JANUARY 2025 MEETING

We had a lovely meeting in January.

It started with the AGM, looking back on 2024, reviewing the workshops and exhibitions held during the year.  We all agreed it was a very successful one.  Some of us learnt new skills from other members imparting their knowledge at the workshops.  The Swindon Open Studios event was enjoyed by participants and visitors alike.  The rest of the AGM business was quickly concluded, and the new committee was elected for the coming year.

Swindon Open Studios will again be a part of our year in 2025 and we will be exhibiting in the Jenner Hall on the first weekend - the 20th and 21st of September.  We are extending our Arts and Crafts theme for another year as it is such a big topic, and we all felt there was more to explore.  We also have a 'blue' challenge to work on this year, these pieces will be displayed together on our special display structure.

Another monthly challenge was set where we will be exploring a stitch each month.  The stitch for January is straight/running stitch.  It will be interesting to see how each member approaches this.

The rest of the meeting was taken up by members doing their own work, catching up with each other, and deciding on the calendar of events for our future meetings.

A very enjoyable start to 2025.

November Meeting - Pincushions

 For our November meeting two of our members, Jayne and Sue showed us how to make pincushions using everyday items.

Jayne showed us how to use an item we had at home, or charity shop finds.

Jayne's teacup pincushion

Sue's method was using the tops of jars and bottles.

Sue's jar lids and bottle tops

We all brought something in from home to use and had fun making our own versions.

October Meeting - Lace Workshop

 

At our October meeting Hazel, one of our members held a small workshop for needlelace and battenburg lace.  Hazel is an experienced lace-maker and you may have seen her demonstrating bobbin lace at the recent open studio exhibition.

Needlelace was originally made by couching foundation threads onto a parchment backing.  It was then possible to make designs that did not rely on the grid of a woven fabric so did not need to be geometric designs.  It was know as Punto in Aria - stitching in the air.

Some of us were shown how to make a simple leaf.  The designs are now drawn on paper, covered with sticky back plastic to protect it from the needle and tacked onto a pad of calico.  We couched round the outline of the leaf with tacking stitches and then filled in the space between using needle lace stitches.

This is a more complex example that Hazel brought to show us. 

Needle Lace

Battenburg lace is a tape lace.  Hazel brought some supplies of this and some of us were shown how to manipulate it to make a design and infil the shape with needlelace.

This is an example of one that Hazel prepared earlier.

Battenburg Lace

We very much enjoyed the workshop and look forward to finishing our leaves and shapes and will think how we can incorporate lacework into our future work.

More information about lacework can be found here Museum | The Lace Guild | England

At the meeting we were also given the criteria for our 2025 challenge - looking forward to see what everyone produces. Watch this space!

 

Swindon Open Studios

We had a very successful Open Studios weekend at the Jenner Hall in Cricklade.

The Cricklade Town Crier came to have a look around.

As this year was an Olympic year.  Our challenge was to produce a piece of work only using circles and the Olympic colours. Visitors were interested to see the variety of interpretations of this brief.

Our main project for the year was the Arts and Crafts movement.  Over the last year we had visited Kelmscott House, The Colour Revolution exhibition at the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford and Buscot House.  This all helped to inspire us to produce work.  Here is a selection

We also had a display of work that members had produced over the years, either as a result of a workshop taken with the group or for a project or challenge from a previous year.

As well as the work on show some members had a table where they could showcase their own work and talk to visitors about it.  

Hazel at her table, demonstrating bobbin lace making.

It was lovely to see so many visitors.  We hope you enjoyed seeing our work, talking to us - and of course the homemade cake!  We are looking forward to seeing you all again next year.

September Meeting - Swindon Open Studios Prep

 As Swindon Open Studios was less than two weeks away our September meeting was spent finalising the plans for our exhibition.

We looked at what members had brought in for each of the three categories.  We had The Arts and Crafts Movement and Olympics as our two topics for the exhibition and we will also be showing a selection of work that members have done over the years either as part of an earlier project or a piece produced following a workshop held at one of our meetings.

 

We are exhibiting at the Jenner Hall in Cricklade on the 21st and 22nd September 11:00am to 4:00 pm.  It would be lovely to see you there.

August Outing to Buscot

 In August we do not have a meeting but have an outing instead.  This year we went to the National Trust property Buscot Park and House.  Visitor Info (buscot-park.com)

It opens at 2:00pm so we decided to arrive early and take a picnic to eat at the picnic tables by the car park.  The weather wasn't quite playing ball but we were prepared and didn't get too wet.

Luckily the sun then came out and we had a lovely time wandering around the walled garden admiring the flowers and produce.

We also admired the fish swimming in the pool.

Some of us then had a walk around the beautiful grounds.

We had a wander around the house which had the Briar Rose murals by Edward Burne-Jones and a couple of the upstairs rooms had Pre-Raphaelite paintings on show and a beautiful bed.  These were of particular interest to us as it tied into this year's Arts and Crafts project that we are working on for Swindon Open Studios. 

 See more about that here   Great Western Embroiderers (swindonopenstudios.org)

 

We resisted having a dip in the pool and went for a delicious tea and cake instead before heading home.

July 2024 Meeting - Christmas In July

 At our July meeting Davina, one of our members, showed us how to make a Star Christmas decoration.  

As it is July I'd like to say the sun was beating down outside - but I think it was actually raining!  Inside though we were feeling Christmassy with our festive material and sequins.

We all enjoyed making a star that we can use to hang on the tree, or combine with others to use as a Christmas garland.  Thank you for a great workshop Davina.