Next Meeting: " Stitching in the Dales May 7th - 9th 2025" 10:30am - 4:00pm each day

 Textile News from Skipton

We wanted to get in touch about an upcoming artist residency at Skipton Town Hall that might be of interest to your members.

 

We have an artist (that had some pieces included in our Emerging Yorkshire Artists exhibition last year) spending the month of August in our Gallery space as part of a mini artist residency.

Nelson is a pre-dominantly textiles artist and has been studying at the Royal College of Art. She has also studied with the Royal School of Needlework. We are working together to develop different events throughout the residency and as part of that Nelson would really like to host ‘Let’s sew together’ sessions in our Gallery a few times during August. She has asked me to reach out to local groups to see if this would be of interest. We plan for it to be an informal and social get together for people to come together in the space and work on whatever pieces they are doing at the moment and learn more about each others work. She would really like to spend time with other textile artists in our community. Her mum lives close by and she spends a lot of time in the area when visiting.

 

I have attached an image of a piece Nelson is currently working on for the residency. Here is the link to some information about her residency and the themes she will be looking at https://www.nelsoncontemporaryart.com/nanas-cabinet Nelson will be working in the Gallery and is also preparing a small exhibition about her research and process, as well as talking about wider context of textile work. She is also preparing some interactive activities for our visitors in the space. The Gallery will be open to the public throughout the residency so visitors can visit Nelson and see her working.

 

We would love if any members of GTAG would be interested in coming along to the ‘let’s sew together’ sessions, and if you have any other contacts that we might reach out to about the sessions. We are just trying to gage if there would be interest in the first instance and then will put some dates/times in asap.

 

Best wishes,

Megan

 

Megan Hickes (She/Her)
Exhibitions Curator
Culture & Archives
North Yorkshire Council

 

Telephone: 01756706395
Email: megan.hickes@northyorks.gov.uk
Web: skiptontownhall.co.uk

Each year Grassington Textile Arts Group host a three day textile bonanza and this year is no exception! The event takes place at Grassington Town Hall and our tutor this year is Laura Edgar. We will be creating a coastal scene focussing on colour, texture, movement, and light. We will be manipulating vintage and recycled fabrics with hand embroidery techniques, using fabric and stitch as paint and pencil. There is still one place available and it can be secured by using the contact form on the Blog.

Our last meeting "Upcycling and Exchanging Ideas" was led by Chris Mitchell, one of our staunchest members, who brought along a wardrobe of recycled and upcycled items. From charity shop buys to laundry mishaps, from outgrown garments to outdated fashions , Chris showed us examples of how to make things beautiful by using needlework techniques and a stash of scraps, buttons, beads and other items of haberdashery.

Another member brought along her husband's favourite gilet, damaged by paint and then covered with a stunning textile collage of a leaping salmon.

Marjorie contributed the jeans she was wearing ( knees patched and darned with sashiko stitching); socks visibly darned in bright colours; a memory hot water bottle cover made from an embellished blanket; and altered books in bags made from teatowels.

Y&H Embroiderers’ Group Summer School 11-13th July 2025

A two-night retreat at Bishop Burton College

Summer School numbers are slow this year, there are still places with all tutors. 

contact Yorkshire and Humber Embroiderers' Group for details.

Next Meeting: April 16th. "Upcycling" with Chris Mitchell

 Our speaker at the last meeting, fabric weaver Richard Smith, described how Richard's family company, E&S Smith Ltd, manufactured and traded in the heart of the Yorkshire weaving industry in Bradford between 1935 and 2005. The mill acted as a contract weaver of Jacquard furnishing fabrics for decorative furnishing companies, hotel groups and cruise liners. Over the years, Richard collected an extensive archive of woven textile patterns which were translated by craftsmen onto special graph paper called point papers. Richard’s  Point Paper Art Company has selected designs from these collections to breathe new life into this historical textile craft. A fabulous and interesting afternoon with so many samples to look at and admire. A big thank you to Richard and we do appreciate how many heavy boxes you had to bring!

Our next meeting on April 16th, will be led by Chris Mitchell and is themed "Upcycling".

Recycling is a hot topic at the moment, and many people are very keen to stop buying new clothes only to throw away old ones. So we are going to have a look at some ideas to upcycle things to give them a new look. Lots of fashion magazines are promoting the same idea, so let us be fashion setters too! Here are a few ideas for starters, but please do bring along any thing that you have to share with others, from re-used fabrics to altered clothes and accessories.

Stitching in the Dales, May 7th - 9th, £175,  a three day stitching event in Grassington.

 With our tutor Laura Edgar, we will be creating a coastal scene focussing on colour, texture, movement, and light. We will be manipulating vintage and recycled fabrics with hand embroidery techniques, using fabric and stitch as paint and pencil. There is still one place available and it can be secured by using the contact form on the Blog.