Joined Wolverhampton Embroiderers Guild. Its an hour away, but firstly, I wanted to be a member of the Guild again, and secondly, their programme this year looks excellent. My challenge, however, is to use inspiration and influence from lectures and workshops and incorportate the ideas into whatever chapter I am working on in C&G! 
On Saturday I went to see a lecture by Mary Sleigh. She gave a talk about her inspiration from African and Indian cultures and textiles. She had many examples of beadwork, kantha, and raffia cloth.The raffia cloth samples were strip woven. As raffia is taken from palm leaves, the length of the fibres is determined by the length of the leaf, therefore, the warp and weft will always be quite short, therefore a large raffia cloth will always be sewn together in sections. The patterns used are very similar to the strip patchwork patterns developed in this chapter.
Some strips were stitched as a resist (as in shibori) and then dyed with indigo. Others were black, tan or natural. Again, very similar to the colours used in this chapter.
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| dyed fabric using stitch resist (shibori) |
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| seminole patchwork by Kate Pike |
Images taken from Mary Sleigh's book, 'African Inspirations In Embroidery'
Lovely - I remember you saying you were going to join Wolverhampton. All the best
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