Hope and Elvis

Just thought I would let you know that I will be teaching a workshop at the wonderful Hope and Elvis, in March next year.  I think there are still a couple of places left, hope to see you there!

words of wisdom

I was inspired to stitch this as I wanted to elaborate on my idea of little reminders and make something more detailed, a tactile textile book of sorts. A hand stitched, handbook, a manual for life, something to treasure and keep and be sought out when needed.  It's hard to capture all the details and quotes I've included, hence so many photographs, but I hope I've given you a sense of it .... I'm already gathering ideas for a companion piece called  'words of comfort......

Trevethoe House

I spent a lovely evening on Tuesday with the ladies of  Shrewsbury Embroiderer's Guild, talking about my work and chatting to them. I took along some work to show them and this was one of the pieces I took.

I don't have a formal education in textiles, I've learned along the way over the years, and I can't remember a time when I wasn't making things. I used to regret not having studied art or textiles, feeling that it put me at a disadvantage, but I don't anymore. A lot of my work is very personal and draws on my experience of life and I don't think I'd be making the work I do now without having been on a personal and creative journey.

This piece is about a year of my life, in 2005 (although I didn't stitch this piece until later, in 2012). During this year, myself and my husband took a 'year out' from full time work to concentrate on our creative selves, after the sale of a home and a business and a long period of stress. It was during this year, and having this time to devote to my art that marked a turning point in the work I was making, when lots of different elements came together. We rented a house in a rural location, the first time I'd experienced living in the countryside, something which was to have a profound effect on my work and my creative process. The house was called Trevethoe House.

have hope....

Hope is like a light flickering within you - though at times it shines more brightly. I thought it was apt to surround the words in this tiny box with the tiniest sequins and beads to shine and catch the light.
I like the way the little boxes look together. A collection of tiny tokens, to be called upon in times of need, slipped into a pocket, closing fingers around them, a comfort.

tiny token

This tiny and perfect little box was given to me by a friend. You can see how small it is next to the cotton reel. Once the home of a treasured ring, now it's a tiny stitched reminder to be mindful, if only for a moment, something I think we all need to be reminded of from time to time.

Courage, dear heart.

I found this little box at the antique fair and knew exactly what I needed to do with it. It's just the right size for a pocket, a tangible reminder to keep going when times are tough, like some kindly words from a good friend that you can carry around with you. The quote is by C.S. Lewis.

Fear grows if you tend it....

I thought I'd share this with you, again a personal piece I made a while ago. I was stitching my way through a period of anxiety.. I shared glimpses of it with you in this post. It's a patchwork of vintage fabrics including a very old piece of quilting which is almost threadbare in places. It is edged in a lovely raw knobbly silk (not vintage - I do occasionally mix in bits of new fabric!). The piece with the tiny red pattern on in the image above,  I picked up at my local car boot sale. That's one of the things I  love about gathering vintage materials, remembering where I found them and wondering what stories they have to tell.

More things I forgot to remember....

I had such a lovely response from you to my last post on these little textile reminders that I thought I would show you some more. I really appreciate all your comments and it's good to know that aspects of my work sometimes strike a chord in others. I'm working on a bigger, more detailed piece like these little ones, I look forward to sharing it with you....

Number 678

You may have guessed there is a story behind this piece.....where we live is quite rural and my husband is always finding creatures to rescue, rabbits, owls, exhausted racing pigeons....he came across an injured blackbird, it was unable to get up and fly and was about to be run over, as it was lying in the middle of a busy main road. He managed to pick it up (much to the annoyance of some of the other drivers!) and he took it to our local wildlife rescue centre where they nursed the bird back to health and set it free. We were given a reference number for our bird so we could phone and see how it was, number 678. I made this piece to remember him by, wherever he is now......

Stitching solace....

I shared details of this piece back in this post of 2011 but I never showed you the whole thing. Again this is something I made for myself, one of a number of pieces like this. Everything I make is meaningful to me but some more so than others, maybe that's why I was reluctant to show you before now.....here are some details again. There was a lot of meditative slow stitching in this one...do you find stitching a source of solace too?