Exhibition opening

Unfinished Business ... Finished opened on Wednesday evening. It was a hot night and there were lots of people there!
I think that the crowd was large because it was two groups of people exhibiting together. There were the textile people (Textile Art Community) and the woodworking group (Victorian Woodworkers Association).
Then there were the donors whose work was repurposed.
Then there were family and friends.
And supporters of the arts in Banyule.

I will have to go back to see all the works properly - it is always hard to see the works on an opening night but this was exceptionally busy. The vibe was very good, lots of creators happy to see their work on display, donors happy to see their contributions used, happy people.

It was quite amazing to see how some of the original pieces were used. Some were still quite recognisable (mine) and some had totally re-visioned the pieces.
I deliberately decided to make my two vessels recognisable because the donors had had to stop making because of failing eyesight. So I wanted them to be able to recognise their pieces if they attend.

It was great fun to be there, to meet up with friends, to meet people from the very distant past (it being in my neighbourhood and a city function) and to meet new people. It was a community event that highlighted 'community' for me.

It was also very exciting to see some of my donated pieces being used. I am extremely pleased to see them so creatively used.

The abdomen is my blackwork.

Some naturally dyed fabrics and minimum, random stitching.

Tapestry samplers.

Rejected Mr Johnston tapestry. 

Summer

It was hot today and yesterday, and overnight, which seems to be worse as you don't sleep as well, making it harder to cope with the heat.

It was forecast to be very hot today so I got out all the old fabric that I did in my textile course. It has very ordinary (as in ugly) printing on it. I also found that my fitted sheet has a hole in it, so that got used too. I took all the fabric out and put it on the two camellias that we have had for years. They tend to burn in the very hot sun (scroll down for the poor, burnt camellias from the past).

I am not sure what the forecast is, so will probably take them off again tomorrow. I do know that it was forecast to drop 10°C , which means it might go from 42° to 32°, which won't be all that cool.
(I have just looked up how to get the degrees symbol on the keyboard - Mac: option, shift 8).

It being too hot to do much, I decided to do another small image for the Unfinished Business ... Finished exhibition.
I found an old photo of the backbeach at Rye,

printed it out A4 and did a rough estimation of the areas of colour onto some adhesive interfacing. I cut some small pieces of the donated blue fabric as my base.

Then I got out some tulle, some of the DMC threads that had been donated by a different person, and some old bits of novelty knitting yarn.
In the course of things, I came across some old dyed silk rods which. I discovered, pull apart quite easily and give nice texture.

I had a picture frame that I had rescued just two weeks ago from the scrap-heap and have cut the embroidery to fit.
All in all, not a bad day, despite the heat. You might as well be doing something, rather than sitting around feeling hot.

Ambitious

There was a working bee for the people involved in Unfinished Business ... Finished (I discovered that is the actual title, at the working bee!).

Some of the people involved have made some amazing works, some are just starting, some are doing things I would never have conceived of doing. It should be a great exhibition.

I was trying to finish off the second vessel, having made a new back.
I sewed on the silk roving and it didn't get caught up in the edge - hooray.

I sewed the binding on and then sewed the pieces together. It is much better. Thank goodness.

There were several packs of donated pieces that hadn't been picked up. Lots of blue fabric in one of them. So, of course, I took some.
Fortunately, someone else was looking carefully at the blue fabrics so I just tore off a few pieces to do a small raw edge appliqué.

I got the photo from 123RF, not being able to find any of my own beach scenes.

Copyright: elen / 123RF Stock Photo

There were also some more threads for a counted stitch embroidery and they seemed to evoke the sea for me. So home they came too.

Actually, they remind me of a tree trunk too. I'll have to see if there is time to come up with a new piece before hand-in date - which isn't far away.

I haven't used many of the threads in the image but did manage to put in a few.
Now I have another piece made, quiet different from my previous vessels.