About Me

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Sudbury, Suffolk, United Kingdom
I am a textile artist living on the Suffolk Essex border. I am a member of the Out of the Fold Textile Group and East Anglian Stitched Textiles (EAST) I am the Principal Tutor for Creative Stitch which offers courses in Creative Patchwork and Quilting and Creative Stitch Textiles. I teach each year at the Knitting & Stitching Shows and Festival of Quilts. I also offer workshops and talks to groups throughout the UK in person and via zoom. I am also a member of the QGBI and the specialist Contemporary Quilt Group and STARS (formerly Suffolk West Embroiderers Guild)

Tuesday 20 September 2016

Ebb and Flow pieces

In the rush to complete the pieces for the Tin Hut Textiles exhibition I forgot to take photos. So now the exhibition is over here are the three hangings on the theme of Ebb and Flow.......
Ebb and Flow. Black linen wholecloth discharged bleached and stitched

Ebb and Flow detail

Ebb and Flow. Inspired by ripples in the sand at beautiful Druridge Bay.
Recylcled calico coffin cover, rusted and handstitched

Ebb and Flow inspired by the lovely textures of the beach and dunes of Waxham Sands.
Artic wool felt embellished, shrunk, dyed and stitched

Waxham Sands detail

Monday 19 September 2016

Texture Adventures in Stitch Magazine

Oct/Nov 2016 issue of Stitch magazine 
Very excited to have a project featured in Stitch magazine. This is the Texture Adventures technique which I designed in 2012 and have been teaching at workshops ever since.

I also sell packs with all the materials needed to make an 8" panel.  These are £8.00 plus VAT. Please contact me on maryelmcintosh@gmail.com if you would like to order one. Available in lots of different colourways.
 It produces reliably good results and is  good introduction to free machine sewing.

The combination of machine and hand stitching makes it a popular workshop with embroiderers

Saturday 3 September 2016

Ebb and Flow Exhibition is now OPEN


Suffolk West Embroiderers' Guild first exhibition

25 members of the Suffolk West branch made work on the theme of Landscapes and Gardens as part of the year long celebration of the 300th anniversary of Capability Brown.
Hylands House set in grounds designed by Humphrey Repton

Work by members of Suffolk West Embroiderers' Guild



Our exhibition opens on Sunday 4th September in the upstairs gallery of the Stables Visitor Centre, Hylands Park, London Road, Chelmsford, Essex CM2 8WQ


Friday 2 September 2016

Ebb and Flow exhibition by Tin Hut Textiles

Members of Tin Hut Textiles have made textile fish in their own individual styles to be displayed in a full size trawler net suspended from the ceiling of the Pond Gallery at Snape Maltings. Here are just a few of them to whet your appetite for the exhibition which will also show the Snape inspired work created for the Blackthorpe Barn exhibition along with a body of brand new work inspired by the theme 'Ebb and Flow'

Dates: 2nd - 7th Sept 2016
Times: 10am - 5pm each day
Venue: Pond Gallery, Snape Maltings, Aldeburgh, Suffolk IP17 1SR



Fantasy fish by Carol Gurney

Pouty Pike by Kingsley Thompson

A veritable shoal by Annette Morgan
My fish is..........still a work in progress so you will need to visit the exhibition to see him for real

Workshops at Festival of Quilts

As well as having my usual Quilting in Action stand at Festival of Quilts I also taught three workshops there for the first time.
My Quilting in Action stand QIA7
 Many thanks to everyone who looked after my stand while I was teaching. Cynthia and Jean on Friday, Pam and Teresa on Saturday and Lynette on Sunday.

Results from the 3 hour Texture Adventures workshop on Friday

The international set of ladies with their TA pieces - we had visitors from all parts of the UK and from Germany and Finland 

The results from the Layered Landscape workshop on Saturday - a veritable meadow of poppy fields

The paper mania sunflower results from the Sunday workshop

The paper mania girls show off their pieces

Wednesday 31 August 2016

City and Guilds students exhibit at Festival of Quilts 2016

I always always encourage my C & G students to enter their final quilts made for the level 3 certificate course into the Festival of Quilts so that they can be seen by the thousands of visitors.

