MAY

May Outing

Our outing in May was to Leek in Staffordshire.

The day began with a drive through beautiful countryside in fine weather. The first stop for many when we arrived was for coffee and cakes, then exploring the town with a little retail therapy and lunch.

Our next destination was to All Saints' Church where we were met by Rowena Lovatt.

Rowena had been our speaker in May when she had told us the story of the Leek Embroideries.

For our visit she had arranged to have many of the embroideries out on display. She guided us round the works giving us much information and insight into the work, including pieces that she had worked on.

The day ended with another lovely ride home through more beautiful scenery.

The pictures below were kindly provided by Mary and Jenny as I had left my camera at home.

 

Rowena

 

APRIL

James Sharp 

Printing on Fabric

 

As a newcomer to textiles, James found a method of printing onto fabric that was simple and inexpensive. He bought different types of fabric from charity shops, and used commercial stamps to print onto them

He then found that the stamp pads normally used with these blocks dried up very quickly, so he began to use cheap acrylic  paints (mainly black) to print with. He makes a variety of items which include bags, books and aprons. I particularly liked the gardener's apron made from a heavy strong fabric with a nice big pocket.

After a demonstration, James invited members to try their hands at making a print.before having a look at the sales table.

As well as using all sorts of fabric for the covers of his books, James used mainly recycled paper for the pages too.

 this is one of the prints I made.

The two prints below are ones that I did at home afterwards. I printed some fabric using a Gelli plate, then added the images in the same way as James, with wooden stamps and black acrylic paint. I have also been using paints to print with instead of the commercial printing pads.