I managed to see this exhibition on its penultimate day and although the gallery was busy it was easy to see the exhibits - some could not be missed because of their size.

I had no idea that I needed a Brother ScanNCut machine until I saw it demonstrated in one of my textile groups.  This is a fantastic invention which has helped me in my recent work.

It has a large library of images, which are helpful - but for me the ability to scan a drawing, resize it , duplicate it and cut it out is nothing short of revolutionary.  When hands are not as strong as they once were, to be able to cut out detailed stencils in acetate takes out a lot of the hard work and adds to the pleasure of the process.

​Taking part in three group exhibitions in 2018, it made sense to explore a particular theme in some depth and I chose Virgil's Georgics as the subject matter, a rich seam of imagery ready for interpreting in textile.  So, rooks, olive leaves, vines, bees - all easily cut out of acetate for use as stencils.

The instruction book was singularly unhelpful but there are dozens of tutorials on YouTube and I found those by Julie Fei-Fan Balzer especially helpful.