Part of the reason for my absence is that I've been working on this textile piece. It was intended for an exhibition entitled The Gathering and I missed the deadline but decided to make it anyway as the idea had firmly stuck in my head.
I imagine Russian dolls are like women at an ICA meeting. They love to have a really good natter when free of each other but come home time it's a near impossibility to gather them back together again.
So I made these little dolls from felt, ribbon & broderie anglais fabric with machine and hand stitch. I free machined their faces, which all have a slightly different expression, and repeat hand stitched Gather Round (courtesy of my mothers writing) onto the background. Then I appliqued each of the dolls onto the background which gave them a nice raised effect.
I'm really happy with how it turned out. It's nice to finish a piece but I always feel a little bit lost after I do until I move to the next project. These include finishing a piece I started at a workshop a few weeks ago and crocheting a granny square blanket, so plenty to keep me occupied!
Apologies for the quality of the images, I don't know why, but they always upload badly from my phone.
