Our speaker for March was Nigel Cheney who spoke to us about his art and design throughout the years. Born in Market Harborough, with both his parents working in a textiles factory, Nigel grew up around textiles, leading him to have an interest in embroidery from an early age, winning the “Young Embroider’s” award for his O Level work. Nigel’s pieces often start as a drawing, which he then uses as a base to make art in embroidery, using vintage materials as sustainably as possible. He is fascinated by images of the natural world and the ephemera people collect, and how these can represent an oral history. He uses textiles as a vehicle for communication and the telling of stories, giving new life to old fabrics.

He gave a very entertaining and interesting talk, and brought some of his artwork and beautiful throws for us to admire.

February’s speaker was Sherry Richardson, who designs and makes hats, and is known as a “hatter who flatters”. She told us of her early memories of wearing hats and how stylish they made her feel. In her 30s, she did a City and Guilds course on millinery in Huddersfield. She modelled a variety of hats she made during this time, including a turban, fez, cloche and tiara. In 2005 she did the catwalk at the Great Yorkshire Show and pre-pandemic she worked with Gok Wan to produce beautiful, extravagant hats for his catwalk shows. We could see how Sherry is influenced by nature and the changing seasons in her designs, which feature her use of felt, leather, lace, sinamay (a lightweight natural product), paper, recycled and vintage millinery items. Many gorgeous hats to admire!

In January, we had 4 members of the society who were kind enough to talk us through some of their work that had won prizes at recent exhibitions.

Maggie Tomlinson presented her hand-knitted sweater from the 2022 exhibition, which told the moving story of her father’s life from his birth and childhood on a farm, to his time serving in the army.

Sara Perkins gave an entertaining talk on the process of creating her wine bottle doll and it’s many accessories from the 2024 exhibition, which was (retrospectively – she had forgotten the subject of the exhibition when making the doll!) inspired by Strauss’s waltz “Artist’s Life”.

Hazel Barker presented a lovely quilt, “Love and Laughter in May” she had made for her daughter’s wedding. The wedding guests were all asked to write their wishes for the bride and groom on fabric, which Hazel then made into the quilt along with some photos.

Diane Beaumont talked us through the creation of 2 pieces, “Nature in Spin”, a mixed media piece and “Bluebell Wood”, a thread painting on silk, that were selected for entry into the 2024 Open Exhibition at the Ferens gallery in Hull.

Our December speaker was Meredith Towne, who was a dress historian and clothes maker. She gave a talk celebrating the 1950s’ evening wear. Various items of clothing were shown which included cocktail dresses and a smocked children’s party dress. Meredith read from a pamphlet which outlined the arrangements necessary for getting ready to go out in an hour. The required underwear was modeled, followed by a cocktail dress and accessories. The talk was vert entertaining, and was supported by Meredith’s “glamorous assistant”, who displayed some of the items.