Creative Stitch Graduate Show 2024

 

Hilary Hannan

The Creative Stitch Graduate Show is always the biggest weekend of my textile year as students complete their courses, mount an exhibition, and show off the results of the two year Advanced Stitched Textiles Course.

It is also an emotional occasion as students say goodbye after spending so much time together and have shared their creative journeys with all the ups and downs of the course. Lifelong friendships have been formed.

 Once in the Creative Stitch 'family' students never really leave.  There were very many past students who visited the exhibition to show their support and to meet up with friends. 

Alison Haynes

Many students go on to form or join exhibiting groups in East Anglia and the Graduate Show is an ideal showcase to spot new and rising stars. 

It was great to see members of the many groups formed as a result of Creative Stitch at the show. 

Many of the class of 2024 have joined existing exhibiting groups but a few are still looking. If your group has a vacancy please contact me and I can put you in touch. 

Chris Johnson

The term four assessment to design and create fantasy costume produced some really outstanding work. Part of the brief is to research an aspect of historical costume and then to imagine a character who might wear such a garment.

 

Philippa Taitt

 Some students are taking their fantasy costumes to the Festival of Quilts for the 3D Creations category. Philippa will be taking part in the catwalk show at the NEC on Sunday 4th August wearing her Eel Catcher inspired jacket

Jenny Butcher

The final assessment, which takes two terms to design and produce, resulted in some outstanding work. All completely different. The images shown here are just to give a flavour of the show and the variety. 

My last Advanced Stitched Textiles course starts in September 2024 and will complete in 2026. That will be an emotional show as I say goodbye to Creative Stitch. 

Festival of Quilts 2024 - Playing with Pojagi packs

 

I am busy getting ready for thefestivalofquilts which will be held at the NEC, Birmingham from 1st - 4th August 2024

My full day workshop 'Playing with Pojagi' on Wed 31st July, the day before the show opens, is sold out with 15 participants so I have been preparing Pojagi packs in lots of different colourways for students to select their favourites. 

These packs will also be on sale from my stand QIA11 during all four days of the show. 

Packs include 0.5 metres of white or black organdie and four pieces of coloured organdie along with a set of very comprehensive instructions.

There will also be packs of five different colours of cotton organdie, again in lots of different colourways - hots, cools, pastels and brights

Five pieces 10" x 20" for £10

After requests last year I will also be selling just the plain white or black organdie. 20" x 40" pieces for £10. 

If you are not planning to visit the Festival of Quilts this year you can order any of these packs directly from me - just email maryelmcintosh@gmail.com

Some will also be on sale at the Creative Stitch Graduate Show at Needham Market Community Centre IP6 8BB

Sat 20th and Sun 21st July 2024

Moth Balls

 

Tiger moth

For the recent Textile Connections exhibition we were challenged to make 'balls' - any size, any design, any technique.

I had fun making a series of 'Moth Balls'

These are all based on real moths and stitched onto soluble film or a calico base. 

Lots and lots of thread! Wired attenae.

Mounted onto needle felted woolen balls.

Maybe I will try a series of 'Cricket balls' next

Selangor moth from Malaysia

Zebra moth

One of the many Hawk Moth variations

One of the Luna Moth family

Another variety of Luna Moth

Creative Stitch Graduate Show - two weeks to go

 

Creative Stitch students are completing their assessments and preparing for the Graduate Show which wil be held on Saturday 20th and Sunday 21st July 2024.

10am - 4pm each day

Venue: Needham Market Community Hall, School Street, Needham Market, Suffolk IP6 8BB

Entry £4 

There will be 9 Advanced Stitched Textiles students exhibiting as well as 8 Creative Stitched Textiles students with an incredible variety of work on show

This is a colourful detail from the final piece made by Jenna Kitchen

As well as colour expect to see great examples of texture created using various techniques. 

This is a detail from a jacket made by Louise Haywood

To see the whole thing please come aong to the show and talk to the maker!

Advanced students work on their chosen theme throughout the two year course with reading and research being an important part of the process. 

Karen Cade has produced an impressive series of work based on her theme of 'Surplus Women'

This tiny detail just gives a hint of the story telling behind her work. Come along to the show and talk to Karen and the other makers.

Textile Connections exhibition now open

 

'Thinking Outside the Box' - an old/new/repurposed piece of work - will be on show at the Textile Connections exhibition from 2nd - 7th July 2024

This is an interactive piece with visitors invited to rearrange to form new words and phrases from the alphabet cubes

There is quite a lot of 3D work in the show. We are making good use of the four beautiful Georgian side tables in burystedmundsguildhall.org.uk/

These intruiging felted pods are by Nikola Wrigley

Sarah Moran has a whole installation of 'vessels' using experimental techniques

Plus a group 'challenge' issued by member Virginia to make balls. This is just a fraction of the spheres on show.

It really is a varied show. Hoping to see lots of visitors over the next week.

A new obsession

Earlier this year I attended a short course on book making at New Suffolk College. On the course we learned to make books using paper covers but I wanted to use some of the fabrics created whilst teaching surface design techniques.

The books are all completely handmade including stitching papers into signatures. This means that the inside papers can be varied too.

This one uses some breakdown printed fabric. 

The cover boards are made from free mount board off cuts from my local framer.

The bookbinding cloth for the spine does need to be purchased and shepherds London have a great range of lovely colours

The end papers are from my paper box and each one is different. Again as a result of teaching design work to create complex decorated papers.

In this case the end paper was printed in the same breakdown printing session as the cover when I ran out of fabric!

 

You will recognise my 'Life's a Bleach!' fabric. I have quite a lot of this!

The discharging technique can be done onto black paper too and is particularly effective on black tissue paper so I will use that for future versions. 

But for this one I have used a paper found in my paper box.

I have a lot of paper - another obsession

The vilene from eco printing used as an iron blanket for that process and now converted into a book cover

Fabric printed using a melted crisp packet!

Eco printed fabric

Ice dyed fabric 

So I have become a bit obsessed making these books. 

They will be offered for sale for £15 each at the Textile Connections exhibition at burystedmundsguildhall from 2nd - 7th July 2024

Monoprinting fun

 

I spent a fun afternoon first foraging for foliage and then monoprinting onto cotton organdie. 

Using paint and acrylic inks to build up several layers of shape, colour and inplied texture.

I chose some horse chestnut leaves for this series. The combination of an interesting shape and the precise ribbing on the underside of the leaf makes for good prints

The result from an afternoon's work was a range of printed fabrics all related in theme and sharing a similar colour palette. These will now be pieced using the Pojagi technique into a double-sided panel.

This work is in preparation for the 'Monoprint Magic' workshop at eaubrinkstudio on Friday 28th and Saturday 29th June 2024.

There are still a couple of spaces left if you would like to come along. Please book direct with Anita at Eau Brink. Telephone 01533611009

A bonus are the papers used to test the prints and with multiple layers of print. These will go into my paper box for  use in multi media work or as end papers for my handmade books

These are the poor old horse chestnut leaves after all the printing. I did try to think how I might be able to resuse these, but told my self not to be so silly and put them in the bin!