You might think such extensive mash-ups could lead to art that overwhelms, but that’s hardly the case. April expertly balances colour and composition to create cohesive works that are surprisingly neat at first glance. Even upon close inspection, April’s layers of texture and pattern seamlessly merge and often surprise the eye.

In addition to offering us a look into her process and favourite things, April also shares how renowned UK textile artists helped her discover the power of simple stitches and inspired her to let go of her need for control. She explains how Constance Howard and others have taught her that self-expression doesn’t have to be complicated when it comes to stitchwork. And we think you’ll agree.

Apron strings

April Sproule: My earliest memory of making something with textiles is making an apron with my maternal grandmother, Grandma Ollie, when I was seven years old. She was a tiny woman who lived in a small house filled with things she had made. She loved to sew, knit and paint.

I remember carefully cutting out the apron on her kitchen table and sewing it on her portable Singer sewing machine. Her patience was infinite as she taught me those brand-new skills. I was amazed we had made something useful out of seemingly nothing with a scrap of fabric and some thread.

Around the same time my paternal grandmother, Grandma Petersen, began teaching me to do hand sewing and stitching. She taught me how to cut old clothing into squares using a cardboard template. Those hand-pieced squares would later become a quilt top. She also taught me hand embroidery and lace making.

I have very fond memories of being sequestered away in one of their homes on rainy winter days happily stitching away for hours. It’s no wonder sewing and stitching are now like breathing to me. They are something I have always done, and those basic skills would go through many transformations in years to follow. Back then, I had no idea how those early experiences would impact my life.

Textile artist inspiration

During high school, I participated in a work study programme that involved writing a business plan and starting my first little business. I set about making a variety of leather goods, clothing and bags to sell at local shops and galleries.

After learning the technical skills I badly needed, at the San Francisco School of Fashion Design, I worked for several different US and Canadian manufacturers. My area of expertise was new product development and production management for companies making leather goods, accessories and clothing. Since 2001, I’ve been a full-time studio artist working as both a designer and workshop facilitator.

In 2011, I developed a commercial collection of 25 stencil designs inspired by Japanese Katagami stencils for painting on fabric. I began using the stencils for all sorts of things while teaching my painting techniques to others. I started making upcycled clothing for myself and linen bags to sell with the stencils, and then I added hand stitching to them. The stencilling and hand stitching worked well together. Next came a collection of hand embroidery patterns and kits in 2015.

Shortly after that, I started seeing online images from UK textile artists who were doing amazing work using hand stitching. I was especially inspired by Mandy Pattullo, Claire Wellesley-Smith, Louise Baldwin, Cas Holmes and Aideen Canning. These incredible women not only eradicated the notion of creating perfect little stitches, but they used stitching in such an expressive and expansive manner. Theirs was a much freer and innovative style of hand stitch that appealed to me on many levels.

I admired those artists’ ability to move away from the expected and express their own unique, wild and wonderful styles.

It was as if a door had opened, and anything was possible on the other side of that threshold.

April Sproule, Textile artist

Freestyle stitching

My new norm became letting go of the need for control and embracing the idea of self-expression.

Upon further investigation, everything led back to the work and influence of Constance Howard. I pored over her books, and my entire perspective on hand stitching changed tremendously. I didn’t necessarily change the stitches I used, but I became mindful of how those stitches were used. One simple stitch could be used in 20 or more different variations.

When I developed my collection of hand embroidery patterns, I thought using lots of different complex or unusual stitches added more interest.

Constance Howard took a different approach. It was more about starting with one simple stitch and then tweaking it, contorting it, and reimagining all its possibilities.

Now as I go back and look through Constance’s books, I especially love seeing her illustrations. These days I see hand stitching as another form of mark making. And as I switch back and forth between pen and ink illustration and my hand stitching, each medium provides inspiration for the other.

I studied Constance Howard’s approach and realised the complexity of stitches wasn’t as important as I’d first thought.

April Sproule, Textile artist

Natural inspirations

I am inspired by many things, but my greatest inspiration comes from nature. Nature provides me with a never-ending treasure trove of ideas. It could be insects, botanical specimens or even diatoms and other microscopic images that pique my interest and beg me to take a closer look.

I live in an astonishingly diverse beautiful area in northern California. In just a few minutes, I can be exploring tide pools along our rugged coastline or trek deep into a Redwood forest where rays of sunlight pierce the thick canopy of branches and illuminate the areas below in a spectacular display.

Things that are in a state of erosion or decomposition are much more interesting than a perfect specimen. And surface design with textiles, pen and ink illustration, printmaking, collage, and watercolour are all mediums that supply me with lots of ideas and inspiration.

I’m interested in capturing the essence of my subject matter, rather than in replicating it in a photorealistic way.

April Sproule, Textile artist

Creative sketches

My work is developed in different ways, but it usually begins with a feeling or mood I want to convey. Early in the morning, I often work in a little handmade book where I experiment with different ways of combining paper, fabric and stitch in new and interesting ways that can lead to larger projects. 

Often my work begins with what I call a production sketch. It’s just a vague idea and a starting point, but it’s a very important step because it takes what only exists in my mind into the physical world where it becomes tangible.

Introducing colour

Next comes colour, which is one of the most valuable design elements. Colour is what first attracts or repels viewers to our work. I usually start with white fabric or pieces on which I’ve applied some sort of surface design techniques.

Scale, the overall finished size of the piece, comes next. Are the details going to be lost if a person sees it from a distance? Those choices inform all my decisions on which mediums to use.

I’ve learned to worked much more intuitively. All I need is one idea to get started. It could be the colour green and then everything develops from there.

Every piece I make takes me on a journey of learning and exploration.

April Sproule, Textile artist

Figuring things out

I feel incredibly fortunate because I rarely get really stuck on a piece and give up on it. I am good at problem solving and figuring things out. It seems like a waste of time, energy and materials to give up on a piece and not finish it.

When I start a new project that is very involved, I clean up my studio and put everything in its place. Initially clutter can be a distraction, but that’s only in the beginning. Once my ideas start to flow, it is total chaos. I don’t clean up until the project is completely done.

Mixing things up

I use a wide variety of mixed media on fabric and paper. I especially enjoy working with dyes, paints, stencilling, printing, pen and ink, cyanotypes, and hand or machine stitch. Learning to do all of these things has been so much fun!

I’ve done lots of shibori dyeing with Procion dyes and indigo over the years. It’s so exciting to unwrap the cloth and see what has happened. And now I have all those fabrics to choose from and add to my textile art.

Using paints and inks on fabric and paper has been a great addition to my work. I use textile paints that don’t alter the hand of the fabric, and I’m pretty picky about that. I also love using walnut ink, sumi ink and India inks. Sometimes I just sit and draw stripes or dots with a pen or brush. Then it’s fun finding new ways to incorporate those pieces into my work.

I am also experimenting a lot with different papers. I won’t use papers that are either too delicate or too hard to stitch through. I still have a lot to learn about different types of paper, but that’s part of the research and excitement of learning something new.

Favourite fabrics

My absolute favourite fabrics to work with are linen, cotton sateen and silk. I use both vintage and new fabrics, but many of the vintage fabrics are just wonderful to work with. The linen is like butter to stitch through, and I love the texture of it. 

My next favourite fabric is cotton sateen, as the weave gives it a subtle sheen. It has a very nice hand, dyes beautifully and it is really easy to stitch through. And silk has long been a favourite of mine. I don’t ever use fusibles on it, as that would ruin the hand of the fabric. I have lots of silk left over from having a custom sewing business for 10 years. Now, I’m glad I saved all those fabrics.

Threads & stitches

For threads, I mostly use DMC cotton along with some hand-dyed threads. I‘d like to try linen thread but haven’t yet. My favourite stitches are the running stitch, stem stitch, straight stitches, rice stitch, couching, and the versatile blanket stitch. I also like the cretan stitch a lot, because it can be used in lots of different ways.

I took Sue Stone’s Exploring Texture and Pattern course in 2018. After finishing all the exercises, my style of stitching changed from using more complex decorative stitches to using very basic stitches in different forms and combinations.

My needle has become like my pen, and my hand stitching is now another form of mark making.

April Sproule, Textile artist

A few basic tools

I enjoy using good quality tools that last a long time, so I don’t have to replace them.

Really sharp scissors are very important. I have embroidery scissors, appliqué scissors, regular scissors, paper scissors and huge shears for cutting heavy fabrics. But mostly I just need a sharp little pair of embroidery scissors for cutting threads.

Fabric markers are also important. I use Frixion markers and have never had a problem with them. I like that I get nice clean lines with them. And of course, good needles make everything so much easier. I use mostly size 10 embroidery needles with a nice sharp point.

One of the greatest things about hand embroidery is you only need a few basic tools.

I do almost all of my actual stitching at night. I use a large floor model OttLite, and I could not sew without it. I usually do hand stitching for three hours or so every night. It’s become a daily practice I really enjoy.

My iPad is my favourite design tool. I use an app called Adobe Fresco for my illustrations. I start a piece, photograph it, and then draw mock up stitches on the photo to help with design options and decisions. I can add 10 layers of stitching, eliminate what I don’t like, AirDrop the image to my phone, and use it for reference as I stitch. It’s just like magic!

I think one of the best things you can do as an artist is try things outside of your comfort zone.

April Sproule, Textile artist

Silver linings

The biggest challenges I’ve faced as a professional artist were Covid related. From 2001-20, I operated a longarm quilting business, sold my wares online and as a vendor at shows, and I taught workshops on techniques I’d developed over the years. 2019 was an especially busy year for me. Then Covid reared its ugly head, and every single upcoming event I had scheduled was cancelled.

I decided to make the most of this unexpected free time by focusing on my art and volunteering for different textile art groups who support artists and textile art instructors. That gift of time gave me a chance to re-evaluate what I was doing and make some positive changes.

I closed my longarm quilting business and decided to stop vending at shows and started applying for grants. In 2019, I received a grant from a local arts foundation, and in 2020, I received a business grant from the state. Collectively, those funds made it possible for me to gain the technical training and equipment I needed to start teaching online.

I aim to spend half my time working and the other half creating art. I’m not there yet, but I will be some day. It’s also much easier to share what I do with others and help others achieve their creative goals.

I’ve found that pushing myself helps to grow my skills and proficiency.

My biggest artistic challenge was making the portraits in Sue Stone’s Stitch Your Story online course. I knew what a fabulous teacher Sue was, and it was really hard, but I learned so much along the way. I was really inspired by the work of the others in the course.

Designing my creative space

After leasing a commercial building for five years for my business and studio, I finally had a studio built behind my house in 2006. I needed room for my 14ft longarm quilting machine, space to teach my surface design workshops and a workspace for me to create my textile art.

I had lots of experience designing textile art projects, but designing a building was an entirely different experience. Luckily, I found a great designer and very good contractors to work with me.

The 24ft x 40ft (7.3m x 21.1m) two-story structure has nice high ceilings. Downstairs is my wet studio where I do my messy stuff like dyeing and fabric painting. I included a 6ft-wide stainless steel sink from a place that carried used restaurant equipment, and it has been a useful addition. There’s also lots of storage for art supplies and other stuff.

Upstairs is one large room where I sectioned off a full bathroom and walk-in closet. The kitchen area has cabinets that hold art supplies, and it was designed to accommodate appliances, but I would rather have the space.

One of my requests was to have lots of natural light. But I also needed wall space for art display and a large design wall. The designer was able to plan accordingly, so I have windows on three sides and plenty of wall space in between.

I had a 4ft x 8ft cutting table built with storage cabinets and shelving below. I knew my needs for this space would change over the years, so one of the best things I did was to outfit all my heavy equipment, like the cutting table and longarm machine, with heavy duty casters so I can easily move things around by myself. That has been a tremendous help.

The building is quite tall due to the high ceilings on each level, so I had a manual dumb waiter added to transport heavy items, like sewing machines, up to the second floor. We’ve had lots of great workshops and retreats here, and that dumb waiter has gotten a lot of use over the years.

Every morning I wake up really early, grab a strong cup of coffee, and head over to the studio. When time permits, I sit and draw for an hour in front of my big window before I start my day. I’m grateful for every moment I spend here. My family has always been very supportive of what I do, and none of this would’ve been possible without them.

During that time, the definition of ‘fine art’ was being critically examined: what made something ‘fine art’ versus ‘fine craft’? Could something functional also be considered fine art?

Textile artists weighed in with a resounding ‘yes’ by reimagining quilts in ways that emphasized design over function. They deviated from traditional, historical blocks and patterns to create abstract works, landscape designs, portraiture and more.

Then those quilters displayed their works by hanging them on walls rather than spreading them across a bed. Ultimately, fine art galleries started paying attention, and as the saying goes, the rest is history.

The possibilities for designing and creating art quilts have exploded since then, and we’ve compiled a list of books that can help you tap into the excitement. Each book features clear instruction complemented by gorgeous illustrations and photos.

Most importantly, all of the books are authored by a well-known art quilter. Each of them approaches art quilting differently, but they all celebrate the possibilities.

It’s time to start adding some quilt art books to your bookshelf.

Art quilt collage

Looking to dip your toes into the art quilting world? Here’s a great book to start your journey.

You’re first introduced to eight design guides presented in simple diagrams. These basic layouts can then be applied to the book’s engaging work-along projects.

Design checklists help readers analyse their artistic choices and change layouts accordingly. And See what happens next exercises offer a more prescribed method for trying new approaches.

Deborah Boschert also gives you a look into her signature technique of incorporating meaningful symbols into her art quilts. You’ll learn how to create shapes and symbols that are special to you, as well as how to work in a series and finish small art pieces.

Deborah’s step-by-step imagery and clear instruction will help you unlock your own artistic vision.

Art quilt collage: A creative journey in fabric, paint & stitch by Deborah Boschert (2016)
^{ISBN  9781617452840}

Quilt out loud

Have something to say? Tap into the power of embedding stitched letters, numbers, words and sentences into your art quilts.

Quilt artist Thomas Knauer’s quilts follow the craftivism movement, and his art quilts emphasise social justice issues. Thomas knows the power of stitched text, and in his book, he gives you a look into his creative process. You’ll not only learn unique quilting techniques, but you’ll also discover how to choose and embed text in ways that have impact.

Each chapter focuses on a particular approach, including raw-edge appliqué, quilted text, binary numbers and Morse Code. Whether your theme is serious or whimsical, this book shows you how to combine aesthetics with powerful messaging using fabric and thread.

Quilt out loud: Activism, language & the art of quilting by Thomas Knauer (2023)
^{ISBN 9781644033227}

Stitching stolen lives

The Social Justice Sewing Academy (US) works with students to amplify voices, empower youth and build empathy through quilting.

Students learn to create quilt blocks that help them examine and express the systemic problems that plague their everyday lives. Stitching Stolen Lives offers an in-depth look into a special remembrance project. Youth designed quilt blocks that memorialise family and friends they lost due to social injustices.

You’ll learn about the remarkable journey each student took to find their voice through the art of quilting. You’ll be amazed and moved by the students’ extraordinary quilt portraits and reading about the personal stories that inspired them.

This book also includes a resource section on how to talk about racial equity and how to use art as a tool to aid self-expression.

Stitching stolen lives: Amplifying voices, empowering youth & building empathy through quilts by Sara Trail and Teresa Duryea Wong (2021)
^{ISBN 9781644031384}

Create landscape quilts

It’s time to pull out those travel pictures and start quilting!

Learn how to create unique art quilts featuring your favourite places. Meri Henriques Vahl shares a simple method for designing realistic quilted nature scenes and villages. Using photographs from her travels, Meri explains how she achieves stunning scenery with lifelike details in her art quilts.

Various techniques, including fabric collage and tulle overlay, help quilters of all levels learn to quilt majestic mountainscapes, charming buildings and realistic people. Easy-to-follow instructions complemented by a stunning gallery of quilts will inspire you to turn your travel photos into lovely art quilts.

Create landscape quilts by Meri Henriques Vahl (2021)
^{ISBN 9781644030127}

Creating art quilts with panels

Discover how to transform fabric panels and thread into one-of-a-kind art quilts.

