Plush Addicts Open Day!

Check out the swag I grabbed today at the Plush Addicts Open Day!
plushaddict.co.uk is a great fabric website I stumbled upon a few weeks ago when I was looking for a certain quilting fabric for a project. They are based in Edenbridge, about an hour from me in Kent. Although they are based online they have open days about every 6 weeks where you can come to the site and shop in person.
My mum and I decided to go have a nose and this is what I came home with. I love my new foxy box for my sewing gear for work. I have no idea what I am going to make with the fabrics yet but when inspiration hits you guys will be the first to know!
We also bought a pair of KAM snap pliars and some colourful snaps to try out - I'm pretty excited about that. Keep an eye out for a project using those soon and check out the Plush Addicts website for great stuff.
If you are in the area this is the calendar of open days too.

Posted with Blogsy

Exhibition Report: Medway Open Studios

Recently I attended a Fabric Manipulation workshop at INTRA in Rochester. Through this 6 week workshop I developed some interesting techniques, the build up to which I will share with you in another post. But this weekend the artists of Medway opened their doors to the public in the Medway Open Studios & Arts Festival. My Fabric Manipulation piece was on display so I went to see it, the finished pieces of the rest of the class and some great local artists.

A particular favourite I discovered today was Heather Haythornthwaite who creates beautiful prints. Her three prints of historically notorious Medway prostitutes took my breath away. She combines interesting elements to create her images inclusing text, old maps and images imposed with regular printed shapes. She is a part of the Ridley Road group and can be seen at stop number 6 on the Medway Open Studios Map.

Stopping in at INTRA I saw my oen piece beautifully displayed along with work by Faye Lamb, Bernice Friend and Rebecca Davison.

My piece is in the top right of this photo.

 

Finally I saw some lovely textile work in Sun Pier House, a large work in process wall hanging by Jenni Burrows really caught my eye.

 

If you are in the area you should check out all of these artists and art venues.

Find out more about Medway Open Studios here

The Medway Open Studios map can be found here

Look at workshops on offer at INTRA and Unravel & Unwind here (highly recommended!)

Find Jenni Burrows here

Find Heather Haythornthwaite here

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Posted with Blogsy

Exhibition Report: Passing Reflections

Today I wandered over to Rochester to see Rosie James' latest exhibition Passing Reflections.

As always, Rosie's work is beautiful in its simplicity and impressive in it's scale. I am always excited by the way she chooses which lines to stitch and how these lines really capture the figures. On her larger pieces I like the smaller details she includes that really adds to the character and personality of the people.

Trafalgar Lunch

I particularly liked Trafalgar Lunch in this exhibition and Indian Ladies at the Gurdwara. James' use of not only line figures but also silhouettes in brightly coloured fabrics add to the sense of place and culture in these pieces.

Detail - Indian Ladies at the Gurdwara

I was very glad that I got to see Rosie's installation of hanging stitched figures. I had not yet been able to see these pieces in the flesh and being able to view them in this intimate setting was a joy.

The exhibition is open in Rochester until April 13th. If you are in the area I urge you to go see it. You can find out more info here:

Sketchbook Project 2012

My Sketchbook project is finally finished! After four months I have finished my sampler with 70 different stitches on it!

My theme this year was Stitches and Folds which gave me the chance to experiment with shibori dyeing and new stitches. I set myself the goal of trying out all the stitches for fabric in Betty Barnden's Embroidery Stitch Bible. I think I did pretty much every one and then a few more I found online. Some I like and think I will use again and others don't really work with my style.

My one challenge this year was the new restriction that the sketchbook could only be 1 inch thick when finished. This is because the sketchbooks are touring to Canada, the UK and Australia this year, but it meant I had to think really hard about my presentation. No quilted pages for me this year! Instead I decided on a fold-out sampler (because of folds, right?!) attached inside the cover. I'm pretty impressed with how this came out in the end, I didn't think it was going to work for a while!

I'm proud of the work, but I'm also very glad it's finished and I can move on to something else now. Usually my projects are pretty short or varied so this one took a lot of effort for me to keep going on!

More photos can be seen on my Flickr page here

Exhibition Report: MVAN Diversity Three

I have just discovered an art group in my area called the Maidstone Visual Artists Network. Unfortunately for me, I cannot join as I am not around enough to fully participate. However, I'm on the mailing list and went to see an exhibition of the group's work in Maidstone Library this week.

