Covid restrictions relaxed and the group could finally meet. A small group were able to catch up at short notice for a shared lunch and a mini workshop – Paper Stars.
Some show and tell to round out the afternoon. A fabulous collection of pieces from Rhonda and Carol
Recycled denim jeans make great bags
Bags and pouches
From Jenny T
Lampshades
Machine embroidery on Geo textile
On velour
Layered sheers
On paper and framed
More stitching on paper and ready for framing
A selection of artist’s book and hand embroidery on tea towels and a journal cover from Kerrie.
Our first meeting of the year saw much experimentation with drawing and colouring on fabric with an assortment of water soluble pencils, crayons and blocks. Gillian gave an excellent demonstration of many techniques and effects.
Inktense pencil demo
Our theme for this year is ‘Of the Sea’ which allows for a broad range of interpretation. Gillian brought many ‘sea’ books to inspire as well.
Our experimentation was on A4 size interfaced fine cotton percale and ‘catcher sheets’ for washing machines with ATC, postcard or book pages marked up.
Interfaced cottonOn catcher sheets
We used a variety of colouring tools including Inktense pencils and crayons, water soluble pencils, water soluble crayons and watercolour paints. Rubbing crayons over textured wallpaper worked well. Mediums used to spread the colour included water- greatest spread, textile medium-slightly less spread and aloe vera gel-minimal spread. We tried barriers to the spread such as the inktense liner pencil and the oil based watercolour crayons with some success on our pictures.
On the right-using stamps
After finishing and heat setting some of these may be further enhanced with hand or machine stitch. Robyn’s finished Japanese silks boro bag was much admired. Great use of recycling and I love the cotton crochet doily featured.
Robyn’s Boro bag
Next meeting will be gelli printing, watch out for a recipe and info from Kerrie via email. Those who took pieces of the fantastic textured wallpaper samples Jill shared bring them along, they are excellent for gelli printing. Also for next meeting read the list and think about where we will head for the second half of our meeting/workshops.
The final meeting for 2018 was a celebration, afternoon tea, planning for 2019 and show and tell. We had a little challenge for those who had the time and energy in the lead up to Christmas. The challenge was a book ( scroll) or members interpretation of of a book in a tin or box. Loosely themed around the 12 days of a Stitcher’s Christmas.
From Gillian
Jo’s was still in progress
Jenny concertina book with pockets, the pockets contained stitched images from the 12 Twelve Days of Christmas.
Carol produced a flag and a concertina book.
Pauline made a scroll
Laurene made a stitched scroll
These two from Kerrie
The was some other show and tell to admire, framed pieces from Jenny and some Boro bags from Carol and Laurene.
The focus for the September meeting was Boro stitching with the intention of constructing a bag from the stitched cloth in the October meeting. Boro is an old Japanese technique of mending and repair that uses scraps of cloth and Sashiko stitching or running stitch to extend the life of the fabric or garment.
This bag is made from small pieces of indigo dyed Japanese fabrics.
Jo led the session, demonstrating the construction of the base cloth. The idea was to create a base of fabric pieces or scraps stitched down onto a base cloth using running stitch ( Sashiko)
Base cloth in production.
A finished base cloth, ready to be made into a bag.
Finished bag
Another bag in production.
Some samples of mended and patched fabric, quite small pieces and probably will not be made into a bag.
In the depths of winter we had a great sharing of techniques for our August meeting. The topic was ‘Formed and Beaded’, which was exactly what Kerrie gave us with her fantastic demo on the making of her ‘muslin beads’.
Gillian shared her colourful handmade beads and we were very impressed by the felt beads made by both Rhonda and Gillian. Next month (September) is ‘felted and shaken’ so enjoy your Kinder surprise in preparation.
Some members brought along stitching to share from previous months. Jill had finished her dissolvable ‘houses’:
Carol had made one of her fabrics into a fantastic ipad case:
and was working on an interesting hand stitched collage of patches:
Our stitch of the month was flystitch:
And work was continuing on boro/sashiko from ‘woven and stitched’ in June:
Anne took notes during the meeting on everyone’s suggestions for beadmaking and these will be emailed out to the GeeTAG list.
Watch out for the email for our September meeting.
For our June meeting Gillian gave a brief rundown on the history of sashiko and boro stitching and showed us some great samples. She also showed us a very efficient method of weaving the fabric strips using a ruler.
Everybody was quickly at work cutting strips of fabric and weaving using this ingenious method. Most people also got onto stitching to attach and enhance their pieces.
Thank you to Pauline who emailed through a photo of her boro piece in progress with interesting shapes embellished on top.
Pauline’s woven boro
Next meeting is 11th July and will be ‘Stitched and Dissolved with FME’. Requirements list will go out Monday by email. Don’t forget to email through photos, they can be added at any time.
Geelong Textile Art Group - GeeTAG 