printmaker based at the yard:ARTspace (https://www.theyardartspace.com/) Cheltenham so very local to our group. She came to speak to us about the project she instigated, Same Sea, Different Boat. And what an amazing project it turned out to be – like Topsy, it just grew and grew.
It was a creative community project about individual experiences, thoughts and emotions during lock down. Collagraph printed and stitched squares of fabric were joined together to make a quilt. Sue worked on collaboration with Louise Asher (from Hope and Elvis), Liske Johnson (Littleheath Barn studio, Bromsgrove and Ineke Berlyn’s daughter) and Catherine Kingzett a Gloucestershire textile artist.
I had seen lots of photos of the quilts (there are several!) but it is even more special when you see the work for real. The colours, the textures and the stories behind many of the squares make it a very special piece of work. We all loved her talk.
Our January meeting was held on Zoom this year. This means that not only did we avoid driving to Brockhampton on untreated icy roads but we were also able to enjoy a talk by Wendy who lives in Brighton, too far to travel to us for an evening talk.
She spoke on architecture and stitch and showed us many of her inspiration photos that she had translated to stitch. Wendy is excellent at explaining her techniques and make us feel that what she did was achievable for some of us at least!
She took us from her local area to Asia via Venice and her gorgeous photos alone lightened a January evening. Her website is well worth looking at and so is her book.
Our next exhibition is on the weekend of September 14th and 15th September
More details to follow.
We’ve had some great speakers and workshops so far this year. So far Suzette Smart, Clare Bullock and Judi Mendelssohn have been inspiring speakers. We look forward to seeing Janet Clare in June.
Stuart Hillard was as ever very popular with our members and a large group enjoyed making a table runner with him. One member said that a day with Stuart is the best therapy ever!
Last weekend Joy Harber (formerly Savage) finally managed to come back to teacher her Miniature Log Cabin workshop. Covid has intervened more than once! Below you can see the results of the day.
The marquee was up, the exhibits ready and on display, the traders set up and the demonstrators arrived. A long day on the Friday and we were ready! And then the sun shone for the whole weekend so what more could we ask?
So after a year’s delay. we welcomed back many old friends and some new ones too. The tea and coffee flowed, cakes and delicious lunches were eaten and a good time was had by all. And then all too soon, Sunday afternoon arrives, the raffle is drawn and we have to dismantle the exhibition. It definitely comes down a whole lot faster than it goes up!
We were delighted to raffle our group quilt for target Ovarian Cancer in aid of one of our founder members, Jean Moss and we swell ed our funds to help support our activities for the next 2 years.
So huge thanks to our visitors, our traders and our demonstrators!
Our first 3 meetings of the year were on Zoom and we are now once again, running meeting in Rhodes Hall, Brockhampton. The programme is listed on the tab above. Many members are feeling happy to return to face to face meetings and workshops. We are also still running Zoom meetings every Wednesday morning at 11am for those members who aren’t ready to return and some who want to do both!
Sit and Craft is for now taking place on the last Wednesday of the month at 1.30pm in Brockhampton
Our long delayed Exhibition takes place on September 17th and 18th 2022!
Brockhampton Quilters 