Upcycling Coffee, Coffee Packaging & Coffee Pods

Hippystitch Coffee Themed Notebooks

 

Over the summer (July, August & September) I led a series of Stitch Clubs at York Embroiderers and Stitchers (YES). YES are a are a friendly group of stitch and textile enthusiasts of all levels of ability and experience and I am a member.

The Stitch Clubs were initially inspired by some work I did in the YES Travelling Book. The Travelling Book is a book that members of the group add to every month with samples of whatever work they choose. It may be examples of stitched work but it could be mixed media work or something else. For my pages, I decided I would go with the theme of "using the unusual" and to narrow that down a bit I chose coffee as a linking factor. I used colourful coffee packaging, used coffee pods, and leftover coffee as paint. You can read about it here. This inspired me to run a stitch club on a similar theme.  

We started off using coffee painting, coffee packaging and stitch to create some notebooks...

Coffee Painting

It was great to watch everyone's progress and different designs...

Stitch Club Participants' Work
(Top from left - Jane, Jill.  Middle - Tina, Eileen, Maggie. Bottom - Pauline, Liz B, Elaine)

And to see some of the ingenious completed outcomes...

Judith's Notebook Complete with Pocket

More Completed Notebooks (Liz(L),(C - clockwise from top left) Marina, Andrea, Jill, Michele, Elaine(R))

After we'd finished making notebooks we moved on to a stitch coffee pod flower collage...

Hippystitch Coffee Pod Flower Collages

which involved a bit of practising cutting, hammering and squishing to get coffee pods into the desired shapes...

Diane, Jill and Andrea's Stitched Coffee Pod Collages

and resulted in some fab collages and some new ideas for flowers and embellishments. All in all - great fun!

ARCHITEXTURE Exhibition - York Embroiderers & Stitchers

The Wall - A collaborative YES project

 

Recently the York Embroiderers and Stitchers (YES) held their triennial exhibition at the Tithe Barn in Nether Poppleton, York.  The ARCHITEXTURE Exhibition ran from the 27 to 29 June 2025 and was a great success.  Work on the theme of architecture was exhibited alongside other 2D and 3D work.  As a member of YES, I was also exhibiting.

There were a number of collaborative projects including "The Wall" - see top image. YES members decorated a brick such that each "brick" represented whatever gives that member strength and stability. The bricks were presented as a wall at the exhibition, put together by Michele Webster, expressing the group's values of friendship, diversity and support. 

Dala Horse Carousels

Two charming (and rotating!) carousels were constructed by Moira Wood featuring embroidered Dala Horses that been made by YES members (inspired by a workshop led by Helen Young).

Fairytale Competition

A "Guess the Fairytale" competition was held too, where entrants had to guess which fairytale was being represented in stitch.  This was the fairytale I stitched.  Can you guess which fairytale it is?

"The House by the Woods" - Sally Stone

My exhibits included "The House by the Woods", "Our House, in the Middle of Our Street", "Stitched Trees" and a "Vase of Flowers".  You can click on the exhibit names to read about those that I have blogged about.

"Our House, in the Middle of Our Street" & some "Stitched Trees" - Sally Stone

 

Stitched Trees - Sally Stone
San Francisco Mansions (behind) - Lynne Harris

Vase of Flowers - Sally Stone

There were some great Architexture exhibits...

Architexture Exhibits - various YES artists

and lots of 2D and 3D work on other themes...

Exhibits - various YES artists

As well as a great exhibition there were bargains to be had on the sales table, tea and cake and cafe tables decorated with fresh flowers...

Sales Table

Lots of cake 

Fresh flowers on the cafe tables

Judging by the comments in the Visitor's Book the exhibition was awash with inspiration.  I hope if you missed it that this post gives you a flavour of what was on display. 

Our house, in the middle of our street - is it Madness?

Our house, in the middle of our street

The answer is "No," it's not anything to do with the Madness song, but it is "Our house, in the middle of our street" - a stitched version for the York Embroiderers and Stitchers (YES) ARCHITEXTURE exhibition in June 2025 (more details here.)

