ACEs Workshop Part Two

In February I was back again in Barnham for a second workshop with Arundel Creative Stitchers (ACEs) and Barnham Buddies (you can read about the first workshop here). Some of the ladies had come back for a second time so it was a really lovely convivial group and felt like we'd known each other for ages. Others I'd met at the talk in Arundel museum last year and some had even emailed me before the workshop so there were lots of familiar names and faces. 

My space was once again set up as before. I probably take too much with me to these workshops but I like for there to be lots of inspiration and ideas on show. It helps me to explain certain techniques if I have an example, and people also sometimes take a hoop to their work area so that they can take direct inspiration from it which is lovely. The displays always generate a lot of discussion, and in the last ACEs workshop (I forgot to mention), one lady treated herself and purchased my Bluebell Blues Stitchscape! It's so nice to know it has gone to someone who will truly appreciate it. 

It's quite rare to sell an original embroidery so my collection just grows really and I would rather they come out with me than just sit in a dusty box all of the time. 

We had some different approaches in this class. Because it was so mixed some ladies were starting from scratch and bought a workshop pack, some who had been before just carried on working on their previous piece, some had even finished their last piece and started a new one(!), either with a workshop pack or by using fabrics from their own stash and coming in prepared with the hoop ready to start stitching, and a couple had purchased my proper Stitchscape kits and started working on those. It created a real hum and buzz as everyone got on with their own projects. 

I wasn't so good at taking photos this time but I did manage to grab some at the end. 

What's nice is the stories and elements that evolve as the Stitchscapes grow. This lady didn't have any ideas of what to do when she started, but then when she got to thinking about it she was creating a pathway, with particularly cut hedges at either side, then when she came across the pearl bead trimming, it inspired a shell lined pathway made with the trim. 

The colours in this one are lovely, and I really enjoy the different coloured pistil stitches embroidered over the pattern in the fabric. The beads and shells and trimmings are starting to add lots of fun textures too!

This lady had been in the previous class and this time she came already prepared with the fabrics in her hoop ready to go. That batik fabric is the perfect backdrop for a pine forest, and her little freehand sheep are so cute! Several of the ladies had brought in embroidery books of stitches and were looking up new ones to use which I had never heard of! (There are so many, and I really only use a handful of them.) The sheep heads are a particular type of knot which leaves those two little sticky-uppy bits which look exactly like ears! Unfortunately I now can't remember the name of the knot, although I'm wanting to say a Danish knot? Don't quote me on that. 

Some of the pieces weren't quite so landscape themed, but more of a play with colour and that is absolutely fine. This one is gorgeous with the different bold colours, almost jewel-like! 

A Woollydale II being created!

The above piece was also one that wasn't going to be based on a landscape, yet somehow, those orangey colours in the top half, and the addition of those layers of the eyelash yarn shout out a volcano erupting! It's so dark and moody, with the fiery splashes of texture that, to me, look exactly like larva spraying up over those unsuspecting pink flowers. They do clash a little bit with the other half of the hoop, but embroidery stitches and thread colours could be used to blend them back in together a bit, and the contrast really makes the erupting volcano look for me. 

A Bluebell Garden kit being created as well! Although this one is different because some of the fabrics have been swapped around or used elsewhere - that sky fabric isn't included in the kit at all so it will be interesting to see how closely the rest of the instructions will be followed - if at all. 

This one cracks me up. We had three generations in this workshop and this mermaid piece was by the youngest generation who was fairly adamant on mermaids and sheep in her hoop. I love the curly knotted hair on those mermaids, I'm not sure what the shell hats are for because they do have full heads of hair that the shells are covering. I would love to see this piece finished and to see how it evolved. 

It was such a lovely day, I really enjoying myself and I hope that the ladies did as well. 

This beautiful piece was brought out at the end and had been started in the previous workshop and continued at home in the four weeks before this workshop. Apparently it had got the lady through some slightly tough days and I love that it has such a serenity to it - like she was stitching her own happy place to escape to when it got rough in the real world. That is exactly what mindfulness is and is exactly what embroidery can do for you if you let it. 

It's so soft and beautiful - with the smallest and neatest bullion knots I have ever seen in that gorgeous, textured flower bed at the front there.