tactile books

Our embroiderers' guild has started a new project for 2014 - making tactile books for blind and partially sighted children. The charity Clearvision  lends these books out to the children, after braille has been added to the stitched pages. Making these books is quite different to the textile books I have made in the past, where the visual look was all important. These books have to be made with quite different concepts in mind.
It has been quite a learning curve thinking of ways to introduce tactile and sound elements into the books.

Here is my first attempt.

It was really fun to make - I hadn't done any knitting for years so it was quite a change making the little knitted jacket. The books are quite addictive once you start - I have two more on the go at the moment!

There will be lots more photos posted on the Solihull E.G. blog over the next few months, so take a look there. solihullembroiderersguild.blogspot.co.uk  

Stitching at Birmingham Library

Birmingham Embroiderers' Guild have joined forces with the new Birmingham Library and are starting to hold monthly stitching sessions at the library. Anyone can join in and if you are not a stitcher but would like to have a go, just go along and there will be someone on hand to get you started. The first session is on the first Saturday in November, starting at 11 am.
For more information, follow the link to Birmingham EG's web site

 http://birminghamembroiderersguild.blogspot.co.uk/2013/10/come-stitch-with-us-birmingham.html

A new project

Our Embroiderers' Guild Members' Exhibition is only a few weeks away so I need to get started on a piece fairly quickly. The exhibition is called 'In The Landscape' so I have decide to use some of my photos from Australia as my source of inspiration.
I love the colours in these pictures, taken at the Corung National Park, on the way to Adelaide

 

I am using wool tops and various other fibres to felt a background onto a wool blanket. I started felting with a hand tool but will use the embellisher machine to finish felting the fibres down.

 

 

Now I am beginning to add stitch

 

 

Just hope I can finish in time!

 

 

Roots Moving On

Our Running Stitch exhibition came down this week. Thank you to all those who came to view and left some lovely comments. After a quick change of fixings (mirror plate to D rings) the pieces will be going off to Heartlands Hospital for a few weeks, then Good Hope Hospital and finally ending up back in Solihull at Solihull Hospital, sometime early next year.
As I won't be seeing my pictures for a while, I  made sure I took some photos.

Walking with granddad across the fields at Thurlaston

Walking with granddad 2

 

The long climb - The Lickey Hills

 

Postcards from my past - based on the style of the WW1 embroidered postcards

 

 

 The Portrait



As these were very personal pieces of work, most incorporating family photos, they were not for sale. The black and white embroidered pieces included fabric copies of photos taken by my father so are particularly important to me and I will not be parting with those.

ROOTS

The running Stitch exhibition is now up and 'running'. If you would like to see it, it is on until Saturday 5th October at Solihull Library Arts Complex

A sample board of a piece of work from every member. I have really enjoyed making postcard sized pieces of work, some of which are for sale on the sales table, along with cards and hand dyed threads.

Time now to relax a bit - although I do need to start thinking about a piece for the Embroiderers' Guild Exhibition in November (only a few weeks away!)

 

 

 

 

 



 

 



Nearly Ready

Only one day to go before setting up the Running Stitch Exhibition 'ROOTS' at Solihull Library Arts Complex. Have just been finishing off some cards and postcards to sell using the mono printed fabrics I printed last week. Here are some of the finished pieces.

postcards

 

more postcards

 

landscape cards

a few more

some black and white landscapes

 

Roots - An Exhibition by Running Stitch

The Running Stitch Textile Group is 10 Years Old and  will be holding an exhibition of new work from 24th September - 5th October at the Solihull Library Arts Complex, Solihull B91 3RG.
I have been busy creating some work based upon old family pictures, including several photographs taken by my father, a keen photographer.

This is one of my favourite photographs, taken by my father and shows my grandfather and myself walking across the fields near to Thurlaston village. One of my pieces for the exhibition is based upon this photograph.

I have been mono printing lots of fabric to use in the larger pieces of work and am busy using the left over pieces to make a few cards to sell at the exhibition.

They make great mini landscapes and with a bit of stitching added, can be quite effective.

 

I did start to run out of black and white fabric so got carried away printing some green and blue samples - not sure if I will have time to use these but they will come in useful some time!

 

Just need to sort out some packs of hand dyed threads now and then I will be ready.

 

 

If you miss the exhibition at the library, it will then be travelling round the local hospitals, starting with Heartlands sometime in October, followed by Good Hope and Solihull in the new year.