Anne Kelly

The Knit and Stitch show was a wonderful event at Alexandra Palace. It was great to see lots of old students of all ages, friends and colleagues. I was fortunate to exhibit with some really stunning textile artists and lots of people commented that the Gallery area was a restful and peaceful oasis in the middle of lots of exciting retail therapy!

The theme of my stand is artist life and I have several categories at work which I was able to show people during a Gallery talk. This was a great innovation and many thanks to Jo Hall and the organisers for arranging it. It gave me a chance to put in context the body of work that I produced for this exhibition all of which has been done in the last few years, and hasn’t been shown in London before.

There’s a section of family and friends portraits which was inspired by my research into them for my ‘Textile Portraits’ book. I’m really loving it and focusing on backgrounds as well as context for making these portraits.

The other area that I concentrated on for this was objects -covering boxes, trunks and little toy houses in fabric It lends a sculptural and interesting viewpoint. I’ve used fabrics that I feel are successful in this way on these objects

I also had a washing line which was a nod to the studio element and lots of people commented that it was really fun and they enjoyed seeing a work on it. It was great to see visitors from all over including Canada, New Zealand, Australia, America, France, Netherlands, Switzerland and Germany to name a few.

I appreciate the effort of everyone who lives in the UK coming down too! Lots of people made quite a long journey and it really is heartening to see how well loved the show still is.

I’m now consolidating work and getting ready for Harrogate which is in November. I’m looking forward to seeing friends and colleagues in the north and working with them on lots of new projects!

The Jodrell commission has been finished and sent to its new home. I’ve also been spending quite a lot of time recently putting together the amazing over 200 contributions that were sent in! The hangings look fantastic and they will be unveiled with the commission in a special exhibition at Jodrell Bank in the new year. Watch this space for details. Thank you also to everyone who contributed and sent in a square – they’re really beautiful.

See you in Harrogate!