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

Our speaker for May is Kate Findlay and her talk is entitled "Nature in Textiles".

Kate is self employed as a textile artist and teacher.  She lives with her partner and son in Berkshire, and has a studio at home on the second floor which gives her plenty of exercise up and down the stairs!

Kate taught Design Technology and Art in secondary schools for many years, before getting a job as an art teacher in a private primary school after her son was born.  It was working part time here that allowed her own art to develop.

After creating a body of work inspired by the the Large Hadron Collider she turned to the natural world for inspiration and began a series of pieces inspired by birds, which has gradually grown to encompass a great variety of wildlife, and also landscapes and woodlands on a larger scale.

Kate travels the country giving talks and workshops based on all her work - and her ongoing interest in e-textiles and the use of other media.

Making art is a complete passion and is probably the most important thing in her life right now.

 

April Practical Evening

 Our meeting on the 1st April 2026 is a practical evening  starting at 7.30 pm.

The project is shown below:

You will need scissors, needle and thread.  

March Meeting

 At our March meeting our speaker, Jane Stock, explained how Japanese Boro developed.  She was able to show us many examples and how she has evolved her own style.

Boro has a long history and its use grew in the less affluent communities from necessity.  They used and re-used textiles for clothes for warmth and economy.  It involved putting layers of fabric over thin or damaged areas and securing them with simple stitching.

Jane explained the use of indigo dyes on cotton and jute fabrics; natural fibres that could be grown locally.  She showed us fabric that she had dyed using "tie/dye" techniques to achieve different "depths" of colour and many differing patterns as well as printed areas.

Jane's work was varied and showed how she has experimented to produce her individual style.

Kathy Francis

Examples of her work