A new year, a new beginning

It's been a while since we've posted on this blog. However we've not been idle for the past 12 months or so. The Headquarters building at Queen Street Concord West has undergone a complete transformation thanks to the foresight of past and present Committees and the tireless fundraising efforts of all the Members and their wonderful supporters. Our "ugly duckling" building is now a beautiful swan, with 3 levels and a much needed lift now available for all. We can't wait to use the bright and airy spaces to stitch and create textile art now, and hope to schedule some workshops as well for our Juniors in the near future. On Sunday 1st April, Easter Sunday, the Junior Stitchers Group will be hosting a day of short textile workshops and an information stand at the Guilds demonstration area of the Royal Easter Show at Sydney Showgrounds, Olympic Park. The Arts and Craft Pavilion, beside the Dome, is the location, please do come and visit us and join in. Each free workshop will have a limited number of seats available so it's best to call in to our stand to book a seat for your preferred time when you arrive to avoid disappointment. Please note that for the Royal Easter Show workshops bookings CANNOT be made at the Guild as usual.

The project is to be confirmed, but is sure to inspire and delight both young and old alike and will suit all levels of experience. Guild tutors will be available to guide the participants through the project and you will take home your work at the end of the workshops.

Stitching the Generations Together on Grandparents Day 2016

The Junior Stitchers Group applied for and received a grant to hold a Grandparent's Day event from NSW Government Family and Community Services in October 2016. Our free Grandparents Day workshop called "Stitching the Generations Together" was held at the Masonic Hall Concord West on October 29th. Although not a large number of students and their grandparents could attend the tutors enjoyed helping those who came to make an embroidered and embellished "bag tag". The day started with a delicious morning tea then the participants selected pre-cut coloured felt shapes, threads and embellishments from the bright display and set about learning some simple stitches before adding beads and sequins to the front of the tag. Once a braid loop was pinned between the back and front sections they were stitched together securely. Everyone took home enough pieces to make another article as well as the stitching book which was included in the day. Thankyou to Family and Community Services for awarding our Group this Grant, we will apply again next year and hopefully have an even more successful workshop with more students introduced to stitching with Junior Stitchers.

Craft and Quilt Fair Sydney 2016

The Embroiderers Guild Feature Display theme was "Carnaby Street" so with the swinging sixties in mind we asked our Junior Stitchers members to make a brightly coloured initial or word using colours in a suggested palette. The work was mounted on a firm backing board and sent in for display, and look at the result ! Amazing, colourful, vibrant corner of the display which attracted lots of wonderful praise for the young people and their stitching. Congratulations to everyone who sent in work, you are amazing and we really appreciate your effort.

Royal Easter Show 2016

The Embroiderers Guild has a Feature Display at the Show this year in Sydney and this Saturday 26th March from 10am till 5pm the Junior Stitchers team will be helping on the stand. We will be demonstating our Dottee Bunny project and giving away the instructions on how to make her. If you'd like to visit us and receive the instructions, please do visit us at hall 5 / 6 and look for us ? Hope to see you there !

Join in the fun at Junior Stitchers Group

Do you know a young person who likes to create with fabric, needle and threads ? The Junior Stitchers Group of the Embroiderers Guild NSW runs regular face to face classes as well as regular workshops at various locations including Headquarters and at displays wherever possible. We would love you to join us ! Please contact us at the Guild on 9743 2501 or visit us online at www.embroiderersguildnsw.org.au to learn more.

Report on Craft and Quilt Fair 2015

Wow, what a fantastic response to our Make and Take Workshops held at the Craft and Quilt Fair. 87 students made Celebration Cupcakes over the 5 days of the Fair. The volunteer tutors were very busy, and only had time to take a few photographs to share on the last day. These smiling students really enjoyed their workshop and were pleased to pose for us and give permission for their photos to be shown here. What a great result, with the profits of the workshops all going towards our Building Fund. This is to help expand and improve our building in Concord West to be a Centre of Excellence for Embroidery, and should be open in late 2017.

