On the Way to the Fish Hoek Embroidery Exhibition

I love the drive down the coast to Fish Hoek, so this week has been doubly enjoyable for me. The scenery is beautiful on the way and the embroideries on show at the exhibition are a beautiful breath of inspiration for anyone who enjoys working with a needle and thread.

The brightly coloured beach huts at St James somehow promise sunshine and fun on the beach, even on a dreary rainy morning like we had this morning.

Another scene I always enjoy seeing is the sweep of the white beach at Fish Hoek and the view over the clear blue-green water towards Simon's Town.

Here are a few more photos of the embroidery exhibition. The tables where members sat stitching drew lots of interest and they were able to answer questions about the work they were busy doing. Some of the projects were exquisite gold work, fine creative pulled work, a large almost complete hardanger table cloth and also my 'almost finished cloth book' done in needlepainting. I mounted the completed pages on a big board which ended up being a nice way to see it all.

At the exhibition visitors were invited to take part in the viewer's choice award by casting their vote for the piece they liked best. It created much discussion and many went around scratching their heads trying to choose just one favourite piece. The winning embroidery was a charming and beautiful needlepainting of birds splashing about in their bath.

Below is some of the embroidery started at the Ighali 2009 Stitch-away workshops and it includes needlepainting, French white work, samplers with a big variety of unusual stitches, Ukrainian white work, hardanger and gold work.

The exhibition ends tomorrow and I think we will all breathe a sigh of relief that it is another two years before the next one.