Quilt by Teresa Harvey
 This is often a real act of faith as the quilts need to be entered long before they have been finished and in one case before it was even started!
Quilt by Dawn Bowen
 It was great to see these three hanging in the Contemporary Quilt section of the show
Quilt by Pam Garland

Tuesday 30 August 2016

My girls at Festival of Quilts

So proud to see the work of Sue O'Riordan and Tree Martin in the City & Guilds gallery at the International Festival of Quilts.  Although neither won the bursary it was a great achievement to be selected for this prestigious gallery.

Display by Tree Martin with quilt based on Ironbridge

Display by Sue O'Riordan with quilt based on a stained glass window in York Minster

Monday 29 August 2016

Log Cabin with the WI

A weekend with the Cambridge Federation WI making a four block log cabin. 
A breezy showing of the completed log cabin quilts

Jane showing off her (nearly) finished quilt

A woman on a mission

We didn't even stop for a tea break even though there was cake (it was the WI after all)

Julie's first ever attempt at patchwork - she may now be hooked

Sunday 28 August 2016

Cottenham Summer School

This seems like ages ago now but 16 quilts were made (almost) in a week at the annual summer school.

Felicity's first attempt at curved piecing

Lynda's lovely pineapple quilt using batiks
Daphne with her lovely pineapple quilt

Veronica, Beryl and Sheila all made the snowball quilt

Shirley layering up her pineapple design

Monday 8 August 2016

Festival of Quilts 2016

Been flat out prepping for Festival of Quilts 2016.www.thefestivalofquilts.co.uk

It is going to be a busy one as I am teaching three different workshops as well as demonstrating on my Quilting in Action stand QIA7. Come and say hello if you are visiting the show.

Layered Landscapes is one of the workshops I will be teaching at FOQ 2016

Friday 15 July 2016

All bleached out in Ickleton

It all got a bit hot and steamy in Ickleton Village in Cambridgeshire on Wednesday. We had a fun day removing colour from black cotton and linen with discharge paste and household bleach. Here are just some of the results. 
Abigail's splendid piece using  allium heads as inspiration


Wendy's piece with rectangles

Detail from Abi's piece with marks made using the top of a toothpick box!




Monday 11 July 2016

Log Cabin for Cambridge WI

Knocked up a quick 4 block log cabin today as a sample for the Cambridge WI workshop in August. I used the remains of a jellyroll donated to me by Teresa Harvey (thanks Teresa) It is a Moda one in the Zen Chic range designed by Brigitte Heidland. 
I like the softer monochrome effect of using just black, grey and cream. Wish I had picked a dark red for the centre squares though.........



Saturday 9 July 2016

Gorgeous bit of cloth


Just discharged some black linen to create a new piece of work for the 'Ebb and Flow' exhibition by Tin Hut Textiles www.tinhuttextiles.co.uk on Snape Maltings in Sept. Quite pleased with it. Now it needs lots of lovely stitch. 

Black linen wholecloth discharged and bleached

Thursday 7 July 2016

City & Guild Grad Show 2016 - so proud of my girls

The Creative Stitch Suffolk Graduate Show took place in Wickham Market in the last weekend in June with lots of lovely work on show by students completing courses in Patchwork and Quilting and Machine Embroidery. Here are some pics of the Final Quilts produced by my graduating students. Lots of hours (some of them in the middle of the night) blood, sweat and tears but it all came together.

Anna Woodhead - inspired by the four elements. All fabrics are dyed or discharged

Dawn Bowen - inspired by church tiles and using all naturally dyed fabrics. Dawn was the winner of best Patchwork and Quilting student

Diane Tompkins - clam shells goes large using all hand dyed fabrics

Gillian Celliers - a student based in South Africa. Commercial batik fabrics.

Jean Heath - inspired by Japanese Boro. All hand stitched.

Pam Garland - a colour code quilt from original design work on shape. Dyed silk. 

Sian Nunn - a quilt to promote her quilt frame business - watch out for it at a show near you 

Sue O'Riordan - inspired by a window in York Minster. All fabric is dyed, printed or discharged. Sue's work has been selected for the City & guilds Gallery at Festival of Quilts 2016

Teresa Harvey - a lovely textured piece using naturally dyed fabric with lots of hand stitching

Tree Martin - inspired by Iron Bridge. All dyed, printed or discharged fabrics. Tree's work has been selected for the City & Guilds Gallery at the Festival of Quilts 2016
The City & Guilds courses starting in Sept 2016 are now FULL but you can still sign up as a distance learning student. For more information go to www.creativestitchsuffolk.co.uk