Our first meeting of the new year and we were treated to a menagerie of needle felted animals created by Fi Oberon.

Fi described how she set her animals in small scenes as part of creating her book on needle felting. She then went on to explain the process of needle felting and the creating of her beautifully detailed creatures highlighting techniques, processes and materials in such a way that even beginners could ‘have a go’.

All artists find that their work leads them in many directions, Fi is passionate about her environment and so uses natural dyeing in her work.

This passion for the environment has led her into a new idea to highlight the effect of global warming ‘Data Wrapped Trees’. Creating an embroidery , of a tree with coloured bands, each band representing data on the effects Carbon Dioxide Emissions on the environment.

Fi wishes to carry this message to Downing Street, anyone interested in hearing her ideas and helping in this campaign can contact her direct.

Jo’s mantra taken from a quote by Ruskin, Head, Heart, Hands the three elements which go into her textile art work.

Head, the wonderful ideas Jo wants to interpret in textiles.

Heart, the friends and family, particularly her  muse Agnes, all remembered in Jo’s art.

Hands, Jo admitted the hardest part, where hands sometimes fall short of the heart and head.

Jo’s love of her textile art was inspirational and made  for a most enjoyable afternoon.

H-anne-MADE  , my journey from a to Z.

Anne kept us all enthralled with her vivacity and enthusiasm for her textile art.  She spoke of her childhood and a mother who encouraged ‘messy ‘ art. Rebelling against her father’s wish for her to become a chartered accountant Anne went on to study and eventually teach art.

The photograph above shows  a sample of Anne’s catalogue and the process by which her art continues to develop. We wonder where the next step will take her.

Precious Memories Jo’s work is a reflection on memories of people we love and how we associate them with what they wear. Their patterns and colours are embedded into our memory and become inseparable from our image of them. Our patterns and colours determine not only our character and how we want to be perceived by others but also define us in a time, place and culture.

Jo’s recent work uses shadow to reflect the image of our patterns and identity and how she can enhance the idea of memory by having a shadow of the image reflected onto a plain background a distance away from the actual work. This enables the shadow to  become larger and more defined.

From Intangible History to Creative Practice.

Engagement with the deep-sea trawlermen of Hull and their fashion design process 1950s to 1970s.

The daughter of a hull trawler man, brought up  in a  matriarchal household of talented weavers and stitchers  Claire gave us a fascinating talk about her own career and study exploring both aspects of her heritage.

The 1970s saw the demise of the deep sea trawling industry in Hull and with it a whole culture passed into history.

Clare spoke about her initial interest in weaving, her experimentation leading to innovation, working for some of the major textile companies. Her natural curiosity brought her full circle and her own father. The Hull trawlermen had a distinctive on shore style of dress. Claire spoke of the particular style of the suit having elements of a variety of influences. Her latest research is an attempt to discover the roots underlying this style. One theory is that it originated through popular Wild West cowboy outfits as depicted in films of the 1950s.

Claire showed us samples of her early design work and sketch books with ideas for adapting the decorative ‘cowboy’ jacket using fish and flower designs.

Another element Clare is following is looking at the actual dyeing process and its ecological effects. To this end she has been experimenting with a reduced number of dyes. The combining of threads during weaving produces different colours thus eliminating the need for potentially harmful and unnecessary dyes.

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Sarah’s first foray into textile work was foundation piecing a patchwork of hexagons from scraps of 1970s fabrics of her mother’s. In fact it was her mother who then backed this piece after it had been ‘finished’.

Sarah then told us of her work as a political journalist reporting on Parliament, this work meant her leisure time was in the morning. Determined to make the best of her free time Sarah returned to her teenage interest in patchwork and eventually quilting.

Over time her art and techniques developed and Sarah now combines both interests creating quilts with writing as an integral part. The art of making the quilt and the words almost philosophical; links to past quilters, a circular quilt describing a feeling of going around in circles linking problems associated with old age and Alzheimer’s.

Beautiful looking quilts with thought provoking text, thank you Sarah.

Opus anglicanum also known as English work is fine embroidery often worked in gold thread. It dates from the Medieval times particularly the 12th  to mid 14th century.

The work was highly prized for its exquisite needlework and great detail and was used for  Archbishop’s Copes and to embellish diplomatic gifts.

Unfortunately many of the skills were lost as a result of the plagues which swept Europe at that time.

Alison Larkin will talk about Opus Anglicanum and show pieces of her own work in the style of English Work.

Irishman Ernest Shackleton led three polar expeditions to the Antarctic in the period that has become known as The Heroic Period of Arctic Exploration.

Textile artist Viv Stamford has collected pieces of fabric from Bridlington Beach to create works commemorating Shackleton.

Join us to hear about this fascinating work and of Hull’s connections with Shackleton.

Starting from her own love of drawing  the places she loves Janet has developed her own style of textile map. Her unique perspective and type of applique’ brings to life the streets of houses, gardens and allotments with individual features recognisable to the observer.

A journey to Scarborough detailing York Minster en route and Scarborough South Bay, St Ives in Cornwall , tiny houses surrounding the harbour.

Janet  explained her own journey to find her present method of stitching, a wonderful afternoon inspiring many to try Janet’s style in their own work.

On Saturday September 8th 2018, we were delighted to welcome some of the ladies involved in the Stamford Bridge Tapestry Project.Heather gave a wonderful entertaining and informative talk on the place of the Stamford Bridge Battle in the history of England.

If Harold Godwinson had not had to march north to fight two battles in order to defend his claim to the English throne he may have beaten William at the Battle of Hastings.

Shirley then talked about the inspiration behind commemorating the Battle of Stamford Bridge in the style of the Bayeux Tapestry.

She gave us a wonderful insight into the groundwork of preparing the drawings and transferring these onto the linen for stitching. The colour palette is as close to the Bayeux as possible with the addition of red and purple. The pictures are stitched with an outline stitch infilled with the Bayeux stitch. 20 ladies meet regularly taking turns to stitch each panel and each panel follows the style of the Bayeux tapestry with writing above the scene and the banner below has a symbol unique to each stitcher.

The expectation is that the whole work will be completed in the next few years and ultimately a  hoped for permanent display in Stamford Bridge.

Thank you to the ladies for sharing your expertise and enthusiasm for this project and we look forward to following its progress and the opportunity to see the finished work.