Needle Felting - Gillian Ferguson October Meeting 2026

Gillian arrived with an armful of delightful, characterful felted creatures which she set out for us to view [see below]. As soon as members saw them they wanted to know how they were made so they could have a go themselves.

 

We would all start by making a fox and if there was time some fruit or toadstools.

Gillian had prepared little bags of fibres, a mat, instructions and two felting needles for each of us.

Gillian demonstrated how to make the body and gave us safety advise about the sharp needles. We then started pricking our fibre sausage until the fibres knitted together becoming firmer.

We were then shown how to make the head and the ears.

 

How to attach the eyes and nose were demonstrated and the foxes began to develop character.

As we were shown how to attach the head, then make and attach the limbs, the foxes began to take shape.

The foxes were then finished off with a tail and white hair on their chest , tail tips and in the ears.

We then viewed our  skulk* of foxes and some members had managed to make some beautiful fungi and fruit.

They were delightful, full of charm and members were pleased with what they had made and that it was completed!

It was a good, fun day and all thanks go to Gillian for her teaching, organisation and demonstration skills.

*I looked up the collective noun for foxes

Collective nouns for foxes:

skulk - group of foxes

earth - usually a family of foxes

leash - hunting term usually applied to a group of 3 foxes

Requirements List Needle Felting - Gillian Ferguson October meeting

Gillian Ferguson will bring along all the materials required. However, if you do have a felting mat and/or needles, please bring them along, just in case the number exceeds her work resources. Wool will be in plenty supply. As usual bring your basic sewing kit.

We will create a small scene to include a fox, fruit and fungi.

Finished Pieces of Work

 Christiana has been very productive and has finished two pieces of embroidery one of which was made up of two separate embroideries.

The first piece of work is a colourful  folded hold-all, like a book, for crayons pens pencils etc. with the embroidery above on the front and the embroidery below on the back.

The felt and the use of a variety of stitches has made a very colourful and useful hold-all.

The second piece was the sashiko white stitching on a deep blue background which produced that beautiful clean effect which makes sashiko so attractive.

Thank You Christiana for your delightful stitching.

Sandra has finished using her sun printed fabric. It took her three goes to get a print of grass heads that she wanted for these reeds.

The grasses blew away at the meeting and she got a poor print but third time lucky at home.

The reeds are silk fibres overstitched with single chain stitches.

The birds are bearded tits now known as bearded reedlings. They have been stitched in straight stitch.

The birds can be seen in the Autumn at Leighton Moss where they put trays of food out for them.

Thank you Sandra

A.G.M. followed by a short stitching task of your Zodiac sign - Fran Walker

 Our A.G.M. was held at the beginning of the morning and a new committee was voted into place which is comprised of new committee members and committee members whose time has not been completed.

After the AGM Fran introduced us to our stitching task where we would be embroidering our Zodiac sign from the choice below.

Members began by tracing their sign using a lightbox, tracing through the material or taping the design to the window to trace.

Once the design had been transferred to their background, members began stitching the outline using running, backstitch or stem stitch.

Some members decided their embroidery would be kept simple with just an outline, others decided they were going to fill in the whole design with embroidery.

We had only a short time for embroidery so that was as far as most members got. The embroideries were taken home to finish.

A big thank you to Fran for organising the session.

AGM followed by Stitching around the Zodiac - Fran Walker Tuesday 1st September 2026

 The first part of the morning will be taken up with the AGM.

Once the AGM has finished we will hold a shorter than usual stitching session focusing on your horoscope sign led by Fran Walker.

Sun Printing - Sue Tyldesley July Meeting 2026

 Sue arrived laden with a basket of flowers/greenery and boxes of equipment. The flowers were not to give to anyone but to use in our sun printing.

Once our prints were ready she would show us how to make a folded book with a sun printed cover or we could embroider our prints to make pictures.

Sue told us all we had to do was paint a rectangle of fabric with water and then add the silk paint so the colours flowed together

Once painted the greenery and objects could be placed on the surface and pressed to get a good contact and placed outside to dry.

While drying there would be a  reaction with the paint as it dried leaving a print.

It was not a perfect day for sun printing with a gusty wind blowing and clouds but there was still enough light to get some interesting prints as you can see below.

Sue had brought sea salt that we could sprinkle onto our paint to produce more texture.

Once the prints had dried the greenery/objects were cleared and the paint set with ironing.

Some members set about making their concertina books after a demonstration from Sue.

Members had a fun day and took home finished books and/or fabric to embroider.

A big thank you to Sue, who is always generous with her time and equipment, for showing us how to sun print and make a small notebook.