Requirements list Diorama - Rachael Margeson February meeting 2026

 

Finished Pieces of work

 Wendy has just finished her Forest Floor which she has stitched intensely building up the surface texture. She has varied the stitches and colour used therefore building up visual interest as well as textural.

The texture makes you want to touch it to get the feel of the stitching.

Thank you Wendy for sharing your lovely textural piece with us.

Forest floor - Sandra Kendall January Meeting 2026

Sandra reminded everyone what they could find on the forest floor - moss, stones, rock, mud, ferns, grass, twigs, berries,  seeds  - and we were going to turn them into items of beauty using embroidery.

 

Sandra had brought samples [see above] to show us ways of using stitches to represent moss etc., building up texture by dense stitching and varying ways of doing a stitch to add interest.

She brought a sample piece of useful stitches and techniques.

Sandra demonstrated some of the stitches and if anyone wanted to know how to do a stitch she would demonstrate it.

She suggested ways to alter the appearance of a stitch by:

• colour
• type of thread
• thickness of thread
• varying ways of working the stitch
• working stitches over the top of each other

Member started by putting their background in their frame and then adding a few features or marking areas where they would go so the basic structure was there.

They then began their stitching slowly adding stitches until patches of texture emerged.

Because the embroidery was to be heavily stitched, members took their pieces to finish at home.

The day started with snow having fallen through the night so quite a few members sent apologies but slowly some members arrived having battled snow, ice and diversions.

The small group enjoyed what they did and we look forward to seeing the finished items.

Thank you Sandra

Requirements list for Forest Floor - Sandra Kendall January Meeting 2026

 

Christmas Meeting December 2025 Stitching Tasks - Christmas Tree/Christmas Hanging - Shelagh Swire

 

Yesterday our members arrived fully laden with sewing equipment,  present for Secret Santa, Christina's challenge, food for our Jacob's Join and plates and cutlery for eating. The Hall was humming with excitement for the Christmas Meeting.

The sewing task was a choice of either making a Christmas tree from triangles or a Christmas hanging both led by Shelagh. The samples below were made by Shelagh and Janet. The hanging was made by Shelagh.

Pretty delicate Christmas trees were displayed so we could see what we would be making with the seven reversible triangles we had made in advance.

Members started by folding the points of the triangles into the centre  and securing them.

Once the triangle points had been folded Shelagh then advised us to turn the shape over and fold the straight sides to the middle and secure making a lovely triangular pattern with fancy folded corners.

 

Members who were making the Hanging used templates to cut out Christmas items in felt to stitch and decorate.

They were both fun enjoyable tasks and just after 12 o'clock we stopped stitching and packed our items away to finish at hone.

A big thank you to Shelagh for planning the activity,  providing us with instructions, juggling two activities at once and guiding us through the "tricky bits".

The Jacob's Join was set up on tables and what a generous spread! 

 

The food looked and smelled delicious and it was nice to take a little longer and chat over the food,  enjoying the offerings from other members.

After our meal we had a fun "Carol" quiz where we had to identify people whose names were carol. 

Secret Santa presents

We were  each given a raffle ticket with a number which related to a present in the Secret Santa. We were then asked questions and each time we had to swap our ticket with someone so the tickets were exchanged repeatedly. After the last question we could claim our present from the table above.

Christina's Challenge

Nearly 12 months ago Christina had provided all members with a challenge similar to the one above.

Embroideries to fulfil Christina's challenge were set up on a table for Christina to judge. As usual the scope and variation was immense and it was hard to believe that we had all started from a similar point showing the range of skills and artistic design within our group.

Christina had great difficulty in choosing a winner but in the end she chose this one-------

Well Done to Sandra.

At the end of the meeting members started to drift away wishing everyone a Happy Christmas on the way.

It was a good fun day enjoyed by all our members and there are a lot of people to thank.

Thank you to the Chair and committee for arranging and running the day in front of and behind the scenes.

Thank you to all members who attended and joined in with the activities in a positive manner to make the day fun and supporting the group throughout the year.

Thank you for bringing a Secret Santa present and food for the Jacob's Join.

Thank you to Christina for setting the Challenge and returning to judge it.

All that remains is to wish everyone a

Happy Christmas

and

Happy Stitching in the New Year!