National Sewing Day

For the National Sewing Day we were given the use of some premises belonging to Altringham Forward on Shaw's road. Altrinham.

As it was a lovely sunny day the glass sliding doors were fully open and relays of us spent a few pleasant hours showing our various embroidery skills to passers by, despite a little competition from a flower stall outside.

As well as having the turquoise squares on display, members had each brought one or two pieces of their own finished work.

Some of the work being done was to exhibit or sell in September.some were sewing  the silk squares forRubina Porter, and others were working on their current project.

JULY

Sorry it has been such an age since the last posting. So many things in the way...Holidays,gardening,visits to flower shows, Finding somewhere to fit in all the new plants from the holidays and flower show.

But back to embroidery. Like many of us , I am working on my piece for the exhibition at the Sale Waterside Gallery in September.

In June, Ruby Porter spoke to us about her involvement in the Sreepur village in Bangladesh; home to 600 destitute women and children who are trained in all aspects of textiles.We were able to admire and buy many of their lovely products.

 

Ruby can just be seen surrounded by members admiring the work.

There were some lovely cards and bookmarks

Where is my purse?

 

 This quilt was being raffled and members were invited to embroider a flower on a silk square to make another one. It was suggested by a visitor that it might be a worthwhile project for the branch. We have got 20 square sto embroider. My sister and I have been taking advantage of the lovely weather to sit in the garden to work on ours.

Below are some of the squares from this quilt.

 

February Meeting

Our speaker this month was Anne Ongley, who told us about her mothers influence on her work and delighted us with many pieces embroidered by both of them.

Members were particularly intrigued by the work on gigham, called by Anne,s mother "Chickenscratch"

Anne said thet her mother would have loved people to have seen her work shown our blog.

 Below are a few examples of their work.

GREMLINS

 I don't know how this big space  appeared. As I can not make it go away I am filling it a bit with this large apology. one day I will get a perfect post.

The other pictures are here if you scroll down far enough. 

 

 

 

 

   

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Postsript to Olympic Postcards

When we were asked to embroider poscards for the Cutural Olympics, the country we were allocated was the Central African Republic, an extremely poor country.

It was agreed that we should try to use the postcards to benefit that country, so several of the finished embroideries were photographed to be sold as postcards at shows and exhibitions. 

 

                    

This week, Diana received a letter from Mercy Corps, the charity we chose.

Hi Diana,

It was lovely to talk to you this morning.

On behalf of Mercy Corps I would like to say thank you to both you and the Altrincham branch of the Embroiders’ Guild for raising a wonderful £500 through the sale of your beautiful photo postcards.

The money that you have raised really will make a difference. We have allocated your funds to a fantastic project in the Central African Republic that is helping women and children in the four poorest areas of the country to claim their legal rights. I’ve attached a short document that details exactly how your money will help. I would be delighted to send you a hard copy of the information along with an official thank you letter - please do let me know.

As I mentioned on the phone I would definitely like to include your Guilds fundraising story in my next donor newsletter ( which I’ll be prepping in March) so I’d definitely like to keep in touch if that is ok.

Thank you again for your generosity. If you would like any more information about your project or any aspect of our work please do get in touch, I’d be delighted to hear from you.

Best wishes,

Jennifer

                   The photos below show a few pieces from one of the portfolios in the Guild's study collection.

It contains embroidery from the 19th century.

We are collating, renovating and re-mounting, where necessary,

with guidelines supplied by the Guild.