Last Monday the Lincolnshire Textile groups Bountiful Botanicals exhibition was opened to the public in the Chapter House of Lincoln Cathedral. We always feature a central group piece and this year it consisted of a large vase framed by a floral arch which was adorned with individual flowers created by our members using a wide variety of materials, colours and techniques.

This can be a tricky venue for displaying textile art due to the fact that the Chapter House is not brightly lit and very little natural light filters through the stained glass plus there are limitations regards hanging the work. That said the team putting up the displays always do a wonderful job and once again we’ve had some fabulous feedback from visitors. These are just a few of the pieces that were on display…..

There was a wedding taking place in the Cathedral yesterday and the members who were stewarding were paid a surprise visit by the Bride and Groom who had heard about the arch and were keen to pose for photos under it. I’m only sorry I cant give the happy couple a name check but if by any chance its you and you see this post we wish you all the best!

Unfortunately I haven’t been able to visit this years exhibition, the images I’m using have been to sent me from another member, so it was a lovely surprise to see several beautiful pieces on display that members had created as a result of attending my Tall Trees workshop in 2024

My submission was this wired 3d Tyvek fabric Iris.

Also this week I took part in two competitions that were held at the annual Lincolnshire Show. This is an event I used to love to attend when I was younger but at some point it must have lost its appeal as it dawned on me that it must be forty years since I was last there! Anyway, my friend Lucy told me a couple of months back about a craft competition she was taking part in with all entries featuring as part of a two day display in the huge Floral Marquee. Everyone entering a piece of work would automatically be sent two free Show tickets, it wasn’t dependent on winning, simply entering any of the numerous categories would ensure your free tickets so that sounded like a win-win idea to me! Each theme had its own criteria regards size and all entries were to be created using mainly plant based materials. Loving a challenge I chose to enter two categories, the first being “If The Shoe Fits”, which Lucy was also entering, plus a category to create a Necklace titled “Cartier, Tiffany, Chanel or….” We were given a huge list of what “plant based” materials would be accepted including cotton fabrics & threads, paper & cardboard, all cellulose fibres, wood, etc, and there were a few things on the list that wouldn’t have occurred to me including latex balloons, birds nests, cereals and pasta!

So knowing I wanted my two pieces to have a woodland theme I began with a walk in the local woods looking for inspiration and foraged various plant based bits including different types of tree bark, acorn hats, small twigs and tiny fir cones.

Having measured the length and width of one of my shoes I knew it would just fit in the space allocated so used that as a template to create a padded, stitched cotton fabric sole. One of the little twigs found on my walk was the perfect shape and size for the heel so that got added next. I spent a while cleaning up pieces of Birch bark and then applied acrylic medium to make it supple before glueing it on as the shoe insole, along with a little bit of moss. The leaves were all made using free motion stitch on water soluble fabric and by ensuring some of the glue remained on the stitching after rinsing I was able to form the shape I wanted the leaves to be by wrapping them around my “real” shoe. Once the shoe had been assembled the little flowers were created from frayed cotton fabric and wired in place.

There were some impressive entries in the Shoe category, and sadly my submission didn’t get placed, but it was great to see that Lucy’s amazing “paper” Walking Boot won first prize. In fact it looked so real that I overheard a lady telling her friend that someone had “obviously simply pasted paper on to a boot!” I was so pleased I could put her right and say I saw it being made and the whole thing was entirely made from paper! The look on her face was priceless!

As the deadline for submissions was looming I realized I didn’t have time to procrastinate over the design of my necklace. This would have to be a very quick and easy project so I made a base of soaked Kozo fibre and attached some of the bark and other left over bits that were on my table. The asymmetrical shape came together very quickly but it was lacking a bit of bling so I used a little gold and bronze metallic paint to bring it to life.

With it being a rushed job I didn’t think for one minute it would receive any votes so it was nice to discover it had taken third place!

I’ll leave you with the stunning exhibit that won first prize under the theme of Catwalk Queen and also won Best in Show…….