November Speaker

 Our speaker for November  is Alyssa Robinson and her talk is entitled "One thing leads to another" The meeting is in the afternoon at 2 pm.

Alyssa and her mother enjoyed getting the new edition of Golden Hands Magazine each month and she loved all the different techniques and remembers making a smocked dress for a little girl in the seventies.

She made clothes for dolls from her mothers dressmaking offcuts and then things for herself. She learnt sewing all through school, and made stage costumes and copies of high street fashion for herself.

She qualified and worked as a cartographer and geologist but always spent spare time making clothes, eventually setting up a bespoke dressmaking business.

After some amazing years as a full time mum, she enrolled in a City & Guilds Embroidery course and hasn't looked back.  By the time of her Diploma Show, She had completed her Post Compulsory Education Certificate and was teaching the beginners' class at the same college.  After 7 years teaching there, she set up her own studio on the Leicestershire/Northamptonshire border and set about teaching City & Guilds courses and day workshops.   

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We had a very enjoyable evening when Vendulka Battais talked to us about her “Journey with Oliven”.  She was born in the Czech Republic and moved to the United Kingdom in her mid-twenties.  Her mother had sewn many of her and her two sisters’ clothes and her eldest sister trained to be a tailoress.  She felt the need to craft with her hands and initially tried upholstery, then millinery and finally attended a patchwork class and fell in love with both the patchwork and the quilting.  Around this time, she met her husband Olivier and the first quilt she made was for him in blue and white.  They travelled to Australia and the next quilt we were shown included Australian fabric and fabric printed with photos from their travels. 

They settled in the Isle of Wight and created a fabric shop with workshop room above and also a café.  The first workshops were table runners. Very often it was the fabric that inspired the design. Eventually they relocated to Suffolk and opened another shop with workshop however now the shop is closed and this enables her to concentrate on teaching and give talks.

Over the years she has been inspired by specific techniques such as log cabin, bargello, cathedral window and been on workshops to improve her skills enabling her to pass on her expertise to her students.  Her next inspiration was using mandala as the basis for designs and she made a number of small quilts using patchwork but also embellishing the work with embroidery, beads and paint.

Her work was being notice by the quilting fraternity and she was winning prizes at quilt shows.  Some of these were in co-operation with her husband as he also is very artistic and has given up his career as a trained pastry chef to become a textile artist.  They won best in show with the quilt “Our Ladies” at the NEC in 2021.

She has trained to become a quilt judge and now understands how difficult that can be.

Her latest venture is into quilted garments using the fabric for inspiration.

It was fabulous to look at all the different projects and to find out how they had been created.  A few are shown below.

October Speaker

Our speaker for October is Vendulka Battais and her talk is entitled 'Journey with Oliven'. The meeting starts at 2pm.

Vendulka is a textile artist, tutor, speaker, long arm quilter and qualified quilt judge.

Vendulka started sewing and dress making with her mother as a young girl back in the Czech Republic but it was at spring 2008 when attending beginners patchwork class in Aberdeenshire her passion for quilting was born. Vendulka is now a prolific quilt maker, she loves a challenge and her interest comprises from Cathedral window techniques, free motion quilting and machine embroidery, hand embroidery to some surface design techniques with varying fabric paints. Her biggest passion is to make textile  hangings inspired by yoga, sacred geometry, buddhism, symbolism and often carrying interesting messages.

She will also be leading a workshop on the 30th September at Ashby Village Hall.  The workshop is chenille see picture below.  There are still places available.

September Meeting

 We were lucky that Jackie Durber was able to come and talk to the group when the booked speaker was unable to come.  Her collection of bags was very impressive, but did not cover her hand bags.

The pictures below show her favourite bags which she uses on a regular basis for sewing.

Bag open to show all the compartments

Bag zipped up

And then inserted into larger bad with pockets for yet more sewing notions

Then inserted into larger bag and can also hold current project

Bag zipped up and ready to go

Breaking News

We regret that Olivia Wilson is unable to make the meeting on Wednesday.

Fortunately Jackie Durber is able to take her place.  Her talk is entitled "Bag Lady".

Speaker for September

Our speaker for September is Olivia Wilson and her talk is entitled "Eco Textile Practices".

She is a mixed media artist and educator with 17 years of experience in art education and a Master’s in Fine Art. Her practice explores the intersection of nature, material, and storytelling, with a strong focus on sustainability. She grows and forages for natural pigments, using them to create eco-conscious textiles that honour the earth’s vibrancy.

Beyond her studio work, she is passionate about fostering a connection to nature through community-based art projects in natural spaces. She collaborates with people of all ages to create art that deepens relationships with the environment, blending ritual, self-care, and material exploration. Her work is influenced by eco-feminism and esoteric themes, challenging traditional narratives and advocating for harmony between the self and the natural world. Through art, She seeks to inspire connection, reflection, and a renewed sense of belonging to the earth.

July Meeting

There was much beautiful work to be admired at our meeting on July 2nd.  Textile artist Jane Caven travelled from Coventry and explained the development of her style in pictures and very many examples of her work which could be closely examined.

Jane told us how her interest in textiles developed from early sewing with her grandmother, but not straight away.  She gained art qualifications, finding a love for working with fabric much later in her career.

It was amazing to see so much hand sewing.  What we initially thought was applique, was actually the main fabric, brought to life with intricate, vibrantly coloured stitches for the 'background'.  Designs and compositions are first planned on paper using coloured pencils/pastels before  the sewing on black drill fabric can begin. Thus the spaces become as important as the rest of the design.

Many of us were inspired to sign up for her workshop in September. 

Kathy Francis