Rodmell Sunday Stitchers

Following on from my last blog post, I had a whole weekend of workshops. No sooner had I finished up with the Made & Making workshop on the Saturday I then had a private workshop with the Rodmell Sunday Stitchers - on the Sunday, funnily enough. (By the way, the link to the Rodmell group may not be entirely up to date as it's to the village hall website, but the contact email address for the group is still current at the time of writing this blog post.)

Rodmell is just next Lewes in East Sussex and is somewhere that I have driven past loads of times before but had never actually gone into the village. It's very quaint, lots of thatched cottages and flint walls (which is very typical of the Lewes area anyway) and quiet. But it does have a lovely village hall where quite a large quilting and sewing group meet. 

I was invited to do a workshop with them after their bookings lady saw me at The Stitching Post during Artwave in September last year. I quite often get approached by groups and booked for the following year - it makes me feel oddly professional. Not that I'm not professional, but there is just something about having that event in your diary for a years' time that feels a little bit more special. I can't explain it any better than that so I hope I don't sound very odd. 

Anyway, this group were a really interesting mix. Several of them go to different types of workshops in other places and had a few different techniques and ideas in mind that they were blending with what I was showing them to create a slightly different way of working, some had never hand stitched but were dyed in the wool machine sewers so the slow stitch aspect was more difficult for them, and others just sat and quite happily stitched away in their own little worlds, just happy to create. 

These groups are absolutely essential, in my mind, to a community and to bring together people who may otherwise be quite isolated. If you are a crafter/stitcher who stitches at home; in front of the TV or in the garden, or at the kitchen table, and you are always alone during this process, I really urge you to see if you have a creative group like this in your area - even if they only meet once a month. It has such huge benefits. The ladies all talk each other up, share their resources, skills and experience and have a common interest to be a starting point for conversation. Depending on the group, extra day trips are booked, exhibitions looked at and friendships formed. You cannot be unhappy when you are creating just for yourself, and when other people are all chipping in with their "oh wow, that's amazing, what a great idea, what a clever clogs you are, such talent, so neat, what a great colour choice, where did you get that trimming, that's a perfect addition to that piece" comments. 

This was a mixed bag workshop so some ladies had asked for the beach - the majority of them were going coastal actually - and some were after more of a floral/countryside type theme. My workshop packs are very relaxed, they are just to be used as a spring board and the fabrics can be swapped around, changed or removed to suit each person and the idea that comes to mind. Even with a coastal theme you can put in a floral fabric so nothing is set in a themed stone. 

This lady (above) was going great guns with the bead sticks. I can't remember how it came about that I suggested she might like to have a go at creating the bead stick, but I had a few bead tubes with me and a beading needle. I turned my back for a few minutes and when I came back these enormous, long and spindly bead sticks were waving at me from her hoop - aren't they splendiforous? Apparently she has lots of beads at home just loitering with intent so I think we all know what she's going to be doing with them now!

This lady (also above) finished her hoop! It rarely happens actually so it was a novelty - we had two finished hoops by the end of the day on this workshop - but as she wasn't a confident hand stitcher, she was very happy with what she had achieved, and rightly so. Organza had been brought along from her stash and she's stitched that down to make a scrunched wavy texture for her water, added beads and a fluffy chenille trimming for her water's edge, stitched seed stitch with a variegated perlé thread on her sand, cut shiny sequin tape and stitched it down with the shells for some wet look pebbles and had a go at french knots to add a sandy texture. It's lovely. 

The hoop below (for a change) was by Sabine who has been to several workshops and events that I've been to. I would class her as a 100% Stitchscape convert success story - I've even taught a workshop at her house with her friends! She is a very neat stitcher, as I'm sure you can tell from her blanket stitch flower in orange - and she has used an eyelash yarn to add texture to the other stitched flowers, such a clever idea! 

There were some really beautiful ideas and different approaches in this class which made for a fascinating day. If you are in the vicinity of Rodmell perhaps it would be something you might like to join in with. I can recommend it completely.