TACKS Workshop

More than a couple of months ago (I’m behind on my blogging again!) I had a lovely big workshop in Meopham with a really active group called TACKS, which stands for Textile Arts, Crafts, Knitting and Stitching. (TACKS is much easier to say!) I had met some of the ladies before in Arundel and Rochester so it was great to see them as well as meeting lots of new faces.

Before we'd even started the workshop I was presented with TWO completed Stitchscapes! Both ladies had been to previous workshops or talks, one at Wainscott and one in Arundel so had either started their own hoop or purchased a kit to make. Isn't that amazing? It was a great start to the day for certain.
This big green sheep hoop was being given as a gift so had even been done up on the back, covered with felt and with a little stitched label on the back! It's very sparkly with metallic threads, shiny yarns, beads and gorgeous metallic batik fabric.

I love, love, love seeing completed kits too - each one is always so different! I find it fascinating to see which bit of the pattern other people get and what they do with it. Just in designing the kit I can only work with the bit that I get whilst thinking about what other people might receive but I can only guess at that so seeing it in reality is fab. 

The workshop had no set theme so I’d made up packs which varied between coastal and countryside, and some ladies also brought their own materials which is always fun to add variety.
There were quite a lot of fussy cut sheep, all placed upright for once, as well as experimenting with using toy stuffing stitched down to make their woolly coats. Once we had the stuffing out it was also used for clouds and sea spray, as well as for actually stuffing felt or fabric rocks - it’s a diverse thing to have in your Stitchscape stash!

I love how in some workshops one particular trimming, thread or stitch becomes an accidental focus and ends up in multiple hoops.

This particular piece was being worked on by a lady who was a crocheter at heart (we won't hold that against her) and admitted that she didn’t really know how to embroider and was far out of her comfort zone. She had brought along with her an image that she was trying to emulate, with a river and stone wall in a rocky valley - which can be a hard thing to do for your first foray into Stitchscaping because you end up comparing your textile hoop to the image and they aren't really going to look alike.

Initially she was stitching each of the stones into her wall individually, and complaining just a little bit about the length of time it was taking her and that it wasn't working out like her picture so I went and grabbed a chunky knitting yarn from my stash and started pulling one of the strands in it to make the rest all bunch up like stones. If it were me I would probably have gone the whole hog and couched down lots of strands stacked on top of each other of this pulled yarn to create my wall, but I like that she's kept her stone stitching and just added the pulled yarn at the bottom, along with some strands of eyelash yarn being used as scrubby grasses. 

Sometimes you do have to go with the feel of something rather than an accurate representation. 

This lady is the one who made the big green sheep hoop at the start of this post and, interestingly, I think there are quite a few similarities between the two hoops. Lots of couched edges and sparkly bits, but this time with shells and furnishing trimmings! Really lovely. 

You can also tell, I think, who was sitting next to each other! The layout for the workshop was tables arranged almost in a 'U' shape but the tables themselves sort of had little pockets of people in groups around it and I think these three hoops were all created on the same table, with inspiration being taken and given between the three ladies! I wonder if you can see what I mean?

If you are in the area this would be a brilliant group to join. They not only have workshops but, if you didn't fancy joining in with the workshop on offer, they still have areas for you to bring your own projects, they had a show and tell, a raffle, a little pop up shop, shared news...it was so brilliant to see!