Embroidery Magazine July August 2021

T H E T E X T I L E A R T M AG A Z I N E
embroidery
THE HEAVENLY
EMBROIDERY OF
Michelle
Holmes
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July August 2021

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July August 2021 EMBROIDERY 3

from the editor
TIMING, they say, is everything in life.
As is the nature of publishing schedules,
I’m writing this in early June, when we are
slightly out of lockdown in England but
large scale public events have not been
given the green light. Do you remember
carefree days-out to craft and textile
shows? Spur-of-the-moment visits to an
exhibition, craft centre or gallery cafe?
Just the idea of it sparks a real sense of
joy. Yes, there is trepidation too. The
pandemic’s course is still uncertain in 42
this country (and tragically it still rages in
parts the world) and the future is far from
predictable, but we have heard so much 18
about resilience over the last year, that I
am ready for some joy. Maybe it’s because
the days have tipped from cold rain into
glorious sunshine that the idea of greater
freedom is so tantalising. But it’s also
prompted by reading about how many
of our featured artists have tuned into their
inner selves in order to identify what brings
them a real sense of joy in their life. For
me that has always involved travel (even
around the UK) and discovering artists’
studios, creative places and exhibitions.
However, unlike the ‘before’ times, my pace
will be slower and a touch more ‘curated’,
but also driven by a deep appreciation of
the utter privilege of being able to do and
see so much that, albeit unintentionally, we
might have taken for granted previously.
Stay safe but remember, wherever you are,
to look for the joy.
EDITOR
Embroidery magazine
ON THE COVER Michelle Holmes,

Dusk Settles Over the Fields, 2019. 24 x 26cm.
PHOTO: TERRY DAVIES ©MICHELLE HOLMES
embroidery
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contents
8
front features
07 TAKE THREE 12 HEAVENLY BODIES
The fashion reader Michelle Holmes roots her embroidery in
a love of the natural and spiritual worlds
08 BOOKSHELF
Stitch in Bloom 18 LAYERS OF MEANING
Meet Julius Arthur, founder of House of
10 THE SEWING ROOM
Quinn who talks to us about his new book
Amanda McCavour
22 DRAWN TOGETHER
Bodies, sexuality, expression and joy denote
reviews the bold stitched portraiture of Meghan Willis
56 BOOKSHELF 28 SIGN OF THE TIMES
The latest textile Nneka Jones’ powerful stitched portraits are
titles reviewed playing their part in the fight for change
28
58 EXHIBITION 34 THE FABRIC OF LIFE
Eileen Agar:
JulyAugust 2021
Ai Kijima’s unique artistic vocabulary adds an
Angel of Anarchy original perspective to the language of art quilts
59 EXHIBITION 40 FIRST PERSON
Making Nuno: Japanese How the simple act of making for pure joy
Textile Innovation from saved Karina Thompson in the hardest of times
Sud Reiko
60 WHAT’S ON 42 ANOTHER DIMENSION
Our round-up of Art and quilting are the perfect holistic vehicles
exhibitions & events for Sherri Lynn Wood to address big questions
48 ANIMAL INSTINCT
Deborah Simon’s sculpture treads a disquieting
path between the beautiful and the grotesque
PS... Take a one
year subscription to 54 MATERIAL MATTERS
Embroidery and we’ll An embroidered walking jacket conceals
deliver each copy to your the extraordinary story of a unique woman –
door free of charge! the ‘lady globetrotter’ Lizzie Humphries
22 48
34

Gorgeous knitting, crochet & embroidery supplies
LOOPKNITTING.COM
6 EMBROIDERY July August 2021 LONDON, ENGLAND
[take three]
R E T H I N K I N G FA S H I O N
Three new titles explore different facets of fashion and culture
SHODDY LOVED CLOTHES LAST PATCH WORK

From Devil’s Dust to How the Joy of Rewearing A Life amongst Clothes
the Renaissance of Rags and Repairing your Clothes Claire Wilcox
Hanna Rose Shell can be a Revolutionary Act
rsola de Castro
CLAIRE Wilcox has been a curator
THIS is a book about how a noun of fashion at the Victoria and
became an adjective. In the early 19th ‘THE fate of cheap clothing is marked Albert Museum for most of her
century, shoddy described cloth made as soon as it leaves the factory, and working life. In Patch Work, she
from reclaimed wool, in what was it’s worthy of an unedited Grimm steps into another archive, that of
one of the earliest forms of industrial Brothers’ fairy tale: made in misery, memory, deftly stitching together
recycling. Old rags and tailor’s fabric bought in haste, worn for one night (if her love of fashion with the story
clippings were pulverized in a rag picker that) and then chucked in the bin. Our of her life lived with and through
(the ‘devil’ that produced ‘devil’s dust’ ready-to-wear has turned into ready- clothes. Each chapter is a singular,
that infected workers’ lungs) and to-waste’, writes Orsola de Castro. sparse vignette – from personal
re-fashioned into cloth. Hanna Rose In Loved Clothes Last she encourages observations on the strange
Shell’s vivid narrative is divided into us to question our role as passive contradictions of curation (‘We
three acts. It begins in West Yorkshire’s consumers in the ever-increasing, are caring for high-quality detritus
heavy woollen district where ‘shoddy hyped-up production cycle involved of the past in order to undertand
towns’ sprung up in the 1800s. in fast, and also luxury, fashion. Our who we are’) to the back-stage
The second crosses the Atlantic, as wardrobes, she says, can be a starting idiosyncrasies of the old, world
production spread to the United States, point for change. How? By joining the famous museum; from childhood
with slavery and the Civil War creating care revolution and making the clothes games in the airing cupboard to
demand for cheap cloth. It was there we love last longer through care, repair, her mother’s choice to marry
that shoddy became an adjective, re-wear and making our own. in black. It is less chronological
initially functioning as a shorthand for This highly readable and informative memoir and more a lyrical,
ar rofiteering, d e to it e in nion call to creative action is backed up meandering erie of re ection on
uniforms, which were of shockingly with a look at the fashion industry’s people, places, work and life that
oor alit . e final act con ider t e impact worldwide – both the postive illuminates the quiet power of the
unknowable nature of shoddy; how and negative aspects – and she delves things we wear. Wilcox writes so
ideas around contagion and ethics into everything, from the properties beautifully, mining her past to form
came to embody a host of personal, of fibre and d e to l c ain , a haunting series of impressions
commercial and societal failings. Shell workers’ rights, politics, trade and that stay with you, in much the
unravels the overlooked history of landfill it t e ltimate goal same way that a stocking or a cuff
shoddy in this well paced read, which of encouraging us to adopt more might leave a subtle imprint on the
engages from the start. sustainable fashion habits. skin after disrobing.
University of Chicago Press £20 hb Penguin Life £8.99 pb Bloomsbury Publishing £16.99 pb

bookshelf
labour of love
Designer-maker Lora Avedian’s contemporary take on
embellishing the surface is captured in Stitch in Bloom, her
new book aimed at inspiring a new generation of stitchers
I graduated with a BA (Hons) in Embroidery from Manchester Metropolitan University