Pattern Piece

I thought I'd just say a little about the making of "Our house". The construction was inspired by a friend's card, which was a flower that stood up on a base. I used this idea for the basic shape and made a paper pattern. I cut the base shape out of pelmet vilene. Then using fabric and Colour Catchers, which you put in with your washing to stop colours running into other clothes, I cut out the basic shapes of a simplified version of my house. I always save Colour Catchers as they come out of the wash all sorts of colours! These were then added to the base using Bondaweb, a double-sided iron-on adhesive web which is attached to a transfer paper.

Back & Front, Before & After Machine Stitching

The whole thing was then machine stitched to make sure none of the pieces came off. To emphasise the windows at the front, I added 2 strands of Anchor soft cotton which I couched down.  I also added some detail to the door to reflect the panelling and the door furniture.  Then to cover the edges of the front path, I added french knots and drizzle stitch for interest.

Window detail before and after couching and extra door detail

Path Edge Detail - French Knots & Drizzle Stitch

Our House - Layout

Finally I made a couple of chairs from the wires off sparkling wine corks and a table from a tin base and a bobbin to go at the back of the house and "Our house, in the middle of our street" was complete.

Back of the house with table and chairs

I did have to add a cardboard support up the middle as the pelmet vilene wasn't quite stiff enough to hold the house upright and added some velcro dots to hold it together.  The tree and the shrub were added, which made the piece more stable as well as reflecting some of the plants in my garden.  I think you'd recognise it as "Our house".

Do come along and see all the buildings that will form a central display at the YES ARCHITEXTURE exhibition.

Another Brick in The Wall

My Stitched Brick

I'm a member of York Embroiderers & Stitchers, who are a friendly group of stitch and textile enthusiasts of all levels of ability and experience. Later this year we will be holding our ARCHITEXTURE exhibition at the Tithe Barn in Nether Poppleton, York, YO26 6LF from 27-29 June 2025 (save the date!). As you can imagine from the exhibition title, there will be traditional and contemporary textile art on a theme of architecture alongside other 2D and 3D pieces. More details here.

  

Nicky's dyed fabrics ready to be stitched into bricks

As part of that exhibition members are stitching "bricks" which will be constructed into "The Wall" for the exhibition. Each "brick" represents whatever gives the person who made it, strength and stability and together represents the group's values of friendship, diversity and support. The fabric the bricks are made from was dyed by our chair, Nicky Brunger, so that the colours would be harmonious.

Stitched brick - work in progress

Of course to make a wall all our bricks have to be the same size and orientation so the finished brick must measure 8 inches by 4 inches, be in a landscape orientation with a 0.5 inch border without stitching. The stitched area was therefore 7 inches by 3 inches.  

Stitched brick - work in progress

At first I marked the area to be stitched with pins but soon realised some tacking stitches would work better!

Stitched brick - work in progress

I used a variety of stitches such as french knots, detached chain stitch (lazy daisy), ordinary chain stitch, straight stitch, back stitch, star stitch, using colourful threads and yarns in a variety of sizes.

Stitched brick - work in progress

I should say that before I started stitching I had ironed on some stabiliser to provide a better base for stitching (also provided by YES). You can see that the back is quite chaotic!  

I then added some calico to the back, stitched it together with right sides facing and left a gap to turn it through and then handsewed the gap.  And here is the finished stitched brick ready to be added to The Wall...

Finished Piece

My brick is covered in stylised flowers and represents a colourful, joyful world from which I get my strength and stability.

I'm looking forward to seeing the finished wall. I hope you'll come along to ARCHITEXTURE to see it too!

Stumpwork or Raised Embroidery - A First Attempt

 

My finished stumpwork pincushion

I am a member of the York Embroiderers & Stitchers, who are a friendly group of stitch and textile enthusiasts of all levels of ability and experience. Recently, Annie Smith has led a series of stitch clubs to teach some of us how to do stumpwork.  

