Children's Guild meetings resume

The Guild of St Clare's junior branch in Oxford has resumed its meetings, now under the hospitable roof of the Oxford Homeschooling Group which takes place once a month at the Oxford Oratory. The children are working on a sampler, in order to learn basic techniques which will enable them to take on more sophisticated projects.

The sewing sampler book which the children will make

     

Dorothea embroidering the front cover of her sampler

Frances tackling running stitch

Margaret and Hannah with their samplers

Lines of machine sewing and a button with machine-sewn buttonhole on the pages of the sampler: the children will go on to do these when they have mastered the basics of sewing by hand

First page of the sampler: a line of running stitch in progress

Agnes hard at work with me supervising

Project Finishing Day!

Following the success of our training days, we are starting a new kind of meeting which we hope will interest all needleworkers! If you're like us, you have at least 10 (or maybe more like 100) unfinished projects languishing in a cupboard taking up space and giving you pangs of guilt every time you open the door and see them.

Could do with a bit more work.

 Join us on our project finishing day! We will meet at 10am on Saturday, 28th June 2014 at the church hall of St Anthony of Padua, Headington, Oxford OX3 7SS.

There will be people there with a wide range of skills and experience to help and advise you; it will be the ideal opportunity to make progress on your neglected work, whether it's hand embroidery, dressmaking, quilting or something more exotic!

To book, email Lucy Shaw at lucyashaw@gmail.com . Places cost £15 each - all ages are welcome.

Goldwork Training Day with Golden Hinde

On 22nd February we had our Goldwork Training Day, led by Sarah Rakestraw and Sue Hinde from Golden Hinde goldwork supplies.

Clare, Lucy, Amanda and Marie tacking their designs on to silk mounted in embroidery frames

Hard at work.

 We all chose a design, originally created by Sarah, and used different techniques to outline and fill in.

This is the design I chose - a simple flower. The design is marked on tracing paper, then tacked on to silk dupion which has been mounted on to an embroidery frame. Then the tracing paper is carefully removed, leaving the tacking stitches behind.

We learnt beginner's goldwork techniques: couching, leather work and beading. However these are staple techniques for goldwork: most of the more advanced techniques simply build on them.

Sue demonstrating couching. The stitches which overlay the gold threads, holding them to the fabric, form a pattern which are part of the design.

By the end of the day I'd made a bit more progress

 If I apply myself, I should manage to complete my design so that it looks like this:

Sarah's flower design

We are planning to hold further goldwork courses later in the year, when we will tackle different techniques. Watch this space!

New Pall

The Guild of St Clare was commissioned to make a new black pall for use with a small catafalque at Requiems. This was completed just in time for the Traditional Sung Requiem for deceased members of St Benet's Hall, Oxford, the Benedictine house of study, which is now an annual event.

The new pall in use in the small chapel of St Benet's. The celebrant is Fr Edward Van den Bergh, of the London Oratory and also an alumnus of the Hall.

The pall was made with silk dupion from Beckford Silk and trimmed with brocade from Vanpoulles. More photos can be viewed on Joseph Shaw's Flickr page.

Forthcoming Events for 2014

The Guild of St Clare is holding two training events in the first half of 2014 (more will follow).

First, on Saturday, 22nd February, there will be a Goldwork Day, held in Oxford at the church hall of St Anthony of Padua in Headington. The tutor is Sarah Rakestraw from Golden Hinde, and the cost is £40 per person plus materials.









Second, on Saturday, 12th April, we are having a bobbin lace making day for beginners, also in Oxford, at The Fibreworks in the Cowley Road. The price for this is also £40.









Places for both these courses are extremely limited so please make sure you book in good time! Email lucyashaw@gmail.com to reserve your place.

*************************************UPDATE!**********************************

The 22nd February is also the date of the Oxford Pro-Life Witness, which is held from 3pm at the same church where we will be conducting the Goldwork course. People hoping to come and sew are very welcome to attend the course and take time out for the Witness. We will all have tea together afterwards - do bring friends and family too!

The Guild of St Clare at Towards Advent

The Guild of St Clare is at the Towards Advent fair today!

We are selling embroidery kits, Christmas decorations, vintage tea cups and Ceri's ever popular cake pops!




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Gold Altar Frontal for St Alphege's

The gold altar frontal, commissioned for the church of St Alphege’s in Bath, has now been completed. It is made with silk from the Gainsborough Silk Weaving Company, a Suffolk-based company which specialises in the replica of historical fabrics, and lined with white Irish linen. Here you can see the before and after photos.

The very plain forward altar

The altar with its new gold altar frontal

The church still requires altar frontals in four other colours, so watch this space for more!