I'm back...and Dangerous and Vulnerable is finished!

I knew it had been some time since I last blogged but I had no idea it had been as long as it actually has. It's only down to one thing....or lack of one thing...time. Deadlines at home and work and life have conspired to keep me particularly short of time recently but hopefully I will get back to posting more regularly again. Whilst I've been away. I've finished my 'Dangerous, vulnerable' piece.

The steam coming from the geyser is heavily stitched with machine embroidery and I went from trying to knock the lettering back to trying to bring it back out when I'd knocked it back too much. I wanted the lettering to be visible but not 'in your face' and hopefully I've achieved that.

I stitched layers of colours to get the effect I wanted, a technique I don't remember doing before. In fact I don't often do machine embroidery but I was pretty pleased with the way it turned out and the fabric remaining nice and flat, which was pleasing.

I also machined quilted over the geyser, using the geyser shapes as a guide but I couldn't call the quilt finished without adding some hand stitching and I used some silvery thread to emphasise where the light was catching the geyser.

There was one key lesson I learnt during the stitching process though...always choose the colour of your thread in daylight. It does save a lot of time unpicking later!

If you're wondering why I incorporated the lettering into the piece then this is the artist statement I have written to accompany the piece: 'The boiling water from the geyser gives off unpredictable clouds of steam, reminding me that just as the earth is vulnerable to our selfish actions, so we are vulnerable to it’s dangerous forces.'

I've entered the quilt into this year's Festival of Quilts at the NEC, so if you're going to the NEC look out for it in the Art Quilt category.