It Started with a Circle

Last Saturday a group of members from the Lytham St Annes Embroiderers Guild attended our Annual Regional Day held this year at Haigh Hall in Wigan. 

The first display of work to feast our eyes upon were these colourful Mandalas that had been started on an afternoon activity of the previous Regional AGM in Garstang held in October 2015.

Hand dyed pieces of fabric were used for the backgrounds of stitching on a theme called 'It Started with a Circle'.

Here are the Mandalas en masse.

And a little closer up.

 Sunny yellow, purple and blue - above. The Spiderwebs give it extra texture.

 Using rings and Blanket stitch to great effect on a green marbled background.

 Hand-stitching edged by a machine stitched border.

A project this size can use very simple stitches to make a stunning piece and be completed in a relatively short space of time so its a great idea to try if you are stuck for time.
You may also remember this Mandala from a previous post of our Sewing Day in February this year.
Perhaps these few Mandalas have given you some inspiration to design and sew (or even Doodle) one of your own.

Postcards from Our Edge

Regional Day comes but once a year.... and we are set a 'challenge' by our Regional Chairman. For 2016 a page for The North West Regional Travelling Book was required featuring Stitched Postcards picturing scenes or landmarks of our area.
Here is a map showing our location on the 'edge' of the Ribble Estuary.

Here is our Postcard Page, below.

First Postcard, top left corner, is the famous Windmill on Lytham Green with the old Life Boat House in front of it. 
If you come to visit you can see the wooden life boat that men used to row out to sea in to rescue poor unfortunate crew members. It looks very large in the boat house but out on sea...thank goodness for engine powered boats, and of course, the brave men/women who volunteer their time to man them.
Our windmill is also open in the summer on select Thursdays and Saturdays (see the Heritage Centre on Henry Street in Lytham for details of open hours). 
Come and climb up to the very top!

Detail of Life Boat House and Windmill Postcard

The White Church, Fairhaven. This featured in an episode of Coronation Street some years back (the one where Bet Lynch decided not to get married to Alec Gilroy. I think they did in the end though but not at the White Church ).

The model Spitfire by Fairhaven Lake. I have been told that it is to scale! but it seems so tiny... oh the bravey of those who flew them.

 One of the Pagodas on the Square in St Annes.

 A Sandhill at St Annes. It  really does look like sand and I love the texture of the grasses.

The 'real' sandhills run from Fairhaven Lake to the Beach Cafe just before the Ornamental Gardens and then again after the Pier. You can easily get sunburnt on a sunny day so take some sunblock.

 The Pier at St Annes.

 Lythams very own golf course. Again another lovely textured piece.

 Above is a detail from the structure around the gate at the newest park in Lytham; Park4View on Station Road. 

Whilst Lowther Park was laid out in Victorian times and is a traditional; Park4View started with an idea of a local mum who got together with some friends, raised funds to build the modern park, a Cafe with a Herb Garden, Nature Trail, Seaside Themed Playground, a good Adventure Playground, Skate Park and a BMX Track. 
Plenty to amuse children and teenagers and a place to grab a coffee and a bite to eat.

A lovely Beach Hut. The stitching seems to depict a lovely fine day but a little windy too. Just like our weather here.

Well, that is all the 9 postcards from us here at the edge of the River Ribble by the Sea. I think that you will agree that the ladies who stitched them did a sterling job and they really do make you want to come and see the sights for yourself. 

If you do, and it happens to be the 3rd Wednesday of the month, please drop in at our meeting and say "Hi". You will be warmly welcome. See address on sidebar.

Applique Trees by Lizzie Wall

In this last post featuring applique, quilted pieces by Lizzie Wall, are a few trees that you may get to make if you book one of her workshops.

A tree in the spring time. 

Summer time - notice the quilting on the tree trunk. 

Lizzie says that some students want to leave their pieces at the applique stage but as she points out 'the stitches bring the whole thing together, adding depth and texture'. 

We think that her pieces really demonstrate the truth of this.

Autumn time
 ( or maybe late summer).

Again nice quilting on the tree trunk.

A tree in Winter. A lovely background in fuchsia pink and white and aqua branches really make this piece special.

We hope that you have enjoyed seeing Lizzie's work as much as we did. I am sure you will agree that her pieces really are amazing. 

Fins, Fur and Feathers

A few more scrummy pics of  the lovely Lizzie Wall's lovely, lovely work shown to us at our meeting last Wednesday. (see post here and here). 

Beautiful, colourful owls. Bet they wish they could see their fabric portraits....

 An owl in pink, above. Note the quilting, how it adds to the tree- like background.


Left - Cute little blue owl.

It doesn't matter if  you do end up sticking the bondaweb onto the wrong side of the fabric. It will all work out fine, once you get those feathery layers on - below.

 A couple of hares - above and below. Note the movement in the pieces, the hares really do look as if they are leaping through a meadow.

 One of my favourites below - look at the details on these fish. Especially the silvery highlights.

Lovely fabrics give a watery effect to this quilt echoed by the wavy lines of the quilting.
We all really enjoyed viewing these pieces by Lizzie and maybe in the future we will get the chance to create an appliqued mini-quilt of our own at one of her workshops.

The Sower of Fine Seed

Holy garments have been given a modern take recently by Lizzie Wall using her special technique of bonded applique and quilting to adorn the robes known as Vestments or Chasubles, worn by priests/vicars when carrying out some of their services.
One of these depicted the Parable of the Sower taught by Jesus and Lizzie kindly let me take a few snaps to share with you here.

