Christmas/Easter Lunch

The SerenTex members have been too busy to stop for their Christmas lunch this year, but now it’s nearly Easter we decided to combine the two and we had a lovely afternoon at the Pen y Bryn Restaurant, Colwyn Heights.  

You may remember we painted the large sheet of calico donated by Sheila and Sue cut it all up so we could have a piece each. She wrapped each one up separately and put them all in a plastic back and we had a lucky dip. now we will see what everyone makes from their piece. It must be something inspired by architecture.

 

Here is Sue greeting Sheila with her piece of painted fabric.

Thank you Sheila

This post is written especially for our main fan, Sheila. She donated this large piece of calico (amongst loads of other fabrics) to us and using it has given us a lot of pleasure and many more hours developing it further. Sue took the Workshop and brought all her paints and brushes with her for our use and did all the supervising which is no mean task believe me. we all took part in painting this large piece of fabric using any colours we fancied, then moved around the table painting on a different patch each time.

     

This piece was very wet, but there’s a clothes line in the centre for us.

Now doesn’t it look good?

Now the fun begins. I noticed the shadows and remembered how I used to make shapes on the wall when I was a child.

   

I like that idea, but this time the topic is architecture, not hands. This fabric will be cut up to give us a piece each to develop ourselves, so watch this space!

 

We deserved a cup of tea and a piece of that lovely lemon sponge cake made by Rhiannon once more. It was mouth-watering.

   

These are are pages from Sue’s mixed media journal. very inspiring. The one on the right was a firm favourite with everyone. I was going to add a video of them chattering away Sheila so you could hear how noisy they are, but it won’t upload just now.If you check back later it might have arrived. i hope you enjoyed the afternoon with us?

A noisy lot, this will surprise them all!

Development of our concertina sketches

We have decided to work on Architecture this year and the work we did at the last meeting was the first contribution towards it. Then today Sue came up with a lovely idea for using these sketches to further develop them, this work will be shared with you before long. I’d also been thinking along the same lines and will encourage the very few of the group who are taking an interest in computing in using the sketches for designing. Mary was the only one who brought her laptop today and we both spent some time playing and below is one of my efforts using someone else’s sketch.

          

Gwyneth was working on a banner and I had every intention of taking a photo to share with you but was so engrossed in the laptop I completely forgot.

This is Rhiannon who has spoiled us all at each meeting by making us some scrumptious cakes to have with our cuppa, which she also prepares and we are all very grateful to her for all she does. This is an official ‘Thank you’ to Rhiannon!

Carol’s Workshop

We spent a very interesting afternoon designing with Carol. We had instructions to bring a sheet of cartridge paper measuring 12”x4”, tracing paper, thick and thin black felt tip pens with inspiration in the form of photos or books on architecture. We are thinking about having a textile project on architecture this year. This was all she would tell us.

Today we were told to fold the strip into four, working on one part at a time hiding the rest. Using our inspiration we designed on each one in turn. When we had finished them all, the sheet was opened out then some additional lines or designs were added to each one to bring them all together creating the final work. It was surprising how successful and pleasing this was. There was a time limit an there was no forward planning. It’s not often we are quiet at our meetings, but today we were quiet until we had finished our work.

        

Hard at work.

The result.

                  

                               1                                                        2                                                  3

The first piece of work is Joan’s which was inspired by Effie Mitrofanis.

The second piece was developed by Rosemary from the Doodles Workshop given recently by Gwyneth.

The third piece is another by Rosemary based on a mixed media piece made by Sue Gallacher in one of her workshops and developed into textile.

the first meeting of 2011

Our first meeting of 2011 was fun and very relaxing. Gaynor got us all creating, starting by showing us some of her own work with circles and squares. We all spent the afternoon chatting whilst drawing and colouring, all with the intention of using the drawings to inspire new textile work.

     

This shows an interesting development.

As usual we have an awkward one who won't let me take a photo! But she must be forgiven once again because the orange sponge cake she brought us was delicious.

       

 

  

This is the beautiful work Joan created because she was bored during the break.

Forgive the quality of the images, but I'd left my camera at home and used my mobile phone.

Trefriw Textile Market

This is a photo of Mags behind the counter. Trish was very happy to be at the other end of the camera for a change. Today was the first day of the Textile Market organised at The Trefriw Woollen Mills. Considering the weather was rather miserable we had a good day and maybe tomorrow more people will be able to attend. There was a great atmosphere there between all the craft people.

 

This stand to the left of us belongs to Helen Melvin and is very tempting, because it is full of goodies that can be used with the embellisher.

Some of the other stall holders near us. I was sorely tempted to buy one of these. I don’t know how many stalls were there, but this is only a very small part of the market. We were in the Cafe and it was very useful for a snack and chat with friends. So if you live near and are free tomorrow it’s worth making the effort to visit.

A good meeting

For one reason or another I have been unable to go to my SerenTex meetings recently and I was so happy to join them all today and to see all they’ve been up to. We’d also like to say ‘Hi’ to our friend Sheila and to thank her for her generosity.

 

 

These are lovely and will be for sale at the textile market. We have all been busy preparing for this Textile Market and there are more photos of work for sale on the SerenTex stand lower down in this post.

TEXTILE MARKET

Saturday 4th & Sunday 5th December, 2010 10 a.m. - 5 p.m.

Hand made Christmas gifts, plus materials and equipment for textile makers.

Demonstrations on Sunday morning.

Exhibitors include:- Anne Campbell, Wendolyn Docksey, Helen Melvin, Ann Hughes, Serentex, Crafty Ladies, Mandy Coates, Christine Birch, Maggie Oliver.

Trefriw Woollen Mills, Main Road, Trefriw, Conwy Valley, LL27 0NQ.

Tel: 01492 640462 www.t-w-m.co.uk

in the centre of Trefriw on the B5106 between Conwy and Betws-y-Coed

Below is a small selction of the work for sale made by SerenTex members.

 

                           

I’m sorry these lovely dolls are out of focus. 

 

  

 

Gwyneth’s Workshop

Gaynor and Gwyneth

Yesterday’s workshop was given by Gwyneth and we were all pleased to see her looking a lot better after her recent illness. She had us all Doodling on paper and then transferring our doodles onto fabric and stitching them in any way we wished. It was a fun project which I’m sure everyone enjoyed. for some reason I seem to be forgetting to take my camera with me to SerenTex recently, so I took these photos with my mobile phone. I had a lot of photos in it, but no way of getting them into my computer, but I have a Bluetooth USB adapter now and it was easy to transfer them.

Here they are busy doodling.

We love having visitors from time to time and this week Sue brought a lovely young lady from France with her. She is Marion (I hope I have spelt it correctly) She is a ship’s engineer who is also very good at doodling and stitching from what I saw.

We are all supposed to be preparing for our stand at Trefriw Woollen Mills on Saturday and Sunday, the 4th and 5th of December and as usual the ones who had work to show were Gaynor who’s made some lovely quilted bags as shown above and Rosemary who has made some beautiful soft scarves to sell. I didn’t get a photo I’m afraid. Next meeting I hope a few of us will bring some work that has developed from the workshop and that I will remember to take my camera. I mustn’t forget the lovely chocolate cake made by Rhiannon again. She does spoil us all.

At the next meeting a few SerenTex members are bringing their laptops and we will have a little play with a graphics programme during the meeting.