Past member Joanna O'Neill has written an article about the history of Thames Valley Contemporary Textiles in July's Patchwork & Quilting magazine. Get your copy now! ​(I've yet to get my copy - so I hope this is the right cover, but we wanted to get this news out asap).

Thank you Joanna - we miss you since you moved up North :( - but its so lovely that you're still thinking of us. And, we can't quite believe that its been so long!

Welcome
Sandy welcomed everyone; the meeting was again very well attended.

Celebrations
Several members from TVCT entered their work at the Festival of Quilts 2016 and won prizes! Jane Bonney won first prize for her garment, Kate Crossley won third prize in the quilt creation category, Sandra Newton won a first in miniatures. Other members had entered their work and enjoyed seeing it displayed. Sandy won third prize for wearable art at Sandown.
Jane Glennie thanked everyone for the support for the South Hill Park event in July, Engage with Art. Images are still availble online here.
 
Information about upcoming events

• Wokingham Arts Trail, 24th & 25th September. 
• June Withers ‘Taking Textiles Further’

• Caroline Marriott mentioned the Robin’s Nest Gallery in Wargrave where she occasionally runs workshops.
• National Needlework Archive: ‘1000 and 1 nights’ 3rd - 29th September
• National Needlework Archive: CQ ‘On the Edge’ from 1st October – 3rd November

Worn Threads
This will next be exhibited at the West Country Quilt and Textile Show on 11th - 13th November 2016 and again at the Excel in London in April 2017.  Stewards needed for both events; this is coordinated by Marion Robertson.

Speaker:  Amanda Hislop       www.amandahisloptextileartist.com​

Amanda gave a talk entitled ‘Land lines; drawn lines; stitched lines’.  She described how she finds inspiration in the landscape where she lives, near the Ridgeway and the White Horse Hill.  She also feels inspired by the sea and the sky as well as trees with all the variety of lines and colour they give.
Amanda is a trained artist; stitch is just one of the techniques she uses in her work.  Amanda starts with mark making, wanting to capture the lines in the landscape.  This is followed by the layers of colour and texture. Amanda illustrated this process with the sketchbooks she keeps.

Amanda is a member of Prism and she exhibits with this group annually at the Mall Gallery in London.  The themes for these exhibitions can be challenging and in their way are important in her artistic journey.  She talked about the concept of the ‘liminal state’, that as an artist you are often in this phase between the known and on the threshold of something new; you don’t know what it is because you haven’t arrived yet!

Amanda gave a demonstration of how she creates her layered landscapes, working on muslin with paper and threads, binding with cellulose paste, later adding colour with acrylics before finally adding further texture with machine stitch.

If you are a member of the TVCT group and would like a copy of the technical notes then please email Sandy.

Come and join some TVCT members and others at an exciting event of visual art at South Hill Park on 2/3 July from 11am to 6pm. There will be lots to see and free workshops and taster sessions to take part in.

More information at www.engagewithart.org.uk

Welcome
Sandy welcomed everyone; the meeting was again very well attended.
The Worn Threads
Marion Robertson told the group how well the exhibition was received at Lady Sew and Sew and the NNA. At Lady Sew and Sew they reckon about 500 people had been to see it. The next venue is in Bristol at the West Country Quilt and Textile show from 11th to 13th November. The exhibits must be with Marion or Sandy at least a week prior to that. Marion also asked for stewards to help over the weekend.
Information about upcoming events

• Child of the Sixties by Threaded Together at Lady Sew and Sew, 2nd – 23rd June
• ENGAGE Art at South Hill Park 2nd – 3rd July. This event will be a visual spectacular! It will involve art installations inside and in the grounds, students work will be exhibited, free workshops and demonstrations 
• At BBC Country File Live at Blenheim Palace in August, Kate Findlay will be talking about her bird pictures, 4th – 7th August
• Whiteknights Studio Trail in Reading 11th – 12th June 2016
• North Surrey Group Guildford House Gallery 18th – 19th June where Mavis Walker’s chess set will be on display
• Wokingham Arts Trail September 2016

Tactile books for children with special needs
Merete showed the group a fabric book made for a visually impaired child. The books are multisensory and have to be robust for little hands to explore. There will be a workshop about making tactile books at the meeting in May 2017. In preparation for this, people were encouraged to start collecting bits and bobs – it will all come in useful one day. The leaflet about how to make tactile books will be put on the website.

