January

Meetings of the Grassington Embroiderers' Guild are continuing to be virtual and not at the Rugby Club.

If you are not already a member of the Grassington District Embroiderers' Guild Branch and would like to watch our Zoom Speaker Meetings you are now able to do so. For or an annual fee of £20, you will be sent the link to the Talks which take place on the first Wednesday of each month. If you are interested contact the secretary:

GrassingtonDistrictSec@embroiderersguild.co.uk

January 6th

Helen Wray from the Gam Farm Wool Loft in Grassington was our first guest speaker of the new year. 

The farm, on Moor lane, is the home to many varieties of rare breeds and an extensive collection of vintage agricultural machinery and farming implements. It also includes a wool shop, “The Wool Loft”, which is full of yarns and wool products produced from the sheep that are born, reared and sheared on the farm. 

Helen has designed the “Loft”, not to be just a shop, but rather a venue to buy beautiful wool in a bye-gone age. She invites her customers to come and squish the lovely soft rare breed yarns which are minimally treated to preserve the natural qualities of each breed.

The wools include:

Versatile Whitefaced Woodland, super-soft Shetland, lustrous Wensleydale, dark, rich Hebridean, and the rarest of the rare Boreray.

Helen explained that the long curly locks of the Wensleydale are ideal for the felting enthusiasts, although felting with all types of this natural wool will give wonderful results.

Look out for workshops held in the Loft when we are all clear of Covid.

Gam Farm Web Site

Helen has a number of kits available to buy at the shop online. Below are her chunky knit cushion kits.

January 20th

Our topic for the second meeting in January was "Using twin and triple needles on a sewing machine" . 

Wiring twin needle channels created 3D mouldable textured leaves. Below shows a piece of work in progress. A background is yet to be painted around the traditional crewel work embroidered sparrow. This will then be surrounded by a mass of foliage using the twin needle wired technique. Some of these leaves will be hand stitched on top of the wiring.

February 3rd      Cat Rowe Textile Artist

February 17th    Working with Angelina and patchwork.

March 3rd          Jennifer Collier: "The Art of Paper and Stitch"

March 17th        Pintuck and flower feet for machine work

April 7th            Alison Wake: "Painting with thread and yarn" 

April 21st          TBA

May 5th             Chrisie Freeth: "Traditional textile crafts and exploring them as a contemporary art                                                              form"

June 2nd             Helen Robson