SYDNEY CRAFT AND QUILT FAIR 2015

Hope you can join us for a fantastic Make and Take workshop at the Craft and Quilt Fair, open to adults and kids so bring your Mum or Dad, or Nan or Pop and have some fun !

Sydney Royal Easter Show

Our first major event for this year was the Sydney Royal Easter Show day on Tuesday April 7th, 2015. 3 Guild members Ilana, Yvonne and Christine guided junior visitors through a simple stitching project. Die cut felt geometric shapes in a variety of attractive bright colours were stitched to heart shaped felt keyring charms, with a tab and a split ring added to make it easy to pop on a school bag or pencil case. The ladies made up 29 kits in advance to save time at the Show. The first session started at 10am and finished at midday when passers by slowed down and a much needed lunch break was taken. The final session began at 2pm and finished at 3pm when all 29 kits had been sewed up. A gold coin donation from each participant covered costs and also raised a small amount for the Guild Building Fund. Another very successful workshop day run by Junior Stitchers ! Thankyou to the volunteer helpers, your assistance was greatly appreciated. Christine.

OUR NEW NAME !

There was a vote to change the Embroiderers' Guild NSW Constitution recently, and we are pleased to announce that the Guild voted to allow our Group to choose it's own name. So from 1st January 2015 we will be called Junior Stitchers Group or Junior Stitchers for short. This will make it easier for people to know who we are and what we do at a glance, and avoid confusion with a Group who may have come from the town of Young in New South Wales, Australia. We hope you like using our new name and look forward to using it at the Sydney Royal Easter Show and at various Craft shows throughout 2015. We will also be celebrating our 20th Birthday in April 2015 so you can look forward to some special celebrations events being announced throughout the year. Hope everyone had a great Christmas and we look forward to a fabulous 2015 with Junior Stitchers. Christine McKenna, Convenor Junior Stitchers Committee

Workshop September School Holidays 2014

We don't have a photo of the finished piece, but Peggy Molchanoff and Sue James will be running a school holidays workshop on Thursday October 2nd from 10 am till 2 pm at Guild headquarters at Concord West, NSW. Students will be making a Christmas Gift Bag, based on "Don't do Cutwork" by Susan Barker. It sounds difficult, but there is a secret to this work and it really is magical !! Come along and have a go, YTFG members pay $20 for the session which includes all materials. Non-members can attend for $25, all everyone needs to bring is enthusiasm and food and drink. Limited places are available so please phone asap to book your place, Chris or Janet on 9743 2501 in Sydney

Sydney Royal Easter Show workshop 2014

Wow, what a triumph we had at the Sydney RES ! We had planned a small workshop making this shooting star in felt and glitter scrapbooking card. Christine bought 10 felt craft squares and 2 large pieces of glitter card from the scrapbooking aisle at Lincraft. Some threads, beads and tinsel pipe cleaners were the final pieces to pull from the stash at home. On the day 3 ladies turned out to offer the kids a taste of stitching fun. We began at 11am on our Guild display in the Arts and Crafts hall. At first we thought we were in a poor location, but this soon changed as the day got warmer and people started coming into the air-conditioned pavilion for respite from the heat. We were just near the flower section so mums were bringing the kids in to see the flowers and soon we had a full table. With only 8 seats available we had to send some kids away for half an hour till a chair was free. By 2 pm we had used up all our supplies and all our energy too ! Some 30 plus children had made a shooting star out of felt and most had attempted a few stitches on them too. We gained a new member for Concord West on the spot and gave out lots of information about YTFG and the Guild in general. Diane Edwards also ran an adults activity on a frame where visitors were asked to add a stitch or two to a "garden" of flowers on hessian. A very successful day all around, will try to repeat next year ! Christine

We are still very active..