Textile artists mentoring
Kate Findlay informed the group about a textile mentoring group she and a friend are in the process of setting up. This is still in the early stages, please contact Kate if interested on [email protected]

Members’ work
Annie Hamilton showed her series of pictures based on her apple tree.

Studio 21 - including Sandra Meech -  have an exhibition at SIT Select - in Stroud at the Landsdown Gallery for all of May - until the 28th.
The Sewing Machine Project 
The private view is on the 7 May 12-2, (Sandra will be there stewarding 17/18, 22 May).
This open studio/gallery event is one of a kind and explores work for many creative disciplines.

All welcome. http://www.studio21textileart.co.uk/

There is also a lot more to see besides at SIT (Stroud International Textiles) more information at http://www.sitselect.org/index.html_

There was a good turnout to help set up the exhibition which opens on Tuesday 29 March 2016 at the National Needlework Archives, The Old Chapel Textile Centre, Main Street, Greenham Business Park, Newbury. RG19 6HW.  The exhibition is open til Thursday 28 April 2016, Tuesdays to Thursdays 10am until 4pm. For information about the venue see the National Needlework Archive's website.

Sandy Snowden took a small selection of 'Worn Threads' work to the Birch Hill Easter Fair, held at the community centre where the group meets. She did a great job of widening knowledge of textile art, our group and what we get up to.

There was lots going on at the fair: face painting, Easter egg hunt, cakes, home-made Easter eggs, and so on. The event supported the Bracknell Town Council's Mayor's chosen Charity - Bracknell Home-Start Bracknell Town Council Mayor’s chosen charity.

A busy day yesterday installing our new exhibition 'Worn threads' at the Lady Sew and Sew warehouse exhibition space in Henley on Thames. 

The exhibition is open from Thursday 4th February to Monday 22nd February 2016, weekdays 10am until 4pm. For information about the venue see www.ladysewandsew.co.uk

For those people wanting to send photos to Sandy please find below instructions on how to use wetransfer.com:

You will need to know which folder on your pc contains the photo you want to transfer. 
1. To open https://www.wetransfer.com/ in another window, click here .
2. The website may offer for you to "Get WeTransfer Plus", in which case, click the "skip" button.
3. The website will ask you to accept the Terms and Conditions, click "I agree".
4. The website will show a box looking like this:

5. Click "+ Add files"  - this will open a window for you to find the folder that contains your photo.  Find the correct folder and then select by the photoby double clicking on the photo.
6. Click "+Friends email" and enter Sandy's email address. 
7. Click "+Your email" and enter your email address. 
8. Add a message with your name and the title of your piece of work (to make life easier for Sandy).
9. Click "Transfer" and you're done.

I was fortunate enough to visit New Zealand earlier this year and was inspired by a piupiu skirt I saw in the Te Papa Tongarewa (Museum of New Zealand). 

A piupiu is a skirt-like garment made of flax strands that hang from a waistband. The leaves of the New Zealand flax are first stripped back to the fibre in regular sections, leaving sections of unstripped leaf in between. The loose fibres are then twisted together by a spinning action. These strands are boiled and dried so they whiten and roll into tubes. Then they are dyed black, only the exposed fibre takes the dye, creating a striped black and white effect. Finally, the strands are attached to a woven waistband.

I was also inspired by the fabulous scenery at Doubtful Sound.  The photo doesn't do justice to the fantastic greens and the silvery waterfalls.

I made some fabric beads by rolling a triangular piece of fabric around a knitting needle and heating with a heat gun.  I used the same technique on large flower shaped sequins and then strung them together:

I made several different sizes of these hanging strands and put them together to make a necklace.  I had to insert spacer fabric beads to get them to hang properly.

Any suggestions on the best way to display this are most welcome.