Above is a piece that I've completed this week, using a technique inspired by textile artist Anne kelly. I visited five of the open houses in Hove at the beginning of May, and loved the textiles exhibited at, 'Polish and Pin' made by Anne. Some of her work has a heavily machine stitched background, which not only holds down smaller pieces of fabric and paper, but adds to the texture of the pieces. When I got home, I dug out two unfinished projects that I had been playing around with, inspired by leaves and foliage I had photographed in New Zealand two years ago. With the piece above,  I had started by bonding small bits of fabric to a background, all in different shades of green. It was all rather bright and lurid, so I covered it with some white net to knock it back a bit. The leaf shapes were placed on top, and heavily machine stitched over, and in between in different shades of thread. I also used some blue, to try and replicate the light shining on water that was glowing through the foliage. (See the photos underneath.) Finally, I have outlined the leaves by free machine couching knitting wool around them. I have to say that I now feel I've lost some of the freshness and glow of the greens, with the net and stitching, but it's a technique I think I will experiment with further. Funnily enough, the piece below I gave up on months ago because I wasn't happy with the stitching between the appliqued leaves. Now looking at it with a fresh eye, I think I need to continue working on it, and maybe add yet more stitching. I also think that the darker background is more successful, helping to throw the green of the leaves forward.

Anne Kelly is also involved in an ongoing collaboration, 'Resonant Textiles' with Cas Holmes, another textile artist whose work I really admire. I'm booked onto a days workshop with Cas at the end of June which I'm really looking forward to, so no doubt I will be sharing the experience on here in due course.

If you've managed to last this far, many thanks for reading, or at least taking a peek at the pics!!