September Meeting

Our speaker for September is Emily Notman and her talk is entitled "The Textile Florist". The meeting starts at 7.30.

Once described as “The Textile Florist,” her work pays homage to her mother’s floristry career and the charm of her cottage garden. She creates delicate textile compositions where stitched flowers and foliage intertwine, celebrating the beauty of nature through thread and fabric.

She studied Fine Art at Leeds College of Art and Design and Contemporary Applied Arts at The University of Cumbria, graduating with a First Class BA (Hons) specialising in embroidery, printed textiles, and ceramics. Since then, she has had the privilege of exhibiting and creating bespoke, commissioned pieces for clients around the world, with her work featured in books and international publications.
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Alongside her studio practice, she runs day workshops and talks across the UK and offer online sessions worldwide, sharing her passion for textiles, mixed media, and hand embroidery with others who love to create.

July Meeting

 I’m sure when we have visited quilt shows in the past, we have all looked at all those fantastic quilts on display, and thought “Why did that one win? - my choice is much better?”

Well our July speaker: Vendulka Battais, is now a certified quilt judge. In her talk entitled Judging and Winning “ she very carefully explained the judging process under detailed headings which needed to be examined by each judge.  Surprisingly the quality of the actual stitching does not come high up on the list.

Vendulka showed pictures of quilts on screen to be compared by the audience and then revealed the actual class in a show.

Many of these were her own entries but we gasped when we saw several of them ‘in real life’ in front of us. They were huge and so much better and more impressive than the pictures!

Other pieces of work that Vendulka brought with her

6" square Challenge

Bag for the third day of Summer School

July Speaker

In July Vendulka Battais will be returning with a talk entitled "Judging and Winning".   When she came to us last year in October she mentioned that she had become a certified quilt judge.  She has created a talk to give us insight into what the judges are looking for in a project and how they have to come to an agreement on which ones will be awarded first prize etc.

June Meeting

Although Roxanne from Hannah's Room was in the middle of an extremely busy period, she stepped in at very short notice when our June speaker had to cancel.

Members able to attend at this time of year were limited but they missed a treat as we enjoyed a really stimulating evening.

Roxanne had visited us before with  beautiful examples of her wide range of quality batiks.

Her presentation covered in detail how her fabrics are produced and followed Roxanne's journey into her present work.  She has produced a huge range of designs based on inspirations from nature.

We were captivated by the kits and patterns she brought with her, so many of them with stitched and framed examples.

Many of us were happy to give in to temptation and bought one!

Sales Table left to Right

Examples of her small project work for workshops

June Speaker

 Unfortunately Julia Gahagan is unable to come to our June meeting due to illness in the family.  This means that she has cancelled the talk and the workshop.

Pat Screaton has been able to find someone to take her place for the talk in June.  Roxanne from Hannah's Room will be coming to talk and will bring her pop up shop.

Roxanna is the owner of Hannah's Room, which is named after her elder sister.  When she her sister left home in 1999 her bedroom became their mother's sewing room and eventually the base for a fabric business, specialising in Batik fabrics. Since then Hannah's Room has grown and grown.  Roxanne took over from her mother ten years ago.  She juggles a busy family life, as she is the mother of 4 children, with running Hannah's Room.  She is keen to show her children the pride in working hard as well as the value of quality time together.

She is passionate about Hannah's Room and all that the business does.  They only stock the best quality of Indonesian Batik Fabrics.  

She is keen to constantly improve the experience for her customers whether that is online, at shows, talks and workshops.

Kate Findlays Workshop

Unfinished pieces from Kate Findlay's workshop

All different

 

May Meeting

 Our May meeting saw the return visit of textile artist Kate Findlay.  She last came in 2022.

She did not disappoint and her presentation was met with an attentive audience following her detailed and fascinating explanations.

Through her videos Kate led us through building up her original designs of animals, birds and natural landscapes.  There were also plenty of finished pieces to examine as well.

Kate dyes a lot of fabric herself and particularly interesting was her method of painting tree trucks and using tiny confetti pieces.

Many of us were tempted by the wide range of items on sale, ranging from greetings cards to patterns and complete kits of her designs.

Examples of her work