Archive for October 2014

August workshop - Sew Macho (reprise)

Sunday, 19 October 2014 § 0


For our August workshop we went along to O.W.L industry to learn how to make shrugs and flower brooches. With several Roses being the proud owners of sewing machines it was the perfect craft to improve their skills and increase their confidence of making clothing from scratch!

 
We were guided by the lovely Sue and Kielly who taught us how to measure and cut fabric for the perfect fit. They advised how to create shrugs of different lengths and styles and how to cut fabric to ensure that the edges were neat.


 
 
 
Next came the scary sewing machine bit! With many members having not used a sewing machine since school Sue and Kielly went through the anatomy of sewing machine, how the different parts work and the different stitches that you can do with even the most basic of machines. The result was many shrugs in a variety of styles, lengths and patterns which the Roses have been making more of ever since!

 

 
Sam also taught us how to make lovely flower brooches using small circles of fabric, fab for using up any off cuts or spare buttons that you have left over from other crafts! Whilst it was a bit fiddly at first to get the stitching right so that when you pulled the thread tight at the end it all came together to make a flower the brooches all turned out lovely and were a nice finishing touch to the shrugs made earlier.

 

Thanks Sue, Kielly and Sam! See you at the next workshop!









No Danger No Danger Low Voltage - September Meeting - Personal Safety

Wednesday, 8 October 2014 § 0

As the nights start to draw in and walking home from work is now more likely to be in the twilight or dark, we scheduled our September Meeting No Danger, No Danger, Low Voltage to help our Roses pick up some handy hints and tips to stay safe!
 
Marc Holmes from West Yorkshire Police had our Roses shouting, looking fierce and walking with purpose!  It's not uncommon for us to be lively and chatty (not that we are a rowdy bunch!), but even some of our newer and quieter members were helped to find their loud inner voices.
 
 
Mark encouraged us to think about our personal safety, to be more aware of our surroundings and to build our confidence in unsafe situations.
 


 
Lots of our fab ladies jumped in with both feet and gave Bob (not a real man) a good smack in the face or shouted at poor Mark, to 'Get Back', we even scared ourselves at points.   (Maybe a good stress relief after a busy day at work?)
 








It was great to see women gaining confidence to own the streets and being aware of their surroundings - go Roses!

October Bookclub - Frankenstein- Mary Shelley

Tuesday, 7 October 2014 § 0

Buns and Roses Book Club meets roughly every six weeks or on Sunday afternoons at 2.30pm admidst the victorian splendour of the Tiled Hall Cafe (just inside Leeds Art Gallery on the Headrow) We decide at each meeting what date we meet next and what book we're going to do. 




Book choice is determined by suggestion or by placing suggestions on paper and then pulling them out of a bag. There are no strict rules about having to have finished the book to attend a meeting. We don't mind if you've only seen a film adaptation (if there is one) or just read the Wikipedia entry about it - in return though you have to not mind when we talk about the ending.

After the start of the year we took a decision to read books by female authors and which ideally featured feisty female characters and it's a brief we've stuck to so far. I doubt you'll find anyone more feisty than Scarlett O'Hara. The other rule we have is that the books we pick have to have multiple copies available from Leeds Libraries though it's up to each person whether they buy their own copy, pay for a download or borrow a copy.

Sometimes our conversations stick very closely to the book and sometimes we wander down all sorts of conversational avenues from best nail varnishes to how to train partners but it's fair to say whatever we end up talking about there will be always be a laugh and tea involved too and of course cake as the cake on offer at the Tiled Hall Cafe is very scrummy indeed. 

So far this year we've read Silver Linings Playbook by Matthew Quick, Gone With The Wind by Margaret Mitchell, Enchanted April by Elizabeth Von Armin, Miss Pettrigrew Lives For A Day by Winifred Watson and The Guernseay Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Burrows.

The last book we read was Frankenstein by Mary Shelley - the female characters in the book aren't especially feisty we all loved the fact that her nightmare tale was born out of a ghost story telling competition and that she beat the male writers she was with at their own game, we all hated Viktor and his self obsessed and selfish pursuance of his goals and his abandonment of the creature who we all agreed was more sinned against than sinning.

Next up is Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte - a dark brooding romance that has been variously described as page turner, a moving and heartwarming tale and a love story with an erotic sub text - so come along on Sunday November 23rd at 2.30pm and tell us what you think of it too :-) You can also help us decide what will be our first book choice for 2015.


September workshop - Write Said Fred

Sunday, 5 October 2014 § 0

For our September workshop we were joined by Matthew Bellwood, local storyteller and author of 365 stories, for a chance for the Roses to get their creative juices flowing and try their hand and storytelling.



Matthew started out by telling the group a chilling ghost story before giving them some prompts so they could go off and start writing their own spooky tales.





The group proved to be adept and writing their own stories with tales of fishermen and their dead wives, teachers and a strange pupil, a mummified friend, a wild woman, circus tents and going back in time entertaining the audience.








October Workshop - Rhinestone Cowboy - Jewellry Making

Saturday, 4 October 2014 § 0

At Buns & Roses  we love it when our members offer to get involved in our meetings and workshops (and anything else - please let us know if you would like to help out - it makes us very happy!) and so Rhinestone Cowboy our jewellery making workshop gave us the perfect opportunity for Bev and Donna from A Dog Called Dill to share their beading skills.




This was a great workshop as everyone went away with a necklace, at least one bracelet (most people had 2) and at least one pair of earrings - not bad for £13 - 15 and a fun and relaxing couple of hours beading and chatting!




Bev and Donna took one table each after we'd selected from 10 different colours of glass beads and laid them all out on our beading boards - which helpfully show how long the necklace or bracelet that you are making needs to be with inch and cm markers.




Bev introduced us to Tiger Tail (the first of many amazingly named beading ingredients!) which you have to be careful not to kink accidentally as you can't get it out again!  We carefully threaded our beads onto the Tiger Tail after we had made a kink in it, threaded on a Lobster Clasp and fastened it by squashing a fixing bead with pliers.  Once we had finished threading all the beads we then fixed a Jump ring (see I told you they were cool names!) and the necklace was complete!



We then moved onto the bracelets which used heart shaped glass beads.  It was a similar process to the necklaces, although you could either use Tiger Tail and fix on a jump ring and T-Bar fastening or use elastic.  If we were using the elastic Bev and Donna passed on a useful tip - when you knot the elastic, use a blob of nail hardener/varnish to make the knot more strong and durable.




Finally we tackled earrings which were again using heart shaped beads.  A simple process - we just used pins and pliers to fasten the bead to earring fixings and twisted a hook to make the hoop to connect the two together.



All in all a great evening of crafting with some lovely results - thanks Bev and Donna for such an informative and relaxing evening.




Newer Entries »

« Older Entries