Award-winning quilter Joyce Hughes demonstrates dimensional thread painting, raw edge applique, and a variety of embellishments to make seasonal panels, beautiful florals, and panel replicas like Van Gogh’s Starry Nights.

From simple beading to more advanced three-dimensional pieces, Joyce presents her techniques across six projects that feature detailed photographs and a step-by-step format.

Discover how to make your quilt pop and explore endless options for creativity with free-motion quilting, thread painting, trapunto, overlay, three-dimensional effects, machine techniques, raw edge applique, and a variety of embellishments.

Creating art quilts with panels by Joyce Hughes (2019)
^{ISBN 9781947163164}

Capture your own life with collage quilting

It’s time to get personal.

Whether you’re celebrating your pet’s personality, preserving a memory from a family holiday or recreating your favourite flower, this book teaches you a simple technique to create a stunning and personal art quilt.

Jane Haworth shares her fun, easy, and addictive quilting method that doesn’t require hundreds of pattern pieces. That’s why it’s perfect for quilters of all skill levels.

Twelve different project ideas feature a variety of styles and themes, including animals, flowers, houses, musical instruments and landscapes. You’ll start by learning how to choose a photograph or image and make enlargements to create a pattern.

Then Jane explains how to choose the right background fabrics, master some free-motion quilting techniques, and finish and display your quilt.

Capture your own life with collage quilting by Jane Haworth (2023)
^{ISBN 9781639810222}

At play in the garden of stitch

This book is all about free-motion fun in art quilting.

Paula Kovarik shares approaches to free-motion stitching that are approachable, engaging and multi-layered. You’ll be encouraged to explore how stitching can bring depth to composition, texture to emotions and line to ideas.

In addition to simple stitching and drawing exercises, Paula shares examples and inspirations for how to approach this art form. Pictures of her award-winning art quilts illustrate her techniques and clarify her process.

Close-up photos of stitching also inspire readers to try their hand at Paula’s techniques. And her technical tips and stories of her successes and failures make this a wonderful read.

At play in the garden of stitch by Paula Kovarik (2021)
^{ISBN 9780578920047}

And finally…

Here’s a list of additional older books that may just become your new firm favourites (although could be a little more difficult to find). Check thrift shops, libraries, second-hand bookstores, and other online book sites to source these titles.

• Inspired by design: Seven steps to successful art quilting by Elizabeth Barton (2013) ISBN 9781607056348
• Visual guide to working in a series: Next steps in inspired design by Elizabeth Barton (2014) ISBN 9781607056614
• Point, click, quilt! by Susan Knapp (2011) ISBN 9781607052265
• Journey to inspired art quilting: More intuitive color and design by Jean Wells (2012) ISBN 9781607055808

Featured picks

• Art quilt collage by Deborah Boschert (2016)
• Quilt out loud: activism, language & the art of quilting by Thomas Knauer (2023)
• Stitching stolen lives by Sara Trail and Teresa Duryea Wong (2021)
• Create landscape quilts by Meri Henriques Vahl (2021)
• Creating art quilts with panels by Joyce Hughes (2019)
• Capture your own life with collage quilting by Jane Haworth (2023)
• At play in the garden of stitch by Paula Kovarik (2021)

If you buy books linked to our site, we may earn a commission from Bookshop.org, whose fees support independent bookshops.

Interested in more great books for learning textile techniques? Check out our list of books in which expert textile artists share their processes.

Do you have a favourite book about art quilting you can add to our list? Please share by leaving a comment below.

Finally, you decide that today’s the day! You’re going to start that creative project you’ve been dreaming about.

You gather some fabric scraps you’ve been saving. You find your old sewing box. You clear a space at the kitchen table and…

And then what?

You realise you’re not sure where to begin. So you think maybe you should look up some techniques first. You open your laptop to do some research.

But there’s so much information… Your inbox needs checking while you’re here. Oh, and you should probably put another load of washing on. And didn’t you promise to call your friend? And it’s almost time to start dinner anyway…

Another day slips by without creating anything.

You tell yourself you will make a start tomorrow, when you have more time. When you’ve researched a bit more. When you’re a bit more more organised. When life is less busy.

But you’re not alone. In fact, you’re in excellent company. Every accomplished textile artist started exactly where you are now, with a desire to create and uncertainty about how to begin.

The difference between you and them? They found a way to start. And today, we’re going to show you how you can too.

The time trap

“I’ll create when I have more time,” you tell yourself. But here’s the painful truth: That mythical expanse of free time will never arrive. Life has a way of filling every available moment – unless you decide to claim some for yourself.

Every day you put off starting is another day of creativity lost forever. Another day without discovering the joy that comes from working with your hands to make something meaningful and personal.

Laura Otten, a Stitch Club member, told us: “Before, I thought I had to have big chunks of time to put into making art.”

“Now I understand that’s not the case and I am working far more regularly because of it. I can get something done in 30 minutes or less, and then tomorrow, I can spend another 30 minutes.”

“And eventually, I’m going to have something to show for it.”

“Doing workshops online that I can revisit in my own time, helps me break things into manageable chunks.”

Laura Otten, Stitch Club Member

The overwhelm obstacle

You stare at blank fabric, paralysed by the fear of starting.

Or maybe your mind buzzes with too many possibilities about which technique to choose. Raw-edge or turned-under appliqué? Paint the background fabric first? Print photos on fabric? Finish the piece with hand stitching or machine stitching?

The questions keep lining up, until the weight of choices crushes your creative spark entirely.

6 simple ways to unleash your creativity (in small pockets of time)

1. Embrace the power of tiny

Forget masterpieces. Start with moments.

Celebrated textile artist Clarissa Callesen puts it perfectly: “When a child learns how to play the piano, we don’t expect them to compose an original symphony. They play Mary Had A Little Lamb over and over again, and then progress to more challenging tunes as they go.”

Try one of these ideas:

• A single experimental stitch during your coffee break
• Fifteen minutes of playing with stitch techniques or collaging colourful fabrics, first thing in the morning
• Make one small sample square per week

Your artistic journey begins with a single stitch – so why not pick up some fabric and thread and give it a go?

2. Fall in love with the process

The magic isn’t just in the completion of an art piece – it’s in the moments of creation.

And textile artist Monica Bennett discovered how even small creative moments can be productive: “Making samples gives me the confidence to tackle larger or more intricate pieces. I can try out a concept or thought beforehand, and then see how and where I could develop it.”

Try to imagine:

• The meditative rhythm of needle through fabric
• Asking yourself “What if I do this…?” instead of “What should I do next…?”
• The satisfaction of seeing your unique vision emerge, experiment by experiment, stitch by stitch

3. Use limits as launchpads

Complete freedom can be paralysing. Instead, why not try:

• Choosing just three colours 
• Working with only one type of stitch
• Using only the materials you already have

Watch how these boundaries can spark, rather than stifle, your creativity.

Sue Stone’s three-fabric, three-thread, three-colour Stitch Club workshop helps members avoid decision fatigue and unleash creativity.

Just look at the diverse, beautiful pieces created by Stitch Club members Linda Florio (above), Ruth Atkinson (below left) and Debbie Greene (below right) using these simple constraints.

4. The journey of discovery

Every perceived “mistake” is an invitation to:

• Let your “wrong turns” lead to new techniques
• Work with imperfections to develop your unique style
• Turn missteps into creative opportunities

Wendy Kirwood explains her breakthrough moment: “I wasn’t happy with the look that my pale threads were giving my piece.“

“So I started cutting the stitches to remove them, and things started fraying. But, actually, this looked really appealing, so I embraced my mistake, and kept the cut threads.”

5. Let structure set you free

Having a clear path forward doesn’t mean being inflexible or not instinctive, but it eliminates the energy-draining question of “What next?”. Your path could be:

• Following a workshop structure
• Creating your own step-by-step plan
• Setting simple daily goals

When you know what to do next, you spend less time thinking and more time creating. Your subconscious mind keeps working on ideas between sessions, leading to unexpected breakthroughs. 

6. On the shoulders of giants

Give yourself permission to:

• Learn from artists you admire
• Practice techniques that inspire you
• Combine influences to find your voice

Textile artist Sabine Kaner reassures us: “Being influenced by other people’s work is quite normal and it’s all part of the process of discovering more about yourself.”

“You will eventually pull away from that and start introducing things into your work that are unique to you.”

Clarissa Callesen adds: “Originality is a concept that we’ve put up on a pedestal as the ultimate.”

“But I think that when we concentrate too much on originality it stops us from following our own curiosity. Copying is normal as a starting point.”

“When you combine inspirations and techniques from different artists, you create the thing that is yours.”

Clarissa Callesen, Textile Artist

Your creative awakening awaits

That creative energy inside you? It’s not just a whim. It’s not just a hobby. It’s a vital part of who you are, waiting to emerge.

Every day you wait is another day of creative expression lost forever. But here’s the beautiful truth: You can start right now. Not when you have more time, or when you’ve mastered every technique. Now!

Think of it this way:

• Every textile artist you admire started exactly where you are
• Every stunning piece began with a single stitch
• Every creative journey starts with one small step

Take that step. Make that stitch. Join a community that understands and supports your creative journey.

Your artistic voice is waiting. Isn’t it time you let it speak?

Here’s another fact: we can overwhelm our spaces and ourselves with all that we collect. Piles of fabric, boxes of beads, overflowing bobbins, and pins and needles everywhere can make for a chaotic maker space. 

Fear not! We’ve asked some well-known textile artists and some of our Stitch Club members to share their best tips for organising their creative spaces. Some of these makers have separate studios while others create art in their homes, but all of their strategies could work well in almost any space.

We feature tips from Elisabeth Rutt, Jennifer Collier, Jeannie Holler, Lauren Austin, Jess Richardson, Isobel Currie, Rosalind Byass and Deborah Boschert.

Their overarching goals are to know what they have to hand and how to easily find what they need. What more could you ask for?

It’s time to get organised!

Elisabeth Rutt

Elisabeth Rutt, Textile artist: Keeping my materials organised first by type and then by colour makes it so much easier to find something when needed. It’s a filing system of sorts that helps prevent wasted time. 

I use clear plastic sweetie jars to house cotton perlé threads which I then sort and group together by colour in each jar. I keep machine threads, sorted by colour, in clear plastic shoe boxes.

My fabrics are grouped by type, such as cottons, sheers, silks, velvets, weaves, textured and ‘specials’. I use wire baskets on a frame that works as drawers, and if I have enough, I’ll group them by colour as well.

Colour coded threads

Space is limited in my studio, so for my threads, I use a set of coloured plastic drawers on castors for any extra threads of whatever type. The red drawer has a glorious mixture of red threads of all weights, as does the green, blue and other colours. 

I also use microwave food containers to hold buttons sorted by colour and then nestle them in with the threads. And I have a smaller set of very similar drawers for seed beads organised by colour.

Organise tools by technique

I have years and years worth of collected fabrics, threads, art and design materials, books and tools, so I’ve had to learn what to keep near me and what to archive elsewhere when not in use. 

I have clear plastic crates on warehousing shelves in our garage and shed. They’re organised by technique. For example, mono-printing tools and equipment are in one, while transfer printing equipment with suitable fabrics and papers are in another.

“My biggest challenge is deciding what to archive out of my room to make space for making new work!”

Elisabeth Rutt, Textile artist

Elisabeth Rutt works from her home studio in Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk. She tutors and mentors design and textile students in schools and adult education. In 2022, she was accepted as a member of the Society of Designer Craftsmen.

Artist website: elisabethrutt.co.uk
Instagram: @elisabethrutt
Facebook: elisabethruttstitchedtextiles

Lauren Austin

Lauren Austen, Quilt artist: I don’t have a system for storage, more a system for easy making. My creative space is a work in progress. It isn’t and shouldn’t be perfect. I work on many pieces at once, switching back and forth when I want something different. 

I used to put unfinished works in a closet or drawer, and they’d often be forgotten. So, I now pin unfinished work on big design walls in my living space. 

This allows me to study them when doing other things and think about what to do next. And because I create images of people, they’re always watching me. It’s like they’re saying ‘Lauren, stop playing that video game. The vacuuming can wait. Get busy and finish me!’ 

I also stopped hiding my fabric stash. I now use clear plastic bins, but I don’t spend a lot of time organising by colour or type. I like to open the bins and discover useful colours and textures. The search is part of the process.

Wall storage

My tools are also stored on the wall. I used to put them in toolboxes, and of course, they became ‘out of sight, out of mind’. Now I use magnetic strips for my scissors and metal tools, along with a wooden holder for my linoleum and wood block pieces. Keeping my tools in sight gives me the nudge to use them more frequently.

Workspaces everywhere

My workspace is my apartment, and every room except the kitchen, one bedroom and one bathroom is considered a workspace. But it’s not chaotic, because I try to put things back in their place when done. 

I like working on art as much as possible, so it’s pleasing to see my tools and unfinished pieces on display. 

Lauren Austin is based in Florida, USA. Formerly a human rights lawyer and lecturer, she became a full-time artist, storyteller and instructor in 2004. Her work is held in collections at the Smithsonian Museum of American Art (Washington, DC, US) and the International Quilt Museum in Lincoln, Nebraska, US.

Artist website: thatblackgirlart.com
Instagram: @blackgirlart1959

Rosalind Byass

Rosalind Byass, Stitch Club member: From the outset of participating in Stitch Club, I didn’t want my sample pieces stored in boxes. I wanted them to be easily accessible, arranged in a practical manner and visually appealing. So, I decided to design and construct a decorative textile journal.

It’s a working journal in which I can display completed workshop pieces as well as add and subtract samples. I made it large enough to hold the ever-growing number of pieces I’ve created and will continue to create.  

“Every bit of my journal is made from recycled materials.”

Rosalind Byass, Stitch Club member

I’m passionate about recycling, reusing and reinventing, and it’s reflected within my textile art.

The journal’s cover is a visually striking original design hand stitched in wool on hessian with some hand appliqué. The durable cover is reinforced and lined with a large felt insert.

The smaller decorative ‘tiles’ on the cover began life as lockdown stitch meditations. Each day, I stitched for a half hour without any pre-planned intent. I just mindfully focused on the task at hand.

The journal’s pages are made from offcuts of heavy upholstery fabric bound with hand stitching. The hand stitching adds weight to the edges as well as gives a more finished look. 

Pinned samples

I pin my sample pieces on the pages with ordinary dressmaking pins, making it easy to remove or rearrange them. Some pages also have large deep pockets to accommodate bulkier items such as fabric books.

I don’t include any written information, drawings or works in progress. It’s designed purely as a repository for completed samples. 

My greatest challenge was how to turn the heavy and bulky pages. I needed something that allowed for stretching, so I used threaded elastic and added knots between the pages. It works perfectly. 

Rosalind Byass lives in Melbourne, Australia. She is a textile artist creating original work often centred around memory, indulging her passions for pattern, colour and using recycled materials. Rosalind joined Stitch Club in 2020.

Deborah Boschert

Deborah Boschert, Textile artist: A few years ago, I decided to work with just one notebook at a time. I had been writing ideas on random sheets of paper or whatever was handy and, no surprise, they’d get mixed up or lost. I now keep everything in a single notebook: to-do lists, sketches, podcast recommendations, project ideas, workshop notes and other items as they come up.

I settled on a size and style I like, and I only use that same type of notebook. It’s a Strathmore 400 Series Sketch Pad, measuring 14cm x 21.6cm (5½” x 8½”).  

When I finish a notebook, I go back through it and make tabs on the pages I might want to refer to in the future. Honestly, I could do a better job with this part of the process. And I mark the start and end dates on the cover of each notebook. The dates can help me refer back to a special project or event if I know the timeframe to consider.

Project boxes

I also use a ‘project box’ when creating a new art quilt collage. After selecting fabrics reflecting my chosen colour palette, I keep the scraps and small pieces of fabric I don’t use in a plastic bin. I love how it keeps all those fabrics in one place, and if I need to add or patch something along the way, it’s all right there.

I often grow attached to the colours or ideas I’ve used, and I use the project box leftovers to make something similar or smaller. 

