Recent Talks and Workshops

For details of more recent talks and workshops see our blog

More photos from Summer School 2024, Mixed Metals with Alyson Midgelow-Marsden

We NEVER waste anything! Some gorgeous beads were made using off-cuts

Saturday 22nd April 2023: Gaudi Inspired Members’ Day

Diane, who has organised this Members’ Day, says that her take on Gauidi is bright colours and mosaics, but the texture and shapes he created are also amazing. Our Members’ Day could take us down many avenues: you can create your own take on Gaudi or you can create a picture, or learn a new technique of using tiny scraps to make mosaic fabric. I have attached a pattern for a folding sewing box (Etui) to keep needles, etc in.

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Saturday 8th April 2023: Jessie Chorley workshop

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March 2023: Ebb & Flow Workshop with Zara Day

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February 2023 Zoom Workshop with Joanna O’Neill, Crossing the Line

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January 2023 Members’ Day: Boro Mending

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January 2023 Kate Findlay workshop, e-textile Lanterns

May 2022: Vanishing Worlds with Angie Hughes

Angie says, “I’m always inspired by gardens, hedgerows, trees and leaves. This project comes from my imagination – half remembered images of vetch tendrils, ivy creeping up a rough tree trunk, the black buds of an alder in my garden and a dark ferny corner under a quince tree.”

March 2022: Text in Textiles with Julia Tristan

Stitching letters or words onto collaged backgrounds using upcycled materials, possibly personal (a special memory, an important poem, a specific name) or an abstract reference (a symbol, a series of disrupted characters, an exploration of one letter in contrasting styles). Techniques included layering, collaging, appliqué, hand stitch/machine embroidery, with pieces developing their own narrative.

February 2022: Beading and Goldwork with Lucy Martin

A wonderful workshop with Lucy working with established traditional techniques and transforming them into contemporary pieces.

more examples on the Blog

November 2021: ‘An Abstract Seascape’ with Alison Whateley

Alison demonstrated her method of layering fabrics to give the impression of a seascape.

Here are just some examples of Member’s work

October 2021: Folk Art Angels with Lucy Levenson

Lucy’s engaging talk about her work and how she came to stitch was followed by a demonstration of how to make an angel. Members used their imaginations as you can see from the photographs and angels of every hue and style will be winging their way to decorate our tree at the Christmas Tree Festival in St Mary’s church, Warwick!

August Summer School 2021: ‘Mapping your Journey’, Anne Kelly

Finding ways to honour precious memories was the theme of Anne’s workshop taking inspiration from her book Textile Travels.

We used meaningful images, ephemera and a map or portion of map to create a record of a physical or emotional journey. Using photos or postcards, old receipts and brochures to create either a folding book about 10 x 45 cm or a collaged piece no larger than 30 x 30 cm using these elements.

click here for more photographs

Sue’s talk about her ‘Same Sea, Different Boat: 2020‘ project, which documents people’s responses to lockdown, was fascinating. She also explained the process of making collagraph plates, which form the basis of the 4″ squares stitched onto a series of large-scale quilts, now nearing completion. At the last count, Sue had added over 400 squares.

Sue encouraged as many members as possible to take part by creating their own collagraph plates to send to her for printing and inclusion in the project. Quite a few members did take part, and their pieces can be found on the completed quilts.

Click here for more photographs of members’ work

Drawing – in pencil and pen and ink – features centrally in Kate Wells’ work leading to making stitched drawings and filling sketchbooks with landscapes and birds. A richer aspect includes gold, intricate pattern, machine embroidered lace and exquisite jewel-like detail. In this talk, Kate showed the connection between the two and the common language of both elements of her work. Kate encouraged us to experiment and be inventive in sampling different ways of creating dots – and spots – and we saw some very imaginative pieces at the show-and-tell session on Saturday afternoon.

Click here for more photographs of members’ work

May 2021: ‘Interwoven’ Vinny Stapley

Vinny spoke about her family history and her working life in fashion and textiles and how they have influenced her Textile Art. With a background in fashion textiles, Vinny now combines creating textile art with running workshops from her studio on Mersea Island in Essex, where she lives. Much of her work has focused on the natural ephemera of the landscape, in particular the fringes of the Blackwater, exploring marshes and tidelines through abstracted stitched form.Her current body of work ‘Mersea Floriligeum’ is focused on exploring flora of the saltmarsh and inter-tidal zone, whose delicate natural forms and fine network of roots literally ‘mesh’ together parts of our fragile coastline. Vinny is a member of the East Textile group and her work was recently featured on the international textile website textileartist.org.

Vinny Stapley Scrap Bag Challenge

This was to doodle random lines on a sheet of paper, and then use it as the basis for a set of pieced scraps, which could be embellished in whatever way took our fancy. It was an ideal project for using up some of our seemingly never-diminishing stash, and for inspiring a bit of creativity. Vinny joined us for the show-and-tell session the following day, and gave us some useful feedback and encouragement.