I have mentioned the Craft Group to which I belong. We are an incredibly diverse bunch, taking all sorts of different crafts along to work at during our two hour session. During July we were working on a collaborative project for the Gressenhall Museum- a banner saying Farmers Foundry. This will be hung behind a large piece of agricultural machinery [made locally a century or more ago] in an upcoming exhibition. One member made the banner, which was dyed using rust dyes generated with old cogs and washers etc - then we all worked on cutting and sewing the letters from recycled materials.
- Socks knitted on 4 dpns, random dye yarn
- English paper piecing quilt
- A large quilt made throughout the pandemic
- A baby's cable knit cardi in random dye yarn
- Dorset buttons of various designs
- Flower loom flowers for a pram quilt, using family yarns
- "Visible mending" - Japanese sashiko stitching
- Faux quilting with Styrofoam
- Dressmaking - vintage Simplicity pattern, upcycling a sari.
Sometimes people bring crochet, needlefelting, embroidery, and more. We have a library of craft books which members are free to borrow - and often people bring a new tool to demonstrate, or a complete piece for 'show&tell'. There is a sewing machine available at the Village Hall and we enjoy tea, coffee and biscuits, and we pay £2 a time towards costs. I love the different skills displayed, the exchange of ideas, and the passing on of tips and techniques. This is definitely a group I am glad to have joined, and I've made new friends here. We're all aged 60+, but that's not surprising with a daytime group
And I love being able to cycle along the country lanes, less than 10 minutes door to door. I am not sure I will cycle in the winter though] And, like my group in Ferndown, I appreciate a mixed-interest group, it suits my random crafting habits!
Are you in a craft group?
Is it single interest [eg just knitting] or various skills?
What sort of age are the participants?
Do you meet evening or daytime?
What do you like best about the group?
Sounds like a fun group! But, then, crafters are usually a fun group of people, aren't they? It sounds a little like what I was hoping to find when I joined the knitting group at the local library, soon after I retired; they would meet once a week on Tuesday evenings. Unfortunately, I didn't find the social aspects I was hoping to find due to a language barrier. I was the only non-Spanish speaking person there and, although, everyone was very kind, I was unable to engage in the general conversation. Eventually, I stopped going. Then came Covid and I am not comfortable attending any groups right now.
ReplyDeleteCOVID mucked up a lot of groups. It must have been hard being the ONLY non Spanish speaker
DeleteI am in a knitting group in France. Roughly half of the members are English speakers (including American and Australian), the others all French including two young men. Most of the older French ladies seem to be knitting socks. Others bring needlework or other craft projects such as quilting and origami.
ReplyDeleteWe have a interesting conversation as the English speakers mostly speak only a little French and vice versa and another bonus is the diverse selection of baking that is brought each week. There have however been several French converts to Yorkshire tea!
Unlike Bless, you're fortunate to have a diversity of languages. And patisserie!
DeleteI lead our monthly U3A craft group for about 7 years but it was a huge group(25) and I prepped and provided kits each month. I stepped down and now 2 people run it and I take a couple of turns each year leading the class. I now am the volunteer tutor with a charity upcycling project and we meet weekly from September-June each year. Again I provide all the materials etc and the 10 people pay £3 each week which goes to the charity. I do it because I like to give something back to a community of older people. We have tried sewing, knitting and all kinds of papercraft. Catriona
ReplyDeleteOh well done for such hard work. I am sure many people appreciate your efforts to help them to be better crafters
DeleteWe have a similar group at our church called, Hooks and Needles. Everyone brings their own projects each Tuesday afternoon and they enjoy an hour and a half of crafting and chatting!
ReplyDeleteSounds like fun
DeleteThe variety of crafts portrayed are very interesting. I particularly like what I can see of the quilt blocks. I've tried the Sashiko mending on a pair of pull-on jeans that I wear around the house and I'm quite fond of them.
ReplyDeleteThe sashiko mends are quite attractive I think
Delete