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!

Requirements list for the Embroidery project for the Christmas meeting - Shelagh Swire

 

November Meeting Show and Tell

In November we started a new item of Show and Tell where member could show any finished embroidery not just items started at our meetings.

The work showed a variety of interests  and skills as the wonderful work below shows.

A Gold Work Crab

 

A book of Memory Squares

A Patchwork Quilt with red work panels

An intricate piece of Palestinian Embroidery

An embroidered Wreath

Thank you to members for sharing their work with us.

Photos courtesy of Karen

Shisha and Chain Stitch Embroidery - Wendy Barrington November Meeting 2025

Wendy one of our own members, developed this workshop from the little pink bag embroidered with a blue chain stitch elephant and a  childhood spent in India. She brought lots of colourful samples which you can see below.

 Some of her samples are worked on plain linen, some on hand dyed fabric and some on commercial fabrics.

Wendy explained that different stitches could be used to anchor the mirrored sequins and glass circles. Books were also provided for ideas of stitches and ways to hold the mirrors. The samples and books gave our members inspiration to start their own designs and Stitching. For beginners in Shisha it was a bit tricky but everyone soon got into the swing as you can see below.

Photographs with thanks to Karen

 The results were many and varied and enjoyed by members.

A big thank you to Wendy for leading the workshop and inspiring everyone with her samples, encouragement and books.