Selecting a cohesive, inspiring colour palette is one of the most important and challenging parts of the creative process for me. Using project box fabrics allows me to skip that part of the process since they’ve already been selected and finessed during the last project. 

Deborah Boschert is based in Texas, USA. She creates art quilts, teaches and is the author of Art Quilt Collage: A Creative Journey in Fabric Paint and Stitch. Deborah’s work is installed as a mural in the Dallas Arts District.

Artist website: deborahsstudio.com
Instagram: @deborahboschert
Facebook: DeborahBoschertArtist

Isobel Currie

Isobel Currie, Textile artist: My studio is a small room in my home, so it needs to be versatile because I use it for all stages of my creative practice. I have an electric desk with an adjustable height. And my storage cupboards and drawers are behind me as I sit at my desk by the window. I use a swivel chair to easily gain access to all areas of my workspace.

I have always been someone who prefers order, so my main organising strategy is to keep my creative space clear by storing tools and materials. They’re still accessible when needed but storing them prevents distraction when working. I also prefer having my materials displayed by colour and type, making it easier to see what I have available. 

Planning your storage

I spent a considerable amount of time planning how to organise everything in an efficient way and then invested in appropriate furniture. I have a large purpose-built cupboard fitted with drawers, shelves and containers to house my threads, beads and tools. Fabrics are kept nearby in a group of Muji stackable drawers.  

I also have to keep my desk area clear when stitching because I use long lengths of threads. So, a flexible Prym tool holder holds my pliers and cleaning brushes neatly away. I also have an Ikea desktop container close at hand that houses my essential tools, including scissors, tweezers, pencils and rulers. 

I designed and made a pincushion that has marked areas for different types of pins and needles. A Hemline magnetic needle holder also helps keep my very tiny needles and clips safe. And I keep bobbins of thread and other materials on a DoCrafts Anita’s Clear Away Tray so that they can be easily moved around.

Isobel Currie is based in Greater Manchester, UK. She is an exhibiting member of the 62 Group of Textile Artists and is the winner of the 2023 Fine Art Textile Award for the most innovative use of textiles. 

Artist website: isobelcurrie.com
Instagram: @isobel_currie_artist
Facebook: Isobel Currie, Embroidery Artist

Jeannie Holler 

Jeannie Holler, Stitch Club member: My primary goal is to use tools that bring clarity to my work. Organising those tools also helps me focus my ideas, thoughts and creativity. 

Plastic bins and boxes allow me to categorise and sort both my tools and fabrics. These bins were my ‘first aid’ when it came to organising my studio. Another important addition is a shelf and cabinet system, which allows me to store those bins in ways that give me easy reference and access to my supplies.

Easy access sewing machine

My greatest challenge was the fact I personified my sewing machine. I didn’t want to ‘hurt its feelings’ by putting it away under a table or in a closet. I did have a sewing cabinet, but my sewing machine was too large. 

Fortunately, my husband was able to adjust the cabinet’s opening using a jigsaw and white paint. Now I can lower the machine when not in use and have an additional flat workspace. And my sewing machine hasn’t complained once!

Even better, the old dining table on which my sewing machine had sat was now free to reuse as a large work and cutting table. The studio became more open and user friendly, and I can now see out my window as I sew. 

Jeannie Holler is based in northern California, USA, and joined Stitch Club in 2020. She especially enjoys hand embroidery and crewel work. Jeannie also machine quilts and then adds hand embellishments.

Jennifer Collier

Jennifer Collier, Textile artist: After 25 years of never being able to find the perfect paper that I knew was hidden somewhere in my stash, I created an effective filing system. 

I have all my vintage papers in clear plastic boxes under my desk. Each box contains papers grouped by a similar theme or other shared feature. I’ve even organised my stationary the same way.

“Having all my materials and equipment close to hand and easy to find reduces frustration and allows more time for making.”

Jennifer Collier, Textile artist

Hiding the clutter 

I work from my own gallery, so because my space is open to the public, everything is neatly stashed away behind my counter. You’d be amazed at how much I have stored there! 

The retail area also doubles as storage. I have different sized recycled drawers for my sewing machine and haberdashery, that not only hide my stored equipment but also allow me to beautifully display my work on the front edge of my desk. 

Hooks & hangers

I have some S hooks hanging on the backs of the drawers to hold scissors, punches and tape. I even hang my orders and postal receipts to help streamline the making and posting of orders. And I made a pull-out packaging shelf that has tissue paper, stickers, postage labels and return address stickers. This means I can now package my work without having to clear my desk.

Lastly, I set up a shelved area at the back of the space to house all my workshop resources, examples and materials. It also houses my maps (arranged by region) and books (arranged by colour) which can be reached by a perfectly-sized vintage library ladder. It’s my favourite part of the space, as I can instantly find the paper I need when an order comes in.

Jennifer Collier is based near Stafford, UK. Her work has been featured in over 100 magazines and in many books. Jennifer’s work has been shown internationally and is stocked in galleries at The Museum of Art and Design (New York), Liberty, and the Victoria and Albert Museum. 

Artist website: jennifercollier.co.uk/
Instagram: @paperjennifer
Facebook: paperjennifer

Jess Richardson 

Jess Richardson, Stitch Club member: When the pandemic hit, I worked from home. After a few months sitting among bags and boxes of my stash, I knew I had to get organised. 

Fortunately, I had space for a deep double wardrobe, but I needed one with attractive doors as the wardrobe would be my backdrop for on-camera work meetings. Online meetings definitely forced me to be tidy!

I purchased a wardrobe from IKEA and then set myself a ‘cupboard rule’: I could only have materials and supplies that fit behind the wardrobe’s doors. Nothing else! 

I’m happy to report I’m still sticking to that rule, but it’s been challenging at times. 

“My cupboard rule does make me consider whether I need anything new.”

Jess Richardson, Stitch Club member

I can easily pull out what I need since everything is organised in one place. It also keeps my husband happy because my stuff isn’t taking over the house!

I also use other IKEA storage solutions, including big square see-through cubes for small pieces of fabric (one for patterned and one for plain). Pull-out wire baskets are great for tools, paper and art materials. Small clip-lock boxes hold beads, and large storage boxes hold yarns, ribbons and card embellishments. Larger pieces of fabric are sorted by colour, folded and put on shelves.

I usually make things at the dining table or on my lap, so I also put everything I’m using in a box lid or tray so I can set it aside at the end of the day. But when I retire, I’ll be able to use my large sit-stand work desk as my new making space. I’ll blissfully be able to leave my projects out.

Jess Richardson lives in Hampshire, UK. She loves mixed media, especially using paper or printing with stitch. Jess joined Stitch Club in 2020.

Now that you’ve learned tips for organising your workspace, is it time to stop adding to your stash? Learn creative tips for working with what you already have and more.

Featured stitchers

• Elisabeth Rutt is based in Suffolk, UK and is a member of the Society of Designer Craftsmen.
• Lauren Austin is based in Florida, USA and is known for her story quilts.
• Deborah Boschert is based in Texas, USA and is the author of Art Quilt Collage: A Creative Journey in Fabric Paint and Stitch. 
• Isobel Currie is based in Greater Manchester, UK and is a member of the 62 Group of Textile Artists.
• Jennifer Collier is based near Stafford, UK and is known for her stitched paper artworks using recycled materials.
• Rosalind Byass is based in Melbourne, Australia and joined Stitch Club in 2020.
• Jeannie Holler is based in northern California, USA, and joined Stitch Club in 2020. 
• Jess Richardson is based in Hampshire, UK and joined Stitch Club in 2020.

We’ve all been there. But have no fear! Help is at hand. 

To help get your creative juices flowing, we’ve enlisted the help of artists Cas Holmes, Nigel Cheney, Emily Jo Gibbs, Sabine Kaner and Sue Stone. In this article, we’ll look at some of their artworks and find out the inspiration behind them. 

These artists have generously shared their tips to help you get started on your next artwork. Read on to discover a treasure trove of useful ideas, ranging from research and observation to playing with materials, taking an intuitive approach and allowing your compositions to evolve.

Emily Jo Gibbs

External motivators are a useful way to trigger new work. This might be a brief from a textiles group or community project, a project commission, or a new theme you want to explore. Emily Jo Gibbs made Oil Pastel Sketch in response to ‘Essence’, a 62 Group project brief. 

Emily is known for her delicate still life and portraiture work, using layers of coloured silk organza combined with hand stitch. Her compositions have a considered, graphic quality, using appliqué shapes and simple stitches. The layered organza shapes allow her to create depth, adding life to her subjects.

Optical illusions in stitch

Increasingly, Emily has become more interested in making work from her own drawings, whereas in the past she always based her work on photographic references.

Emily made an oil pastel drawing of her son during lockdown but hadn’t done anything with it, other than take a reference photograph with the oil pastels still resting on the sketchbook page. When she was thinking about the essence of her practice for the 62 Group brief, this image seemed to be the perfect culmination of all the things that excited her about her art practice.

‘It combines all the elements that I enjoy: a portrait of a loved one, hand cut overlapping pieces of silk organza, colourful stab stitches, shadows, and the surprise element of trompe l’oeil.’

The photograph of the drawn image alongside the drawing materials themselves, the oil pastels, became the template for her composition. 

Emily cut out pieces of coloured organza to correspond with the marks she had drawn. She really enjoyed making the shadows of the pastels – knowing that organza lends itself perfectly to create the properties of shade. Despite this, she found the pastels and their shadows to be the trickiest part of the composition. Although they are relatively simple in shape, many layered pieces of different coloured organza were needed to create the realistic effect.

Tips from Emily for getting started

• Try working with translucent fabrics, like silk organza, taking time to explore their unique properties. If you want to cut out crisp, accurate shapes, pin the organza to a paper pattern and cut out the paper and fabric together.

• Play with an organic approach to your work. Cut out some shapes, perhaps related to a drawing you’ve made or simply draw around an object that you have to hand. Build a picture using these cut shapes. Where they overlap, new colours and tones will emerge.

Read about Emily’s alternative portraits in Emily Jo Gibbs: Stitching the tools of the trade.

Emily Jo Gibbs is based in London, UK. Her exhibition The Boat Builders was shown at St Barbe Museum and Gallery, Lymington (2022). Emily is a member of The 62 Group of Textile Artists and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. Her work is featured in The Victoria and Albert Museum, The Crafts Council Collection and the Museum of Fine Art in Houston, TX (USA).

Artist website: emilyjogibbs.co.uk
Facebook: facebook.com/emilyjogibbs
Instagram: @emilyjogibbs

Sabine Kaner

A long-time lover of symbolism, Sabine Kaner uses symbols and colour to tell stories and express emotions, explore heritage, identity and mental health. 

The Long Long Life of the Tree is a perfect example of Sabine’s warm, tactile combinations of recycled textiles, wool and felt, combined with printed and painted backgrounds. Layers of materials are connected using hand stitch with thick textured threads, a slow process which allows her to work through memories and knit together a narrative into a tapestry-like form.

The evolution of a tree

In 2022, Sabine was commissioned to create an artwork for the music director of a well-known choral society. The inspiration was a new piece of music inspired by the crucial role of trees as part of the earth’s ecosystem. 

With this in mind, and following discussions with the person who commissioned her, Sabine started to do some research and make initial sketches. She went for walks in the countryside, taking reference photos and looking at the way various trees were growing. Then she dug out other photographs she had taken previously. She gathered reference images showing tree bark, acorns and chestnuts, and intertwined, moss-covered roots reaching out through layers of fallen leaves. 

Sabine then started to plan the composition by reviewing her fabric supplies.

‘I collected together some felt and repurposed fabric. I used an old cushion cover with a strong texture to represent the tree bark. This became the centre of the work, around which I could build up the image.‘

To create the work, Sabine painted the background cotton fabric with diluted watercolour paint. On this base, she attached the ‘tree bark’ fabric. She nestled pieces of appliquéd felt between the roots of the tree, and completed the design with embroidered images of leaves and seeds using thick, textured, looping threads.

Tips from Sabine for getting started

• A piece of fabric can often spark off ideas and inspiration. Sabine starts by sorting through scraps of fabrics in her collection and picking out the colours and textures that she’s drawn to.

• Create a moodboard and play with combinations of materials – lay out your fabric pieces and imagine how they might fit with your ideas, photos, sketches or a project brief. Move them around and add different threads to see how they work together.

• Allow the work time to breathe and evolve. Transfer some of your chosen images and shapes onto a plain fabric and use the fabric scraps to build up the picture. Work gradually, adding hand stitch to slowly connect the work together.

Read about Sabine’s work in Sabine Kaner: Stitching life experiences.

Sabine Kaner’s Hand-Stitched Stories exhibition was held at Museum in the Park, Stroud (2022). Other solo exhibitions were held at Stapleford Granary (2021-22) and 78 Derngate, Northampton (2021). She has also exhibited with @SEAS Brighton to celebrate the Windrush Generation’s contributions to the UK and @wellspace in London to coincide with Mental Health Awareness Day. Sabine is a member of the artist group @Outsidein. 

Artist website: sabinekaner.com
Facebook: facebook.com/sabinekaner
Instagram: @sabinemake

Sue Stone

Sue Stone is an avid photographer, and she uses her collection of photos to help her create textile stories. Her compositions are often a mixture of fact and fiction, combining real and invented people and places, and often merging the past with the present. Sue’s mixed media and stitched work explores imagined journeys and creates narratives about family, history and life. 

A major source of inspiration for Sue is her family photo album, but she also takes hundreds of photos of the details, textures and patterns that surround her. She is drawn to the overlooked details like the textures and patterns found on buildings or in the street, as well as brickwork, signs and colourful splashes of bold, but often transient, graffiti art. By including these details in her work, she brings to life the locations she depicts.

An expression of inner turmoil

Which Way Now? was made in 2020 during the pandemic, when Madrid was in the news as it was one of the places hard hit by the virus. Sue visited this beautiful, vibrant place for the first time in autumn 2019 when her work was included in the World Textile Association’s Invited Artists Salon exhibition, The Essence of Textile. She fell in love with the city during this idyllic trip.

Sue’s starting point was a photo she’d taken of an isolated crumbling and ruined building in Madrid, with graffiti on its walls and on the fence surrounding it. 

When she first started it, Sue wasn’t sure which direction the artwork was going. She just needed to keep her hands busy at the time. For this work, she adopted a new, immediate way of working – drawing freehand with a Pilot Frixion pen, directly onto the fabric.

‘Amid the confusion and chaos created by the Covid-19 virus, there were occasional glimpses of hope, swiftly followed by fear and dread. The slow hand stitching of the graffitied fence in the foreground proved to be therapeutic.’

Stitching gave Sue some quiet thinking time, and she realised that the crumbling building was a reflection of her state of mind – the conversation she was having with herself in a time of turmoil – and this led to a depiction of herself within this crumbling and confused environment, with flashes of hope hidden within.

Tips from Sue for getting started

• Never dismiss any of your ideas. Jot them all down in a notebook and they can become a reference library for you to dip into for inspiration if you get stuck.

• Take photos of anything and everything around you. If something catches your attention, photograph it. Make sure you organise your photo collection, perhaps into themes, so you can locate images easily when you need to.

• Simplify your starting images into a simple line drawing. This will stop you from getting overwhelmed by detail at the outset – you can always add more detail later.

Discover more about how Sue’s work comes together in Sue Stone: Where top textile artists look for inspiration.

Sue Stone is based in the UK. Her work has been exhibited worldwide, including at her solo show Shifts and Allusions, at The Hub, Sleaford (2023), at the 12th From Lausanne to Beijing International Fibre Art Biennial Exhibition (2022), and as part of the 62 Group’s exhibition at the Knitting & Stitching Show (2022). She is a member of the 62 Group of Textile Artists, and a Fellow of the Society of Designer Craftsmen. 

Artist website: womanwithafish.com
Facebook: facebook.com/suestone.womanwithafish
Instagram: @womanwithafish

Nigel Cheney

The sculptural textile work Corporal William Holman grew from the curiosity Nigel Cheney had about his great grandfather, and what it meant to serve your country in the First World War. 

