Stitched Postcards for York Embroiderers and Stitchers

Woven bee with knitted wire wings

I am a member of York Embroiderers and Stitchers who are a friendly group of stitch and textile enthusiasts of all levels of ability and experience. We meet monthly at Haxby Memorial Hall near York. Over recent months there has been a stitched postcard project that I chose to be part of. We have been split into groups of six and have made postcards for the other members of our group.  This means we have each made 5 postcards for group members. Now all of the postcards have been distributed I thought I would share with you the 5 postcards I made. The theme for the postcards was Wings which could be real, imagined or abstract.

My first postcard featured a handstitched bird inspired by Scandinavian folk art and uses backstitch, fly stitch, double cross stitch and chain stitch.  I'd designed this stitched postcard for a workshop several years ago. (You can read about it here.)  It was nice to stitch it again and choose different threads.

Handstitched Scandi Folk Art Bird Postcard

I tried to match my postcards stamps to the subject on the front where possible...

Bird stamp for a bird postcard

For my second postcard I chose an aeroplane for a different set of wings...

Plane Postcard

Here I handstitched onto a photocopy of a plane using fly stitch for the wings (very appropriate, I thought) and also included some machine stitching.  I managed to find a plane stamp too...

Plane stamp

My third postcard was for our December meeting and so it seemed appropriate to stitch an angel...

Angel postcard

This angel has an embellished body, sheer fabric sandwich wings, pewter charms, beaded hair on khadi paper painted with watercolours and torn envelope clouds plus a typewritten angel banner. I also managed to find an angel stamp...

Angel stamp

In January, we had to have something metal on our postcards so I decided to knit some wire wings for my bee...

Bee postcard

The bee has a woven body.  The background is watercolour on khadi paper with some handstitched flowers and a bit of swirly homemade felt and a bee stamp for the reverse...

Bee stamp

The final postcard for our February meet-up featured a felt butterfly, appliqued and embroidered on a watercolour painted khadi paper background, flying through some handstitched appliqued felt flowers...

Butterfly postcard

with a butterfly stamp on the reverse...

Butterfly stamp

And of course it wouldn't be the whole story if I didn't share with you the postcards I received....

Whitby Abbey at Halloween on hand-dyed fabric is the subject of Annie's postcard. Check out the bats...

Whitby Abbey - Annie Smith

A lovely combination of peach and grey stitching makes up Pauline's Nuthatch...

Nuthatch - Pauline Twyman

Nicky has produced a beautiful blackwork angel...

Angel - Nicky Brunger

Judith uses paint and stitch for this delicate butterfly and flowers postcard...

Butterfly & Flowers - Judith Johnson

Nadine made this super mixed media bee postcard with lots of info about the scissor bee which is the smallest bee species in Britain...

Mixed Media Bee - Nadine Paver

It was great fun to join in and it was all organised by the amazing Chris Beavers, one of our members.  You can see everyone's postcards here on instagram or facebook.  Why not get in touch and come and join YES?

Postcard for the Embroiderers's Guild Stitching Together Exhibition

Holding the case that contains my postcard

Coming soon is the City of York Embroiderer's Guild Triennial Exhibition "Stitching Together" which will be held at the Tithe Barn, Church Lane, Nether Poppleton, York, YO26 6LF from Friday 22 June to Sunday 24 June 2018.  One of the exhibits is a series of postcards stitched by members which is also a competition.  Each postcard depicts a place and you have to guess where they all are.

 

Calico & pelmet vilene

My contribution is a postcard of a lighthouse that I chose to applique and stitch.  The lighthouse is one I have visited and that I have a photograph of.  (I haven't included the photo here in case it helps anyone guess where it is!)

 

Materials - dyed calico, cotton & yarn

The base of my postcard is calico bonded on to pelmet vilene which I then coloured with Inktense watercolour pencils and blended with a wet brush.  While this was drying I made a pattern for my lighthouse and cut out the various pieces from cotton and dyed calico that had bondaweb ironed onto it.  

Painted background and lighthouse pieces bonded on

Once the painted background had dried I peeled off the bondaweb backing paper and ironed the lighthouse pieces into position and machine stitched them in place.  Next, with a Frixion pen (which irons off) I drew on the extra details I wanted to stitch - the rail at the top of the lighthouse, the windows  and the pattern on the glass.

Lighthouse pieces machine stitched, frixion pen detail still visible

With this element of the machine stitching finished, I chose some yarn for the vegetation, laid it on the postcard and free machined it in position.  
 

Vegetation stitched in position

At this point I thought the background colours needed strengthening so I added some more Inktense colour.  When dry I hand stitched some extra vegetation.

Background recoloured and more vegetation handstitched

Then I machine stitched the front of the postcard to the back with a zigzag stitch.  The back of the postcard was piece of natural calico bonded to pelmet vilene.  Afterwards I printed off a copy of the postcard onto fabric and made a container to keep my postcard safe.  That's me at the top of this post holding the container that my postcard's in.

