Crafts Show

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 31983, 9 May 1969, Page 3

Crafts Show

Three members of the Canterbury Embroidery Guild are offering the public hand-made gifts for Mother’s Day.

Mesdames N. Cheals, G. Cummings, and R. Brand (Ashburton) have organised an exhibition of their work in the guild’s Hereford Street rooms. It opened yesterday and will finish this evening. The • guild’s annual exhibition, when all members contribute, is held in November. Mrs Cheals said it was hoped that the Mother’s Day exhibition would be the first of many put on by individuals or groups of members who wished to take advantage of the guild rooms. Her own work includes wall panels and framed pictures featuring New Zealand designs. Bead work is used extensively in a copy of a Maori rock drawing of a huia and a clematis is done in applique with bead work.

Mrs Cheals, vice-president of the guild, is a retired art and craft teacher. She learned embroidery from her mother and grandmother, and at art school.

The most unusual work in the exhibition is reverse applique. In forming a design, each of several layers of material is cut away to reveal the colour underneath.

Among Mrs Cummings’s exhibits is an exquisite hand crocheted hostess apron. She has also crocheted a hairpin stole and several lavender bags. Drawn fabric, counted thread, and Richelieu cut work has been used by Mrs Brand in several tray cloths and dressing table sets. Smaller items in the exhibition include handkerchiefs, book marks, and pin cushions.

Two junior members have also submitted work. They belong to a class Mrs Cheals holds on Saturday mornings for girls from 12 to 18 years. Heraldic plaques from the coats-of-arms of German cities have ben done by Lois Glanville, and Janice Winter is exhibiting a tapestry picture. The guild, which has embroidery classes each week, has 60 adult members and six juniors (under 18 years).