(now Manchester School of Art). The course doesn’t exist anymore but it was great. I learned
a lot about machine embroidery there. Prior to that, I’d done some work experience with
Karen Nicol, who really inspired me to get into embroidery; she told me about the course
in Manchester. After my BA I did an internship with JW Anderson for a season, but wasn’t
sure fashion was the industry I wanted to be in, so did lots of other work experience.
I then ended up working as an assistant to set designers for a few years and went on to do
my own work as a prop stylist and set designer. In 2015 I decided to apply to the Royal College
of Art to do a Master’s in Mixed Media Textiles because I wanted to get back into embroidery, and
was lucky enough to get a place. I spent that time working on my personal style as a designer and
embroiderer and took the opportunity to research and learn as much as I could. It was quite a
big U-turn in my career, but I’m glad I did it.
I find inspiration for my ork all o er the pla e but often I look at vintage textiles, images in
books, or things I buy at fairs and markets. I have a collection of objects, bits of paper, and drawings
that I keep in boxes and rummage through when I need inspiration. I try to go out and draw
in nature, and go to museums when I get a chance (and when I am allowed!). Drawing is really
important to my practice and it’s often where my embroidery designs develop.
I was approached by Hardie Grant to write a book about my work, it no ecific direction
given to me. When I was preparing my book proposal, I spent some time breaking down the
elements of my practice and realised that couching was a really key part of my work. I often
mix embroidery techniques, but it felt too complicated to try and explain that in a book, so
I just decided to take this one element and try to show the breadth of the stitch. Writing the
book was really time consuming and a real labour of love. It was a great opportunity to examine
the techniques I use in detail, and try out ways of using it that I had not done before.
Couching is a type of hand embroidery where you stitch down a length of material like
embroidery thread, cord or braid to the surface of the fabric with lots of regular stitches. It’s
really versatile because you can use almost any material you like: it can be delicate, chunky,
stiff, heavy. I say in all my workshops and in the book, it’s all about the materiality, and which
combinations of material you choose to use – that’s where it gets interesting.
I hope Stitch in Bloom will inspire people to think about the materials they use in a different
way. I also want to show people that you don’t have to know loads of different embroidery
titc e to be able to ac ieve reall bea tif l and intere ting or it different fini e . e
book is a guide to show people the technique and encourage people to start to experiment
with their materials and I hope it does that. e
loraavedian.com
Stitch in Bloom: Botanical

inspired embroidery projects
for you and your home
by Lora Avedian is out
now, Hardie Grant £15

1
2 3 4
PHOTOGRAPHY: ©MATT RUSSELL
1-2 Lora’s Flower Stem Blanket, as featured

in Stitch in Bloom.
3 Lora’s embroidery of a chrysanthemum,
inspired by old botanical illustrations.
4 Samples of hand couching using ribbon,
multiple threads, rope and cord.
5 Author and embroiderer Lora Avedian.

the sewing room
MAKING MAGIC
TORONTO BASED ARTIST AMANDA McCAVOUR CONJURES HER
SPELLBINDING THREAD WORKS IN THE TINIEST OF SPACES
LIKE A MAGICIAN magicking a rabbit out of a hat, Amanda nd it t e fir t time e ad a t dio door. ere omet ing
McCavour is a deft manipulator of space. As a maker of installations about being able to shut that door. It feels like my own world. It’s
t at literall fill gallerie b t created in a t dio no bigger t an a private and intimate and I feel I can make mistakes in there or even
box room, she has to be. Pragmatic about the limitations of her do something weird.’
studio, McCavour plans her installations – a mass of small individual Like her partner, who has his studio there, McCavour used to work
elements, ‘generally the size of my hand’ – so that ‘they pack up small’. from home (a habit that she returned to during lockdown – ‘to
Every table in her 10 x 14ft studio has a box underneath, hidden be safe’), on the kitchen table or at her desk in her six-foot-square
behind what McCavour refers to as ‘strategically-placed aprons’. designated work space. It was the machines that drove her out. She
Born in Toronto, and raised just outside, McCavour did her degree has three: two digital embroidery machines and an industrial sewing
there, followed by a three year residency. The latter, by giving her a machine. With all the machines going, ‘it was like a helicopter.’
ready-made craft community (she also met her partner, a jeweller, Now they’re in the studio they drown out the rumble of the trains.
there), has grounded her in the city. But, like all cities, it has its ‘There’s something about the continual noise,’ says McCavour. ‘None
challenges, a premium on space being one of them. McCavour is are louder than a domestic machine but the digital one bleeps.’ So
sanguine: ‘I’ve designed these projects so that I can live in a city she wears ear protection as well as listening to CBC news, music
like Toronto.’ or a podcast, with This American Life being a favourite.
The studio, a three-minute walk from their loft apartment, is housed Confessing that she used to ‘kill’ her domestic machines by ‘running-
in an old for oronto , red bric , at fronted, m lti e b ilding in an out’ the motors, she talks in fond terms of her Juki industrial one,
area of the city called The Junction, ‘where all the city’s train tracks a purchase she procrastinated about making for years, while
meet’. Once a distinctly undesirable neighbourhood, it now has admitting t at e fig t . e mac ine firml en conced in t e
cachet, and there are lots of condos going up. What with the ‘good studio, McCavour sometimes takes the ‘quiet’ work home, enjoying
shops’, the ‘cute parks’ and the ‘organic grocery store’, McCavour the conviviality of ‘working next to someone’.
evidently relishes it, as she does working among the other inhabitants With ‘any horizontal space being precious’ (even her threads project
in her studio building. ‘I really like to hear people. There’s a part of from rods on the wall), meaningful, personal objects are at minimum
me that’s a solitary maker but I also enjoy knowing that there are in McCavour’s studio. Nevertheless, two of her grandmother’s framed
other people around who, like me, are working too.’ drawings hang there – one a doodle she did while on the telephone,
There’s the ‘metal shop boys’ who work just beneath her (‘I’m right and the other a collage they did together when McCavour was six.
over the furnace, so it’s hot!’) who get ‘loud and rowdy’ in the shared e cribing er grandmot er a one of er fir t enco rager and
kitchenette, her printmaker friend next door and the two little girls the person who taught her to sew, the drawings are dear to her, the
who live above, whom she hears running back and forth. ‘There’s an collage in particular. ‘I just remember feeling really proud of it. So it’s
energy to the building but not the kind where you’re expected to a reminder really, when things are hard, making art can feel good.’ e
chat. It’s the right kind of energy for me.’ Ellen Bell
anda Mc a our as a na ist in the iese ine Fine rt Te ti es ard on sho at the Festi a o ui ts u u ust
amandamccavour.com

