A little Strip of Leaves - Amanda Clayton October Meeting 2025

 Amanda Clayton, a well-known textile artist, arrived at the hall and immediately began setting up strips and strips of leaves all hand embroidered but every leaf hand embroidered or created in a different way. See below.

Her embroidery technique of using white/natural threads, varying fabrics in neutral colours bared the basics of embroidery to thread, stitch and fabric, without the interference of colour.

Amanda provided a whole array of white threads and leaf templates for us to use as we were going to make our own little strip of leaves.

Firstly we were asked to use the shape of a favourite leaf, place it under our sheer fabric and trace with a marker pen. Using running stitch and three different types of thread we then started stitching around the leaf shape.

 

We were amazed by how much difference using a different thread type made to the leaf.

Amanda then showed us more samples and ways of embroidering our leaves. We started by filling in some of our leaves with stitch and then cutting out leaves in varying fabrics and stitching them to the strip.

Amanda Clayton

Amanda Clayton

Amanda then showed us different ways of joining fabric together to make a feature of the join and how to cut away fabrics to expose a leaf shape in a different fabric.

Amanda Clayton

Amanda Clayton

The options for creating the leaves was infinite and we all had our minds opened to using thread type, fabric and embroidery technique.
We were fascinated by what was possible and it was a very thought provoking day.

A big thank you goes to Amanda for sharing her work with us and extending our thoughts on what is possible in embroidery. It was a very enjoyable day and we all took our instructions with us to finish our leaves at home.

Requirements for A Little Strip of Leaves - Amanda Clayton October Meeting

 

Finished Pieces of Work

Shelagh has just finished her thread catcher and has put it to good use already. She was making little felt flowers to brighten up a tree decoration in her porch and collected the little cut offs in the thread catcher.

Your choice of fabric is very colourful and will make the thread catcher easy to find when needed.

Thank you Shelagh it is lovely and useful.

Congratulations to Ann Ellis for winning the cup for Best overall Exhibit in the Handicrafts Section and the plate for The Best in Show at Cartmel Show. Her amazing entry of an embroidered wall hanging is below.

Ann has embroidered her hanging in a limited palette and that makes it especially attractive to the eye. Each " little picture" is a delight and each time you look you see more detail.

Just one look at the beautifully embroidered hanging above and you can see why it won so many accolades. Thank you Ann for sharing it with us.

 Janet has finished her pretty rya bee by embroidering the legs and wings as the bee visits the heather made with detached chain stitch alternating the stem.

Thank you Janet ,it is very pretty and delightfully stitched.

Tanya has finished a beautiful orange rya bee by embroidering legs and gold wings with tiny gold beads. The bee is hovering over a neatly embroidered satin stitched shaded flower.

Thank you Tanya for your beautiful embroidery.

A.G.M. followed by A Thread Catcher - Bev Mouncey September Meeting 2025

 Our AGM was well attended and after a short coffee break members were ready to start some stitching. They were eager to make their thread catcher which they had started at home.

Bev, one of our own members,
had sent out instructions prior to the meeting and she had  brought samples of her thread catcher so everyone could see what the stages looked like and the finished item. See Below

Members had been asked to sew the rectangle into a tube at home on the machine. Everything else would be sewn by hand.

A delightful array of coloured and patterned fabrics appeared from bags and members set off with enthusiasm.

Cardboard circles were needed for the base and covered in fabric.

Using the inner hoop of an embroidery hoop the fabric tube was sewn over the hoop covering it.

The covered circles were then popped inside the tube and stitched securely in place.

By the end of the meeting most thread catchers were finished and it was lovely to see that with a little twist they could be flattened and stored easily.

Members produced a wonderful array of brightly coloured thread catchers which not only looked good but were useful. Any not quite finished would be completed at home.

A big thank you to Bev for organising the session and offering help when needed.