Last week, we chatted with Maggie Hilditch and Gillian Robertson about their beautiful exhibitions at Castle Park Arts Centre.

Today, we hear from Textiles in the Park, a group of contemporary artists whose exhibition, Flora, centres on the delicate charm of the wood and parkland around Marbury Country Park in Northwich.

Through embroidery, felt-making, lino printing, wire work, weaving, and mixed media textiles, the group's pieces stage a dynamic exploration of the personality of flowers and landscapes, as each artist evokes their own interpretation of the exhibition theme.

"I think 'flora' is a lovely word," says group member, Sue Marsden. "It trips off your tongue really nicely and it sounds beautiful.

"That's how we all feel about that parkland; it's a little haven.

"When we were thinking about ideas for the exhibition we took individual and group strolls around the park and listed the things that were interesting us: the textures, the colours, all the different senses that we were exploring.

"I think if you are happy in your environment you produce better work, and I think the pieces reflect the fact that we all really like being in that place."

Having decided on their multi-faceted theme, the Textiles in the Park artists made full use of the versatility of thread and fabric, freeing their flowers from the flat confines of the canvas.

"Drawing and painting are traditionally the medium for depicting flowers and landscapes, Sue says. "But with textiles you've got so much more scope to explore texture and surface as you work in relief, building the image up. You want to touch it, feel what it's like, much more than with ink or watercolour.

"I think that's the really lovely thing: it's painting with threads.

"Most of the group are embroiderers, so for them the emphasis is on hand and machine stitching," Sue adds. "However, they all approach this in different ways: some create a naturalistic view, portraying things in a more realistic manner, while others are more abstract in their depictions.

"Sue Loft has made some beautiful embroidered pieces which are appliquéd, so she's dyed and layered the fabric to create little pictures of the four seasons."

In her pieces, the plants spill out of their frame, their contrasting textures and threaded edges lending the images a tactile feel. Even just by looking you can almost feel the prick of her winter holly and the dry bristle of her autumn leaves.

In contrast to these flowered landscapes, Sandra Christie has concentrated her work on single plants, hand embroidering their petals and stems to give their faint contours depth and shape.

Continuing this close focus, Sandra has also produced flower models out of copper wire, developing a new angle on the rich, veined textures of leaves and stems.

"Gill Snowball has used a lot of plaster in her work this time," Sue adds so it's quite experimental. The pieces are all in varying shades of off-white and white, which is very interesting."

This limited colour palette only highlights the delicacy of Gill's work, allowing her detailed patterns to speak for themselves.

While Gill's pieces are soothing in their muted tones, Nicola Billington's are uplifting in their soft use of colour.

"Nicola has layered paper with pastel and paint, and then machine stitched it," Sue explains. In this way, her lovely pieces combine the fluidity of a painting with neat accents of thread, evoking both the open expanses and the small intricacies of nature.

Also mixing the media of dye and stitch is Sheila Hetherington, whose tawny-coloured abstracts conjure the fading warmth of autumn.

Finally, we turn to the work of Sue herself, who has also employed mixed media to create close-up studies of her flowers.

"I've used printing and lettering in ink, before drawing into it to create a collage," Sue says.

Creating an exhibition in lockdown