York Embroiderers and Stitchers - A Celebration of Stitch

A Celebration of Stitch

York Embroiderers and Stitchers (YES) are a friendly group of stitch and textile enthusiasts of all levels of ability and experience who meet on the first Saturday of every month at Haxby Memorial Hall in Haxby, York. Recently (last weekend) they had an exhibition "A Celebration of Stitch" at the Tithe Barn in Nether Poppleton, York. There was a vast array of traditional and contemporary embroidery featuring work on a theme of hedgerows. In fact as well as a beautiful hedgerow banner and lots of lovely hedgerow related work, there was also a hedgerow! 

Details from the Hedgerow Banner and YES logo

Details of the Hedgerow

And work based (loosely) on a theme of hedgerows...

Jeanette Davies - Garrowby hill

Chris Small - Hedgerow

Barbara Cox - Shooting

Jose Gledhill - A June Hedgerow

Liz Farmery - Ouch!

Moira Wood - Lie Long Fields of Barley and of Rape

Gina Smith -The Hedgerow & Jill Slijper - Come for a Walk

Sue Giles - Box

There was lots of the other work on show too...

Carol Coleman - Slice of the Past 1V

Marina McCleave - Pumpkin Pie

Judith Johnson - Book in a Tin

Nicky Brunger - Under the Greenwood Tree

Janet Caldwell - Circles

Shirley Smith - Page 18

Eileen Gibson - Cityscape

Heather Cawte - Four Elements: Water

Maggie Smales - Shakespeare

Jane Murray - Map

Colleen Nicholl - Ideas Board 2

Shenagh Linton -
Miss Doris Shepherd

YES had also been working on a stitched postcard project on the theme of landscape, instigated by Chris Beavers.  Here are some detail shots of each postcard and you can see more of these and who made each one on the YES Facebook page here or on their Instagram account here.

Details of the Landscape Postcard Exhibit

For those who like a challenge, there was a "Guess the Musicals" Competition. Stitched representations of 12 musicals were on display for you to identify.  The prize was a £25 M&S voucher.  Some were easy and others really hard. Now the competition has passed I can show you all the stitched musicals and the answers...

Guess the Musicals Competition & Answers

The Travelling Book was also on show.  This is where a book is passed between members and each member includes a different technique...

Travelling Book - pages by Josie Storey, Jose Gledhill and Sandra Atkin

If you want a quick reminder of what I was exhibiting, you can see them below.  You can read more about the making of the 3D hare here, the embroidered tree here and I hope you guessed my entry in the musicals competition.  My other two pieces - a stitched robin and a stitched hare - were from workshops with Mandy Patullo.

Hippystitch Exhibits
Thanks to Alyson Cowen for the 3D Hare Today Gone Tomorrow image 

As well as all the work on display there was a sales table, and yes, reader, I couldn't resist a few treasures for myself!  And , importantly, all through the exhibition there was tea, coffee and scrummy cake available to keep you going (no pics, sorry - too busy enjoying it!)

Sales Table - Kits, Books, Threads & Fabric

Nicky from Nicky Brunger Crafts was also there with her lovely cross stitch kits, notebooks and haberdashery. 

Altogether, it was a great exhibition with some amazing work on display.  I've tried to give a flavour of the variety of work but there was much more than I have featured. YES are a friendly bunch - I admit a bias as I'm also a member of YES.  Why not come and join us at one of the monthly YES meetings and see for yourself!

Hare Today, Gone Tomorrow

Hare Today
Gone Tomorrow

I have been making a hare for quite a long time.  I learned the wirework armature technique at a workshop with Jo Smith in summer 2021.  

Preparing the hare armature

I didn't finish making all the armature body parts at the workshop but I did finish them quite soon after...

Hare Armature Body Parts 

Then they languished for quite a time until spring 2022 when I finished preparing them for the next phase...

The fire pit part

which involved fire in my old barbecue (which we'd used as a fire pit and still had some wood in) and lots of newspaper to keep the fire going.  The fire burnt off all the support for the wire leaving just the wire structure.  It took quite a long time but then I had all the parts...

I finally wired them together to make the completed hare armature...

Completed armature

Then came the task of partly covering my hare in fabric which I stitched on. It became much easier once I started using a curved needle...