Corporal William Holman was born in 1882 and died at the age of 35 in France, making the ultimate sacrifice in the First World War. The artwork was first created for Nigel Cheney’s solo show, Decorated, at the Hub in Sleaford, in 2017, and has since undergone many reincarnations. 

Starting all his projects with a period of in-depth study, Nigel likes to collect a mountain of source materials. As part of this process, he gathers objects, archival images, family documents, ephemera and associated literature, poems or novels. And he finds that eBay is the perfect place to collect items linked to his theme. 

Nigel began by exploring what little he knew of Corporal William Holman’s life, and the widow and children he left behind. Immersive research helps him to decide what lens to examine his theme through, and in this case, it soon became apparent that he was interested in memory.

‘All my research implied that his widow, the incredible Nellie Holman, did not dwell in the past. The photograph of him in uniform was always in pride of place on the mantle, even though her sadness was not dwelt on and certainly never spoken about.’

Research, collect, collage

Nigel began by digitally recording military records, the few surviving family photos, and images of medals, medal ribbons and correspondence. Then he collaged paper prints and scans, allowing an intuitive response to overtake historical accuracy. 

Interested by the residual and collective grief left behind after so much loss, and how small scraps of history become distorted and incomplete as time passes, Nigel realised that most of what he knew about his great grandfather was factually incorrect. He didn’t understand what the medals signified or how William Holman’s life story could be contextualised amidst his regiment or his hometown, Market Harborough.

‘For me, memory isn’t linear but there are elements that repeat like a musical refrain, often at the most inopportune moments.’

Nigel enjoys experimenting with a variety of techniques including drawing, digital printing and low tech image transfer methods. But fabric and stitch allow him to be at his most expressive, so he manipulated the collected imagery using a computer and printed them onto fabric, ready to stitch into using hand stitch and digital stitch techniques. He had no interest in using genuine uniforms from the First World War, so he sourced and dissected new ex-army stock uniforms. The difference in cut and construction became a test – would the viewers be aware of the historical inaccuracies? 

He had gathered the ingredients. Now it became a matter of moving the composition’s elements around to achieve a balance.

‘I felt the making needed to be somewhat crude – function came foremost over couture techniques.’

While seeming like a straightforward task, fighting with a small domestic sewing machine to put back together the parts of the uniform, along with the stitched fragments, became exhausting. 

Once the work was assembled, the final task was to stencil Corporal William Holman’s service number over all the precious elements of this ‘body bag’. A uniform is not a delicate piece of cloth, and Nigel wanted to show that the scars that deface the depictions of nostalgia are as important as the medals that decorate them. 

Tips from Nigel for getting started

• Working with memories is powerful. Just looking at a family photo or touching a favourite old garment can be overwhelming. So be kind to yourself. Sometimes you can work around a problem – are there similar second-hand fabrics that remind you of something, without having to work with a precious heirloom?

• It’s vital to set a lens through which to view your work. What is your intention? Does it need to be factually correct? Or are you expressing your own interpretation? Decide who the work is for and how you want those related to it, biologically or emotionally, to respond to it. It can be tricky to work with personal information, so be inclusive in how you gather information. You may be able to use official historical documents, data and text within your narratives while taking care not to publicise the data of living people. But if you are using archive sources, get permission to include them in your work.

• Colour can be the most effective communicator. It can help set the tone for what you want to convey. If the work isn’t how you expected – whether delightful, sombre, brooding, playful or nostalgic – then try changing the colour balance.

• Above all, make mistakes. This is the true path to creativity. And sometimes cutting up your work can be the best approach. Nigel has never found a ‘disastrous sample’ that couldn’t be improved with some pruning!

To find out more about his practice, read Nigel Cheney’s interview.

Nigel Cheney is an embroiderer based in Market Harborough, Leicestershire, UK. He was a finalist in the Hand and Lock Embroidery Prize, Open Textile Art category, 2022. He held the position of Lecturer in Embroidered Textiles at National College of Art and Design, Ireland, for over 20 years before retiring to live in his native Harborough.

Artist website: nigelcheney.com
Facebook: facebook.com/nigel.cheney
Instagram: @nigelcheney

Cas Holmes

In her work, Cas Holmes seeks to capture the memory or atmosphere of a place or a moment. She gathers materials, drawings and written references during her travels. And by interacting with these collections, she can evolve the meanings and stories behind her work. 

Travel has always been an important part of her creative inspiration, however, just as Cas was starting to move again after the pandemic lockdowns, her partner, Derek, had a stroke. 

She had to find a new balance, as both artist and carer, and so she began to adapt her work to a smaller landscape – her home surroundings. However, her process remained the same: Cas still sketches and makes notes to record her travels, even within this smaller environment. In the quieter times, she stitches or spends an hour marking and layering her collections of cloth and paper. 

During this time, Cas has gained a new-found respect for the often-overlooked aspects of everyday life, like the edges of the footpath on her daily walks in the park, and the places where the home and garden meet the outside world.

The Garden

The Garden is one of a series of pieces made during her transition from watcher to worker in the garden. She took the time to witness the garden in all its glory and began to notice the gardening activities that needed her attention. These observations became the source of inspiration for her artwork.

‘In that lovely summer of 2022, I sat and sketched in the sunshine as we healed and found a new way of being in the garden together. As Derek began to recover he talked about the things that needed to be done in the garden (and those I should leave alone).’

Cas often uses the methods of deconstruction and reconstruction, which have become a vital part of her creative process both physically and mentally. Working on two or three projects at once, she used offcuts from old gardening books, a section from a tray cloth and colour image transfers of the plants growing in her garden. 

Her work has always been informed by the simple things, like drawing, talking, observing, and then threading these connections with stitch. Cas finds poetic solace in the minutiae of the everyday things she explores, connecting hand, eye and mind through sketch, paint and stitch.

‘When I look at The Garden it takes me back to that healing moment in time. Exploring and recording a local patch of land, a garden or a small space in depth can be a rich resource for your investigations.’

Tips from Cas for getting started

• Take the time to record the atmosphere of a place – draw, make notes, focus and be present

• Observe the small details. Try using a magnifier or the zoom function on your camera or smartphone.

• Make a collection of ‘finds’ from the place. Perhaps you could record the changes you observe through the year. Create a storyboard or a diary of the things you discover, and note down your thoughts including the visual qualities, colours and shapes.

For more about Cas’ work, and how she used found and vintage items read Cas Holmes: Found objects in textile art.

Cas Holmes is based in Kent, UK. She is the author of several Batsford books, including Embroidering the Everyday (2021), and a member of Art Textiles: Made in Britain textile group and the Society for Embroidered Work. Her exhibitions include Gypsy Maker 4: Places, Spaces, Traces, which was exhibited in Belgium and toured the UK in 2020-23.

Artist website: www.casholmes.co.uk
Facebook: facebook.com/casholmestextiles
Instagram: @casholmestextiles

Here’s the good news – we’ve done the hard work and gathered a list of books to help you. 

We searched for modern reference books that are easy to source and suitable for all embroiderers. And we asked members of the TextileArtist.org Stitch Club to recommend their favourite stitch books, too. They came up with some great titles, including some old favourites, which we’ll mention later on.

Read on to discover our list of the best hand embroidery books. These are all great guides that you can keep in your reference library, and return to again and again.

Creative Stitches for Contemporary Embroidery 

Contemporary embroidery calls for an inspiring modern publication, so why not consider Creative Stitches for Contemporary Embroidery by Sharon Boggon?

This stunning visual treat describes 120 stitches, with instructions for left- and right-handers, and gives you plenty of ideas for adapting them to create exciting and colourful patterns and textures.

Stitch Club member Jocelyne Simon recommended this book, telling us she was drawn to the author’s practical and illustrated presentation, and how it presents lots of stitches and ideas for creating texture, step-by-step. 

Australian textile artist Sharon Boggon is also the creator of the blog PinTangle. This paperback edition was published in 2020, by C&T Publishing.

Creative Stitches for Contemporary Embroidery (2020), by Sharon Boggon. ISBN-13: 978-1617458774

Mary Thomas’s Dictionary of Embroidery Stitches

A highly-regarded reference guide, Mary Thomas’s Dictionary of Embroidery Stitches includes a comprehensive stitch dictionary with over 400 stitch types. 

The book was first released in 1934, and has become an absolute classic.

This paperback edition, published in 2018 by Search Press, has been revised and updated by the well-respected embroiderer and textile designer Jan Eaton. 

It’s organised into categories including filling stitches, straight stitches, outline stitches and more, and each stitch technique has clear diagrams and photographs, alongside easy-to-follow instructions. This makes the book suitable both for beginners and more experienced stitches looking to expand their repertoire.

Mary Thomas’s Dictionary of Embroidery Stitches (2018), revised by Jan Eaton. ISBN-13: 978-1782216438

Left-Handed Embroiderer’s Companion

Are you a left-hander who sometimes struggles to follow instruction guides created for right-handed people?

One solution is to try looking at the diagrams through a mirror… But this can be tricky, so perhaps the Left-Handed Embroiderer’s Companion by Yvette Stanton is just what you need. 

Not to leave out the right-handed stitchers, Yvette has also written the Right-Handed Embroiderer’s Companion. 

The Left-Handed Embroiderer’s Companion was recommended by Stitch Club member Mary-Jo Eckhart: ‘This book has thorough, clear photos, easy to read diagrams, plus words that make sense. Yvette started with the left-handed book, then published one for righties, too, who felt left out! I must have over 30 books on stitches and this is the one I reach for again and again.’

Amberley Kemp from the Stitch Club team also recommends this book: ‘The Left-Handed Embroiderer’s Companion is an absolute lifeline for left-handed stitchers as the majority of materials out there are geared towards those who are right-handed. And from my teaching experience, it’s not easy to teach how to do a stitch with your left hand when you are right-handed.’

Both of these straightforward stitch dictionaries feature clear step-by-step instructions, photographs and diagrams which are simple to follow. They include over 170 stitches, including a large range of surface stitches. 

Yvette Stanton is an Australian embroidery designer and lover of whitework, and self-published these paperback books in 2010 through Vetty Creations.

Left-Handed Embroiderer’s Companion (2010), by Yvette Stanton. ISBN-13: 978-0975767733

Right-Handed Embroiderer’s Companion (2010), by Yvette Stanton. ISBN-13: 978-0975767740

The Embroidery Stitch Bible

Another popular stitch dictionary is The Embroidery Stitch Bible by Betty Barnden, a needlecraft designer, teacher and author. In this book you’ll find over 200 stitches photographed with easy-to-follow charts. 

This paperback edition was published in 2017 by Search Press, and was recommended by Stitch Club member Janet Woo.

‘I love the Constance Howard Book of Stitches as the photos are lovely, but I prefer The Embroidery Stitch Bible by Betty Barnden as it explains how to do the stitches, as well as providing diagrams and photos.’

The Embroidery Stitch Bible (2017) by Betty Barnden. ISBN-13: 978-1782216025

Hand Embroidery Dictionary

Another great reference guide by teacher, author and stitcher Christen Brown. This book is useful for stitchers of all abilities. It contains a vast number of stitches, over 500 stitch designs, all with step-by-step instructions.

The stitches are organised into categories using a useful visual content guide, which should help you find what you are looking for.

There’s also a section on tools, tips and tricks to aid your embroidery work, and help for left-handers. This paperback book was published by C&T Publishing in 2021.

Hand Embroidery Dictionary (2021), by Christen Brown. ISBN-13: 978-1644030097

Hand Embroidery Stitches for Everyone

Would you prefer the versatility of an ebook when learning new embroidery stitches? Hand Embroidery Stitches for Everyone is written by the respected embroidery artist behind the popular website Sarah’s Hand Embroidery Tutorials, Juby Aleyas Koll.

This ebook, available in PDF and Kindle formats, allows you to zoom in on the photographs which can help you to understand the stitches. 

It’s easy to navigate too, with the stitches helpfully organised into stitch families using a picture dictionary, with clickable links to each section.  

It includes over 300 hand embroidery stitches with step-by-step photographs and clear instructions. There’s also tips and techniques for beginners, such as how to handle needles, threads and embroidery hoops, and some printable patterns so you can practise your stitches too. 

This ebook also features interesting snippets of information on the origin and history of many of the stitches. This second edition was published in 2021 by Roxy Mathew Koll and Juby Aleyas Koll. 

Hand Embroidery Stitches for Everyone, 2nd edition (2021), an ebook by Juby Aleyas Koll, of Sarah’s Hand Embroidery Tutorials.

The Intentional Thread

If you want to take your stitches further, The Intentional Thread by Susan Brandeis explores how to use thread to communicate your thoughts and ideas.

Several of our Stitch Club members recommended this book, including Ali Taylor, for whom it’s a firm favourite: ‘I find myself going back to this book time and time again, for creative new ways to make marks with some of the simplest of stitches.’ 

And Deb Elliott: ‘I love this book. It’s definitely my stitching bible. I was originally loaned this book by my friend Claire Benn, a mixed media artist. After turning the first pages I knew I had to get my own copy!’

This book, published by Schaffer Publishing in 2019, will help you to use stitch with intention, sharing ways to use line, shape, colour and texture in your work. Suitable for stitchers at all levels, it’s both a reference book and an education tool, with suggested projects to help you explore the ideas covered in the book.

Susan Brandeis is a renowned American artist and educator. She is founder of the Southeast Fibers Educators Association, and a member of the Surface Design Association.

The Intentional Thread: A Guide to Drawing, Gesture, and Color in Stitch (2019), by Susan Brandeis. ISBN 978-0764357435

And finally…

When we asked the TextileArtist.org Stitch Club community which books they most used to aid their stitch explorations, many members told us about their favourite old books. 

Some stitchers have owned these books for decades, others found them in thrift shops, online or in second hand bookstores. Here’s their recommendations:

• The Constance Howard Book of Stitches (1979), by Constance Howard, published by Batsford. ISBN-13: 978-0713410051

• Stitches: New Approaches (2004) by Jan Beaney, published by Batsford. ISBN-13: 978-0713488876 

• Encyclopaedia of Embroidery Stitches, Including Crewel (1975) by Marion Nichols, published by Dover Publications. ISBN-13: 978-0486229294

Several Stitch Club members mentioned The Constance Howard Book of Stitches, including Jane Cook: ‘I love books which show how to use the stitches, rather than just learning them. My favourites are Stitches: New Approaches, by Jan Beaney and the Constance Howard Book of Stitches (of course).’

And another Stitch Club member recommended the Encyclopaedia of Embroidery Stitches, Including Crewel, by Marion Nichols, explaining that it was ‘a very clear ‘how to’ book for all the stitches you could ever want to use.’

So keep an eye out for these worthy classics, and other gems. These books may be out of print and only available second hand, but they could become valuable treasures – how-to  books that you can return to again and again for inspiration.

Books featured in this article

• Creative Stitches for Contemporary Embroidery (2020), by Sharon Boggon

• Mary Thomas’s Dictionary of Embroidery Stitches (2018), by Mary Thomas and revised by Jan Eaton.

• Left-handed Embroiderer’s Companion (2010), by Yvette Stanton

• Right-Handed Embroiderer’s Companion (2010), by Yvette Stanton

• The Embroidery Stitch Bible (2017), by Betty Barnden

• Hand Embroidery Dictionary (2021), by Christen Brown

• Hand Embroidery Stitches for Everyone (2021), an ebook by Juby Aleyas Koll of Sarah’s Hand Embroidery Tutorials

• The Intentional Thread: A Guide to Drawing, Gesture, and Color in Stitch (2019), by Susan Brandeis

With one of these books by your side, and inspiration from the huge range of embroidery artists featured on TextileArtist.org, it’s time to start your stitched journey of discovery. We encourage you try out some new stitches, and see where they take you. 

If you’re looking to discover more about the inspiring work made by modern embroidery artists, check out Discover: Five contemporary embroidery artists, Stitching the great outdoors: Landscape textile art and Delightful distortion: Seven abstract textile artists.

