Fabric recycling, being Creative with Textile remnants
We met at the Guide HQ and met our tutor Joan, a member of the Upper Eden u3a. Joan has been an enthusiastic collector and 'stitcher' of fabric remnants for years and has founded two 'creative textile' groups in Kirkby Stephen.
Joan started with a 'show and tell' of the work of some of her group members and a few of the workshop group had examples to show of previous work. She provided bags of materials, threads, oddments, buttons and ribbons to get everyone started, and some had brought their own materials, pins and needles. No need for instruction said Joan, just pick fabrics and colours that you like and make a collage with simple stitching. The chatter soon died down as everyone became engrossed in their creations, even the people who had never done anything similar started to gain confidence and enjoy the process.
Two hours flew by and, as we cleared up, it was facinating to see that each person had made something attractive and colourful and quite different from any other piece of work on the table. The general conclusion was that we all enjoyed the workshop and would like to do more 'creative textile' work. Thanks to Joan it was a very sociable learning experience and we hope to organise another opportunity for u3a members to experiment with textile 'art' in the near future.
Watch this space !
Report by Kate Bailey