Using a curved needle made stitching easier 

His paws have a bit of stitched detail and he is partly covered in a collage of stitched fabrics... 

He is only part stitched as I wanted some of the wire to be visible.  His stitched half is standing on some knitted grass with stitched dandelions and his wire half on a bare brick.  He could represent the present and the future if the destruction of the environment takes hold or he could just be showing how he is made - the interpretation is yours.

My Hare Today, Gone Tomorrow exhibit will be on display at the York Embroiderers & Stitchers(YES) exhibition  "A Celebration of Stitch" at the end of June 2022 - details here.   Do come along and see him for real!

Embroidered Tree at A Celebration of Stitch

Embroidered Tree

One of the items I'm exhibiting at the York Embroiderers & Stitchers exhibition - A Celebration of Stitch, is a 3D embroidered tree.  The tree canopy is made up of lots of different shades of green felt with a variety of different stitches...

Star stitch, lazy daisy stitch, chain stitch, backstitch edging & bullion knots

Blanket stitch, fern stitch, backstitch edging

French knots, backstitch edging, cross stitch

and there's also sheaf stitch, fly stitch, Danish knots and a woven spider web.  The other side of the tree canopy is all seed stitch...

Tree canopy reverse - seed stitch

I used a bobbin with brown thread for the trunk and mounted it on a handpainted reel that I think probably originally had ribbon on.  I made a label to go on the reel it stands on...

tree tree tree label in backstitch

Label reverse

Come along and see it at...

A Celebration of Stitch: 24-26 June 2022
Tithe Barn, Nether Poppleton, York, YO26 6LF

Free admission

It's a wide ranging exhibition of traditional and contemporary embroidery featuring work on a theme of hedgerows and lots more.

Friday 24 June 2022 & Saturday 25 June 2022 10:00-16:30
Sunday 26 June 2022 10:00-16:00

Light refreshments, sales stands, free parking, disabled access

Pond Life Yarnstorm - Friends of Rowntree Park Craft Group

Frog - Friends of Rowntree Park Craft Group

 

The Friends of Rowntree Park Craft Group are celebrating pond life in their yarnstorm this year. You can find it in the arbour by the tennis courts.

Water Lily - Friends of Rowntree Park Craft Group

The Pond Life craft display was originally thought up by Rosemary Bentley who is much missed. Although she is no longer with us, the craft group wanted to continue with this theme in her memory.

Duck - Friends of Rowntree Park Craft Group

Spider - Friends of Rowntree Park Craft Group

Bird in Tree - Friends of Rowntree Park Craft Group

 Pond Life - Friends of Rowntree Park Craft Group

Check it out when you're next in the park and see what you can spot!

Pitzhanger Manor & Gallery & Rana Begum - London

Rana Begum - No. 1081 Mesh

 

Pitzhanger Manor in Ealing, London, was designed & built by architect, John Soane (1753-1837) between 1800 and 1804 as his country home.  Soane's fame became established following his appointment as architect to to the Bank of England in 1788. He was very inventive and  known for his clever use of light in the buildings he designed - rooflights, conservatories, coloured glass, mirrors and reflections were all tools of his trade and are in evidence at Pitzhanger.  

John Soane's Pitzhanger Manor - Rear Conservatory View

Pitzhanger Manor - Coloured Glass

Rana Begum's exhibition "Dappled Light" can be found in the gallery, grounds and manor.  Begum is a London based artist who came to the UK from Pakistan, aged 8. Her inspiration comes from the urban landscape, nature, and the geometric patterns of traditional Islamic art and architecture. She allows us to explores our sense and experience of light through her work.  Soane & Begum therefore seem like a good pairing.

Rana Begum - No. 1081 Mesh (detail)

No 1081 Mesh looks like light, air filled net parcels but they are in fact made from powder coated galvanised steel and so are quite firm and rigid.

Rana Begum  - No. 1086 Tiles (detail)
Paint on mirror finish stainless steel

There were lots of reflections in her No. 1086 Tiles exhibit and lots of reflectors in No.863 L Reflector...

Rana Begum - No. 863 L Reflector

I liked the texture of her No.1082 Folded Grid piece...

Rana Begum - No. 1082 Folded Grid
Spray paint on Jesmonite

In the gallery entrance was a mark making extravaganza of inked thumb prints created in collaboration with young artists from Bollo Studios...

