Textile / Fiber Art Exhibition at Lavenham Guildhall, Suffolk, GB

I know, I'm rather late writing this blogpost, but hopefully you will by now, have seen my tweets and facebook postings about Sindano's textile exhibition at the 16th century, historic building, The Corpus Christi Guildhall in historic Lavenham, Suffolk, England. The Guildhall is a National Trust property and NT entrance fees applies. Our exhibition has been set up to day and the door will open tomorrow Saturday 28th and Sunday 29th November, both days from 11 am to 4 pm. A mixture of traditional and contemporary fiber art will be on display. There will be sales tables with our handmade pieces. While we are stewarding the exhibition we will be working on various pieces and are more than happy to show and explain what we are doing. I'll be working on my handwoven baskets made from folded paper strips. In fact I just finished the preparations for a large bowl made from strips cut from a Danish newspaper that I'll be working on while stewarding on Sunday.
I just watched the local weather forcast on our local television station 'Look East'. The forcast is a bit gray and damp, so if you want to add a bit of colour to a gray November day, then please stop by and say hello. The permanent exhibitions at The Guildhall will be open as well as their lovely tea room, which will make a perfect stop for nice cup of tea and a bite. If you haven't visited Lavenham before with all its old timber framed crooked housed then you are really in for a treat. A great day out, for your husband as well :-)

'Out Of The Fold' at Cavern 4, Bury St. Edmunds

Have I been busy lately. YES!! Even though my blog has been neglected, I'm happy because I'm almost done preparing work for two different, upcoming exhibitions in one October with 'Out Of The Fold' and one November with 'Sindano'. Actually I'm taking part in a third exhibition with 'Fiberfusion' in November as well, at the Knitting and Stitching Show at Harrogate. That is why I've been pushing my self to get all the other exhibition work done, so that I can concentrate on that piece, which I haven't started yet. Mind you, I only did join 'Fiberfusion' recently, so that's my excuse. I'm not bored that's for sure :-)
We, the 'Out Of The Fold' Textile Group is having our second major exhibition of stitched and dyed textiles. This time it is a week long exhibition at 'Cavern 4', Whiting Street, in Bury St. Edmunds , Suffolk, England. The exhibition is on from the 24th-31st October. All new work from the 13 textile artists will be on display. I've seen group members working first on their design work and then on their pieces this last year and stunning work is being produced! It will be very exciting to see the exhibition finally hung. Please contact me for more information.

Glacier Bay, Alaska

Well despite all my good blogging intentions, I'm still struggling getting back into doing all the things, that I would like to do on the computer. Mind you, on our recent trip to US/Alaska, I did decide, that I was going to spend less time on the computer upon our return. I was spending way too many hours on 'the machine' and I really wanted to transfer some of that time back into designing and crafting. This last week I have spend catching up on lots of projects as well attending all three textile groups. Great catching up with all my friends and see what they are working on. In the machine embroidery group, Advanced Textile Workshop, we were having a fun day making all kinds of buttons in clay, Fimo, felt and stitched. It is always great to be able to make your own buttons for a certain project, as it is a wonderful way of adding the last finishing touch. In 'Out Of The Fold' some of the ladies were doing indigo dying. Some of the pieces were stunning. I look forward to see the results next time we meet. I didn't do any dying. I have so much dyed fabric as it is, so I really didn't need any more. I worked instead on a couple of samples for a 3D object that we are to make for our upcoming exhibition. I was very pleased with how the samples turned out. Will share them with you at a later stage :-)
The two photos in this posting are from The National Park: Glacier Bay, Alaska. An absolutely stunning place. Never seen anything like it!

My Wensday Textile Group

I belong to three textile groups, all great and very different. Today was "Sindano". Sindano translate into "needle" in Swahili. We are 15 ladies, age between late 40 to late 70, that have been together, as a group for several years. We all got to know each other, when we were attending a course in creative hand embroidery. Our tutor decided, after I had been with her for +3 years, that she needed more time to develop her own fantastic work, so she moved on. We ladies had so much fun, so we kept meeting. In the beginning for pub lunches. Later we decided that we might as well get some work done, and we hired a village hall/community center in a local village. We meet once a month and we alternate between own sewing/working days, teaching each other a technique or having a "proper" workshop with a paid tutor.
Of the three groups that I belong to, this is the most social group, but having said that, we are working towards an exhibition end November 2009. We exhibited in 2007, and it was such a success, that we were invited back to the same place, which was a great compliment. We all bring different craft backgrounds to the group, which is a great strenght and very inspiring. There are quilters (traditional and contemporary), weavers, spinner, dyers, knitters and embroiderers (traditional and contemporary). We bounce a lot of info and tips of each other. There is always someone that can give a helping hand when stuck. Its a lot of fun and always a great day out.