I didn't realise there was such a diverse range of artists in my local area. From looking at the MVAN website I saw that a lot of different artists were members, but I didn't realise such a range of art would be represented at the exhibition - I guess that's why is was called Diversity Three!

The work on display was just gorgeous, as you can see from the photos below and I was inspired to keep working on my won art and get it out there. I wish I was in the country more often so I could work with the network and be part of their great movement. Next time I am home I will be trying to get to their monthly meetings so I can meet some of these great people in the flesh!

Treescape 3 by Sue Pritchard


Rabbitdeer by Sue Blinkho


I love the stitching on this piece by Sue Blinkho


Hybrid 1 by Sue Blinkho



And Is There Honey Still For Tea? by Veronica Tonge


Synchronicity by Veronica Tonge


Reflections 1 by Diane Sergeant


Broken Sky by Jo Savage


Blame by Jo Savage


Koi and Field Poppies by Janet Jackson

You can find out more about MVAN at their website here or on their Facebook page here.

To Be Free

Another piece derived from my experiences at Rosie James' workshop. This piece started out life as an experiment and finished as this fabric collage.

The figures come from a photo I took in Hawaii of my dancer friend. They are stitched on sheer fabrics and layered to create the illusion of movement.

The photo was taken on a beach so I ran with this idea when choosing my colour pallet and creating the collage. I used textured fabrics in silvers and blues. I free machine stitched a wave shape on silver lame to add to the collage.

I finished this piece off with the phrase 'To Be Free' which the figures inspired. I free machine stitched these through the blue and silver net layers.

I like the funky colours and textures I used in this piece. I am currently trying to find my signature style and this boldness might be it!

Remember Me

After seeing the exhibition of colonial samplers in Boston back in December I was inspired to use one of the quotes I found there in my own work.

I created this piece for Bridget Frankowiak, also known as BeeFranck, over at Mr X Stitch because she is just so awesome! And I know she loves traditional samplers.

The background fabric is the product of one of my painted fabric experiments. I liked that is looks a bit mouldy and gives a sense of age to the piece.

Hope For Japan - Finished!

My charity piece for Japan is finally finished! I decided to add a hand printed background and Japanese characters around the outside of the flag to finish it off...

When I get home in about a months time I am going to put this up for sale in my Etsy shop and the proceeds will go the the Red Cross to help Japan. If you're interested you can email me here

You can still donate to the Red Cross here as well

Book Review: Fabric Art Workshop

I was browsing through the craft book section of my local Borders the other day, actually looking for stuff on natural dyes. I found some good books on that subject, but another book about fibre arts jumped out at me and said ‘buy me!!’ Of course when a book says that to you, just have to buy it don’t you?!

The book is called Fabric Art Workshop by Susan Stein. I was very interested to see that it contained instructions on using Angelina fibre. I have some of this at home and have been shown at a craft fair how to use it. Of course, then I went away on a ship and forgot it all! This will come in handy when I get back on land and can have a go with this great looking sparkly stuff.

There is also a lot about printmaking in this book. I LOVE printmaking. When I was back in art college printing was my favourite thing to do but I have gotten out of the habit because it can be very messy and take up a lot of space. The techniques in the book use whatever you can find lying around and bring great results! I did a few of them and they have come out better than I thought. I find that this book encourages you to go further as well and try out whatever comes to hand.

I urge anyone who wants to create their own unique fabrics or play with fibres to get this book. It have very clear instructions with photos and advice. I found that I wanted to do all of the techniques right now! I found to be very inspiring as well and can’t wait until I get home to really try out all of these techniques!

The Stitch & Craft Show - Stitchy Goodness!

I just wanted to share a few photos of the Stitch & Craft show, specifically the Mr X Stitch Contemporary Embroidery Exhibition with my pieces in it!

I am so honoured that Jamie chose three of my pieces to be in his exhibit to promote embroidery and show people that you don’t just have to sew pictures of houses and kittens – you can do anything!

This is my second exhibition this year. It is very exciting for me to have my artwork on display for the world to see. I haven’t had pieces in exhibitions since college so I feel like I am a legitimate artist once again.

Thanks Jamie! You rock!!! Everyone go over to Mr X Stitch and tell Jamie that he is awesome, and Bridget too :-)

Also, some of these photos were blatantly stolen from Jamie's Flickr so go check that out too here