Our branch was invited to take part in the annual Avebury Day on Saturday 10 September. This was a great opportunity to show our work and to promote the Guild. The wonderful hanging which our Young Embroiderers created for our exhibition earlier this year was on display and, as you will see from the photos below, children were encouraged to stitch into a sampler. There were a great variety of exhibitors - to the left and right we had a vintage fire engine and ferret racing! Thank you Vernice and Lindsay for the photos. Ros
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At our AGM on Monday Yvonne Miles stood down as Chairman after 7 years prior to that she was Secretary and speaker finder, making a total of 11 years. Shirley Watson also stood down as Secretary after 9 years and was on the Committee a few years before that. We thank both Yvonne and Shirley for all that they have done for the Guild – they will be greatly missed but we hope they will continue to enjoy all our activities from the side lines. Susanne Stedman has kindly agreed to be Branch Secretary but unfortunately the position of permanent Chairman is still to be confirmed. For the meantime members of the Committee will take it in turn to cover this role for three month at a time with Clare Russell starting the new arrangement.
Report by Ros Over 200 Embroidery Guild members representing 18 groups from the South West area gathered together for our annual Festival Day. There were two speakers, Cas Holmes and Patricia Godwin, a large raffle, a lucky dip, competitions and displays. The winners of the 'Superstition' competition - 1st Lindsey Sherwood (Red Sky at Night) Marlborough Guild, 2nd Jean Chisolm (Magpies) Blackmore Vale Guild and joint 3rd Gloria Pugh (Bride & Groom) and Mary Clark (Every superstition) both from Malmesbury Guild. Street furniture competition Competition entries from the host's guild Christmas competition 'Street Furniture' were exhibited. The Young Embroiderers had their own display and competition which was on by Lottie and runner up, Emily. Yr 10 exhibition Under guidance of teacher Katie Griffin, textile students from Year 10 at St John’s School put on an exhibition. A project was organised for the Festival Day and students took digital photos around the school which were then printed on calico and then stitched - the results were amazing. Anna Nowicki and Jane Lemon Festival guest Jane Lemon, international embroiderer and creator of altar frontals at Salisbury Cathedral viewed their work and was delighted with what the students were achieving. Yvonne Miles There was an exhibition of quilts from Urchfont Manor. The new owner gave them to Marlborough & District Guild and our chairman Yvonne Miles thought it was appropriate for them to be displayed as many of the members at the Festival had attended courses at the Manor. Display of Embroidery Guild colour samples Retail therapy gave everybody the opportunity of stocking up their store cupboard and hopefully all the traders considered it a successful day. Our thanks go to Art Van Go, Burning Issues (Margaret Beal), Chrome Yellow Books, Indian Bazaar (Tiggy Rawling), Cupcake Cottons of Burford, Mulberry Silks (Patricia Wood), Silk Sacks, Simply Sequins and Winifred Cottage (Myfanwy Hart). A representative from Bernina was on hand to answer questions and demonstrate their latest sewing machine. Terry & Ann Ann Hampton, the Chairman of the South West Region opened the day by welcoming everybody followed by Terry Murphy, the Guild's CEO who talked about the past year at headquarters. Cas Holmes In the morning Cas Holmes gave the Madeira sponsored lecture - Urban Nature. Her work relates to the natural and built world and she uses found materials, domestic fabrics and gathered objects in her work. Cas told us of the time she found a Bernina in a skip and carried it home on the underground and was thrilled to find it still worked. We saw slides of her installations and she explained the inspiration behind them and their construction. Cas emphasised the importance of keeping a sketch book and said she likes time to reflect on drawings before using them in her work. She was also promoting her new book Connected Cloth to be printed in September 2013. Selection of hats In the afternoon Patricia Godwin from the Palm Court Theatre gave a talk entitled “Anything Goes”. She entertained us with her tales of Edwardian elegance to the roaring 20's. She was offered newspapers, magazines and periodicals by the owner of a stately home who also had an attic full of period clothes and accessories. The Estate Agent recommended the price of £5 each so eventually she became the proud owner of a number of outfits. As each garment was displayed she read snippets from the papers relating to the time. She had us all in fits of laughter as she read advertisements for Vaseline, articles about Edwardian meals, driving and one about kissing. Each outfit came with its own accessories, stockings, hats, parasols and even a canary head and a motoring hat. Next year's SW Region Festival will be hosted by Exeter & District Branch in East Budleigh.
Ros Last week a group of us visited the NEC in Birmingham. Our ticket covered three different exhibitions, Sewing for Pleasure, Fashion, Embroidery & Stitch and Hobby Crafts. In addition to the retail therapy we enjoyed seeing our Macedonia Olympic postcards on display. Brenda Hickinbottom Brenda Hickinbottom also had her work on display. As well as being a member of the Marlborough & District Embroidery Guild, Brenda also belongs to Meniscus Textile Artists, which are based in Rothley Leicestershire. The subject for their stand was "Iconic Women" and Brenda chose the ATA Spitfire pilots in the Second World War for her work. She tells me, her preparation included looking at photos of scenery and sky formations together with a lot of thinking time. She then drew a rough sketch of outlines for the overall size. Using silk organza layers, trapping silk fibres and paper she free machine embroidered to create the shapes and textures. Letting the machine needle and threads draw the design in her head as you would a pencil when drawing. In addition to the individual projects each member of the group made an apron with a single word on it and when displayed it read: "These aprons represent the traditional image of women but women are about more than this". Ros |
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