JENNY Vick lets her needle do the talking about her artistic talents which are being spread around the nation.
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Her entry in the Australasian quilt exhibition for the Anzac centenary has been at Melbourne’s Royal Exhibition Building and is now on a national tour which will also include New Zealand.
It was her first-ever piece in a major public exhibition.
She has another work featuring a defence force nurse’s cap hanging at the Pavilion cafe and bar at Warrnambool’s foreshore.
The 57-year-old Warrnambool resident, who learnt sewing as a child from her mother, is also completing other projects including a three-dimensional embroidery and handmade books.
“Anything that involves stitching interests me,” she said.
“I’ve been sewing as a kid, but later with work and raising two daughters I didn’t get much spare time.
“Then I started an arts course at TAFE in 2012 and really enjoyed it.
“By being among creative people the ideas just flow.”
Her inspiration for the Anzac Day work came from her mother’s collection of silk embroidery postcards from World War I.
Her great-uncle William Pekin served with the 29th Battalion AIF and his name is on the Menin Gate memorial at Ypres, Belgium.
“I found I had quite a few relatives from the war,” Mrs Vick said.
“It took me about 12 hours to do the 25-centimetre by 25-centimetre square. I put it together with different strips, narrow at the top and wide at the bottom signifying rows of graves.”
She used fabric and cotton thread with techniques including machine piecing, hand embroidery and a free-motion sewing machine with which she made three-dimensional poppies.