Fragments

Today I'd like to show you the pieces I have made for the Midlands Textile Forum exhibition in September.  You will have two opportunities to see the exhibition.

It is on at The Artery in Worcester from 8th - 12th September.  It is then moving to Nuneaton Museum and Art Gallery from 26th September to 7th November.

The theme for this exhibition is Fragments.

This piece was supposed to be stretched around the canvas but ended up as a hanging attached to the canvas instead.  It's made with fragments of fabric leftover from previous projects. 

 

The next piece you have seen before.  You can read the story here: Echoes of Memory.

And my final fragments piece is called My Imperfect Messy Life and is really difficult to photograph. It is also made with leftover bits of fabric from other projects.  I used Solufleece - a water soluble fabric - to attach all the pieces and then machined over the whole thing to attach the pieces together.

This was it hanging on the line to dry after washing out the Solufleece.

 And this is it finished with something behind it!

 I do hope you get an opportunity to see the exhibition.

Thanks for being here today
Bernice 

 

1st August

I'm back!

After a longer hiatus than I had planned.  I have missed sharing my textile work on here.  I have shared photos on Instagram but it's not the same.

As I mentioned in my last post, way back in the mists of time, my focus this year has been to make work for two exhibitions whilst I'm away in Australia. I've also needed to schedule blog posts for the church website through September and October.  I've also been making pieces for the exhibition Becca and I have at Forge Mill in 2027.

And of course, finishing my entry into the 3D category at Festival of Quilts.  

I ended up making 11 little fabric books to fit the shelf.  Five of the books have mini collages in them, using fabrics of a similar colour to the cover of the book.  And four have variations of a particular stitch - chain, feather and fly, herringbone, and buttonhole stitch.  One has random other stitches and the last one has 7 synonyms for captivity and 7 synonyms for freedom.

 I tried to make the covers relevant to the contents.

 And here it is on display at the Festival of Quilts:

The judging was on Wednesday and I wasn't awarded one of the prizes.  However yesterday someone congratulated me on being shortlisted.  So I had to go back and take a look.  And found the sticker I had overlooked before.

 As you might imagine, I'm rather chuffed.

Thanks for being here today,
Bernice  

A Creative 2026

It's happening! THIS YEAR!

Yes, after 19 months since I made my application, instead of saying 'the year after next', and then 'next year', I can finally say it's THIS YEAR.  Only 9 months until I'm the Artist in Residence at Hurstville Museum & Art Gallery in New South Wales.

Hurstville Museum & Art Gallery

In my last post I reviewed 2025.  In this post I'm looking forward to this year and what's already in store.

I belong to Midlands Textile Forum and to a contemporary quilt group called Stitch In the Middle.  Both groups have exhibitions this year.  Fortunately the first MTF exhibition is the same work as that exhibited at Nottingham last September.  However I do need to make new work for the MTF 'Fragments' exhibition in Worcester in September this year.  I also need to make new work for SITM's October exhibition in Ledbury called 'Bricks and Water'.  All this new work will need to be finished by the middle of August, before I leave for Australia.

In addition I am still inspired to make pieces in my series 'Captivity, Freedom and Identity' which will be exhibited in 2027.  At least the deadline for the work isn't this year!

I recently found Ricky Tims' Convergence Quilts and that had given me ideas for a hanging.  

I'm hoping to enter a 3D piece into the competition at Festival of Quilts this year.  It's a Chained Library.  So far I've almost finished the box.  I'm planning to make several fabric books to go in it.

I probably need to write down all my ideas - just to get them out of my head!  There are so many ideas buzzing and rather too many pieces that I've started and really need to finish.

Keep coming back to my blog to find out how I'm getting on.

Thanks for being here today
Bernice