profile
heavenly bodies
MICHELLE HOLMES’ EMBROIDERY
IS GROUNDED IN A DEEPLY FELT
AFFINITIY WITH THE NATURAL
AND SPIRITUAL WORLDS
‘IT’S BEEN AN INTERESTING journey.’ very journey is different, of course. Michelle’s

Michelle Holmes is talking about the icons has never strayed far. Her studio is close to
she has been developing, and how their the Leicestershire village where she grew up.
emergence seems both inexplicable and Her art training was nearby at Loughborough.
inevitable. She speaks of wondering ‘where That rootedness is part of her, and of her
they came from’ then retracing a path that work. Those huge, almost mythic, moons
leads to the conclusion that they were always are the ones she witnesses low above the
going to happen. ‘Sometimes when you go off surrounding countryside. The shops, museums
at a tangent, you think I’m not quite sure how and buildings are well known to her. The
I got here, but it’s the journey.’ There is that Welcome Café, Breedon Church, Melbourne
word again. Pilgrimage is another term offered. Castle, Launde Abbey, these are familiar places
Both speak of a setting forth, of a willingness to imbued with stories and histories. Imbued.
being shaped by encounters along the way. That’s another word given. A significant one

Above: Tenderness, 2018. 16.5 x 21.5cm.
Linen, repurposed silk, silk velvet, wool suiting selvedge, block
printed cotton. Free machine embroidery, appliqué, hand stitch.
Left: Madonna (Inspired by The Madonna Nicopeia in the
Basilica of San Marco), 2018. 15.5 x 20cm. Repurposed linen
twill, hand dyed cotton, hand dyed silk velvet, repurposed ties.
Free machine embroidery, appliqué, hand stitch.
PHOTOGRAPHY: TERRY DAVIES ©MICHELLE HOLMES

1 2 3
1. Mystery, 2019. 18 x 22cm.

4 Linen, hand dyed silk velvet, 19th century
wool, hand blocked cotton, repurposed silk,
wool selvedge. Free machine embroidery,
appliqué, hand stitch.
2. The Journey of Saint Eustace, 2019.
19 x 23cm. Organic cross weave cotton,
repurposed silk, ribbon, silk satin, hand dyed
raw silk, velvet. Free machine embroidery,
appliqué, hand stitch, cyanotype.
3. The Face of Gabriel, 2018. 16.5 x 23cm.
Velvet, linen, hand dyed silk satin, hand dyed
silk velvet, 19th century ribbon. Free machine
embroidery, appliqué, hand stitch.
4. Material Matters, 2019. 19 x 23.5cm.
Twill weave linen, wool suiting, hand blocked
cotton, silk, hand dyed cotton. Free machine
embroidery, appliqué, hand stitch, cyanotype.
5. Gabriel, 2020. 18.5 x 23.5cm.
Twill weave linen, hand dyed silk velvet, silk
satin. Free machine embroidery, appliqué,
hand stitch.
6. Melbourne Castle, 2020. 52 x 45cm.
Hand dyed linen, hand dyed silk velvet,
silk satin, wool selvedges, sequins, ribbon.
Free machine embroidery, appliqué, hand
stitch, cyanotype.
PHOTOGRAPHY: TERRY DAVIES ©MICHELLE HOLMES

6
I made the castle in lockdown. . . It’s an evocative piece for me.

It’s y res onse to anting so ething safe and finding a ace I can go to
I always wanted to create atmosphere in my work, something I could enter
that is reflected in her repurposing of the prints though and you can see the Similar references pepper the
old fabrics. Pieces imbued with memories seeds of the icons.’ conversation – someone ill, someone
that she collages together to capture an Other seeds had been sown elsewhere. struggling, someone taking their last
idea, a thought or an emotion. ‘I made There was Sunday School at the village breath. Each accompanied by a relative,
the castle during lockdown. It’s the idea Methodist Chapel – ‘it was like a club, a friend, a nurse, giving of their time
of enclosure that we’re all going through. we went on walks’ – and education at the and self. Care given in the long hours
It’s an evocative piece for me. It’s my local Church of England school, but it is of night is especially noted. Visits to a
response to wanting something safe and a teacher’s love of well dressing1 that is 24 hour chemist and visits by a night
finding a place I can go to. The ribbon highlighted as influential ‘I always loved nurse are recalled as ‘like another world’;
is from Penhaligon. I always wanted to the positioning of things and the fragility something invisible and unseen until one
create atmosphere in my work, something of the petals.’ Well dressing uses flowers experiences it personally. There’s no need
I could enter.’ and plants to make pictorial stories that to ask why Michelle references angels
We are back to the icons and thoughts decorate springs and wells. and saints in her work. ‘Their stories
on their emergence. ‘In my Foundation You can appreciate the fascination for are often about being encouraged and
year at art college, I spent some time Michelle. Nature, narrative, people and comforted. I think I’ve always tried to
printmaking. I was very interested in place this is her subject matter. Flowers, process [life] through making.’
the lines and detail of early illuminated birds, seashores, woods; encounters of The spiritual is also part of the
manuscripts. I always wanted to make people outside, the tales of life. All are processing ‘I had a period when I was
one of the pieces as a fabric collage but collaged together, with care a recurring religious, but I’ve moved away to the
it wasn’t fashionable at the time, so I theme ‘When I was little, I remember my practice of contemplation, quiet and
didn’t pursue it. I recently discovered mother caring for people who were ill.’ stillness. I can’t express things in

