Wow! What a fantastic evening and what fantastic artwork.  I was absolutely blown away by the stunning work that Briony brought with her.  I must admit that I was very sceptical about how possibly could stitching on a sewing machine constitute art?  But how wrong can you be.

Briony brought along a broad spectrum of her work which she describes mainly as 'work in progress'.  She says she is so keen to try out new techniques that she sometimes does not finish a piece for many months.  I asked Briony how she goes about pricing her work and she replied that it is so difficult as a huge amount of manhours goes into most of the pieces and you cannot realistically price on this basis.  She also commented that it is also difficult to get work into galleries as the perception is unfairly that it is craft and not art.  Well I was wrong and so are they.

Briony talked for about 50 minutes going through her pieces explaining the techniques involved.  And yes involved is quite the right word to use as many layers of different techniques are used on each piece.  This was most illuminating and although fascinating is not an art form that I am tempted to try. Nimble Thimble brought along a broad spectrum of their stock from their shop in Buckingham so that members could see for themselves the products that can be used in this versatile art medium.

In the adjacent hall Miki Bennett set up her stall and gave the audience a chance to try out some of the techniques that she uses in her textiles work.  Dinah longland was also on hand to help anyone wanting to have a go on two spare sewing machines.