 Just look at this amazing piece. This is the front that depicts the Sower of the Seed, 2 hares, weeds and birds eating the seed. The detail that Lizzie has put into the hares just blows you away. Awesome and so beautiful.
Here is the hand of the Sower aka Jesus, on the right.

Thistles for weeds - you'll need to ask Lizzie 'why thistles' - I wont spoil the story.

These are a 'certain kind of bird' that are pecking at the seeds. I just love the blue colourway.

 This is the third hare on the back of the Chasuble.

And lastly, a section of the Stole worn around the neck and shoulders.

You will notice that I haven't written much on this post as I don't wish to give away the story that Lizzie will tell you, and also this is such a fabulous piece that words simply are not enough. 

To see this being worn and more of  Lizzie's Ecclesiastical work, please click onto her site, here.
Next post, you can see more of Lizzie's feathered and furry friends.

Fine Feathers - Hens and Cockerels by Lizzie Wall

Last Wednesday at our monthly meet of Lytham St Annes Embroiderers Guild we were treated to an amusing talk by Lizzie Wall, entitled My Quilts and other Animals. 

Having a degree in Embroidery and being a Teacher of Special Needs Students, Lizzie was full of hilarious anecdotes that had us chuckling whilst she explained her inspiration and thought processes behind her amazing and colourful applique, quilted pieces.

If you thought you knew quilting, think again... and the same goes for what you imagine bonded applique to be - Lizzie takes it to whole other sphere and the colours of the fabrics she uses are breathtaking. 

Not only did she show us every piece of the huge pile of 'lovely stuff' but she actually passed all the smaller pieces around so that we could touch them and see them close up, as she says 'you need to touch textiles/fabric'. We quite agree - so we had to multi-task; talking about the piece we were holding and listening to Lizzie speak at the same time.

I wont show you every piccie that I took as there are far too many! so if you want to see Lizzie's quilting close up and more of her work click onto her website here.

My photos will not do these pieces justice (have used those taken by flash to best show the colours but I apologize as there will be some areas that are a little fuzzy).

Here are some feathered creatures.

This is Blue Boy Buff. (the neighbouring chickens next door lay blue eggs). Lizzie deconstructs fabric and uses the patterned pieces to make feathers or scales for fish or fur. Many layers go into a piece before it is quilted and we were amazed how she had used even 'ugly' fabrics to great effect.

Paisley for feathers... who knew? and don't you love the Hexies to illustrate chicken wire?

Lizzie told us that she makes up a chicken first on background fabric before they go onto the main fabric piece.

 It was tough work getting those chickens to stay still for a photograph. Squawk!

Lovely little blue chicken.

The Blacksmith's Chicken. There is a story behind this one too. Have you spotted the blacksmiths tools behind him and skull tattoos on his leg?
These pieces look so complicated but Lizzie assured us that its only one choice of fabric per layer so there is only one choice to make. Aaahh but if only we could pick them so skillfully... take a look again at the Blacksmith's Chicken above - I would never think of picking flowers for a cockerels tail feathers - but it works wonderfully.
Thats all for now on this post - more coming up, but I hope that this has whetted your appetite to book Lizzie for a talk or a workshop. The subject of the workshop varies depending on what theme she has worked on so may be chickens or owl or hares etc AND fabric is included! 

Thank you Lizzie for sharing your work and process with us and especially for being so generous letting us touch each piece.

Make some Holes!

As promised here are some more ways with pulled threads and holes, as reported on in our last post about our Pulled Work taught to us by Linda B.

Above in orange is Diagonal Satin Stitch and below in lilac an example of Mosaic Filling.

Various ways to make Eyelets. Notice the Waste Knots as explained here.

Varying the direction of the stitches on the rows to make different effects.

Above - Back Stitch is used vertically and horizontally over 4 rows in the centre of the Shield to produce a Castellated effect.

Hessian can also be used for Pulled Work but the holes do not show up quite as well as the other even weave fabrics such as Aida, Evenweave or Hardanger. See here for examples of these fabrics.

Many thanks to Linda for her time in making up these samples for us, showing us the different effects that can be achieved with this type of counted stitching.

Thats all for this post - in the next you will see examples of ways in which Pulled Work can be incorporated into ordinary household items. 

In the meantime why not have a go at making some 'holes' for yourself?

The Last Pieces from our Members Felting Gallery

Here is the last post on our Felting Workshop. Sorry if you are perhaps suffering from 'overkill' but then again if you are like us then you wont mind feasting yet again on felted eye-candy. 
As there does not seem to be a way of placing photos side by side   ( at least I have not yet found it) I have enlarged them so the details are clearer.
I will let the pieces speak for themselves.

I do hope that everyone has enjoyed seeing their pieces showcased over the last few posts and if they haven't yet had chance to stitch or embellish them, then hopefully this has been a spur to get them finished.

Please do bring in any finished pieces to the next meeting or any future meetings so that they can be photographed and put on an updated post. We all have far too many UFOs hanging around unloved and cluttering up our craft rooms or living space; so seeing beautiful finished pieces will encourage us to find our own UFOs and finish them off.

Many thanks to Caren Threlfall our tutor for the day and to our members who were kind enough to allow their work to be photographed for our blog.