Rana Begum - No 1126 Wall Drawing
Ink thumb prints

In the Manor the stairwell was flooded with light which made Begum's colourful net installation look great...

Rana Begum - No. 1127 Net
Spray painted fishing net

Rana Begum - No. 1127 Net
Spray painted fishing net

And in the garden, some coloured glass panels brightened up a grey day...

Rana Begum - No 814
Coloured Glass Panels

There's more to see and it's worth a visit for the Manor which also has some impressive ceilings and decor, all newly restored...

Pitzhanger Manor interior

and the gallery for its exhibition space and small shop.  Pitzhanger Manor & Gallery are located in Walpole Park which is a pleasant green space and there is a lovely cafe, Soane's Kitchen, in the walled garden there too.  Rana Begum's exhibition "Dappled Light" is on until September 2022.

Althea McNish at the William Morris Gallery, London

Althea McNish - Golden Harvest (for Hull Traders)

Althea McNish's "Colour is Mine" exhibition at the William Morris Gallery in Walthamstow, London is her first major retrospective and shows her vibrant, colourful prints that revolutionised mid 20th Century British textile design.

Althea McNish

Born in Trinidad in 1924, she emigrated to the UK in 1950 with her family.  She was one of the first designers of Caribbean heritage to gain international recognition in the field of textile design and was one of Britain's most innovative and influential textile designers.  She claimed to see everything "through a tropical eye".  McNish's style brought together abstracted botanic designs with a Caribbean inspired colour palette.  This is true of her most famous design Golden Harvest, pictured above and is also shown in her sketchbook below...

Althea McNish - London College of Print & Graphic Arts Sketchbook

She studied at the London School of Printing and Graphic Arts and in 1954 won a scholarship to study at the Royal College of Art where, following encouragement from her tutor, Eduardo Paolozzi, she studied textiles.  Her talent was recognised by Liberty who commissioned designs from her graduate collection and for whom she went on to design silk scarves and dress and furnishing fabrics.  She also designed very successfully for Hull Traders.

Althea McNish - Cebollas for Liberty
Printed cotton furnishing fabric

McNish's original design for Painted Desert was quite large.  She liked to work at scale and then decide how to reduce the size for its intended purpose.

Althea McNish - Original design for Painted Desert

The 3 colour Painted Desert design for Hull Traders was produced as a heavyweight cotton satin furnishing fabric in 4 colourways: purple, green, pink and gold...

Althea McNish - Painted Desert (pink) for Hull Traders

Althea McNish - Wallpaper Design for Sanderson

She was a founding member of the Caribbean Artists Movement, active between 1966 and 1972, which sought to celebrate what it recognised as a distinctive Caribbean aesthetic.

McNish also designed murals for Warerite plastic in the restaurants of the ocean liner SS Oriana which took her further into the world of interior design...

Althea McNish - Warerite Plastic Mural Designs Rayflower & Pomegranate for SS Oriana

McNish's painterly style worked well for the scarves she designed for Jacqmar...

Althea McNish - Scarf designs for Jacqmar

McNish loved fashion and in the 60s was asked by ICI to design for their new fabric - Terylene Toile and also designed for paper clothes which were made from a bonded cellulose fibre that could be washed upto 6 times.  She was frustrated that paper fashion never really took off.

Althea McNish - Fashion Textiles Terylene Toile & Paper Dress

Throughout her career Althea McNish taught at many of the UK's leading art schools. She was awarded the Chaconia gold medal in Trinidad for her contributions to art and design, and in 2006 an honorary doctorate in fine arts from the University of Trinidad and Tobago, where she mentored many of its student designers.

Even in her final years she continued to share her vast knowledge and experience of textile design with students and the wider public.  She died in 2020, aged 95, 2 years after her jewellery designer husband, John Weiss.

This exhibition is on until 11 September 2022. Well worth a visit!

Notes:

Liberty have a range of Althea McNish fabrics (Tana Lawn and silk satin) for sale on the roll in store and online.  Some cut lengths are available in the William Morris Gallery shop.

The William Morris Gallery has a pleasant cafe.  The gallery is in Lloyd Park in Walthamstow and so is surrounded by green space.