Are you looking for more books about textile art? Read Top textile artist books: Our recommendations.

If you buy books linked to our site, we may earn a commission from Bookshop.org, whose fees support independent bookshops.

Book mockups by pmvchamara courtesy of Freepik.

Have you used one of the hand embroidery books listed here? Let us know why you would recommend it, by leaving a comment below.

‘I really was just desperate for an avenue to express myself… I’m always trying to create a visual landscape and record of my inner thoughts and ideas. I have never been adept at expressing myself with language. Abstract imagery combined with the thoughtful slowness of embroidery has been a lucky discovery for me.’

The idea of freely stitching in this way helped Lindsey to develop her own personal form of expressive, stitch vocabulary.

‘I’m an excellent over-thinker in all areas of my life, but my embroidery is the one place where I don’t feel compelled to do so. Whatever comes out, comes out. Sometimes it’s good, sometimes it’s only ok, and sometimes it’s pretty ugly. I just keep going.’

Choosing to work with discarded or unused and unloved textiles was also a positive choice for Lindsey, as is embroidering with fine, machine weight or button thread, handy for creating detailed repetitive patterns. For this artist, it’s the perfect combination of her aesthetic tastes and personal values.

But what most excites her is that this way of working always results in the unexpected. She never draws or makes a plan before starting a piece, and never unpicks her work.

The goal is to try to capture a feeling or an idea through her freestyle stitching.

Up close and personal

‘Basically, my work has been just an exercise in throwing my hands up, thinking to myself “whaddya gonna do?”, and then just keeping going.’

And her advice to others is similarly succinct. ‘Don’t worry so much. Just show up, get started. Make what you want to see more of in the world.’

Lindsey Gradolph (Lindzeanne) is a self-taught embroidery artist and English teacher based in Tokyo, Japan. Her work is inspired by traditional Japanese textile traditions such as Sashiko and Indigo dying, and also the concept of Mottainai or ‘waste nothing’.

Website: lindzeanne.com

Instagram: @lindzeanne

‘The machismo and violence were so overt, and over the top, that they begged to be rearranged and recontextualised.’

The medium is the message

The series was stitched in 2008, at the end of the Bush Administration, a time when Lisa hoped the cowboy mentality would soon ‘be left in the dust’. ‘How wrong I was! I continued to use the cowboy novels to comment on guns and the violence that is prevalent in our culture, and I make them now as commissions when asked.’

Trees and the natural environment were another influence since Lisa’s move to her current base in El Sobrante, a semi-rural area in California.

‘It adds a layer of richness because of the fragments of imagery and text, and also the unexpectedness of book parts being stitched into horticultural forms. I also like the symmetrical, conceptual element of tree to paper to book, and back to the image of tree and leaves.’

‘I love the fragments of imagery that occur, the inadvertent compositions that result from randomly cutting out the leaf shapes from the book covers. I make dozens of leaves and then start to arrange them by colour and shape until I have an arrangement that works. If I have to make more I do, until I’ve made enough to create a composition that works colour- and form-wise.

For Lisa, it’s an exciting approach that can bring huge rewards for anyone working with textiles creatively. ‘I would suggest that you regard materials that you encounter in everyday life as potential art supplies, not limiting yourself to what can traditionally be found in stores or online.’

Lisa Kokin’s work is in numerous public and private collections, including the Boise Art Museum, the Buchenwald Memorial, the di Rosa Preserve, Mills College, Kaiser Permanente San Francisco, Yale University Art Museum, and Tiffany & Co. She has received multiple awards and commissions in her four-decade long career. Lisa currently maintains a thriving teaching and mentoring practice.

Website: www.lisakokin.com

Instagram: @lisakokin

Inge Jacobsen

Centuries ago, the value of embroidery and lace lay not only in the time consuming and skilled nature of their production but in their exclusivity and signalling of status, as any portrait of Elizabeth I or Henry VIII reveals.

Today, mass-produced images infiltrate our every waking moment. They’re available for instant consumption, to be scrolled and liked, shared or forgotten, each quickly replaced by another in an instant.

So when Inge Jacobsen chooses to spend hours embroidering a magazine cover, an obsession that results in works such as Beyoncé – Dazed & Confused – Hijacked, the result is something of a conundrum.

Obscuring the cover star’s carefully selected outfit, her perfectly styled hair and make-up are thousands of meticulously hand embroidered cross-stitches, forming a pixelated yet recognisable facsimile of the singer.

And in a further twist, the cover is stitched from the back: ‘It was such a good image and outfit, I didn’t think embroidery would improve it, so I decided to disrupt it by inverting it,’ says Inge.

Beyond the surface

While the overall image is retained it is simplified. The embroidery is still an embellishment of sorts, yet it’s a playful subversion around the conventions of worth assigned to labour and materials.

‘Why would anyone in their right mind spend hours and hours carefully embroidering something that could melt if it gets wet or tear if you pull the thread too hard, right?’ It’s a question that Inge loves to consider.

‘I love working on magazines because for most people, once they’re read or looked at a few times they become disposable – more mass-produced artwork for the trash heap, so adding time consuming embroidery adds a certain uniqueness that’s lost in the mass-production process.’

‘It goes back to the idea of making something mass-produced unique, beautiful, delicate and special. I could embroider the same cover 50 times and each one would be unique.’

For Inge, the aim is to push beyond what’s expected. ‘You can do a lot with a needle and thread – physically and conceptually. I love appropriating images versus creating an image from scratch. There is nothing wrong with a bit of creative collaboration.’

Inge Jacobsen was born in Galway, Ireland where she currently resides. She attended Kingston University, London, graduating in 2011 with a BA in Fine Art Photography and has worked as a professional artist with brands such as Apple TV and WIRED magazine UK.

Website: www.ingejacobsen.com

Facebook: www.facebook.com/IngeJacobsenArtist

Instagram: @ingejacobsen

Rosie James

‘I love seeing how the stitched version of a photo will turn out,’ says Rosie James. ‘I think that the sewing machine has some say on what comes out the other end; you never quite know… But mostly I think I love the possibilities: there are so many different ways of working in this way and so many ideas to explore.’

Rosie James likes to use her sewing machine as a drawing tool, and photography as her inspiration. Her machine-stitched works are usually figurative, and composition is always a key element, something she’s intuitively drawn to.

Take Rosie’s artwork Copenhagen Streetlife, a textile hanging based on a photograph snapped in Copenhagen. Three cyclists pedal away from us, while a man strolls towards us – both elements are balanced on a long diagonal axis – a road that sweeps from the foreground into the distance.

Composed of two fabric layers, contrasting coloured stitched lines differentiate between the architecture (stitched in black on the base layer) and the figures (in orange on the top sheer layer). The ‘road’, made from blue shirting fabric is sandwiched between the layers, which are stitched together in green running stitch.

But there’s something else. The original photograph pictured the scene after a recent downpour; Rosie has used loose dangling threads to give the surface ‘a rainy feel’, as if the coloured threads are actually dripping from the surface.

It’s raining thread

‘I started out by having a go at free machine embroidery and realised the possibilities immediately as a form of drawing,’ says Rosie. ‘I think it achieves a different kind of line. It’s reliant on the machine, which creates a continual line. It’s a more flowing line and lends itself to the way I like to draw, which is a kind of contour drawing.’

Even though Rosie primarily works with two materials – thread and cloth – she’s adamant that the possibilities are endless.

‘Within those two things there are so many varieties… Thread can be anything from thick cord to very fine hair, it doesn’t have to be thread as such. What else could it be?’

And she regards her materials with the same curiosity. Any surface – ‘paper, card, plastic, whatever you have lying around’ is ripe for experimentation on her sewing machine. ‘Experiment,’ she says. ‘Also consider the loose threads: change the length, the colour of them, where they go, attach them, pull them straight. Consider all the possibilities.’

Rosie James is based near Rochester in Kent in the UK. She is the author of Stitch Draw: Design and technique for figurative stitching, and a member of Art Textiles: Made in Britain.

Website: www.rosiejames.com

Instagram: @rosiejamestextileartist

Lindzeanne

Eddies of white stitches swell into circular whirlpools, nudging up against thick, broad brushstrokes of thread and thousands of tiny stabs of cotton. Lindsey Gradolph’s stitch palette may be an economical mix of back, seed and blanket stitches, but she lets them meander over the entire surface of her cloth.

A kind of pattern emerges but it’s hard to pin down. There are hints of sashiko in the work, yet there’s none of the orderliness of the technique’s uniform lines of running stitch.

Lindsey (who goes by the online name Lindzeanne) lives and works in Japan. That’s where she developed her method of expressive hand stitching, which was actually born out of creative frustration.

‘I really was just desperate for an avenue to express myself… I’m always trying to create a visual landscape and record of my inner thoughts and ideas. I have never been adept at expressing myself with language. Abstract imagery combined with the thoughtful slowness of embroidery has been a lucky discovery for me.’

The idea of freely stitching in this way helped Lindsey to develop her own personal form of expressive, stitch vocabulary.

‘I’m an excellent over-thinker in all areas of my life, but my embroidery is the one place where I don’t feel compelled to do so. Whatever comes out, comes out. Sometimes it’s good, sometimes it’s only ok, and sometimes it’s pretty ugly. I just keep going.’

Choosing to work with discarded or unused and unloved textiles was also a positive choice for Lindsey, as is embroidering with fine, machine weight or button thread, handy for creating detailed repetitive patterns. For this artist, it’s the perfect combination of her aesthetic tastes and personal values.

But what most excites her is that this way of working always results in the unexpected. She never draws or makes a plan before starting a piece, and never unpicks her work.

The goal is to try to capture a feeling or an idea through her freestyle stitching.

Up close and personal

‘Basically, my work has been just an exercise in throwing my hands up, thinking to myself “whaddya gonna do?”, and then just keeping going.’

And her advice to others is similarly succinct. ‘Don’t worry so much. Just show up, get started. Make what you want to see more of in the world.’

Lindsey Gradolph (Lindzeanne) is a self-taught embroidery artist and English teacher based in Tokyo, Japan. Her work is inspired by traditional Japanese textile traditions such as Sashiko and Indigo dying, and also the concept of Mottainai or ‘waste nothing’.

Website: lindzeanne.com

Instagram: @lindzeanne

Line of enquiry

In this expressive series of thread portraits of local people, each character represents a personal impression of Taipei City developed from sketches and photographs. These were then scaled up and the all-absorbing ‘meditative’ process of plotting each image began, along with the winding and knotting of countless lines of thread.

‘I like the idea of using the most familiar textile materials (pins and thread) in an unorthodox way. Having worked with thread for some time now, I tend to see it as an alternate drawing medium. The process is very material-led; how the thread falls or knots often dictates my next step.’

Singled out, these materials appear flimsy and delicate, however when built, layer upon layer at a monumental scale, they become a robust tapestry-like architectural surface pattern: a quality that’s difficult to achieve through stitch alone.

Debbie discovered her technique while in her final year at university, intrigued by the idea of finding a way to lift the drawn line off the page. She says it’s important to experiment.

‘Get hands-on with materials and allow yourself to be material-led. It’s very easy to follow instructions with textile techniques, as it’s seen as a craft, but try not to. Deviate and see where you end up. Enjoy the process.’

UK artist Debbie Smyth established her studio practice in 2009 in Stroud, Gloucestershire. Her family-based design studio collaborates regularly with interior designers and architects, and counts companies such as Disney, Marvel, Ellesse, Adidas, BA, BBC, Mercedes Benz, The New York Times, and Sony among its clients. The three works from the FOLIO X FUBON series are permanently installed at Folio Da’an Hotel, Taipei.

Website: www.debbie-smyth.com
Instagram: @Debbiesmyth
Facebook: www.facebook.com/debbiesmythX/

Lisa Kokin

Materials can often act as a catalyst for new ideas, and Lisa Kokin’s practice thrives on this idea of chance and spontaneity.

Lisa is no stranger to the potential of found, often random, materials – from textiles, paper, books and metal to shredded money. She brings a textile sensibility to working with them within a conceptual framework. ‘My work is often a commentary on the world around me, incorporating the age-old Jewish response to adversity – humour,’ she says.

In Shooter, part of her ‘How the West Was Sewn’ series, Lisa reimagined the natural form of a branch, inspired by a set of discarded paperback books, which she rescued from her local recycling centre.

The techniques are straightforward – she machine stitched the outline of leaf veins directly onto the paperback covers, after backing them with bookbinding material and incorporating wire for rigidity. But she used the books’ ‘campy’ imagery to tell another story.

‘The machismo and violence were so overt, and over the top, that they begged to be rearranged and recontextualised.’

The medium is the message

The series was stitched in 2008, at the end of the Bush Administration, a time when Lisa hoped the cowboy mentality would soon ‘be left in the dust’. ‘How wrong I was! I continued to use the cowboy novels to comment on guns and the violence that is prevalent in our culture, and I make them now as commissions when asked.’

Trees and the natural environment were another influence since Lisa’s move to her current base in El Sobrante, a semi-rural area in California.

‘It adds a layer of richness because of the fragments of imagery and text, and also the unexpectedness of book parts being stitched into horticultural forms. I also like the symmetrical, conceptual element of tree to paper to book, and back to the image of tree and leaves.’

‘I love the fragments of imagery that occur, the inadvertent compositions that result from randomly cutting out the leaf shapes from the book covers. I make dozens of leaves and then start to arrange them by colour and shape until I have an arrangement that works. If I have to make more I do, until I’ve made enough to create a composition that works colour- and form-wise.

For Lisa, it’s an exciting approach that can bring huge rewards for anyone working with textiles creatively. ‘I would suggest that you regard materials that you encounter in everyday life as potential art supplies, not limiting yourself to what can traditionally be found in stores or online.’

Lisa Kokin’s work is in numerous public and private collections, including the Boise Art Museum, the Buchenwald Memorial, the di Rosa Preserve, Mills College, Kaiser Permanente San Francisco, Yale University Art Museum, and Tiffany & Co. She has received multiple awards and commissions in her four-decade long career. Lisa currently maintains a thriving teaching and mentoring practice.

Website: www.lisakokin.com

Instagram: @lisakokin

Inge Jacobsen

Centuries ago, the value of embroidery and lace lay not only in the time consuming and skilled nature of their production but in their exclusivity and signalling of status, as any portrait of Elizabeth I or Henry VIII reveals.

Today, mass-produced images infiltrate our every waking moment. They’re available for instant consumption, to be scrolled and liked, shared or forgotten, each quickly replaced by another in an instant.

So when Inge Jacobsen chooses to spend hours embroidering a magazine cover, an obsession that results in works such as Beyoncé – Dazed & Confused – Hijacked, the result is something of a conundrum.

Obscuring the cover star’s carefully selected outfit, her perfectly styled hair and make-up are thousands of meticulously hand embroidered cross-stitches, forming a pixelated yet recognisable facsimile of the singer.

And in a further twist, the cover is stitched from the back: ‘It was such a good image and outfit, I didn’t think embroidery would improve it, so I decided to disrupt it by inverting it,’ says Inge.

Beyond the surface

While the overall image is retained it is simplified. The embroidery is still an embellishment of sorts, yet it’s a playful subversion around the conventions of worth assigned to labour and materials.

‘Why would anyone in their right mind spend hours and hours carefully embroidering something that could melt if it gets wet or tear if you pull the thread too hard, right?’ It’s a question that Inge loves to consider.

‘I love working on magazines because for most people, once they’re read or looked at a few times they become disposable – more mass-produced artwork for the trash heap, so adding time consuming embroidery adds a certain uniqueness that’s lost in the mass-production process.’

‘It goes back to the idea of making something mass-produced unique, beautiful, delicate and special. I could embroider the same cover 50 times and each one would be unique.’

For Inge, the aim is to push beyond what’s expected. ‘You can do a lot with a needle and thread – physically and conceptually. I love appropriating images versus creating an image from scratch. There is nothing wrong with a bit of creative collaboration.’

Inge Jacobsen was born in Galway, Ireland where she currently resides. She attended Kingston University, London, graduating in 2011 with a BA in Fine Art Photography and has worked as a professional artist with brands such as Apple TV and WIRED magazine UK.

