In July, we welcomed Nicola Harper, a York-based textile artist who specialises in machine embroidered landscapes. Nicola draws her inspiration from local architecture, the Yorkshire coast, Dales and Moors. She took us through her creative process of preparing cotton calico, on which she paints a base using acrylic paints, finally embellishing with fabric scraps and machine embroidery to produce fine art

Our speaker for June was Susie Hart. Susie was the chair of two charities and had visited Mexico to learn a different technique for making paper and developed an interest in the colourful textiles produced in Mexico, in Peru and Ecuador. The social enterprise charities aimed to support local people with disabilities to develop skills and obtain jobs. In the ten years she had worked with the local people the charities had employed 120 people. Her talk involved various slides showing the processes for weaving the items, and many slides showing the colourful results. It was planned to organise trips to Peru in the future.

May saw the return of textile artist and “wobble-gob” Anne Brooke, who came to talk to us about recent times when she lost her mojo, the pandemic, and how she came out the other side. Her new work reflects the holes in life caused by losses and upheavals, and shows how these can be re-filled to become complete again in a new normal. She brought along examples of her work, which were based on wooden embroidery hoops, using smaller projects to fill the holes, which reflected her journey and made the work deeply personal.

April’s speaker was Melanie Grange, who came to talk to us about Felting. Melanie gave a talk full of warmth, insights and technical advice. She outlined how she tried needle felting and how her skills developed. She gave advice on types of wool, tools and needles. She commented on tools she found she does not use. She gave useful advice on avoiding cheap kits and on useful cheap alternative kit, such as using a foam sponge to use as a working mat, so techniques can be tried without great outlay. She brought a great range of 3-D felted animals, and animal heads, and answered questions with great generosity.