You can see these and all our other photos at http://www.flickr.com/photos/tmtextiles/

Our next workshop is  on

AUGUST 20th NEEDLEFELTING AND EMBELLISHING.

Bring your embellishing machines and needle felting tools,scraps of fabric and threads and have a fun day making your own fabric!

There will be needle felting tools for sale at a reasonable price.

June Workshop

and adding all kinds of recycled old lace, threads, cut outs tissue paper etc. with bondaweb and PVA. Interesting surfaces were produced with various techniques using acrylic paints, water and paper towels. Stitchery was then added, whether by hand or machine, and surfaces painted with gezzo or matt emulsion. Nedless to say the results showed great variety and ingenuity. Much enjoyment was had by all participants.

Four others who were not on the workshop enjoyed stitching their own work in the back room and catching up new, and snooping on what the folk in the workshop were up to.

Our next meeting on 17th July is a Goldwork workshop led by Hilary Davies of Penrhyndeudraeth. There are still a few places left on this workshop for anyone interested to join us or just come along, bring your own work and have a lovely relaxing sewing day.

Here is the TMT Spring newsletter, I hope you find something of interest.
We plan to produce another newsletter in the autumn, so if you have information to share with other members or if there is something you would like to see us include in future newsletters please do let Moragh or myself know.

I look forward to seeing you at the meetings.

With very best wishes

Clunie
Clunie Keenleyside (secretary)

To open newsletter, PDF format click here

Marion began by showing us her very unique way of producing the basic slipper shapes with the use of a fine tipped soldering iron. This method also fused the different layers of fabric together so we were all off to a very quick start. Silence was golden as we all concentrated and worked none stop. The embellishing of the slippers was the next step and Marion was at hand with lots of advice and ideas. Before assembling these small treasures the surface that would be the inside the slippers had to be painted with acrylic paint and allowed to dry. Marion then explained just how she stitched the  slippers together and by the time the class had come to an end most members had completed their pair. What an enchanting day.

Other members attending the meeting had a most enjoyable day in the other room. There was a very colourful display of members 3D work , lots of chatting, Pat had brought her thread shop along and most members worked on their own projects. In all of our meetings our textile successes and failures are shared and most times any problems we have are solved.

Our mini challenge that was to follow was not compulsory and some members chose to work their swap on another occasion. The members that were taking on the mini challenge were asked to create a 4inch by 4inch piece of work using any technique in either hand or machine stitching.

Walking around the room at intervals during the rest of the day proved very interesting as everyone had a completely different approach to their own piece. Some pieces where manipulated, some collaged and some had used appliqué. There were couched threads, along with various hand stitches and applied beads. Each one was developing into a delightful MASTERPIECE.

These members could then take their masterpiece to the next step and use it on a final piece for our Christmas competition which is held in the December meeting. So you will need to watch this space to see what develops from this unusual meeting.

This treasure was placed on and covered the top of one of the tables from the hall, there were different types of shells in all different colours from very small to large. Marion and Roz began by guiding us though how to apply the shells and then suggested some of the many hand stitches that could be worked alongside. There was a selection of stitch books available alongside some wonderful samples to take ideas from. For most of the day you could hear a pin drop as everyone was concentrating on producing their piece.

For the rest of the members who had arrived for the meeting, they had got together in another room and were Beading, working Hardanger, Canvas work, Knitting and playing with Friendly Plastic. Some members had brought in pieces of work showing texture and this was exhibited to give the members a talking point during the day.

One of the founder members of our group had decided to join us for the day which was a lovely surprise. June had not been able to attend for a while as her husband was in ill health, it was lovely to see her and catch up with what she had been doing since we last saw her. Another founder member had sent in a huge amount of threads for us to sell, this money would then go into the group funds and as you can imagine we all were like bees around a honey pot and guess what, they all found a home. Thank you Eleri for your generosity.

The day proved to be another successful and enjoyable meeting. We all went home with our pockets full of shells and threads. Just a stitcher’s delight.

Joan then explain the method of Slashing, this was reinforced with samples and more suggestions of how to take this technique further. Couching was the next on the list and again Joan showed a selection of her own samples using a more modern approach to this technique. Members then spent the rest of the morning having a go at the techniques that had been covered.

Just before lunch members gathered to take a look at a selection of member’s textile pieces that would be going into local exhibitions during the month of July. Both Blaenau Ffestiniog and Dolgellau Libraries had invited our group to exhibit and give an insight into what our members produce from our meetings.

After lunch Joan Robson gave a demonstration of creating an embellishment that could be added to a textile project using a Glue Gun and glue sticks. Members needed no encouragement to have a go and for the rest of the meeting they continued to experiment with all the ideas of the day. Another very busy and rewarding day was enjoyed by all the members attending.

More photos from the workshop can be seen on our Flickr page here

The June meeting proved to be a very colourful meeting. Members brought in their pieces of prepared felt and dyed them using yellow, red and navy. Some of the pieces were over dyed using two or all three colours. Pam Ryan led the group on both occasions. These sessions came about after group members had seen a lovely piece of patchwork felt that Pam had previously made. Thank you Pam, for two wonderful days.