words any longer. That’s why I’ve ‘A friend had died and her daughter was The quietness and stillness helps,
turned to silence.’ struggling. I would telephone, say the but really it’s about the thoughts and
The icons emerged at the same time. things her mother would say. I made struggles, and the lovely things too.
The first was shown at an exhibition this piece during the winter as a focus It’s the holding of it all together.’ Rules
with two printmakers in a local church. of my thoughts. I was bringing together of icons are not followed as such but do
‘I remember the door being opened. The fabrics purposefully from different ‘fall into place’ in the making. ach image
spring light was very beautiful, there places, thinking these are universal is considered. Their stories researched.
was one figurine of Mary. I put the icon feelings.’ A bit of bow tie, part of a scarf, The hands, eyes and ears deliberately
on the organ stool and let it sit there. I a piece of dyed linen, the wrong side of positioned. There is a timelessness about
hesitated about showing it – I could have selvedge from some men’s suiting – ‘I’ve this work. Perhaps it’s the stillness. ‘I’m a
put anything in the exhibition – but it was a problem with words’ – these are the quiet person. The word is getting noisy.
resonating with something deep in me. It fabrics collaged together. ‘It’s a mixture It’s comforting to have quiet windows.’
felt very human, a woman holding a baby.’ of things that seem to suit the piece, that Michelle is talking about the need for
Material Tenderness followed. say this is what it is to be a carer. silence, but quiet windows is an apt
I feel there are many more of these pieces in me. I think I need to spend more time
in stillness. I’ve always had a drive to create but my work is becoming more personal

Left: Dusk Settles Over the Fields, description of her work. There is in more personal. It’s about where I am
2019. 24 x 26cm. Hand dyed linen, each of her pieces a sense of quietude, and looking within. I have to keep
hand dyed silk velvet, silk satin, wool
selvedges, cotton, glass beads, silk of worlds being observed and reflected exploring this because I think the pieces
thread. Free machine embroidery, upon. ‘A sense of wonder and mystery’ will become more contemplative. I need
appliqué, hand stitching, couching, are the words jotted down in her notes. to experience it myself so I can imbue
cyanotype. These are terms we might naturally the work with what I want as an object.
Above: Full Moon Above the Sand associate with icons, but the words seem I have to do things that are my voice. It’s
Dunes, 2013. 75 x 79cm. Hand dyed pertinent to her process as much as her taken me a long time to get to that place,
linen sheeting, hand dyed silk velvet, work. Everyday encounters with wonder but this is where I am.’ e
glass beads, silk thread, ribbon. Free
machine embroidery, appliqué, hand and mystery. This is what her windows June Hill
stitching, couching, Cyanotype. of quiet time reveal, and the journey is archangelstudio.co.uk
PHOTOGRAPHY: TERRY DAVIES ©MICHELLE HOLMES not yet done.
‘I feel there are many more of these pieces
in me. I think I need to spend more time 1. Well Dressing, also known as Well Flowering, is a
in stillness. I’ve always had a drive to tradition practised in some parts of rural England in
which wells, springs and other water sources are
create, but my work is becoming decorated it de ign created from o er etal .


bookshelf
Julius Arthur
of House of Quinn
L AY E R S O F M E A N I N G
Julius Arthur has grown House of Quinn into a unique creative
design practice specialising in small batch collections of quilts,
textiles and unique objects – and now a new book in which
he encourages us to connect through hand quilting
What did you do before quilting came ups and production chains – all the things I made a lot of new connections and
into your life? I hated about what I was doing before. friends: I have worked with some incredible
I graduated in Fashion Design and Business people since I began House of Quinn in
Studies and set up my own small menswear What drew you towards quilting? its new form as a creative contemporary
company while also working full time. I was I was drawn to quilting by accident. I had craft practice. I feel part of a community of
set on creating a fashion brand and making a a lot of leftover fabric: old toiles, sample makers and designers, which have all been
living for myself after university, so I worked lengths and remnants. I hate to throw so supportive. Quilting is a craft that has
in the day, and created clothing in the anything away, so I started piecing them storytelling and community at the heart of
evenings and weekends. together, collaging and placing textiles in it and a craft that is available to anyone who
After four years of trying to make it work, I different compositions; experimenting with wants to give it a go.
realised that it wasn’t giving me any joy (and different ways to join and connect them. I’m
I was working day and night in my spare a sentimental person and the idea of quilts What do you mean by ‘informal quilting’?
time) so I stopped. I put down the scissors and what they represent is really interesting I started using the word ‘informal’ when
and sewing machine and walked away from to me. I really enjoyed the process, it gave describing what I do because I don’t follow
that chapter. It felt sad but I felt as though I me a lot of calm and focus, and I felt excited rules or stick to one method. I like to
was getting nowhere. I took time out from about making again, as well as feeling happier embrace ideas from traditional quilt making
doing anything creative the following year in myself. I think that is what I appreciate and piecing but also combine them with a
and started to think about what it was about quilting and making with textiles, it more collaged, improvised approach.
that I really enjoyed and why making was can be a really good tool for mental health nformal b definition mean aving a
important to me. I made lists of things that and taking a moment for yourself with no rela ed, friendl , or nofficial t le and, en
I loved and pieced them together until I worries – just your creative output. writing the book, I wanted people to feel
found a direction I felt excited about. I set As I was making and putting my work out that they can have a go and that the result
up a creative practice that didn’t have so into the world, I noticed that more people will be personal to them, embracing any
many limitations and rules, and didn’t rely on would engage with me, and conversations mishaps, wonky lines and organic shapes:
seasonal collections and trends, or low mark- were started over email and social platforms. t at giving it a go and finding o r o n t le