Finished postcard

Do you know where it is?  If you do, don't tell anyone - come along to our exhibition and enter the postcard competition and guess where they all are! 

The exhibition is open on Friday 22 June & Saturday 23 June from 10am to 5pm and on Sunday 24 June from 10am to 4pm. Entrance £3.  There will be tea & cakes!  Hope to see you there. 

Stitched Postcard Workshop at Olive's Nest, York - May 2018

All set up and ready to go

My second Stitched Postcard Workshop at Olive's Nest took place on Saturday.  After the excitement of the Royal Wedding, we had a very peaceful afternoon stitching...

Lara busy stitching

Vanessa measuring up

Mary-Ann stitching away

Everyone's birds were looking lovely...

Lara's postcard is almost finished

Mary-Ann's lovely bird is progressing nicely

Vanessa's postcard nearly complete

Vanessa finished hers off at home straight away and here's what it looks like all finished...

Vanessa's postcard - all ready to send!

Thanks to everyone for coming and to Gaynor at Olive's Nest for making us welcome.  Take a look at the other workshops available at Olives Nest here.

Handmade Notebooks at Olive's Nest, York

Everyone working hard

On Saturday we had a very full house at Olive's Nest for the first Handmade Notebooks Course...

Decorating notebook covers

Everyone had to concentrate to get their 4 different notebooks done - but phew everyone finished!  We were helped along with constant tea & coffee refuelling and fabulous cake supplied by Gaynor who runs Olive's Nest.  (Sorry to say there are no cake pics - it disappeared too quickly!)

Love Hearts also available for refuelling

It was lovely to see everyone's finished notebooks.  And now everyone knows how to make them, I hope there'll be lots more made at home...

A selection of notebooks made

Thanks to Katherine, Hannah, Angela, Gina, Rosemary, Alison & Rimi for coming along, working hard and making it such a fun afternoon. And thanks also to Gaynor & Jem for looking after us so well.

I have another workshop - Stitched Postcards coming up at Olive's Nest on Saturday 19 May 2018 from 2-4.30pm if you fancy joining me.  If that's not for you, check out the other workshops on offer here. And to book a place contact Gaynor at Olive's Nest - email: olivesnestworkshops@gmail.com or call into Olive's Nest at 4, Scarcroft Road, York, YO23 1NB. 

Stitched Postcards at Olive's Nest, York

Stitched Postcards - samples for the workshop

I have developed a couple of new workshops for the spring and one of them was Embroidered Postcards which ran at Olive's Nest in York this week.  We had Gaynor's cosy back room at Olive's Nest all to ourselves...

All set up and ready to go at Olive's Nest

It was a lovely evening with Gaynor and Jem from Olive's Nest keeping myself and a great group of stitchers topped up with tea and biscuits (not to mention mini chocolate eggs and love hearts!)  Everyone was concentrating hard and embroidering madly...

 

Concentrating hard and having fun stitching

Even using the same design everyone's birds turned out beautiful and different.  It was great to see all the fab colour choices...

Works in progress

I have another workshop - Handmade Notebooks coming up at Olive's Nest on Saturday 12 May 2018 from 2-4.30pm if you fancy joining me.  If that's not for you, check out the other workshops on offer here. And to book a place contact Gaynor at Olive's Nest - email: olivesnestworkshops@gmail.com or call into Olive's Nest at 4, Scarcroft Road, York, YO23 1NB. 

Hope to see you soon. x

Handmade Notebooks & Embroidered Postcard Workshops

I am bringing two new workshops to Olive's Nest in York this spring.  

Embroidered Postcard - Wednesday 11 April 2018 (also Saturday 19 May 2018 from 14:00 to 16:30)
On Wednesday 11 April from 18:30 to 21:00 I'm doing an Embroidered (Stitched) Postcard workshop.

You will learn how to make stitched postcards, working on a bird design in your choice of colours using a range of different stitches.

All materials will be provided.  Pop into Olive's Nest if you want to see an embroidered postcard that's been through the post. 

Handmade Notebooks - Saturday 12 May 2018
On Saturday 12 May 2018 from 14:00 to 16:30, I'll be showing you how to make handmade notebooks.

 

You will learn how to make at least 3 different types of notebook using paper and card. 

 

We will be painting, folding, stitching and sticking.  All materials will be provided.

Pop into Olive's Nest if you'd like to see some examples of the types of notebooks we will be making.

Workshops cost £20 each.  Contact Olive's Nest to book a place:

Pop in: Olive's Nest, 4 Scarcroft Road, York, YO23 1NB
Phone: 01904 670052
Email: olivesnestworkshops@gmail.com

Minimum of 4 people needed for workshop to run