It's been quite a while since our last posting, so sorry to any visitors who were disappointed that we weren't more up to date. Our small Committee has been very busy lately with too many jobs needing our attention and not enough people to go around. In the next week we plan to update the site with information about our July 2014 school holidays workshop for kids, and details of the Convenor's Challenge which is running at the moment. The main Guild website, see sidebar, has more information. Please visit again soon !!

Spring Magazine

The Spring magazine left Sydney on Wednesday 24th October, 2012 so I hope they are all delivered by now or nearly there. It contains mainly news and photos and a project. That project was the Einstein Owl which was so successful at the Sydney Royal Easter Show, and Guild Exhibition in July. We'll have some completed ones for sale at Guild Market Day on Saturday November 24th at 76 Queen Street Concord West as well as some kits for giving as gifts at Christmas to crafty kids! We had a very successful October 2012 school holidays with Yvonne Chapman. 8 kids made colourful mixed media tote bags under Yvonne's guidance. Fluorescent fabrics and bright markers and paints set the trend, then appliqued and collaged fabrics were further embellished with beads, buttons and sequins and a few embroidery stitches. Finally Yvonne showed everyone how to make a twisted cord with 5 different threads stretched across the workroom, and eventually they all had a cord handle attached to a stitched up bag to take home.

students from Concord West Club proudly show their work

Workshops for kids at Guild Exhibition 2012

October School Holiday Workshop announcement

Come along and make a little needlebook
to keep your needles safe. Your initial on the front
or make one as a gift

Thursday 6th October, 10am - 2 pm

“NIFTY NEEDLEBOOK” with Dianne Magro



Cost $20 for YTFG Members, $25 for non-Members

All materials provided, bring your own food and drink and sewing kit if you have one



Bookings at Guild on 9743 2501 Chris or Janet
Limit 10 students, waiting list may apply

Distance Club News August 2011

YTFG DISTANCE CLUB NEWS
by Wendy Fuller

The Club has now enrolled 158 students. We’re so pleased that children are still accessing “Fun with Stitches” lessons and learning to express their creativity with needles, threads and fabrics. Presently lessons are being sent to five students in Year 1 and ten students in Year 2.
Several of these children are able to enjoy “Fun with Stitches” because of the sponsorships generously offered by various of our NSW Guild Groups. Thank you so much for this practical support.

Sophie, 11 years, comes from Wellington, situated between Dubbo and Mudgee and on the Mitchell Highway. The Macquarie River flows through the area and as I write this in early July, morning frosts would be crisping up the morning air and the grass underfoot. Sophie is mentored by her Grandmother and they enjoy “sewing days” together. Sophie’s Mum echoes an oft read sentiment: “My daughter is learning skills which I never did”. Interestingly, Lesson 4, Huckaback, introduced both grandmother and Sophie to Huck stitching, which they each enjoyed. “It was fun and I found it quite easy to do”, says Sophie. We’re all happy!



Victoria lives on a farm near Merriwa, which is west of Muswellbrook. Her membership to YTFG Distance Club was a gift from her aunt, and she has just returned her first lesson, a lovely bag. “My name is Victoria. I am 13 years old. I live on a farm with horses, cows, goats and a few sheep. When I make things I like using buttons. Some of my favourite things are reading, drawing, riding my horse and going to the beach”. From her mother: “These projects are good as it allows Victoria to learn something that I don’t particularly do or have time to do as a mother of four children.”



Samantha lives at Nowra Hill, which is semi rural and a few kms south west of Nowra. She really enjoys her embroidery, particularly counted thread and beading. Sam is really comfortable reading cross stitch patterns and transferring them to fabric. When beading can be added she’s even happier. We’ve become used to seeing really interesting buttons on her finished embroideries. Soon, this ten year old will be commencing Lesson 6, Canvas Work, and when this is finished she will be another happy graduate of “Fun with Stitches”, having extended her skills and her creativity.

