Aahilya Indian Embroidery Holiday Oct 2025

 

This time next year I will be getting ready to lead this fantastic textile holiday to India with Aahilya Holidays.

To find out more please visit their website https://www.aahilyaholidays.com/tour/0716/an-indian-embroidery-holiday with mary-mcintosh-2025

It is a BIG trip visiting lots of places with a mix of sight seeing, visits to museums, hands on embrodery workshops and staying in some really lovely hotels with delicious food. Here is the outline of the itinerary.

2nd Oct 2025 Depart UK and fly to Delhi

3rd Oct Stay in the Grand Hotel, New Delhi and visit the Craft Museum Delhi

4th Oct Phulkari Embroidery Workshop in Delhi

5th October Flight to Patna and then drive to Muzaffarpur and stay at the Royal Phullar Hotel. Afternoon workshop Madhuani painting workshop

6th Oct Suzani embroidery workshp

7th Oct drive to Patna and then a sightseeing tour of the city visiting Golghar, Mahatma Gandhi Sangrahalaya museum, Patna Museum of Indian artefacts and Buddha Smriti Park

Stay at the Hotel Maurya in Patna

8th October Flight to Kolkata and stay at the Hotel Elgin Fairlawn. Visit to local market

9th Oct  Kantha workshop

10th Oct Tour of Kolkata to see the Victorial Memorial, Howrah Bridge, Dakshineswar Kali Temple, Indian Museum and St Paul's Anglican Cathedral

Block printing workshop

11th Oct Flight to Ahemdabab and stay at the Hotel House of MG. City tour including the Shreyas Museum of Textiles

12th Oct  Drive to Bhuj and stay in Hotel The Fern

13th Oct Tie-dye wokshop then drive to Bhujodi to see shawl weaving and Rabari embroidery

14th Oct Mirror embroidery workshop

15th Oct Drive to Ahmendabab

16th Oct Flight home to UK

The cost of the holiday is £2990 if sharing a twin room or £3890 for a single room. 

This includes all the accomodation for 13 nights, breakfast, dinner and some lunches. All the internal flights and transfers. Entry into museums etc.

It does not include the return flights from UK to India. Aahilya will be able to book these and can advise on the cost

Talking to people who have been on an Aahilya holiday and to textile artists who have led tours everyone has very positive feedback. The tours are very well organised with knowledgeable local guides. The hotels are top class with excellent food. Everyone felt very safe and well looked after. And in the company of like-minded people with an interest in textiles. Mostly women. Many travelling solo.

I will be researching more into the places, hotels, embroidery techniques and culture over the next few weeks and will share my discoveries here. A whole new world of adventure for me - and maybe you too?

Object and Memory - more inspiration for a new series

 

These little old shoes were discovered at the back of a wardrobe when clearing out my Mother's house when she moved into residential care.

They are what were known as 'clogs' made with wooden soles, leather uppers, and metal horseshoe like grips on the bottom.

Clogs were commonly worn by working people in the 19th and early 20th century. Often shared between siblings and certainly passed down as valuable objects with multiple wearers.

So who wore these little shoes? 

Unfortunately my Mother's memory has gone and she cannot provide the answer.

Here she is, Jean Kennedy aged about three, and wearing a pair of clogs. But not the same design as the ones found.
 

The clogs are stuffed with newspaper so I hoped that might provide a date. But the paper is a copy of the Newcastle Journal from 1971  (the Sports section) so is a much later addition.

So might they have belonged to my Dad? I found an old photograph of him, Ian Famelton, aged about three, and again wearing clogs.

But not the same design.

So how can I find out? The generation of clogs wearers is disappearing fast. Who can I talk to?  

More research required but there is a story, or maybe more than one, to be told here. 

Inspiration for a new series?

 

A fantastic discovery on a recent trip to Dorset - the chained library at Wimborne Minster

I need to do lots of research and maybe more visits to other chained libraries in the UK. I know there are other chained libraries in Wells Cathedral and Hereford Cathedral.

I am sure there are stories to discover about the books, the authors, the scribes, the collectors and the buildings.

I look forward to finding out more.

Will it result in a new series of textile work?

Too early to tell. But I shall enjoy the research and hopefully something exciting will emerge. 

New work - watch this space

 

Brand new work in progress for the Out of the Fold exhibition coming up this Autumn.

Just at the experimental stage so far........

To see the results save the exhibition date in your diary.

18th - 23rd Otober 2024

Quay Gallery, Snape Maltings, Suffolk IP17 1SP

TOPstitch exhibition

 

I am delighted to be exhibiting as a guest artist with the TOPstitch textile group.

Tuesday 3rd - Sunday 8th September 2024

11am - 4pm each day

FREE entry

The gallery is right in the centre of Wymondham in a beautiful space. Becket's Chapel has lovely high ceilings with great light. The white boards show off the textile art to perfection 

I have not made new work for this exhibition but my 'To Have and to Hold' series looks good in this space. Plus some other recent work not shown here.

The theme of the TOPstitch exhibition is 'Making Waves' and here are just a few images of parts of the work to give you a flavour.

The artists are not credited here so please visit to find out the names of the makers. 

On Friday 6th September from 11am - 1pm there will be a 'Meet the Artists' session