Textile Festival - Stroud

It was something of a last minute decision to visit Stroud today.

The Stroudwater Textile Festival is taking place until 21st May, and if you have the opportunity go along, you will not regret it. admittance is free. The map on the website is most helpful for finding your way around Stroud,

The first exhibition I went to see was at the Museum in the Park , Stratford Park. The work on show was by Sue Lawty, Dail Behennah and Maggie Shaw.



Stratford Park was beautiful in the sunshine, full of wonderful trees, and there is a bandstand as well as tennis courts and a bowling green!

I had seen Sue Lawty at the Vitoria and Albert Musuem last year (and you can follow her V & A blog,)so it was interesting to see some more of her work. I had been fascinated by her attention to detail and this exhibition certainly illustrated this perfectly.

Sue's work was complemented beautifully by Dail and Maggie's work. I had seen Dail's work in Crafts Magazine, and it was good to see how she built up the layers of wood, creating wonderful shadows in the process. I had not seen Maggie's work before.



I seemed to pick up lots of leaflets, one in particular interested me..... in June ....the Stroud valleys are having Open Studios.

We drove back into the Town Centre, parked the car and then found our way to the Subscription rooms. Laura Thomas was exhibiting some wonderful colourful pieces, many of which were embedded in Acyrilic. Fiona Rutherford was exhibiting some beautiful tapestries, I do not recall having seen her work before.

I could not help myself, and bought some wonderful hand spun wool dyed with natural dyes. They were quite expensive, but aren't they lovely. I am thinking embellisher machine....... suspect most of you are perhaps thinking...... knitting.

After a quick lunch we wandered through the town and found " The Space". I was looking forward to seeing Yvonne Mortons work, unfortunately, no work at all. I was a little disappointed, as I had enjoyed working with her last year.

However the exhibition of Kuba cloth from Africa was a delight in line and pattern, and Gaynors limewood carvings were very textural.

We walked back to the car in pouring rain. Quite a sight with the mist of the rain.

We were pleased to get back to the car and out of the rain. Ten minutes down the road on the outskirts of Cirencester, it was dry and sunny. Look at this turbulent sky, John Constable would have really loved painting this.

We arrived home to sun and blue skies, this image is a mile from home!

Do not be deceived though.... we have just had what the weatherman has called a "beefy storm". We have just had black skies, thunder, lightening, hail, and flash floods. How the weather can change within a few miles and a short space of time.