Website: www.ingejacobsen.com

Facebook: www.facebook.com/IngeJacobsenArtist

Instagram: @ingejacobsen

Rosie James

‘I love seeing how the stitched version of a photo will turn out,’ says Rosie James. ‘I think that the sewing machine has some say on what comes out the other end; you never quite know… But mostly I think I love the possibilities: there are so many different ways of working in this way and so many ideas to explore.’

Rosie James likes to use her sewing machine as a drawing tool, and photography as her inspiration. Her machine-stitched works are usually figurative, and composition is always a key element, something she’s intuitively drawn to.

Take Rosie’s artwork Copenhagen Streetlife, a textile hanging based on a photograph snapped in Copenhagen. Three cyclists pedal away from us, while a man strolls towards us – both elements are balanced on a long diagonal axis – a road that sweeps from the foreground into the distance.

Composed of two fabric layers, contrasting coloured stitched lines differentiate between the architecture (stitched in black on the base layer) and the figures (in orange on the top sheer layer). The ‘road’, made from blue shirting fabric is sandwiched between the layers, which are stitched together in green running stitch.

But there’s something else. The original photograph pictured the scene after a recent downpour; Rosie has used loose dangling threads to give the surface ‘a rainy feel’, as if the coloured threads are actually dripping from the surface.

It’s raining thread

‘I started out by having a go at free machine embroidery and realised the possibilities immediately as a form of drawing,’ says Rosie. ‘I think it achieves a different kind of line. It’s reliant on the machine, which creates a continual line. It’s a more flowing line and lends itself to the way I like to draw, which is a kind of contour drawing.’

Even though Rosie primarily works with two materials – thread and cloth – she’s adamant that the possibilities are endless.

‘Within those two things there are so many varieties… Thread can be anything from thick cord to very fine hair, it doesn’t have to be thread as such. What else could it be?’

And she regards her materials with the same curiosity. Any surface – ‘paper, card, plastic, whatever you have lying around’ is ripe for experimentation on her sewing machine. ‘Experiment,’ she says. ‘Also consider the loose threads: change the length, the colour of them, where they go, attach them, pull them straight. Consider all the possibilities.’

Rosie James is based near Rochester in Kent in the UK. She is the author of Stitch Draw: Design and technique for figurative stitching, and a member of Art Textiles: Made in Britain.

Website: www.rosiejames.com

Instagram: @rosiejamestextileartist

Lindzeanne

Eddies of white stitches swell into circular whirlpools, nudging up against thick, broad brushstrokes of thread and thousands of tiny stabs of cotton. Lindsey Gradolph’s stitch palette may be an economical mix of back, seed and blanket stitches, but she lets them meander over the entire surface of her cloth.

A kind of pattern emerges but it’s hard to pin down. There are hints of sashiko in the work, yet there’s none of the orderliness of the technique’s uniform lines of running stitch.

Lindsey (who goes by the online name Lindzeanne) lives and works in Japan. That’s where she developed her method of expressive hand stitching, which was actually born out of creative frustration.

‘I really was just desperate for an avenue to express myself… I’m always trying to create a visual landscape and record of my inner thoughts and ideas. I have never been adept at expressing myself with language. Abstract imagery combined with the thoughtful slowness of embroidery has been a lucky discovery for me.’

The idea of freely stitching in this way helped Lindsey to develop her own personal form of expressive, stitch vocabulary.

‘I’m an excellent over-thinker in all areas of my life, but my embroidery is the one place where I don’t feel compelled to do so. Whatever comes out, comes out. Sometimes it’s good, sometimes it’s only ok, and sometimes it’s pretty ugly. I just keep going.’

Choosing to work with discarded or unused and unloved textiles was also a positive choice for Lindsey, as is embroidering with fine, machine weight or button thread, handy for creating detailed repetitive patterns. For this artist, it’s the perfect combination of her aesthetic tastes and personal values.

But what most excites her is that this way of working always results in the unexpected. She never draws or makes a plan before starting a piece, and never unpicks her work.

The goal is to try to capture a feeling or an idea through her freestyle stitching.

Up close and personal

‘Basically, my work has been just an exercise in throwing my hands up, thinking to myself “whaddya gonna do?”, and then just keeping going.’

And her advice to others is similarly succinct. ‘Don’t worry so much. Just show up, get started. Make what you want to see more of in the world.’

Lindsey Gradolph (Lindzeanne) is a self-taught embroidery artist and English teacher based in Tokyo, Japan. Her work is inspired by traditional Japanese textile traditions such as Sashiko and Indigo dying, and also the concept of Mottainai or ‘waste nothing’.

Website: lindzeanne.com

Instagram: @lindzeanne

Limitless. That’s how so many artists describe the creative medium of textiles. Time and time again they explain that the possibilities are never-ending, and so very exciting.

Take Debbie Smyth, Lisa Kokin, Rosie James, Inge Jacobsen and Lindsey Gradolph, who have all found unique and personal ways to express their ideas.

These makers are constantly experimenting and advancing their craft. Some are well versed in traditional techniques and materials, others are new to textiles.

But what they all have in common is a curiosity to look beyond what’s expected. Each plays with the medium in order to tell a personal story, create a striking image, interpret feelings or to comment on the world around them.

We asked each of these contemporary textile artists about one of their artworks and to reveal the ideas that shaped it.

Debbie Smyth

‘Drawing is the foundation of what I do and you can draw with any materials.’ It’s a bold statement but one Debbie Smyth, who’s known for her statement thread drawings is definitely qualified to make.

Tensioned threads are stretched between precisely plotted points. Up close, you find your vision overwhelmed by a cluster of colliding, hanging threads strung amid a constellation of dressmaker’s pins, each hammered directly into the wall. Step back and suddenly the entire canvas comes into focus.

The result is a powerful, dynamic image that’s full of movement. Yet there’s not a stitch in sight.

Debbie, who’s known for her monumental, statement thread drawings, likes to blur the boundaries between the disciplines of drawing and textiles.

Using thread allows Debbie to ‘draw in space’, transforming 2D lines and planes into 3D shapes and spaces. It’s a process that results in floating, linear thread structures.

Her practice is about pushing the limits of her materials and making the ordinary, extraordinary. Take her FOLIO X FUBON series, made during a three-month residency in Taiwan.

Line of enquiry

In this expressive series of thread portraits of local people, each character represents a personal impression of Taipei City developed from sketches and photographs. These were then scaled up and the all-absorbing ‘meditative’ process of plotting each image began, along with the winding and knotting of countless lines of thread.

‘I like the idea of using the most familiar textile materials (pins and thread) in an unorthodox way. Having worked with thread for some time now, I tend to see it as an alternate drawing medium. The process is very material-led; how the thread falls or knots often dictates my next step.’

Singled out, these materials appear flimsy and delicate, however when built, layer upon layer at a monumental scale, they become a robust tapestry-like architectural surface pattern: a quality that’s difficult to achieve through stitch alone.

Debbie discovered her technique while in her final year at university, intrigued by the idea of finding a way to lift the drawn line off the page. She says it’s important to experiment.

‘Get hands-on with materials and allow yourself to be material-led. It’s very easy to follow instructions with textile techniques, as it’s seen as a craft, but try not to. Deviate and see where you end up. Enjoy the process.’

UK artist Debbie Smyth established her studio practice in 2009 in Stroud, Gloucestershire. Her family-based design studio collaborates regularly with interior designers and architects, and counts companies such as Disney, Marvel, Ellesse, Adidas, BA, BBC, Mercedes Benz, The New York Times, and Sony among its clients. The three works from the FOLIO X FUBON series are permanently installed at Folio Da’an Hotel, Taipei.

Website: www.debbie-smyth.com
Instagram: @Debbiesmyth
Facebook: www.facebook.com/debbiesmythX/

Lisa Kokin

Materials can often act as a catalyst for new ideas, and Lisa Kokin’s practice thrives on this idea of chance and spontaneity.

Lisa is no stranger to the potential of found, often random, materials – from textiles, paper, books and metal to shredded money. She brings a textile sensibility to working with them within a conceptual framework. ‘My work is often a commentary on the world around me, incorporating the age-old Jewish response to adversity – humour,’ she says.

In Shooter, part of her ‘How the West Was Sewn’ series, Lisa reimagined the natural form of a branch, inspired by a set of discarded paperback books, which she rescued from her local recycling centre.

The techniques are straightforward – she machine stitched the outline of leaf veins directly onto the paperback covers, after backing them with bookbinding material and incorporating wire for rigidity. But she used the books’ ‘campy’ imagery to tell another story.

‘The machismo and violence were so overt, and over the top, that they begged to be rearranged and recontextualised.’

The medium is the message

The series was stitched in 2008, at the end of the Bush Administration, a time when Lisa hoped the cowboy mentality would soon ‘be left in the dust’. ‘How wrong I was! I continued to use the cowboy novels to comment on guns and the violence that is prevalent in our culture, and I make them now as commissions when asked.’

Trees and the natural environment were another influence since Lisa’s move to her current base in El Sobrante, a semi-rural area in California.

‘It adds a layer of richness because of the fragments of imagery and text, and also the unexpectedness of book parts being stitched into horticultural forms. I also like the symmetrical, conceptual element of tree to paper to book, and back to the image of tree and leaves.’

‘I love the fragments of imagery that occur, the inadvertent compositions that result from randomly cutting out the leaf shapes from the book covers. I make dozens of leaves and then start to arrange them by colour and shape until I have an arrangement that works. If I have to make more I do, until I’ve made enough to create a composition that works colour- and form-wise.

For Lisa, it’s an exciting approach that can bring huge rewards for anyone working with textiles creatively. ‘I would suggest that you regard materials that you encounter in everyday life as potential art supplies, not limiting yourself to what can traditionally be found in stores or online.’

Lisa Kokin’s work is in numerous public and private collections, including the Boise Art Museum, the Buchenwald Memorial, the di Rosa Preserve, Mills College, Kaiser Permanente San Francisco, Yale University Art Museum, and Tiffany & Co. She has received multiple awards and commissions in her four-decade long career. Lisa currently maintains a thriving teaching and mentoring practice.

Website: www.lisakokin.com

Instagram: @lisakokin

Inge Jacobsen

Centuries ago, the value of embroidery and lace lay not only in the time consuming and skilled nature of their production but in their exclusivity and signalling of status, as any portrait of Elizabeth I or Henry VIII reveals.

Today, mass-produced images infiltrate our every waking moment. They’re available for instant consumption, to be scrolled and liked, shared or forgotten, each quickly replaced by another in an instant.

So when Inge Jacobsen chooses to spend hours embroidering a magazine cover, an obsession that results in works such as Beyoncé – Dazed & Confused – Hijacked, the result is something of a conundrum.

Obscuring the cover star’s carefully selected outfit, her perfectly styled hair and make-up are thousands of meticulously hand embroidered cross-stitches, forming a pixelated yet recognisable facsimile of the singer.

And in a further twist, the cover is stitched from the back: ‘It was such a good image and outfit, I didn’t think embroidery would improve it, so I decided to disrupt it by inverting it,’ says Inge.

Beyond the surface

While the overall image is retained it is simplified. The embroidery is still an embellishment of sorts, yet it’s a playful subversion around the conventions of worth assigned to labour and materials.

‘Why would anyone in their right mind spend hours and hours carefully embroidering something that could melt if it gets wet or tear if you pull the thread too hard, right?’ It’s a question that Inge loves to consider.

‘I love working on magazines because for most people, once they’re read or looked at a few times they become disposable – more mass-produced artwork for the trash heap, so adding time consuming embroidery adds a certain uniqueness that’s lost in the mass-production process.’

‘It goes back to the idea of making something mass-produced unique, beautiful, delicate and special. I could embroider the same cover 50 times and each one would be unique.’

For Inge, the aim is to push beyond what’s expected. ‘You can do a lot with a needle and thread – physically and conceptually. I love appropriating images versus creating an image from scratch. There is nothing wrong with a bit of creative collaboration.’

Inge Jacobsen was born in Galway, Ireland where she currently resides. She attended Kingston University, London, graduating in 2011 with a BA in Fine Art Photography and has worked as a professional artist with brands such as Apple TV and WIRED magazine UK.

Website: www.ingejacobsen.com

Facebook: www.facebook.com/IngeJacobsenArtist

Instagram: @ingejacobsen

Rosie James

‘I love seeing how the stitched version of a photo will turn out,’ says Rosie James. ‘I think that the sewing machine has some say on what comes out the other end; you never quite know… But mostly I think I love the possibilities: there are so many different ways of working in this way and so many ideas to explore.’

Rosie James likes to use her sewing machine as a drawing tool, and photography as her inspiration. Her machine-stitched works are usually figurative, and composition is always a key element, something she’s intuitively drawn to.

Take Rosie’s artwork Copenhagen Streetlife, a textile hanging based on a photograph snapped in Copenhagen. Three cyclists pedal away from us, while a man strolls towards us – both elements are balanced on a long diagonal axis – a road that sweeps from the foreground into the distance.

Composed of two fabric layers, contrasting coloured stitched lines differentiate between the architecture (stitched in black on the base layer) and the figures (in orange on the top sheer layer). The ‘road’, made from blue shirting fabric is sandwiched between the layers, which are stitched together in green running stitch.

But there’s something else. The original photograph pictured the scene after a recent downpour; Rosie has used loose dangling threads to give the surface ‘a rainy feel’, as if the coloured threads are actually dripping from the surface.

It’s raining thread

‘I started out by having a go at free machine embroidery and realised the possibilities immediately as a form of drawing,’ says Rosie. ‘I think it achieves a different kind of line. It’s reliant on the machine, which creates a continual line. It’s a more flowing line and lends itself to the way I like to draw, which is a kind of contour drawing.’

Even though Rosie primarily works with two materials – thread and cloth – she’s adamant that the possibilities are endless.

‘Within those two things there are so many varieties… Thread can be anything from thick cord to very fine hair, it doesn’t have to be thread as such. What else could it be?’

And she regards her materials with the same curiosity. Any surface – ‘paper, card, plastic, whatever you have lying around’ is ripe for experimentation on her sewing machine. ‘Experiment,’ she says. ‘Also consider the loose threads: change the length, the colour of them, where they go, attach them, pull them straight. Consider all the possibilities.’

Rosie James is based near Rochester in Kent in the UK. She is the author of Stitch Draw: Design and technique for figurative stitching, and a member of Art Textiles: Made in Britain.

Website: www.rosiejames.com

Instagram: @rosiejamestextileartist

Lindzeanne

Eddies of white stitches swell into circular whirlpools, nudging up against thick, broad brushstrokes of thread and thousands of tiny stabs of cotton. Lindsey Gradolph’s stitch palette may be an economical mix of back, seed and blanket stitches, but she lets them meander over the entire surface of her cloth.

A kind of pattern emerges but it’s hard to pin down. There are hints of sashiko in the work, yet there’s none of the orderliness of the technique’s uniform lines of running stitch.

Lindsey (who goes by the online name Lindzeanne) lives and works in Japan. That’s where she developed her method of expressive hand stitching, which was actually born out of creative frustration.

‘I really was just desperate for an avenue to express myself… I’m always trying to create a visual landscape and record of my inner thoughts and ideas. I have never been adept at expressing myself with language. Abstract imagery combined with the thoughtful slowness of embroidery has been a lucky discovery for me.’

The idea of freely stitching in this way helped Lindsey to develop her own personal form of expressive, stitch vocabulary.

‘I’m an excellent over-thinker in all areas of my life, but my embroidery is the one place where I don’t feel compelled to do so. Whatever comes out, comes out. Sometimes it’s good, sometimes it’s only ok, and sometimes it’s pretty ugly. I just keep going.’

Choosing to work with discarded or unused and unloved textiles was also a positive choice for Lindsey, as is embroidering with fine, machine weight or button thread, handy for creating detailed repetitive patterns. For this artist, it’s the perfect combination of her aesthetic tastes and personal values.

But what most excites her is that this way of working always results in the unexpected. She never draws or makes a plan before starting a piece, and never unpicks her work.