We’re always excited to enrol new students to the YTFG Distance Club course “Fun with Stitches”. Spread the word…. Check the web page for examples of children’s work and tell others about this course. Who knows? We may be up to 200 enrolments by this time next year and many more children will have put “wow” factors into their designing and stitching. We can then admire their growing self confidence and their beautiful pieces of work. If you know a young person between 8 and 18 who would enjoy sewing, please contact Guild Headquarters.

Re-published with permission from The Record, Embroiderers’ Guild NSW Inc August 2011

Lismore Garden Wall

This fabulous Club group project was created in 2010 to exhibit at the Lismore Embroiderers' Guild exhibtion "Our Built Environment". A piece of hand dyed cotton was padded to make the "wall" then individual "bricks" were worked in creative canvas work by the children. A trailing vine with leaves was added to make the wall look realistic and 3D fabric flowers were attached to satay sticks and displayed in a garden trough in front of the wall hanging. For Darling Harbour the flowers were pinned to the main wall for ease of transport and display reasons.

Lismore embroiderer Jane Freidreksen brought "The Garden Wall" to Sydney when she represented Lismore Club at the Annual Leaders' Conference in late April and instructed us how to re-assemble the wooden frame for display. On the day of set-up we couldn't remember the details so the fabric was thumb tacked over the frame and the whole thing suspended successfully on the wall thanks to a few T-pins. Next time we'll make sure to draw some diagrams ! Thankyou to Jane for bringing the Wall to Sydney for the Show, it was certainly a drawcard to the Stand along with the Convenor's Challenge. Thanks also to our friend Annie Huntley of Room for Threads who returned the Wall to Lismore on her way home from the Show on Sunday.

Below are some detailed photos of some of the colourful blocks

Darling Harbour Craft and Quilt Fair June 2011

Wow, what a successful Show for the Guild and especially YTFG.
The YTFG Committee was so pleased with the visitors' positive responses to our 2010 Feature Display that we resolved to again pay for a seperate stand to the Guild one in 2011 so that we'd have room to display the children's work to best advantage.

We launched The Convenors' Colourwheel Challenge late last year and set the deadline for mid June hoping that we'd receive lots of brightly worked panels for the Darling Harbour display. Well, we were delighted and amazed at the number of wonderful panels when they started arriving at Guild Headquarters from the Clubs. We had 81 panels in total, and every colour allocated was represented. Concord West, Dubbo, Lismore, Milton/Ulladulla, North District, Parkes and Wagga Wagga clubs all sent in their work for us to display. We had intended to swap out the panels, but so many children wanted to keep their own work that we decided to return it to them after the display. Photos of selected blocks will be used on the Guild website YTFG section in the near future. All of the blocks have now been returned to the Clubs along with Participation Certificates for their makers.



Here is the overall display, information about the other major piece shown will be in the next post.

Royal Easter Show in Sydney April 2011

This year the Guild displayed for the last 2 days of the Show. We set up on the first day and pulled down in the evening of the 2nd day, such a nice change for us. We'd collected some Group banners and display material from the Guild earlier in the week, ready to arrive bright and early to set up the display on the appointed day. Our stand received many visitors as we were located near the side entrance to the Arts Pavilion where people go in and out to get food and also to visit the Show Bag Pavilion.



On the last day we offered a rolling mini-workshop with a little Dotee Easter Bunny ornament. About 10 bunnies were made thanks to Alana and her son Terry who spoke to lots of children passing by and asked them to join him to make one too. Lots of the kids had never stitched before and we were really pleased they got the chance to try a new skill, and perhaps we'll get some new members too.

July 2011 School Holiday Workshop

Thursday July 14th at Embroiderers' Guild Headquarters
76 Queen Street, Concord West

"Fabulous Foil" with Guild tutor Cathy Jack Coupland

Explore the wonderful textures and colour that can be created using foil as a background for your embroidery. This will be worked on a backing of felt with layers of foil embossed with your very own design. Add richness and colour with beads, organza and thread to produce a very special artwork.

Cost $20, all materials provided

Bring a basic sewing kit, lunch and a drink, limit 10 students

Bookings to Janet or Chris on 9743 2501