The first thing I would write would be 'for goodness sake, keep up with your blog posts' haha! .....but really this post is about the workshops I have delivered in response to my exhibition earlier in 2023. The exhibition threw up so many ideas and starting points for workshops, I started with stitched tributes to inspiring, strong women.
We used heavy vintage cotton net curtains from Kathy's own stash, we printed papers and fabrics with the embossing blocks I took along and we added EPP hexagons from vintage fabrics.
Everyone had someone to celebrate in their minds, there were some lovely personal touches with vintage embroidery and photographs collaged into the hoops. We displayed the hoops in CMK library as part of MKlitfest, celebrating art which was inspired by literacy.
A few weeks later I ran another workshop, we were a little further into spring so I could introduce some eco printing into this one - although still no oak leaves!
This workshop was more of an introduction to lots of ideas, but again the aim was to finish the project in one day. We started with eco printing our base fabrics, the ladies bought along a lovely collection of leaves they had found. After bundling and while they were steaming, we listened to Caroline, a local writer who spoke about her experiences of writing a letter to our future selves.
When women come together to stitch there is always a good amount of conversation and personal stories, but this day's conversation was particularly poignant and the ladies wrote some lovely words to themselves and others.
It was then time to unveil the eco printing, get them drying and stop for lunch!
After lunch we set to work stitching the EPP's for the felt lining, adding buttons and trims. More lovely conversations and thoughts during this slow stitching time. Some of the ladies had come with a specific plan in mind, which is always welcome and others went away to think about their envelopes and letters some more.
Maja had printed off some photos of her and her twin from 70 years ago and some stamps from the same year, also as we are in a Coronation year a new stamp for King Charles III
Julie's daughter was getting married in a few weeks and this was the perfect opportunity to write a very special letter to her delivered in a beautiful envelope.
I'm so delighted with both workshops, especially the 'letter to myself', there was a lot of pressure to eco print and dry and fabric quickly and write a letter and embellish the envelopes all in one day but everyone went home nearly finished knowing what they had to do, so all was good.
I hope to be working out some new dates for workshops over the summer.
Thank you for following my work and stitched adventures.
Jane xx