PROCESSIONS - Week 4 - SILKS, SIZES AND STAMPS

Phiona Richards and I were back with our lovely group for our fifth PROCESSIONS session - we had had a conversation in the morning and were worried that the original banner size we had opted for would be too small to fit all our flowers and to have letters that would be big enough to create enough impact. So I made up several different versions and had them copied to the right scale and added in one that was the larger version. There are some further amendments to make but this is the size the group has chosen.

We laid out the fabric flowers to give a better idea of how our banner might look

Phiona had been busy experimenting with lettering 

and putting together elements for our 

version of the Suffragette rosette.

Everyone stamped their own slogan onto fabric to create

the centre of the rosette and stitched it round a card disc,

Here is Joy's slogan on her completed disc.

We set up two work stations, one for stamping

and one of silk painting

Lillian and Mary filling their gutta outlines with colour

Judy and Mary displaying their finishes silks

which then had Bondaweb ironed to the reverse side.

Once again it was a busy, bustling evening.

You can see our progress here

Suffragette Petticoat 1910

Suffragettes Capture the Monument April 18 1910

PROCESSIONS - Week 3 - Blooming Marvellous!

My whippet Logan investigating Common Dog Violets growing wild under trees on our morning walk. I had been thinking about the Suffragette colours and the type of flowers we could sew onto our Made in Corby PROCESSIONS banner. The group want the banner to be simple, striking and effective and decided that each participant should make a flower to represent themselves on the banner. These beautiful little wild flowers jumped out at me - I had hoped that they might be Viola Odorata which has many Uses and Recipes  but these had no fragrance so I assume they are Common Dog Violets.

A napkin from the July 1915 Women’s March. 

Photo by John Groom’s Crippleage And Flower Girl’s Mission. 

Image courtesy of People’s History Museum

I made a pattern for everyone to use during our session

and played with some different colours

and textures using silks, linen and felt

showing that they could be hand or machine sewn.

We want our banner to have lots of different textures so we also invited all of our group to make a gutta outline of our flower on silk. Some of the silk had been donated by a friend who's dear Aunt had passed away last year, she was an avid crafter, very stylish and her nephew lives in the Old Village in Corby so it is lovely to be able to up-cycle a little of her legacy within our banner. Next week we will paint them with silk paints.

We had asked our group to raid their button tins as we felt that all these collected buttons from garments saved by women who were dear to us would make a fitting tribute to their strength, fortitude and inventiveness. See how we use them as our project progresses.

Our group cut out their patterns, chose their materials and were introduced to the wonders of Bondaweb a double sided iron on adhesive attached to a transfer paper which makes bonding tricky fabrics together so much easier.

Fabrics ironed onto Bondaweb

then cut and placed on a support fabric

and ironed into place. 

Our fabric basket after participants had made their choices!

We are very lucky to be able to have our sessions at Swan Gardens and as you can see we are surrounded by variations of violet, white and green! 

One of the beauties of being able to work as a pair and as the Eloquent Fold is we are able to circulate, share our skills and collect stories as we move from table to table. Last week were joined by some of the residents who shared their memories about changes in Corby and in the lives of women since they were girls.

"I have just realised that all women only got the vote after I was born in 1926, women over 21 only got the vote in 1928." 

"Women didn't talk as openly in those days as they do now."

"Mother and Grandmother were strong women and I had a great friend who was so kind, would do anything to help you if you needed help"

"Granny was a strong woman"

"I must have knitted miles of wool in my lifetime, but my hands are not up to it now."

Many thanks to Emma Gough and Tess Porter 

for sharing some of their thoughts with us.

We gave those that wanted some, embroidery threads so they could continue to work on on their pieces at home. Phiona and I are very excited to see how each flower will be transformed! It was another excellent evening, lots of conversations took place whilst all the choosing, outlining, cutting and sewing was taking place and everyone pitched in to help where they could. 

100 Hundred Years 100 Hundred Banners 

100 Hundred Artists

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