QUILTING IS A CRAFT Modern quilting takes all of this into How has your work developed?
consideration, while also thinking about what en began ma ing ilt , t e fir t
THAT HAS STORYTELLING is important to us today. It’s about home, collection was called ‘Renewed’ and was a
AND COMMUNITY AT family, a conscious and considered approach small series of work created from studio
THE HEART OF IT, AND A to materials, and creating new from old. remnants, toiles and oddments I’d collected.
CRAFT THAT IS AVAILABLE Taking time to ourselves, creating practical The quilts were compositions of varying sized
but also aesthetically pleasing objects that rectangles and squares in graphic black, white
TO ANYONE WHO WANTS will last, be gifted and passed on. and blue.They were simple but striking.
TO GIVE IT A GO In current climates, time is valuable and we’re Over time I’ve started to incorporate more
seeing a period of slowing down.Things that organic forms and layering of shapes, using
are made well and made to last are coveted. hand-painted textiles as part of the process.
Buying less, but buying to keep. Mending and I love hand-painted fabrics: there is something
is more important than ‘getting it right’. renewing.The act of taking time out of our so beautiful about the quality of line and
Quilting is a very accessible craft. It comes day to make, time to look after yourself, time textures you can create by mark making,
with some fundamental skills that you to be with loved ones. Modern quilting is so I’ve been experimenting more with
need to know, but they can be altered and all about time.The moments we share with that process.
changed to suit you.You don’t have to have a one another and the processes we choose What do you hope people will take
sewing machine (although it helps) and you to adopt to take care of ourselves. from the book?
can create quilts with simple materials and Tell us a out the first uilt you made Quilting is a wonderful way to connect with
ea to find tool . e fir t ilt ever made a al o m materials, create with no barriers and make
Quilting is regarded as such as a traditional fir t bmi ion to t e Fe tival of ilt a with no judgement. I hope that people will
art form, why is it right for our times? a competition quilt. It was entitled Again be able to start thinking about the resources
Quilting throughout history has had and was a visual commentary on self- around them, how to use second-hand
moments of resurgence and popularity as a confidence and not al a feeling a en e of materials to great effect and also learn a little
craft practice and art form. Its foundations belonging. It was a collaged composition of bit about quilting’s history and what it means
are rooted in necessity and its development black and white shapes and digitally-printed to the people who quilt as part of their daily
a been in enced b ind trial revol tion , photography that I warped and distorted, lives. I cover a short introduction to quilting’s
community and heritage. Quilting is used representing the feelings of distortion in my long past, but in a way that brings forward
to tell stories, for protest, to bring people own thoughts. It was hand appliquéd and the communities and heritage so deeply
together and to provide for people – there quilted. It received some good criticism from embedded in the craft.
is so much embedded into the idea and the judging panel and it empowered me to I’ve also included a series of skills workshops
practice of quilting. keep going. broken down into the fundamentals of

quilt making; each one focusing on different make new things and get stuck into new
ways to connect and piece fabric to create research. I also launched a new collaboration
different outcomes. I’ve included twenty with Takahashi McGil, creating a hand-carved
creative quilting projects inspired by my wooden Hera marker tool, which is a tool
childhood and things that I like to make: commonly used in quilt making to mark
items you can personalise with different and crease fabric. I have some exciting
fabrics and colour stories.The emphasis collaborations on the way, working on a new
is about making objects personal to you, collection of printed textiles and also running
with stories and memories imbued into in-person workshops again, which I love. It
the process. will be a busy year, but I am so grateful for
What lies ahead for the rest of this year? all the opportunities. House of Quinn is
This year is all about new work and the currently a one-person operation and I am
next collection of quilts and objects, which hoping to grow and develop my practice
Modern Quilting, a contemporary guide to
will be coming to the House of Quinn store and eventually open a studio and space
quilting by hand by Julius Arthur of House
over the next few months. It’s been nice to that people can come and visit. e of Quinn is out now, Hardie Grant £18.99

profile
DRAWN
TOGETHER
Soft bodies stitched with graphic sketch them ahead of time on my iPad, playing with
tenderness capture the art of undressing colour stories and layout. So by the time I get to actually
stitching – recreating what I’ve already mapped out – I
– all with a whole lot of joy. Step inside the find it ver rela ing.
creative world of artist Meghan Willis illi t died for a Bac elor of lied rt in Fa ion
e ign at er on niver it in oronto. nd fa ion
remain er da ob. B t a t at role became more
I
t’s exciting to see the boundaries of embroidery being
poked and prodded. To appreciate how thread can be used managerial, she found herself looking for a creative
to narrate different stories. Meghan Willis stitches portraits, outlet. ‘I thought, okay, how do I still connect to that
of friends and models, that are quite raw, and quite lovely. creative iece of me er fir t ma ing endeavo r a
She has an empathy with her subjects, using stitch to portray animal-shaped handbags, that she sold on Etsy and at
them in all their brilliance and uniqueness. craft o . B t t en it got to a oint ere became
Currently living in Hong Kong, with a view of skyscrapers like a factory of one.’
t at o ldn t loo ami in t e film Blade nner, illi She continued searching for her outlet and found
embroidery is something she does ‘nights and weekends’, herself sketching ‘after many years of not sketching
alongside her day job working in apparel. It must be like having anything’ using her partner’s photographs. ‘We had a
a second job. Willis and her partner have travelled (and then surplus of photos. I thought that’s nice, I’ll use that.
some) a long way from her roots in Toronto, Canada. Over ne of m ver fir t erie a called States of Undress,
the years she’s moved to Ohio for work, then New York and, like somebody taking off a shirt. We had friends that we
after three years in Hong Kong, will soon return to the US were photographing, so we were able to kind of tie our
to ettle in Mar land. er ob rovide a financial afet net two crafts together.’ Most, if not all, of Willis’s embroidery
for her embroidery work and this is how she likes it. It means subjects are naked or in their underwear. At the time her
she’s free to stitch whatever she wants: ‘I can create what I work was focused on women, something she says was a
want to create.’ ver ecific c oice b t al o abo t o a available to
An early indication that this is not your usual embroidery is be photographed.
Willis’s Instagram, where she lists herself as ‘Enby Embroiderer
reamer . nb i a onetic ron nciation of NB, ort for
nonbinary person. A refusal to identify as your usual ‘anything’
seems to characterise Willis and her work. She separates her
stitch life from work life, largely motivated by the fact that
embroidery is how she relaxes. ‘It’s my version of meditation.
m er ecific abo t o lan m embroiderie . all

Greenspace, 2020. 2 x 3 cm.
Cotton thread, acrylic paint,
cotton. Appliqu , backstitch.
©MEGAN WILLIS