The goal is to try to capture a feeling or an idea through her freestyle stitching.

Up close and personal

‘Basically, my work has been just an exercise in throwing my hands up, thinking to myself “whaddya gonna do?”, and then just keeping going.’

And her advice to others is similarly succinct. ‘Don’t worry so much. Just show up, get started. Make what you want to see more of in the world.’

Lindsey Gradolph (Lindzeanne) is a self-taught embroidery artist and English teacher based in Tokyo, Japan. Her work is inspired by traditional Japanese textile traditions such as Sashiko and Indigo dying, and also the concept of Mottainai or ‘waste nothing’.

Website: lindzeanne.com

Instagram: @lindzeanne

Encouraged to embroider and be creative as a child, Julie was inspired to take a degree in Studio Art and used her print, stitch and beading skills to develop a small embroidery business. She worked as a graphic designer for 20 years, but her first love was always stitch. After gaining fresh inspiration from Julia Cameron’s book The Artist’s Way, Julie established her own business, Thread Born Dolls, specialising in one-of-a-kind soft sculptured figures and doll patterns.

Today, Julie teaches classes in surface design, doll making and embellishment, and makes fabric collages – still ‘with a purpose’. She also makes printed, painted and resisted fabrics and her book Fabric Printing at Home shares her tried and tested techniques.

A quest for experimentation and new discoveries drives Julie onward, and her surface design is abundant, varied and full of mixed media fun.

Embroidery beginnings

Julie B. Booth: It all started with a crewel embroidery kit. I can remember it so clearly… two owls sitting on a branch. My mom gave it to me as a form of distraction while recovering from walking pneumonia. At age 11, I thought it was pure magic! All the different colours of crewel wool, the stitch diagrams that I could work out. I was excited to get started… to make those buttonhole ring owl eyes!

It prompted me to begin stitching my own designs of cartoon animals. I still have an embroidery of a toad sleeping next to a toadstool from that time.

I really was pretty much self-taught when it came to stitching. My mom and her friends encouraged me and gave me books on the topic. I still own the two books that inspired and influenced me the most: Erica Wilson’s Embroidery Book (an orange tome of discovery!) and Adventures in Stitches by Mariska Karasz. Wilson’s book was my go-to stitch encyclopedia but Karasz’s book was my main inspiration. She has pages of playful approaches to stitches along with her delightful illustrations and black and white photos of her rich texturally stitched works. When I think about it, the seed of my approach to teaching stitching can be found in the pages of that book.

I’d enjoyed drawing and crafts from a young age and was encouraged by my parents who even arranged for art lessons outside school. Printing and stitching became my two favourite art activities and I used to carve linoleum blocks on Friday evenings as a teenager.

I got my BA in Studio Art with a specialism in printmaking from Wesleyan University, Connecticut and a certificate degree in scientific illustration from Rhode Island School of Design. My stitching became a small business for a while when I started embroidering the brims of tennis hats with flowers and cartoon animals playing tennis. I also took on bigger stitching projects for my family, including a family portrait and embroidered work shirts for my brothers. But after college my main employment was as a graphic designer and I did that for 20 years.

The return to stitch

I decided to head back to stitching more seriously and so I took a correspondence course in Surface Stitchery from the National Standards Council of American Embroiderers. This really opened my eyes to the potential of using stitch in a more artistic and painterly way.

When, in the mid 1990s, I caught the cloth doll bug, I started my business Thread Born Dolls. Beginning with more traditional (though original) doll designs, my style took a big turn after a class with cloth doll and surface design artist, Arlinka Blair. She showed me how I could bring together my love of print, stitch and beading to create cloth figures for the wall. Not long after that, I started teaching classes in surface design and doll making.

As interest in my printed fabric designs grew, I was asked to design a line of hand printed fabrics for a gallery. One of the owners had attended the opening of an exhibit of work by my group Fiber in Nearly Everything. He was attracted by the hand printed fabrics I’d created for my doll figures.

I also became interested in learning more about fabric resists and won a grant from my fibre guild to explore using common household materials as part of the process. I continued to explore using them to create print blocks, stencils and resists, publishing an online newsletter and blog that eventually led to the publication of my book, Fabric Printing at Home, in 2014.

The healing power of stitch

Stitching was never far from my heart and, around the same time, I started teaching a series of classes that explored hand stitching as an expressive and healing art medium.

Though I’m not a trained art therapist, students in my classes, such as Healing Cloths, often find honouring memories through journaling and creating a stitched piece quite cathartic. Though many of the pieces are about healing, students have a choice to create other types of cloths… meditative, transitional, celebratory, aspirational.

The journaling sets the stage for the rest of the two-day workshop. I spend time privately talking with each student. Some of their stories are painful and I try to get the students to think about how some of their emotions could be represented visually and (or) symbolically.

I also encourage them to include symbolism that might get them through the difficult time – to the light on the other side. Students can bring in their own fabrics with personal meaning: linens, hankies or pieces of clothing that can be used in a symbolic way. I also bring in fabrics and scraps that often spark their ideas.

Many of the stitches covered during the class are those used to mend cloth, but I also include some dimensional stitches to attach meaningful objects, as well as bead embroidery techniques. Most of the cloths created focus on transitions or relationships, sometimes with family members who are no longer living.

For instance, one student wanted to focus on her deceased mother with whom she’d had a difficult relationship. The cloth she created included appliqués from her mother’s hankies and a teeter-totter image with buttons representing the relationship. It continued to develop after the workshop and the student said she not only felt a reconciliation with her mother, but that her mother was helping guide her through the process of creating the cloth.

Walking through the process

Usually when working out an idea, I will spend some time journaling and go out walking. I’ll come back and make more thumbnails.

I work from my studio on the lower level of my home in Vienna, Virginia, USA. I have a large work table (actually made up of four smaller tables with a large piece of plywood and padding) where I can work on both stitching and fabric printing and painting projects. I also have lots of shelving for materials and an adjoining room with additional fabric storage. I like to have some of my favourite threads handy in baskets and some organised in small boxes. Being able to see the thread colours on my table gets me excited to start stitching with them!

I find walking is a great opportunity to work through creative ideas. When they’ve come through, I pull out materials, fabrics first (often scraps) but depending on the project also sari ribbons, yarns, cheesecloth, tulle and threads. I’ll begin moving everything around on a backing fabric or stabiliser, usually felt or wool. When I’m happy with a layout, I’ll pin everything in place.

I don’t completely plan the stitching ahead. I may decide where I might like certain colours to appear but usually the stitching is the part that happens in the moment.

I make decisions as I go, trying to stay aware of colour values and the different textures and designs. After all the stitching is complete, I will stitch it into the final form, whether that’s a book or pouch etc.

I mostly work with fabric collage.

I layer fabrics on a stabilising fabric, usually felt, wool fabric or flannel. I don’t like to use a hoop because I find it cumbersome. There’s more freedom moving around a piece without one. Also, since I often make stitched objects, I cut the stabiliser to the size and shape of what I’m creating.

Recently, I have two stitching approaches.

One is freeform and organic. I lay out scraps, sari silk ribbon, yarns in loops and curves and see if they start to resemble something. I add hand-painted cheesecloth and often tulle for layers of texture. I couch the yarns down and also use running stitch for the wider silk ribbon. Next, I start to fill in some of the shapes formed by the yarn and silk ribbon. This is where I add even more texture with ruching, couching or French knots until I’m happy with the result.

The other method, in my boro-style pieces, is more structured. I cut out fabric scraps and sari silk ribbon and fit them together in a raw-edge patchwork that I cover with at least one layer of tulle to stabilise everything. Then I stitch running stitch patterns over the patches.

In addition to stitching, I enjoy designing my own painted, printed and resisted fabrics.

Bits and pieces of these often end up in my stitched work as backgrounds or focal fabrics (as in Inside Nanny’s Sewing Basket: Three Pairs, One Ornate).

My favourite kitchen fabric resists include liquid soap, microwaved confectioners’ sugar syrup and uncooked wheat flour paste, but I’ve experimented with resists as diverse as gelatin and baking powder. I’ve even tried toothpaste (and it worked!).

Each resist has its own characteristics: confectioners’ sugar creates velvety marks and wheat flour paste can mimic the crackling lines found in traditional batik.

My very favourite, though, is liquid soap, for its ease of preparation (none) and removal, and the diverse ways it can be applied to fabric. Most resists need to dry before applying fabric paint, but not liquid soap. It sinks into the fabric and is viscous enough to repel the paint. I can easily create multi-layered colour fabrics with resisted details using this common household product.

I am always inspired by natural forms. I love beach walks and I also have a special place in my heart for the quirky shapes of fungi.

I get excited when I see beautiful textiles, and ancient textiles make my heart skip a beat. I’ve been lucky to have the opportunity through the Textile Museum to get to see and study many ancient textiles up close. Much love and skill has gone into the making of these anonymous pieces.

I’m particularly fond of my work Inside Nanny’s Sewing Basket: Three Pairs, One Ornate. I stitched this in memory of my maternal grandmother. I had a deep connection with my nanny. She was also someone who enjoyed making things with her hands, had a beautifully arranged home and was proud of her flower garden. She’s been an on-and-off inspiration ever since I inherited her sewing basket 20 years ago. I discovered three pairs of scissors inside and one in particular was so beautiful – sterling silver with ornate designs.

For this work, I carved print blocks of the three scissors and printed them on one of my resisted fabrics. I added some of my hand-painted cheesecloth and couched it all into place. The scissors are all satin stitched.

More recently, I’ve continued to write articles on hand stitching and surface design for Quilting Arts magazine and have appeared in several segments for three of their television series. I continue to teach and have enjoyed putting together classes and retreats including the Textile Museum Muse Project, where I provide opportunities for students to view selections of ancient textiles and objects from the Textile Museum, Washington DC collections, using them as inspiration for new textile artworks.

My work seems to keep shifting back and forth from 2D to 3D. My stitching focus is now on smaller, intensely stitched works including cloth books, talisman pouches and Boro-style bags. I’m inspired to make objects of intention with attention to the visual and tactile details: I enjoy seeing how people connect to them. A friend remarked: ‘I get to hold them, turn them over and over and admire each little part of them’. And it’s that connection that inspires me to carry on.

It’s time to celebrate that these experiences are once again possible.

But before you delete your social media accounts and donate your iPad to charity, pause a second.

Haven’t there been more than a few positives to the world of stitch and mixed media being forced to go virtual?

A portal to creative possibilities

During the pandemic, we’ve been exposed to a whole range of new and exciting ways to engage with our creativity that don’t exist ‘in-person’.

The internet has become a direct line to the studios of textile artists on the other side of the earth. We’ve learned weird and wonderful techniques and processes we hadn’t considered, or even heard of, before. And, despite not being in the same room as the people we’ve been communicating with, we’ve been inspired by fellow stitchers we’d never get the chance to meet offline.

Maybe you’re thinking, “OK. I can see how an online textile art workshop might be a nice add-on to in-person classes.”

But what if it were the other way round?

After all, even when the world resumes regular service, there are times when in-person workshops and courses just don’t fit.

When in-person isn’t possible

Sometimes cost can be a barrier. Not everyone has a couple of hundred quid to stump up on a regular basis, or can afford travel and accommodation for a special workshop.

“I live in a remote part of the UK and I recently paid 450 pounds for an art week, plus travel and accommodation. It’s a lot of money.  Doing workshops online gives such value for money. I’m getting to choose things that wouldn’t possibly be available in such abundance.”

Judith Sutherland, Stitch Club member

Sometimes you can be constrained by what’s available in your area. If you’re passionate about building your toolkit of exciting techniques and processes and developing your visual vocabulary with textiles, the local Knit’n’Natter in the library on Thursday afternoons might not cut it.

Maybe the only artist group near you is by invitation only, and you don’t have the confidence to call yourself a textile artist (yet).

Perhaps you feel that you don’t belong anywhere.

Sometimes it’s flexibility. You just can’t make Tuesday nights, because of work or family commitments. Sometimes your health lets you down, and you can’t predict when you’ll have a bad day. What’s the point of committing to something you might not be able to attend?

“I have a ‘health hiccup’. Some days I have absolutely no energy. If that happens to be a workshop day, then it’s not easy to really take the workshop on board. But with pre-recorded workshops online, I’m not restricted to a given day. I can do it when it’s convenient for me.”

Sarah Edwards, Stitch Club member

When in-person feels uncomfortable

If you’re at the beginning of your creative journey, the thought of being in a room filled with experienced, creative stitchers can be daunting.

Maybe you’ve been to workshops where you’ve felt intimidated by your fellow students who all seemed so confident and technically accomplished. You might have been wary of asking a “stupid” question. Or maybe the loudest person in the room never stopped hoovering up the tutor’s attention.

And with so many stitchers of varying levels of experience, it’s easy to feel rushed. You might have found yourself falling further and further behind, ending the day with nothing much to show for your efforts.

Or conversely, you might have become frustrated that the workshop was plodding along too slowly to accommodate the one person who never learned to do running stitch as a child.

How online learning can become a key part of your creative practice

It’s true that in-person workshops DO offer something you can’t get online.

And the COVID-19 pandemic has certainly thrown a whole load of death-by-Zoom stuff at us: disorganised, unfocused online meetings where everyone is talking over each other, the tutor is mumbling and the demonstration is unclear and uninspiring.

But that’s not what we’re talking about here.

Well organised and properly put together online workshops have a whole host of benefits that aren’t always possible with the in-person experience.

• Expert guidance from world-renowned textile artists who take you through a creative process, but encourage you to express yourself personally, so that what you make is distinctively ‘you’ (not a copycat of their own work)
• A rich resource of on-tap video tutorials available 24/7 that you can dip in and out of at your own pace, on your own schedule, depending on your wiggly life and your own specific interests
• A range of supporting materials to enhance and clarify your experience, like step by step workbooks and inspirational ebooks
• A forum to ask your workshop leaders questions and get feedback
• A private online community of supportive people from all over the world who share your passion and understand your journey
• An atmosphere of kindness and support
• Real humans behind the scenes to guide you and help you if technical gremlins rear their ugly heads (it happens to the best of us)

Because it’s more affordable, more flexible and can fit around your other commitments, online learning can act as the backbone of your creative development and go hand-in-hand with the occasional in-person workshop.

1 Online learning is flexible so you don’t need to be

Whatever your constraints, your workshop is there for you 24/7, rather than once a week on Thursdays.

Choose a schedule that suits your time and responsibilities, whether that’s five minutes a day for stitching practice, or a week-long textile art staycation set aside for layering and embroidering a panel. Your workshop won’t disappear if you don’t use it for six months.

“Online workshops help me break things into manageable chunks. If I don’t have four hours to work on a piece, I can get something done in 30 minutes, and then tomorrow, I can spend 30 more minutes. And at the end of the week, I’m going to have something I’m proud of to show for it.”

Laura Otten, Stitch Club participant.

Online learning makes it easier for you to go at your own pace.

This is becoming even more important in a post-Covid world, where your life might be getting back to the days of ‘normal’ time pressures. With no course deadlines, you can’t fall behind, but there’s always a structure to follow, so you can never lose your way.

2 Online learning supports your style

Some of us are action learners in the extreme, learning better by stash diving and riding our creativity on a wave of playtime.

Some of us are reflectors: we like to carefully watch, reflect, and watch again before we try out something new.

Some of us like to revisit or repeat previous workshops to reinforce our learning.

Online workshops have the flexibility and content that caters for the way you learn best.

3 Online learning widens your artistic horizon

“The artists come from many places, many different backgrounds, many different parts of the world, and that expands my vision immensely. I’m doing things I never would have done and meeting artists I never would have met and my practice is evolving because of that.”

Wanda Moon, Stitch Club member

A good online workshop is your portal to learning from a global community of expert tutors.

Online workshops aren’t limited by geography, and this means that you can learn skills and techniques from artists from anywhere. It’s your window on the world of textile art, giving you different perspectives and enhancing your vision for your own practice.

4 Online learning offers a diverse, supportive community

“It’s a safe haven, with a nurturing feeling where I can learn and grow and socialise with people from all over the world with a common passion. These are my people.”

