September Meeting - Open Studios Prep

 It was good to be back today after not meeting in August.  We spent the meeting talking about our open studios weekend.

We sorted out who was doing what on the day and decided what bits of work we would be exhibiting.  Our main focus is on the continuation of the Arts and Crafts project that we started last year.  There will be a good variety of work that will be displayed. 

We will also be showing the result of our monthly stitches.  It will be good to see how everyone has chosen to present their stitches. 

There were a variety of workshops, held during the year and we will bring the work that was produced during and after these.  These included needlelace, Christmas stars, pincushions and printing on fabric.

Members will have tables where they will be showing their work, some may be for sale.  

Last, but not least, there is our challenge.  We were given the challenge of producing a blue piece that incorporated the number five in some way and also used some material that we were given by our chair Maggie.  This material proved the biggest challenge as it included feathers and was very difficult to handle and keep in place!

Plenty of our members will be there over the weekend to chat to visitors about our work.  There will also be tea and cake.  We would love to see you on Saturday 20th and Sunday 21st 11:00 to 16:00 at Venue 29, The Jenner Hall in Cricklade.  Please do come along.

Swindon Open Studios | Swindon | Community Art Event

Great Western Embroiderers | swindonopenstudios

GWE Summer

 For our July meeting we had a 'Sit and Stitch' where we all got on with our own projects and had a sociable day.  We do not meet in August and we did not arrange a group outing this year but many ideas were shared for exhibitions for us to go to if we were able.

July also saw a Free Motion Embroidery workshop that was taught by our chair, Maggie.  we had the use of the quilting room at Little Sew n Sew at the Craft Village in Studley Grange Little Sew N Sew | Quilting Company Swindon.  Great fun was had by all who attended.  We were shown many techniques, including sewing on dissolvable fabric.  Lots of ideas to incorporate into future work.

Maggie also brought along some amazing work that she had produced using the technique - including a life drawing done entirely by free motion embroidery!

Here are some pictures of the day.

June Meeting - Christmas Stars in July

 For our July meeting Hazel showed us how to make Christmas Stars.  We drew our stars onto some vertical blind material, cut them out and then stitched beads on using metallic thread.  Everyone used different beads a lovely collection of stars was produced.

Here is a selection of the stars that were made.

May 2025 Meeting - Using up Stuff!

One of our members, Pat, gave us a brilliant talk on using up all the scraps of material, threads and other bits and pieces that we have collected over time and saved - just in case.

Pat talked about storing the scraps of material and threads and then pulling out a few and see what we were inspired to do with them.  Pat also brought along some examples of her work that she had produced using this method that we were all fascinated by.

Also at our May meeting some of us brought in work that we had from when we first did any stitching and we enjoyed seeing what everyone was currently working on.

April 2025 - Blanket Stitch

 Our Stitch of the month for April was blanket stitch.  Here are some of the interpretations that members produced.