The move to New York opened up new horizons and new Instagram, looking at people who were already getting naked
questions for Willis. ‘I thought maybe I want to expand what and posting the images, sometimes labelled for re-use by artists.
my focus looks like. And maybe even how I want to identify. ‘There is something especially powerful about taking photographs
I don’t even want to box myself in.’ that people have chosen to represent themselves, a photo that
Still, Willis doesn’t regard her work as highly politicised, rather as somebody took thinking I look powerful and amazing in this.’
highly personal. ‘At the end of the day, it’s about creating art that B no er foc a on gender and bodie of all ind , f elled
find bea tif l and intere ting for m elf. nd not al a orr ing b er o n o rne e tioning t e norm. B t it a al o
about whether the audience enjoys it.’ underscored by a quest for beauty, rather than Willis waving a
Moving to Hong Kong, leaving friends behind, made it more of big olitical ag. t in t at it el to im rove t e diver it of
a c allenge to find model . illi t rned to eb ite reddit and imagery that’s out there. The more that you see, for instance,

2 3
At the end of the day, it’s about creating art that I find
beautiful and interesting for myself. And not always
worrying about whether the audience enjoys it
4
1. Eyes of the Beholder, 2019. 2 x 3 cm.

Cotton thread, acrylic paint, cotton. Backstitch.
2. Red, 2021. 3 x 3 cm.
Cotton thread, nylon mesh, cotton.
Appliqu , backstitch.
3. A World Apart, 2020. 30 x 40cm.
Cotton thread, acrylic paint, cotton, linen.
4. Sun in the Morning, 2021. 2 x 30cm.
Cotton thread, acrylic paint, cotton.
. Ireanna in Blue, 2019. 2 x 3 cm.
Cotton thread, acrylic paint, cotton. Backstitch
IMAGES: ©MEGAN WILLIS

1
I’m focused on simple line work. If I have an idea, I want to get it out of my head and
get it done. I’ve found the way to make it work for me and how I like to create
these images of plus-sized women lounging around in their 2

lingerie, whether it’s in photos or in embroidery, it’s not shocking
or jarring because it’s normalised; because it’s part of the lexicon
of what we’re looking at on a regular basis.’
Considering Willis is working in a slow medium she works
rett fa t, ma ing to iece a ear. S e li e to fini a
piece and move on. ‘I’m focused on simple line work. If I have
an idea, I want to get it out of my head and get it done. I’ve
found the way to make it work for me and how I like to create.’
In terms of materials Willis keeps it simple. Around 80 per cent
of her work is created with black DMC thread in backstitch. And
that is her happy place.
She has shown her work with the Lindsay Gallery in Columbus,
io, and i a reg lar at t e Stitc Feti S o at t e ive
Gallery in Los Angeles, which bills itself as ‘the most whimsical,
lea t ob ectif ing fibre erotica o aro nd . t er i e t e be t
place to see her work is social media. Willis has a lively Instagram
feed where you can keep up with her work.
Willis seems very content with her peripatetic life. And lives
happily in a home that sounds like a creative oasis. Sometimes
it onl en o find o r elf in t e o t ide orld t at o
are reminded you are at all different. Some years ago, Willis
took an embellishment class at Lesage in Paris. They introduced
themselves. The other pupil that day worked for a fashion house
known for its embroidery. ‘And there was me. I work for my day
job with a sports brand. And then, in my spare time, I embroider
nipples. The instructor was looking at me like wait, what. . . ?’ e
Jane Audas
26 MB July August 2021

3
4
1. Linear, 2020. 2 x 3 cm. Cotton thread, acrylic paint, cotton. Backstitch.

2. Duplicate (detail), 2021. 30 x 30cm. Cotton thread, cotton, linen.
3. Diverge, 2020. 40 x 40cm. Cotton thread, acrylic paint, linen. Chainstitch
(top of stockings), woven with stitch to secure (stockings). Backstitch.
4. Art Deco (work in progress) 2021. Acrylic paint, cotton. Appliqu .
. Draped in Stripes, 2020. 30 x 30cm. Cotton thread, acrylic paint, linen.
6. Meghan Willis stitching, 2021.
PHOTO: REN TSURU
7. Tangled in Flowers, 2020. 2 x 30cm. Cotton thread, Liberty of London

cotton. Appliqu , backstitch.
IMAGES: ©MEGAN WILLIS
July August 2021 MB 27

profile
sign of
the times
For Nne a one t ere i t e art or , t e tor be ind
the artwork and the story that the artwork tells’ – wise words
from t i rinidadian, Florida ba ed arti t, o e o erf l
embroider i la ing it art in fig ting for c ange
TH STARS A D STRIP S, that monochrome and the black bleeding as his family and friends would’ve seen
symbol of the much beleaguered red, neka Jones’ New American him when he was alive’ – Jones regarded
American Dream of justice and Revolution became TIM magazine’s her explicit sharing of the progress of
freedom, has frequently been first ever hand embroidered cover. her painting as ‘something that the
appropriated by artists to express Living testimony to the power and reach public needed, at a time when everyone
dissension. Purportedly a protest of social media, Jones, freshly graduated was very vulnerable and isolated’. And
against McCarthyism, Jasper Johns from the niversity of Tampa’s BFA although initially attracted to the video,
painted a white one, as did AA course, had posted a video of herself Williams, after scrolling through her
Bronson – though in his, a response on Instagram painting a portrait of page, had noticed Jones’s embroidery.
to 9 11, the whiteness represents the George Floyd. And Victor Williams, ‘At first he’d mistaken my embroidery
dust that covered Manhattan. While TIM magazine’s art director, had seen for paintings,’ says Jones, laughing, ‘but
Barbara Kruger, eschewing the stars it. Having become ‘very emotional’ after when he reached out to me by email
and stripes, filled hers with text – block watching the ‘gruesome’ video of Floyd’s he’d said how blown away he’d been that
capitals, terse, blunt and questioning. In killing, Jones had begun creating an they were embroidered.’ Intending to
August 2020 the flag was invoked once image of him. Initially an act of personal commission her to sew a portrait for the
more. pended, with its colours made catharsis – a way of ‘just capturing him cover, which Jones had thought would
28 MB July August 2021

Left to right: Green Light, 2020.
30.5cm round. Acrylic and hand
embroidery on canvas.
Not For Your Entertainment, 2021.
25.4cm round. Acrylic and hand
embroidery on canvas.
Red Light, 2020. 30.5cm round.
Acrylic and hand embroidery
on canvas.
Yellow Light, 2020. 30.5cm round.
Acrylic and hand embroidery
on canvas.
PHOTOGRAPHY: NNEKA JONES, @ARTYOUHUNGRY

