February 2020 Meeting – Words from your Chair, Anne Hardcastle

Next Meeting: Our next meeting is Saturday 1st February, when we welcome Ruth Brown ( Stone Creek Textiles) to give her talk ‘Turn  Around when possible`  .

Her workshops are a bit different and involve making notebooks and sketchbooks. 

Saturday half -day workshop with Ruth Brown is making a hardback A6 notebook (front row in photo below) and the Sunday full-day workshop is the A5 Coptic Stitched Sketch book (back row in photo below).

Workshop Requirements: The only requirement for the February workshop is a cutting mat – at least A4 and preferably bigger.
Ruth brings all the other materials and tools that are needed.

Materials Fee: £3 for the half-day Saturday workshop & £6 for the full-day Sunday workshop.

Coptic and A6 Notebooks from Ruth Brown

In Her Own Words – Ruth Brown from Stone Creek Textiles

It’s been a long road from there to here… I spent many years working in various jobs, mainly in IT before I was dragged along to an art materials exhibition by a friend and saw someone demonstrating silk painting. The colours she was using were amazing – rich vibrant colour on a shimmering fabric.
So I started my textile work with silk painting, then added batik and shibori to various dyeing methods, including procion dyeing and indigo. I use a number of different screen printing techniques including the wonderful breakdown screen printing.


For many years I’ve produced cyanotypes on fabric, a photographic process from 1843 which gives beautiful prussian blue and white images. This was the subject of my first book revised and re-printed in 2016, and is still a firm favourite.

Books by Ruth Brown

I also use digital images and design methods in my work. Since I spent 20 years working with IT I’m very comfortable with combining digital techniques and textiles and this formed the subject of my second book, Digital Imagery on Fabric.
More recently I’ve become hooked on making books. I went on a one day workshop with a brilliant binder called Glenn Malkin – we took a pile of paper, some board, a length of thread, a piece of book cloth and some very basic tools and created a proper hard back book! I was thoroughly hooked and have studied with Glenn and other binders ever since.

Glenn Malkin in his bindery, East Yorkshire

Through Glenn I discovered the Grange a beautiful centre that specialises in book related skills – book binding, Letterpress and marbling. I am investigating various book forms, with multi-needle coptic binding a current favourite, and enjoy converting my own fabrics into book cloth to use on the books I make.
I’ve been teaching textile workshops for many years now and thoroughly enjoy passing on my knowledge and experience to my students. I get such a ‘buzz’ from seeing what they achieve. Now I’m teaching them to make books as well …

Forthcoming Quilt Fayre: I would like to thank everyone who has volunteered to lend a hand at the Quilt Fayre in the Stormont Hotel in March. I am now reassured that there will be enough helpers to make it feasible for the Guild to have a ( free) stand at the event. 

Display item for Quilt Fayre: The sign-up clipboards will be available again in February  because I’m hoping that there has been time to look, that perhaps more folk will have found a small ( about 12″ square or A4 Christmas Carol )item for the display. 

If you have and they would be much appreciated, these will need to be brought to the March meeting. Please, please put your name on the back.

Help in March: Help on the exhibit receiving table would be appreciated as we will also have the Charity table in March. 

Charity Table in March: Yes this is happening in March Items for the Charity table please bring patchwork/sewing items-preferably priced- that you would like to re-home. Donors are asked to take home any unsold items.  

The year is starting to become busy!! 

Looking forward to seeing you in February.

Best wishes

Anne

NIPG Meetings: If you are interested in attending a meeting go to the information available on the website here About Us & Visitor Information

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nipatchworkguild

The NIPG, as we are affectionately known, welcomes anyone interested in any aspect of patchwork and/or quilting, in whatever form. Beginner, advanced or in between. The Guild usually meets on the first Saturday of the month in the Parochial Hall of the Ulster Folk and Transport Museum, Cultra, Co Down, Northern Ireland. Contact us for more information. Meetings open around 10.30 am with tea/coffee for which we charge a small visitor's fee. This is quite informal. The meeting proper begins with 'housekeeping' - various announcements relevant to our members. Often we will have engaged a speaker of note, which is sometimes followed by a workshop/ sew-in. Full day workshops are held on Sundays. We have had speakers and teachers from USA, Germany, Holland, England, not forgetting the excellent people who are locally based. Contact us or Facebook https://www.facebook.com/nipatchworkguild for further information.

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