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 teach each year at the 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)

Friday, 26 March 2021

Out of the Fold project

 The much delayed Out of the Fold exhibition ‘Drawing Threads’ is now confirmed for The Guildhall, Bury St Edmunds from 22nd - 26th September 2021. 

As part of the exhibition we have a new project. This is a detail of one section to whet your appetite. Lots more to come.........

 Suffolk puffs for a Suffolk Show



Monday, 22 March 2021

Creative Stitch Open Days

 Creative Stitch Tutors Mary McIntosh and Diane Tompkins will be demonstrating and available to give information on the Creative Stitch courses and workshops. Plus a display of student work in Patchwork and Quilting and Machine Embroidery. 



Friday, 19 March 2021

Shrivel up and dye

 Using one of my all time favourite techniques of stitching different fabrics to a shrinkable base before overdyeing for a new project to be shown as part of the next Out of the Fold exhibition in Sept. This is a small corner detail of the first section made.


Shrivel Up and Dye with machine stitching, additional hand stitching and beading

I offer Shrivel Up and Dye as a one day workshop. New dates coming soon................................

Monday, 15 March 2021

Creative Machine Embroidery Short Courses now booking for June 2021

With venues starting to reopen for groups of six we can now run the planned Creative Machine Embroidery courses from the beginning of June 2021.
These will on Wednesdays at The Cosy Cabin in Risby, near Bury St Edmunds with tutor Mary McIntosh and on Thursdays in Ipswich with tutor Diane Tompkins.

For more information or to book a space please contact mary.cs@sefwi.org.uk

 

Friday, 12 March 2021

Experiments with texture

 I have been playing with some ideas to create the textures of corroded metal and crumbling plaster work. Not quite there yet but some of the techniques have potential.

Nasty nylon nets and lace transformed by burning


Humble craft vilene with lots of colouring and metallics. Areas removed and reattached with a soldering iron


The back of the vilene is quite interesting too......

More experiments to come - I will keep you posted!

Sunday, 7 March 2021

Quilters' Guild AGM Workshops

 The Quilters' Guild AGM is being held as a virtual event on the weekend of 16th, 17th and 18th April 2021 with an exciting variety of talks and workshops offered by textile artists from the East Anglian region.  To book please contact the Quilters' Guild shop  QG Shop

The workshop is called Layered Landscapes with a choice of either Poppy Field or Bluebell Wood - both inspired by places near my home on the Suffolk Essex border

The first workshop date of Sunday 18th April has sold out but a second date has been added on Saturday 17th April at 2pm
Poppy Field

We will use commercial fabrics to build up a landscape picture and capture snippets under net before stitching by machine. A good place to start with free motion embroidery for those new to the technique.

The piece can be further embellished with hand stitching and beading
Bluebell wood (work in progress)


Texture Adventures workshop now online

 The Texture Adventures workshop is now available as an online video. 

Cost is £15 with the option of a kit available in your chosen colourway for an additional £10

To book please visit https://www.oliven.co.uk/


Sample of Texture Adventures technique (red colourway)

Sample of the Texture Adventures technique Green colourway



Textures Adventures sample shown in the video (Blue Colourway


Detail of the free motion embroidery and additional hand embellishment