I NEVER SAW IT AS AN
EMBROIDERY PROCESS,
I JUST SAW IT AS PAINT
IN A DIFFERENT FORM
be ‘a bit hit and miss’, she’d persuaded continue improving my craft.’ It was in floss from Walmart’, set to work on
Williams to allow her to depict the flag. her second year when, persuaded by a a self portrait. ‘I never saw it as an
evertheless, the possible backlash from tutor to attend a class in experimental embroidery process, I just saw it as
her de construction of such a weighty painting, Jones began embroidering. paint in a different form’. The labour
icon did concern her. ‘When people Though she says that as a child threading intensity of it however, was a shock.
tagged me on Instagram they’d probably needles in her mother’s sewing room she sed to completing a painting within
see that I was from Trinidad and question was ‘curious’ – she ‘never actually sewed one to three days, Jones describes how
(my right) as a Trinidadian artist to flip anything’ – admitting ‘I didn’t see it as after ten to thirteen hours she’d only
the flag and change its colours.’ Her fears creating art.’ completed a small piece of it.
were unfounded, with ‘a lot of people Wedded to her ‘painterly style’, Jones evertheless, it was ‘kind of tingling at
commenting that we love what you did’. was temporarily thrown by the surprise my creative side’. Antithetical to many
When she’d left Trinidad and Tobago embargo on the use of paint in the artists, who are super protective of their
with a scholarship to study Fine Art at class but began researching the work of work in progress, as a way of detaching
Tampa, Jones was in no doubt that she embroidery artists like Cayce Zavaglia. herself from the stress and frustration
wanted to be a painter. ‘I was in love with Jones decided to try embroidery and, of its time consuming ness, Jones
hyper realistic painting and wanted to finding a ‘cheap packet of embroidery began the practice of photographing
Left to right: Dartboard Target, 2019. 20.3 x 25.4cm.

Acrylic and hand embroidery on canvas.
Shooting Range Target, 2019. 20.2 x 25.4cm.
Colorblind Shooting Range, 2019. 20.3 x 25.4cm.

1 2
3 4
1 Dartboard Target in progress, 2019.

2 Destroy the Myth, 2021. 40.6 x 51cm.
3 Green Light in progress, 2020.
4 Yellow Light in progress, 2020.
5 The New American Revolution, 2020. 27.9 x 35.5cm.
6 The New American Revolution in progress.

5
6
PEOPLE ARE USED TO SEEING

REGULAR PORTRAIT PAINTINGS
BUT THEY’RE NOT ACCUSTOMED TO
SEEING HAND-EMBROIDERED ONES
AND PARTICULARLY ONES THAT
DEAL WITH SEXUAL ABUSE
her embroidering progress and sharing and women of colour stare out through emails.’ An astute, remarkably level
it with her tutors and fellow students. It the banded circles, their eyes impassive. headed, young woman, having taken
helped. ‘ ot having had any experience Inspired by Jones’ concern about the the advice of family and friends ‘to have
of embroidery, I started to realise that I’m increasing prevalence of the tra cking a plan B’, Jones supplemented her major
doing something that actually looks K, of young black females, where children in Fine Art with a minor in Marketing.
it looks good.’ travelling back from school alone With several keynote speech events
A passionate believer in art’s part in ‘sometimes wouldn’t make it home’ under her belt, including one at Adobe
prompting societal change, Jones sees (disappearances that, because of their Max, it’s a set of skills that have since
herself as an artist activist. It’s a role that, race, aren’t considered newsworthy), these proved invaluable.
like her embroidery, was conceived at are hard hitting, disquieting images. And After months of sewing in the corner
Tampa. After saying during a tutorial that Jones has no doubt that the fact that they of her apartment, Jones longs, post
she wanted to make work about women’s are embroidered intensifies their potency. Covid, to take a studio. Her other
rights, she was instructed to create a piece ‘It grabs their attention. People are used ambition, somewhat larger in scope,
using condoms. ther students were ‘told to seeing regular portrait paintings but is to own a gallery. xcited by the artists
to get Dixie cups (paper cups) or rope, I they’re not accustomed to seeing hand she’s discovered since the surge of
was told to collect hundreds of condoms.’ embroidered ones and particularly ones interest in black creativity (impassioned
And her Target series was the result. With that deal with sexual abuse.’ on by Floyd’s death and its subsequent
a palette inspired by the carnival esque Catapulted into the global public eye revivification of the Black Lives Matter
hues of her native Trinidad, and looking as a result of her TIME magazine cover, movement) Jones wants to create a
like a cross between indented buttons Jones, still only in her mid twenties, space that not only ‘focuses more on
and West African scarification marks, the has had to rapidly adapt to the demands activism work’ but ‘highlights artists
deflated condoms embody, embellish or of her new found fame. ‘Things have of colour’. And there’s absolutely no
serve as halos to the portraits. Working definitely done a 1 0. It blew up doubt that she will. e
from a ‘collage’ of photographs of friends overnight, with people from the whole Ellen Bell
and those ‘found on Google’, Jones’ world coming to my website. It took
embroidered portrayals of young girls me three weeks to get through all the artyouhungry.com

