in Focus Stitching

In Focus Stitching in Swindon Museum and Art Gallery is now up and open for viewing. The whole exhibition features work completed by Great Western Embroiderers (of which I am a member) following exploration of the museum's archive of photographs dating from the early days of photography.

The archive reveals much about the history of Swindon. I found investigating the possibilities of the photographs fascinating and developed a body of work that explored the gender and social class differences of the time and the nature of people's daily lives.

The work shown below was developed from this single photograph of a street in Railway Village
which was built to provide accommodation for railway workers in the 19th century. Of interest to me were the tall chimneys and the lines of washing in the front gardens - thought-provoking for what they suggested about the lives of women of the time. I manipulated the image digitally, selecting, cutting and overlaying, and playing with colour and opacity to produce 8 small pieces, two of which are shown below.

All eight were then mounted onto panels and hung from a structure made by my husband so that they were suspended away from the wall to reference washing hanging on the line. 

Full details of the exhibition which runs in the community galleries of the museum until Saturday 7 September can be found in the earlier post here dated 4th May. More about my work for the exhibition can be found on my personal blog, https://charltonstitcher.blogspot.com/, 

Margaret Robbie

Flower of Makarrech

This wonderful flower was photographed in Marrakech on a recent visit. Its name is unfortunately unknown - but perhaps that's not surprising as it was found in the city's Secret Garden!

Linda Babb

The Sense of a Place

Details of the final piece of work for "Fresh Air" at Quenington next month.

Made with cotton organdie with acrylic colour and hand and machine stitch. Liz will soon have more time to complete her pieces for the "Bloom" exhibition in September.

In Focus Stitching

I will have new work in this exhibition at Swindon Museum and Art Gallery from 28 May.

The exhibition features work completed following exploration of the museum’s extensive archive of local photographs, some of which date from the earliest days of photography. 

Margaret Robbie 

Flowers in a border

Linda has made more of her fabric blooms from Marrakesh ...

... and planted them among the spring flowers in a border in her garden ...

 ... to make an interesting contrast.