New work - Exhibition booked!

The first piece in my Rust series is finished! The hanging is strips of fabric which I dyed by wrapping around various rusted objects. An earlier post mentioned the problems I'd had with breaking needles as I tried to free machine quilt the piece. Most of the quilting was done without the feed down which meant it took much longer to quilt than I anticipated. I also planned the piece as a triptych but thankfully there was not enough fabric to go into three pieces! The pieces of rusted metal were cut from a strip of twisted metal that I found on Selsey beach which had been one of the metal pieces I used to rust the fabric. So glad to get one piece completely finished!

Another piece that is finished but still waits to be mounted when I've decided how to to do it. I find this the most difficult part - deciding how to present the finished work.

I rekindled my love of canvas work by felting some fibres around piece of canvas I had painted with some bronze fabric paint. I loved the stitching so much I might just have to do some more canvas work.

These last two pieces are experiments / work in progress .......

The first one was knitted using some yarn that I had needle felted different organza, sheers and chiffon to. It's quite thick so I don't think I will work into it any more so may well just make in into a bag.

The final piece was a piece of felt into which I cut slits and wove through silk, chiffon and scrim and then needle felted together. I think I will stitch it with running stitch - kantha style. I seem to be seeing Kantha work all over the place and it has taken my imagination. Will definitely have to do some.

And so to news of my forthcoming exhibition.

As I mentioned back in July, my friend Jo and I made some enquiries about a venue for an exhibition that we would like to hold next year. I had a call last week and it's booked!!! We're both excited, scared and slightly panic-struck all at the same time!! We've been meeting regularly each month over the last few months and the time we spend together is very rewarding and enriching for us both. It's so good to have a friend who can be supportive but push you creatively too.

The exhibition is at The Hawth theatre in Crawley, West Sussex from 21st November to 3rd December 2011. It might sound like a long way away but I have a feeling it will come round very quickly.