Linen at the City Hall

The ladies gathered at  Belfast's City Hall last Saturday to install our exhibition in the East Exhibition space.... very classy surroundings - all echoing marble , polished brass and stained glass....

After the usual fuss , bother and confusion the chaos receeded and the show took shape- It looks very well. and features some new pieces.
Go and have a look sometime, then treat yourself to a coffee at the bobbin cafe!

The Show is on until 28th June


THE SET UP

 

The Show

With thanks to Christine for the photos

Mollies Palour

Mollies parlour is a lovely little cafe in Lisburn - they sell all kinds of sweet treats, host musical evenings, and art exhibitions... and at the moment are hosting Lecora.

This lovely lady was created by Lila.

 

 

 

 

 

We put up some some really strong work, and  I particularly liked Almas stitched photo works.

And we'll meet there on 25th of April for tea and chat.

 

 

 

My head's MELTED....

The last time we all got together we decided that the next theme we should tackle is "surfaces".
With this in mind we arranged a days messy play at Hillsborough. Yvonne Williams guided us carefully through  the skills of heat distressing textiles  and  provided play packs of generously sized samples of  various commercially available "melty" fabrics- all great fun!

My thanks to Yvonne, and to Olive, whose photos have proved much less wobbly than mine!

this is Alma- hard at work

I haven't been able to find out what Christine found so shocking

Carol concentrating

This is the most fun I have EVER had in a Gym hall... 

These are a few examples of the work we produced.. not finished pieces yet but they all show promise.









Olive, who has always loved slashing and burning things, found time to make these a few days later.
I really like them...

The Flax Gallery

"Linen at the Mill"is on at The Flax Gallery, Mossley Mill, Newtownabbey , and continues until 28.12.12. If you can't make it... here are a few pictures



A bit of handwork- out of my comfort zone!






Carol Mackey  drawnthread work


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Joanna Macmahon

 

Olive Rodgers












 

an afternoon of messy play

The Ladies got together at Hillsborough for an afternoon of messy play- Unfortunately I missed it but -Christine sent this 

On Saturday 29th Sept 2012 Artist Helen Sanlon provided a two hour workshop on Thermofax screen printing. Helen, who designs her own screens, showed us a selection of her printed images, both on paper and fabric. The detail with each print was amazing.

After talking to the group on the process and mediums used Helen gave a quick demonstration using acrylic paint before letting us loose to have a go ourselves.
A very effective way of printing onto a surface. This was a very enjoyable couple of hours although we could have done with a longer session.
Thanks to Helen for travelling to us at the Hillsborough Village Centre on what was a very busy day on the roads.

 

In this photo of Joanna and I, we are preparing thickened Dyes as a medium to print with.
 

Dying

Olive says ....

I am on a roll at the minute - running in from work to set up dye baths between doing the ironing etc!
.

I  did some dying last night - mixed results. Thought I would dye a colour wheel - in some cases dye took very well - yet in other where I had used a different colour of blue dye - it just washed out????? Does procien dye go 'off' in powder form? I Must admit my dyes have been lying around for a couple of years. However still managed to get some really interesting coloured cloth. Also tried using my 'doughnuts' that I got at the quilt show. You simply fold the material and clamp it between 2 rubber clamps and dip in dye bath - voila- circles dyed onto material.

 

 

Olives Birmingham trip

Olive says....

I went to Quilting show in Birmingham and came home wanting to dye, rust,batik, laminate, screen print fabric. My head is spinning and I don't know where I want to start. Did manage to set up some sun printing today at 7am so that it would have a chance to 'cure' whilst I was tied up with other family commitments today. Really liked the effect - particularly with the keys and the letterset. Now to find some things that I can get  to rust into fabric.

The show so far

We've had a lot of positve feedback from visitors to Titanic Belfast...and the Demonstrations have been very popular....

Heres a few pictures, with thanks to Olive and Christine

For Titanic

I thought that as we were exhibiting at the Titanic building a few sea-themed pieces may be appropriate. These were inspired by some photos we took on a walk at Helens Bay

Stormy Sea

 Rain at sea

Calm sea

Our Great News!

 Our good news is that we have been asked to exhibit in the Andrews Gallery at the Titanic Experience . This is quite an honour- and a source of stress- as we have had only 6 weeks warning!

But  there's no challenge we can't meet- and on Saturday 11.08.12 we will be on display!

Have a wee look here    http://titanicbelfast.com/- its a very impressive building ......

I made a heartfelt plea at our meeting on Monday for pictures of "work in progress" from the Ladies , and the very next day these had dropped into my inbox- It 's a sneaky peak at what will be on display .

first- a wall hanging by Irene -handmade felt and free-machine embroidery.

 I don't know whose  hands are holding it up.....but they give a fine indication of scale....

I also got these from Alma  - a tryptic  exploring a young girls voyage into the world to better herself

 

beautiful detailed work!

AND more good news ! we have  a new member

WELCOME and happy stitching to Anne Hardcastle .

lovely things to enjoy

Olive has sent a few images of her work - Some beautifully executed handwork , a few of her more experimental things-  and a proper detailed image of her "Shawlies".....  Just take a few moments to enjoy ....... then have a look at the last 3 images- Olive tells me she has been dabbling in watercolours for the first time.... Of course , being Olive she the added printed text, fabrics and stitch, etc to produce some fabulous delicate images.