Wednesday 22 April 2015

Progress Report

Iv'e been working hard on the commission, and one side is just about finished. A few minor details remain to be completed later.

The second side has been started. I hope this won't take as long as the first. I clocked up about 90 hours on that.

 

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Sorry I missed writing last weekend, but I was in Birmingham at the Embroiderers' Guild AGM. This year it was a one day event instead of the usual long weekend. It was enjoyable nonetheless, meeting up with old friends and familiar faces in particular. It was a crammed day, beginning with an excellent talk by Bobby Britnell, and followed by the business meeting. I was expecting some fireworks, but the meeting was well chaired by Jan Beaney and Jean Littlejohn who set the right tone, and it all passed most amicabably. A shortened lunch break was followed by the awards ceremony, which included two presentations from last years' guild scholars. We then had the second talk of the day, this time by Jennifer E Hall, which was equally as good as the first.

 

The new library in Birmingham is an amazing building. I only wish I'd had more time to explore.

 

Tuesday 7 April 2015

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This is the picture I spoke of above.

 

 

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Sunday seems to have come round very quickly, and although I have been busy most of the week, I don't seem to have got very much done!

First, an update on the commission -

Slow progress, but progress at least.

It was our last session at Broderers at York Minster on Tuesday, and it was a rather sad occasion as we said a very fond farewell to our Head Broderer of many years, Jennifer Solomon. All who could arrived for a goodbye lunch and presentation. For the last few weeks we had been secretly planning and working on an appropriate gift, which was presented to her.

We had each worked several sections of a photo of a newly restored panel from the east window, and they had been mounted in an antique printer's tray. We could chose any technique we liked, and there is a good mixture. As you can imagine, it was very well received indeed.

On Thursday I looked after the children next door, and was initiated into the mysteries of the Wii and Wii U. I was absolutely hopeless at playing any of the games, and kept having to be rescued by a six year old and a three year old! The six year old managed to keep an eye on me, his little brother, and still win!

I have also been working on a piece I hope to be exhibiting with the Ebor Group in Beverley. I have a photo of this which I cannot access at the moment, so I'll post it later.

Happy Easter everyone!

 

Saturday 28 March 2015

A Fresh Start!

Inspired by my friend Jo, who regularly keeps up her blog, I have decided it is high time I took myself in hand! So, I am intending to start my blog again, with the intention of writing it once a week, posting onSundays whenever I can. Feel free to tell me off if I relapse!

I have quite a few things on my creative plate at the moment, but I'll start today with my latest commission which is a stole for an ordinand who is being ordained at Petertide this year (towards the end of June), so I have very little time to complete it. Fabrics etc have been purchased, and I have spent much of this week framing up, preparing and transferring the design. I am ready to begin stitching this afternoon. The photos below show the design being transferred to the fabric by the traditional 'prick and pounce' method.

It looks very messy, but once the tracing paper is removed and the dots joined up, then the design is easy to follow.

 

Now, many hours of stitching to put in! Come and have a look next Sunday to see how I am getting on.

 

 

 

Sunday 24 January 2010

This week was my first week back at Broderers since before Christmas. I am currently working on a panel for a new altar frontal for the St Nicholas Chapel. I should be further on with it than I am, but I had a query re the design that I couldn't resolve over the phone, so had to wait for this Tuesday. I ended up redrawing the design,and have now transferred it on to the canvas. This week I have to apply vilene to the area which is to have laid gold on it. When I have done that I will take a photo to post.



Being in York on Tuesday I was able finally to get tracing paper so that I can trace the design of the banner I am going to be making. I have spent most of the time during the daylight hours this week doing just that. The braid has now arrived for the altar frontal, so I will put the banner aside and concentrate on finishing that now - hopefully it will be done by the end of the week. Pics will follow



The other thing I have been working on this week is the pair of dolls I have been making to go on display at the Jorvik Viking Fair at half term. Only three weeks to go ,and even though I have spent all day today at the Dolly Birds meeting on them, there is still a lot of work to be done. I'll take photos of those too.



It was also the first time I have been able to get to my leaded glass course this term. It was good to be back.



I finally managed to get my car going on Thursday when I had time to drive it around for a while to make sure the battery was well and truely charged. It was only when I had done this that I finally felt things were back to normal after Christmas! I thought I heard the word 'snow' on the weather forecast tonight. Fingers crossed it is not going to land here!

Sunday 17 January 2010

Whilst awaiting samples of braid to finish off the altar frontal, I have been getting on with a couple of other things.

Our next meeeting of Ebor is on February the 11th and our mentor will be there that day. I did say to her when last I saw her in November that I would have the piece I was working on finished! In fact it only got underway on Thursday - the sewing part that is. The glass has been finished sometime. It is a piece which is going to be called 'On a Cold Day', and is based on a photo I took of condensation on one of the panes of glass in my bedroom window. Because of the vertical nature of the glass design, I have had a few problems with the landscape design that goes behind it. However I took some photos of the trees opposite the front of the house during the snow and from those I have formed a simplified design which I think will work (fingers crossed - though perhaps not as it makes stitching difficult!). I have cut a lot of the fabric shapes and am ready to start stitching but I came to a standstill with that today because I am awaiting some thread arriving through the post, so on to another project I am behind with!

The York Dolly Birds have agreed to have a stand at the Jorvik Viking Fair in February as a result of one of our members, who is manager of the Yorkshire Museum, twisting our arms hard behind our backs. I sent to the USA for patterns for a matching man and woman doll and am part way through the woman doll. The dolls are to represent the underwater Norse gods, Aegir and Ran, who used to catch drowned sailors in their net to people their Kingdom. I have finally managed to attach the legs which were causing me a few problems so perhaps I can make swifter progress now.