Stroud Embroiderers Guild - a lecture and workshop

 Vilene  Spunbond CS700 backed with Bondaweb, cut with a soldering iron and applied onto CS800

Did you all enjoy the lovely weather we had on Friday? NOT!!!! I needed to drive to Stroud to deliver a lecture Friday night and a Scrumptious Spunbond workshop on Saturday. I was due to arrive at 7pm to start speaking at 8pm. As it was raining very hard and it was a Friday afternoon I had to decide if I was going to dice with the M25 or drive along the coast and up the M3. The coast road would add 30 minutes to my journey but I thought it would be a better route as it would keep moving!!!! HAH!!!! I have never had such a terrible journey in all my time driving to workshops. I left Brighton at 2.30pm thinking I would have plenty of time to stop and eat on the way. Silly girl!!!

I actually arrived at my destination at 8.40 pm - it took me SIX hours in stead of three. I could have flown to Spain or driven down to my friend Sue in France in that time. It was unbelievable. 
I have never seen so much water on the roads and the traffic hardly moved from Chichester, through Portsmouth to the M3. Of course the M3 was blocked and not moving so I had to divert. I just hope there are no speed cameras on the A34. I have never been late for a lecture before. The ladies of Stroud Guild www.stroudinstitches.realpages.co.uk were wonderful - I kept them up to date with my progress and they were still there waiting patiently for me when I eventually arrived. They were SO good. I know it was no ones fault but I still felt bad. Never have I been so ready for a ham, cheese and tomato sandwich, thank you again Angela. I delivered the lecture and all went well. We were in the same hall the next day so I was able to leave everything where it was to sort out in the morning, it was a great relief - I was SO tired. The lovely Ann whisked me away to her home for my overnight stay, I was very well looked after.

 Vilene Spunbond CS800 backed with Bondaweb, cut with a soldering iron and ironed onto CS700

The next day was much better after a good nights sleep. I had 17 students enrolled for the workshop so I knew I would have to be on the ball! 12 students is my preferred number for a workshop but with my petrol costs and my fees I know it is usually necessary to have 15 in the group. The extra 2 were allowed as I felt I needed to make up for the previous night. To be honest it is great that that many ladies wanted to do the workshop.

 layers of CS500 on more CS500, because this weight of Spunbond is so thin you can create beautiful translucent layers

We were working with all 4 weights of Vilene Spunbond. CS500, CS500 crash, CS700 and CS800.
Bondaweb was also going to feature in the day. We painted all the Vilene Spunbond with a wash of procion dye powder and water. YES!! I know they are dyes for natural fabrics and Spunbond is synthetic, but paints can form a barrier when you are using a heat gun. The colours dry quite pale but I still think it is one of the best ways of colouring the Spunbond for my purposes.
The Bondaweb was painted with a watered down mix of the divine 'Colourful Thoughts' paints from Cratfynotions www.craftynotions.com they really are fantastic.

more Spunbond with net added


The point of the workshop was to show how to colour, decorate, distress and cut the Vilene Spunbond. The day was so busy I didn't get round to taking photo's till right at the end of the day.

CS800 and CS500 bonded on to CS500, heavy weight fabrics can look very attractive ironed onto finer weights


Vilene Spunbond and polyester organza decorated with painted Bondaweb, sequins and heat transfer foil

We used heat guns to distress the Spunbond, I wanted to show the different types of edge you create with this gorgeous product.


heat gunned CS800 decorated with painted Bondaweb, heat transfer foil and flat sequins


we also made beads with the Vilene Spunbond see pages 24 - 30 of my book Hot Textiles for 'how to' (sorry it's not in focus - more haste . . !)

After such a terrible start my trip to the Stroud Guild was very successful - they are a fabulous group, very well organised, great fun and have I mentioned - VERY patient - thank you ladies!



X


I decided to stay in Portsmouth on my way home, with a certain gentleman of my acquaintance (that will make you smile Jill and Tallulah) I couldn't face another long journey. We went out for a meal at Port Solent - and the lighting on these grasses caught my eye - I don't usually hold with coloured lights in the garden, I prefer white lights - but I thought this lighting was FAB!!!!! I want some now . . . . .

maybe I should dye my hair these colours for Festival of Quilts - what do you think?

x

7.30pm - Stop Press . . . . . Lee Stratford who attended the workshop yesterday has just emailed this image of a piece of work she assembled and finished off when she got home last night - gorgeous!!! Well Done Lee!

Lee's website with a link to her blog
 www.texturedtextiles.co.uk 

I wish more students would send me images of their work - HINT HINT!!!!

x


Comments

  1. jill19 June 2011 at 17:55

    Mmmm, wonder who that could be?? That is one big detour M25, M3, Portsmouth, handy that!!

    ReplyDelete

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