8 February 2025
Our February meeting was filled with excitement and we all had a most enjoyable day. We started with a talk by renowned textile artist Claire Benn who told us about her life, starting as a traditional quilter and moving to dying fabrics using acrylic paint with natural dyes and then soya milk with natural dyes. She sourced her pigments from soil. She had been inspired by the American quilter Nancy Crow, and landscapes from deserts to the Arctic circle. Claire’s work is large and the stitch work is by hand. Examples from her work ‘Sieving out the Silver’ can be seen below and more information regarding her work can be found here
The second session of the day was the ‘Recycled’ Challenge reveal. There was an enormous variety of beautiful work: a patchwork jacket by Yvonne, bags by Gerry and Sue N-M and other attractive works using differing materials and techniques, including Jan’s interpretation of her ‘Allotment’ and Yvonne’s ‘Underwater Scene’.
The final session of the day was Kawandi patchwork, led by Kay. We had prepared our base fabrics before we arrived and it was most enjoyable sitting together as we sewed. Kay showed us pieces she had made.
One of the requirements for Kay’s session was Perle threads. We were most fortunate that Yvonne brought along an enormous selection of threads to buy at a most reasonable price. £47 was raised for Alzheimer’s research. It will be lovely to see our Kawandi pieces next month. Many thanks to Kay.
Ruth Harwood