Stumpwork is a type of raised embroidery that was popular in England in the 17th Century.  At the time it was called raised embroidery or embossed work.  The term stumpwork has only been used since the end of the 19th century.  Typical scenes might include a castle, stag, lion, birds, butterflies, fruit, flowers, and a number of figures sometimes positioned beneath a canopy.  Kings, queens and mythical or biblical figures were often depicted. The technique can use wire, threads of various sorts, padding, beads, needlelace and other materials. Much of the detail is applied to a base fabric.

We were going to make a small pin cushion using our chosen design which meant we needed both a back and a front that would eventually be stitched together.  Annie had brought lots of examples of her work to show us...

Annie Smith's Stumpwork examples

First, we began by tracing some design elements onto our top fabric.  We used pens that were heat or water erasable, so that the lines could be removed when required. Annie had provided plenty of designs to choose from.  I chose oak leaves and acorns.  We then hooped up double layers of fabric into our embroidery hoops.  I used a fine cotton for the top and calico for the underneath layer.  Annie showed us how to attach some wire to the fabric to outline our design and how to fill the shapes in.  My first two oak leaves were wired and then filled in with long and short stitch.  I also stitched three acorns using French knots for the acorn cup and long and short stitch for the acorn itself.  These would be cut out and applied to our overall design once they were finished...

Acorns and wired leaves in progress

Once the wired leaves were completed they were cut out very close to the stitching being careful not to cut into the stitching.  The cream edges could be colored in with a felt tip to stop them being noticeable when they were added to the design...

Acorns and wired leaves finished and ready to cut out

Next, it was necessary to stitch three more oak leaves that would form the basis of the design. The outline and leaf centre line were backstitched and then the leaf was filled in with long and short stitch like the wired leaves had been...

Oak leaves form the basis of this design

Time to add the acorns!  These were cut out with some excess fabric round the edge which was stitched round and drawn up like a Suffolk puff before stitching the acorns in place...

Oak leaves and acorns in approximate finished location

Once I had added my acorns and the two wired leaves to the design, I took inspiration from Annie's acorn pieces and added some beads and some twigs and berries using French knots and stem stitch...

Front of my pin cushion

I decorated the back of my pin cushion with different sizes of star stitch using a variegated thread...

Rear of my stumpwork pin cushion

Once the two sides were stitched together it was time to add some decorative fly stitch to the edge...

Decorated pincushion edge

Front of my stumpwork pin cushion 

Now it's all ready to add my pins! (see first image)

Broderie Perse with York Embroiderers and Stitchers

My Broderie Perse Piece (detail)

 

I am a member of the York Embroiderers & Stitchers, who are a friendly group of stitch and textile enthusiasts of all levels of ability and experience.  At our April meeting, Chris Small led an afternoon workshop in Broderie Perse. Broderie Perse (French for "Persian embroidery"), popular in the late 18th and 19th Centuries, is a style of appliqué which uses printed motifs from one fabric, usually flowers or birds, to create a design on a plain background fabric. Traditionally it used chintz fabric, which was expensive at the time.  This fabric could be made to go further if the motifs were carefully cut out and applied to a plain background as a central motif or border and handstitched in place, such as on a quilt top.

We were provided with a vast array of fabrics to choose from...

Flowered Fabrics

together with a choice of background fabrics and some finished examples...

Broderie Perse Examples

and then it was time to get going.  Here's an idea of what my starting fabrics looked like...

Fabrics I Chose for My Broderie Perse

I chose two flowery fabrics and intended to make a vase of flowers design on my mushroom coloured background fabric.  As I cut out rather a lot of flowers I decided to use bondaweb to attach them to my background fabric and then machine stitch them in position as hand stitching would have taken a lot of time and the fabrics were likely to fray...

Broderie Perse Design Bonded to Background Fabric

Broderie Perse Design Machine Stitched in Place

I then decided to add some handstitch to embellish the piece...

Lots of French Knots

French Knots, Stem Stitch, Straight Stitch, Chain Stitch & More

and so the finished piece looked like this...

Broderie Perse Embellished with Hand Embroidery

It was a fun technique - thanks Chris & YES!