Lee Thermaenius, Stitch Club

Enjoy the freedom to connect with people from across the world who want the same thing as you – to have a creative outlet, to stitch joyfully, to learn and develop confidence as textile artists.

It’s a real meeting of enthusiasts, and a place that makes you feel you belong. Be inspired by other people’s stories, by their differences and by your similarities. It’s your global community from the comforts of your own home. It’s a safe space to share ideas, struggles, solutions and finished pieces with supportive, creative people.

“I get more than just sitting there watching somebody teaching me to stitch. I get a whole emotional support for my hobby.”

Judith Sutherland, Stitch Club member

With online textile art workshops, you have time and space to give and receive constructive feedback and suggestions. But only if you want to. That’s the beauty of online. You can lurk in the background, enjoying the learning and gaining confidence and skills from a structured learning journey. You can show your work (or not). You can ask questions (or not).

Stitching a new normal for textile art

So perhaps the way you develop your creative practice going forward looks a bit different to the pre-pandemic normal? Maybe it’s not a case of either/or? Perhaps in-person and online can go hand-in-hand to help you build a more meaningful and rounded approach to making textile art?

Why not tell us about your positive online experiences with textile art workshops in the comments below?

“I want to spend time being creative.

It’s an important part of my life. But it’s very easy to say and not so easy to do.”

Like a baby bird madly flapping its wings and barely leaving the ground, at the beginning of your creative journey you’re likely to stumble and fall. You have the will, but lack the basic tools to express yourself confidently with fabric and thread.

But slowly, as you begin to connect (or reconnect) with your imagination and ingenuity, the more joyful the process becomes and eventually you take flight.

As you uncover your own personal way of making textile art through regular practice, the higher you soar!

But what if you’re flying solo?

When even the people you’re closest to don’t understand that creativity is an integral part of who you are, momentum can be tough to sustain.

Your wings may feel slightly heavier after a well-meaning but dismissive remark from a partner or family member about ‘tinkering with textiles’. Comments about ‘wasting time and money’ on a ‘little hobby’ can see you nose diving. Add to that the distant memory of a harsh critique from an embroidery teacher (“Wonky, uneven stitches!”) and you’re coming in for an emergency landing!

Finding the people who do understand can be transformative for your creativity, your self esteem and your life.

Take it from Jess, Yvonne, Marie, Joan, Sarah, Becca, Sharon, Erica, Vicki, Karen and Linda, collectively known as Gathering Threads.

Covid, Christmas & creativity

It was the 19th of December 2020. Coronavirus cases were out of control here in the UK, new unknowable variants were emerging and Christmas had effectively been cancelled.

But amongst all of that dark came a ray of hope and positivity: an email from a TextileArtist.org Stitch Club member called Jess Richardson.

Here’s what she had to say.

Hi Joe, Sam and everyone at TextileArtist Central,

As we approach the end of the year on a day full of more grim news we just wanted to let you know how much we have loved being part of Stitch Club this year.

We are a group of ladies from four different countries. Most of us didn't know each other before joining and probably never would have met but we’ve gravitated together.

We started meeting online at the same time each week to discuss our progress with the Stitch Club workshops, offer advice and encouragement and share our love of textile practice.

We’re also in regular contact via our WhatsApp group where we chat about fab things, sad things and other news from our lives. We have swapped bits from our textile stash and been generous with our friendship.

In the run up to Christmas we organised a Tree Decoration and Card Swap and made something for one of the others in our group. Today we held an online meeting to open up these parcels. Attached is a screenshot of this happy occasion.

Without doubt these new friends and Stitch Club have become one of the most important things in our lives. Thank you very much for all the effort you put into making it a great experience for us all.

Merry Christmas

From Jess, Yvonne, Marie, Joan, Sarah, Becca, Sharon, Erica, Vicki, Karen and Linda

We were so thrilled that we arranged to gatecrash one of the Gathering Threads online meet-ups.

The passion, positivity, mutual respect and warmth in that Zoom call was palpable. This is a group of ladies whose creativity has been fuelled and whose practice has been enhanced by a sense of belonging.

Let’s meet the woman who started it all… Sharon Eynon.

All the gear, no idea!

As a child Sharon was always more comfortable resetting spark plugs with her dad than threading a needle with her mum. So when she inherited her mum’s extensive textile stash in 2014 she had absolutely no idea what to do with it.

It wasn’t until four years later, when Sharon started exploring the creative possibilities of fabric and thread in an online course with Sue Stone, that she began to understand her late mum’s love of embroidery. Finally, a way to put all her beautiful “bits and pieces” to good use!

As a founding member of Stitch Club, Sharon’s enthusiasm for making textile art continued to grow.

After feeling particularly inspired by a workshop from artist and bestselling textile author Mandy Pattullo, Sharon found herself eager to share ideas and investigate the possibilities of the process more deeply.

Sharon posted in the members area asking if any of her fellow stitchers were interested in getting together online.

Yvonne Schlaepfer-Parle was the first to answer the call…

Party of two

Yvonne is a long-time knitter and woman of the world; born in Ireland, she’s lived in London, New York, Australia and now Switzerland.

Back in March 2020, her burgeoning knitting business was about to host its first in-person retreat…and then Covid happened!

“So that whole thing crashed and burned. But then a friend of mine, who knew I was feeling pretty sad got in touch to say she’d seen the TextileArtist.org Community Stitch Challenge on Facebook and encouraged me to give it a go.”

But stitching had been ruined for Yvonne years ago when she’d been berated at school for sewing outside the lines.

“I didn’t think I’d ever be interested again. But when I watched that first free workshop with Sue Stone and she said ‘Embrace the wonky’, it changed my life! I’m not being pithy or trite—it really did. It gave me permission to go outside those lines and sometimes even plan to go outside those lines.”

Cut forward a few months. Having joined Stitch Club off the back of the free workshops in the TextileArtist.org Community Stitch Challenge, here are Sharon (in Wales) and Yvonne (in Switzerland) meeting on Zoom each week to nurture their newfound passion. A passion for something they’d both long since decided was not for them!

Week on week, stitchers from different backgrounds and at various stages of their creative journey started to join Sharon and Yvonne’s regular meetups. And as the group grew, the more inspired and excited the individual members became.

Let’s explore the creative lessons you can learn from the Gathering Threads group and how you might benefit from finding your very own stitch tribe.

How finding your stitch tribe can catalyse your creativity

No 1: A breadth of knowledge & experience

Imagine how regular access to a rich and diverse source of knowledge and experience could propel your own textile art practice.

Some members of Gathering Threads have a very broad skill base. Like Sarah Bond, who taught Art and Design for over 40 years, has a degree in Art History and has encouraged pupils of all ages to apply art textile techniques to fashion, stage and ecclesiastical projects.

“After I retired I sort of found myself in no man’s land deciding what to do next and, having recently moved from Hampshire to Wiltshire, I felt like I was in between communities.”

Since finding Stitch Club, and in turn Gathering Threads, Sarah has generously shared her expertise with the group, offering advice, recommendations and encouragement to the less experienced stitchers, like Yvonne:

“As a rank beginner with no artistic training, I don’t have any preconceptions. It’s been revelatory to hear others in the group who do have a background in art discussing the tips and rules they’ve learned along the way.”

No 2: The motivation to make

“I don’t have enough time” can often be code for “this isn’t important enough to me right now.”

If, like self-confessed butterfly Joan Noble, you do find yourself ‘easily distracted by 101 different things’, the commitment to regular meetups with like minded creative people can help you develop a more disciplined practice.

“These ladies keep me on my toes. It’s helping me be more focused and encouraging me to drop other things in favour of doing the Stitch Club workshops.”

And Karen Hughes, who had been put off sewing by the words of a childhood teacher who told her, “You’re much better at theory, than you are practical”, has also benefited from the gentle nudge being part of the group has given her.

“It’s like going to a digital cafe or college and you just turn up and we all exchange ideas and stuff. It’s a great motivator.”

The group’s weekly meetups in conjunction with the fortnightly workshop in Stitch Club have also helped Jess find direction.

“I used to beat myself up if I wasn’t doing something creative, but the regularity of being presented with a well-explained and inspiring challenge, along with all the other brilliantly organised materials, means there’s no barrier to getting started.”

No 3: Uncovering possibilities & breaking rules

At the start of any creative adventure, the cushion that comes from step by step rules and guidelines can be a great comfort. It’s how you get started.

More experienced stitchers, like Sarah, are ready to break those rules and steer away from the guidelines.

“I love that the tutors in Stitch Club encourage us to find freedom to explore the projects in our own way and there’s no judgement or expectation to create a duplicate of any kind. I think that’s a really progressive teaching method.”

And that ethos has been embraced by other members of the group.

Like Erica Staxenius, who was introduced to embroidery by her step-grandmother at the age of seven.

“Sewing is something I’ve delved into from time to time. After school, I started to make my own clothes from my mother’s old stash. My efforts were self-taught and I had a few disasters along the way!”

But Erica has always been what she describes as a “practical sewer” and thinking creatively to make works of art in her own voice through the Stitch Club workshops has not always been easy.

“Over the years I’ve often looked at textile art and wondered how and if I could do something similar. And I think with the help of all these wonderful inspirational workshop leaders and my friends in this group, it’s starting to feel achievable. I’ve still got a way to go, but looking back on everything I’ve done in the last year of Stitch Club it’s mind blowing how far I’ve come.”

“It’s interesting to me how I’ve never been one to follow the rules of life, but with sewing and art I have. The encouragement in this group means I’m starting to feel brave enough to break a few of those rules. I’m finally starting to become less restrictive and more inventive in my sewing.”

No 4: Discovering your personal visual vocabulary

The digital age has given us access to an abundance of inspiration. It’s impossible to incorporate every idea you stumble upon whilst browsing social media into your textile art. But it can be tempting to try!

Not only can this lead to an overwhelming and confused process, it might mean the work you’re making doesn’t feel distinctly ‘you’.

Through the focus of group meetings and the conscious discussion of your personal process, you can begin to hone your ideas and develop your own personal style. As Gathering Threads member Becca Allen discovered.

As a child, Becca learned to draw from her dad, created collages with her mum and made toy mice to sell to her friends.

Years later, when Becca was seeking a way to bring fabric and thread into her artwork, she took a course with the in-demand workshop leader Cas Holmes (who has since taught a popular Stitch Club class using the Japanese artform Momigami to create art). A love of all things textile was born.

Becca has been particularly inspired by the members of the group developing their own unique ways of interpreting the workshops.

“It’s amazing to see how we’re all doing the same projects, following the same set of instructions, using the same equipment, but the ways in which we translate the techniques and processes are so diverse.”

No 5: The confidence to create & share

Have you ever felt a little self-conscious about your lack of art training? Maybe you love being creative and have always been drawn to making things, but you’ve been reluctant to show other people what you’ve made for fear it’s not good enough?

Vicki Briggs doesn’t come from an ‘arty’ background and has struggled at times with feeling inhibited, but being part of Gathering Threads has given her the confidence to dive in and give anything a go!

“I was quite shy about posting images of my work in the members area to start off with, but with the support, advice and encouragement of our little group and the wider Stitch Club community, I’ve become braver. Now I think to myself, ‘Does it really matter? It’s a learning curve!’ The whole experience has given me a real boost in self esteem.”

And Yvonne agrees…even when the responses to what she makes are mixed.

“Since joining Stitch Club, I’ve had the confidence to venture into other groups and I’ve had very different reactions to what I’m presenting. A piece I made in a Stitch Club workshop on eco-printing was compared to mouldy pepperoni pizza by someone. I would have been horrified in the past. These days, I don’t care. Experimentation and collaboration are more important to me.”

“I now call myself a textile artist. I would never have done that before. I would have felt I was pretending to be something I was not, but now I realise I am, and I’m in the company of textile artists in this wonderful group every week. It’s been transformative.”

6 Finding solutions & fulfilling ambitions

When you hit a wall in your creative process, it can be doubly frustrating when you don’t have anyone to help you figure out how to knock it down (or at least rearrange the bricks!)

Linda Langley started stitching to pass the time when she was a young radiographer on night duty but prior to joining Stitch Club hadn’t picked up embroidery for a good few years.

“I’ve re-learned an awful lot in terms of techniques and being part of this group has meant I’ve found ways of dealing with my particular challenges. I don’t have a workspace, which can be difficult and means I’m much slower than some of the other girls, but they’re helping me realise that’s not a problem. The great thing about Stitch Club is I can go at my own pace. I don’t feel any pressure to do every workshop, but I’ve been inspired by this group to try things I wouldn’t have done if I was left entirely to my own devices.”

Marie Audéon, who lives in France, has a longstanding association with textiles, having been inspired by her mother.

“As a child I would collect and organise fabrics by colour and type, cut them up and reassemble them into something new. In adulthood I continued to sew, making a large array of decorative and useful things for the home”

Marie had always felt drawn to using the techniques she learned as a child to do something more personal and expressive and since joining the group, this dream has become a reality.

“When I discovered TextileArtist.org I thought to myself, ‘This is my chance. It’s now!’ I am learning to mix materials like paint and thread to express a personal story and through the connection with this group my process has really evolved. In the past few months I’ve been using a sketchbook to develop ideas and documenting the various stages of the creative process through photography.”

No 7: Nurturing an open mind & daring to experiment

Have you ever watched an online stitch tutorial or considered a particular way of making art and immediately said to yourself “That’s not my type of thing”?

Developing a sense of what you want to make and how you want to make it is an important step in your journey towards developing a personal voice for your textile art. But often the techniques and processes you feel resistance to can be surprisingly rewarding when you let go of preconceptions and give them a go.

Being part of a group with eclectic tastes can help you stay open to new experiences. Embracing alternative approaches to creativity can uncover inventive ways of interpreting projects that may have initially felt prescriptive or simple.

Jess told me:

“Even with the Stitch Club workshops that I don’t think I’ll do, when everyone in this group starts talking through their ideas and pictures of work start popping up in the members area, the enthusiasm for the project becomes infectious. You don’t want to be left out. And you end up surprising yourself with how inventive you can be with something you didn’t think was your sort of thing”.

And the collaboration within the group has also encouraged its members to join the dots, workshop to workshop, taking a technique they learned from one into the next.

Yvonne has used an exercise set by Julie B Booth in her workshop, that seemed deceptively simple, to create a whole series of work.

“I’ve gone and done several more pieces and taken that whole thing in a completely new direction.”

Create, connect, thrive

When you’re feeling creatively isolated, where do you turn for support? The most obvious place isn’t always the best fit.

Perhaps the local embroidery group has a focus on traditional needlework that doesn’t appeal…they meet on a Wednesday morning when you’re working or have childcare duties…the in-person workshops they organise run into hundreds of pounds that you can’t afford…or they just don’t get you!

The good news is you’re no longer restricted by location. You can share your creative journey with like minded creative people living on the other side of the world if that’s what it takes.

And when you find the people who understand and care, the people who push you to be more inventive and experimental, the people who make you feel safe and brave, not only will your creativity blossom, you may make meaningful and long lasting connections.

The Gathering Threads group meets on Zoom every week to work through ideas, talk about creative challenges and share their thoughts on the latest Stitch Club workshop. They share online resources and support one another via the Stitch Club members area and WhatsApp. They swap tools and materials via snail mail (when Sharon couldn’t find leaves for eco-printing, Sarah sent her some of her stash.)

But something deeper and more significant has emerged…friendship.

“We are connected by our love of art. That includes textile art but a range of other arts as well including pottery, painting, photography, quilting, knitting, crochet and felting. We also share cooking recipes and book recommendations and send birthday cards. This has developed from a group of strangers into a special group of friends.”

Yvonne Schlaepfer-Parle, Stitch Club and Gathering Threads member

And some of these friends have now met in real life too. “It’s so strange”, Jess said to Erica recently, “I feel like I’ve always known you even though it’s been less than a year.” The group are now dreaming of a time, hopefully in the not too distant future, when they can all meet up for a weekend and do one of the Stitch Club workshops together in person.