insight
Obsessed by textiles since her youth, Brooklyn based

Ai Kijima has developed her own unique visual vocabulary,
which draws upon myriad influences, from Japanese
Buddhism to 20th century contemporary pop culture
T H E FA B R I C O F L I F E
I have loved sewing ever since I was very intensively (two years at SAIC and one year
young. In my senior year of high school, at the School of Visual Arts in NYC), I took
I became a foreign exchange student in a hiatus from college. It was at that juncture
Wisconsin in the United States. I’d never that I decided to return to Tokyo to focus on
considered art school in Japan, but my my health after suffering a deep depression.
Wisconsin art teacher was impressed by
In Tokyo I started to collect old kimonos
my drawing.The class was small, with only
I found at ea markets often held at shrines
eight students, each doing their own thing.
and temples. My intense interest in beautiful
Since I didn’t have a formal art education
kimonos grew strong and my desire to make
background, I had no clue what to do.The
my own textiles started to grow with it.
fact that my teacher did not teach in the
ian manner al o m tified me, et it al o In my mid-twenties I set my mind to
offered freedom. I decided on making a completely concentrate on textiles. My
bunch of drawings of movie stars, animals fascination quickly evolved and led me to
and other subjects I copied from sources I create my own fabric. I taught myself about
found: artwork by the old masters, Picasso, plant dyes, wool spinning and hand weaving.
Joan Miró, images from National Geographic. I rented 10 square metres of land from the
She encouraged me to apply to art schools city of Suginam in Tokyo and planted indigo,
in the US, and I was accepted at the School erb and o er to d e m arn.
of the Art Institute of Chicago in Illinois. My paternal grandmother, whom I’d not
The experience of being immersed in the had much opportunity to spend time with,
Institute’s rich environment, surrounded by happened to love weaving. My father’s
so much creative talent was highly motivating hometown of Gujo in Gifu prefecture in
and I decided to pursue a career as an Japan is a famous region for handspun silk
artist. After studying painting and drawing weaving. My grandmother didn’t weave for
Opposite: Burn It Up, 2006.

264 x 231cm. Found textiles.
Fused and machine quilted.
PHOTO: DAVID ETTINGER

1
1. New Love Plan #4, 2013. I’ve been working on my Pop series, in active, so this tremendous loss had a huge
122 x 175cm. Found textiles. much the same style, for nearly 20 years. impact on me. I believe there is a connection
Fused and machine quilted. I am very fond of pop imagery because between this experience and my attraction
PHOTO: AI KIJIMA
it is democratic, familiar and accessible to to worn-out, secondhand materials, which
2. Night Is Young (detail), 2006. most everyone, regardless of age, nationality satisfy personal and universal yearnings on
190.5 x 345.5cm. Found textiles.
Fused and machine quilted. or class. Similarly, mass-produced printed everal level . find t e re ence of love,
PHOTO: DAVID ETTINGER fabric suits my intention. At the heart of memory and nostalgia in the cute kids’
3. RWSO, 2012. my art-making is a non-hierarchical vision bedsheets, sleeping bags and pillowcases that
165 x 231cm. Found textiles. that respects and celebrates each individual were lovingly selected by mothers for their
PHOTO: AI KIJIMA
a re ection of m a ane e B dd i m children. Once upon a time they were used
background. tenderly, later to be discarded – the debris
a rai ed b a devoted B dd i t of human existence. My handling of this type
mother, and this spiritual upbringing was of material – the cutting apart, arranging
an important part of my family’s life. It and intense quilting to unify the parts into
a ed m belief tem and in enced one piece of tapestry – is a healing process.
my approach to making art. I’m not so I experience a deep feeling of empathy and
much interested in making personal and the presence of a mother’s love for her child
a living but I learned she was raising sheep literal political statements with the use – something I’ve longed for.
to make her own homespun wool as a of a particular cartoon character. Instead,
hobby. Clearly this deep passion for textiles Many of the materials I use are considered
my interest is in making an overall striking,
runs through my family on both sides and I vintage or collectible items nowadays,
eclectic, and unique visual through the
believe I was destined to work with textiles. and I value their historical importance.
complex layering of multiple motifs of
made m fir t ilt en a it love anti e and vintage find . e
bold colour and shape.
rayon chirimen, a traditional Japanese crepe neighbourhood in Tokyo where I grew
fabric. From the very beginning, my intention The processing of the loss of a loved one is up is well known as one of the city’s
has always been to make artwork for display, another important aspect of my art-making. best antique districts, with many antique,
and not functional bedspreads. I’ve made There is an elegiac aspect to my process and vintage and secondhand stores specialising
over 100 quilted pieces and have never my work. When I was 13, my mother died, in Japanese, Asian, European, African and
made a single piece that’s functional yet. aged 44. She had always been so vibrant and American collectibles. I would regularly stop

2

1
by after school and spend hours happily to reuse something instead of discarding it. In my view, a mass produced printed
exploring and looking, just as much as the Two Japanese folk textile traditions, which Superman bedsheet is as important a
fabric stores. When I moved to Chicago, I exemplify this idea are boro (mended and ignifier of an era a a vintage i t le
began obsessively collecting vintage clothing patched textiles) and sakiori (rag weaving). oral dre from t e . t a an
and household materials, including kid’s This philosophy in the culture and collective antique, hand woven silk kimono is every bit
homewares with cartoon characters printed unconscious of Japan has proved a guiding a ignificant it a o erf l tor to tell.
on them. I loved the bold, eye-popping force. It led me to use primarily secondhand am not hesitant about juxtaposing elements
imagery. In my mind they hold a special materials, which offers me marvellous from distinctly different times and places to
historical importance within the context choices – bed sheets, pillowcases, tablecloths, create a visually striking piece of art.
of our disposable-prone society. I want to scarves, tea towels, handkerchiefs, aprons, I am aware that as I age and continue to
rescue them before they disappear.To me kimonos, movie banners, clothing and more grow spiritually, I am succeeding in detaching
t e are c lt ral artefact from t e t and find t eir a into m art. particular and literal meanings from each
t cent rie ort of re ervation. image. I’ve started to see them more and
The process of collage-making is a mental
In Japan, the sense of regret over training and dis ipline to stay in the o more as fragments of abstract colour, form
wastefulness, with a high value placed on state. c allenge m elf to find t e erfect and mass. I am curious to see how far I can
reusability, is deeply rooted in the culture. place, always seeking the right spot for an push toward abstraction while using the
The concept that all things have a soul is at image or pattern, freed from hesitation, same materials and technique. e
the centre of this view. We respect and strive personal bias and doubt. aikijima.com
38 MB l g t
1. Diamond Pop Quilt, 2018.
2
52 x 51.5cm. Found textiles
PHOTO: AI KIJIMA
2. Stronger Faster, 2017.

59.6 x 48.2cm. Found textiles.
PHOTO: AI KIJIMA
3. Ai Kijima.
4. An, 2012.
139.7 x 221cm. Found textiles.
PHOTO: AI KIJIMA
l g t MB
40 MB l g t
first person
R E C OV E RY / R E S I L I E N C E
H OW Q UI LTI NG SAVED M Y LI FE
Karina Thompson shares how the simple act of making saved her in hard times
e eriod bet een 6 and omo obia ad ffered ear earlier.
T
I collaged with photocopies of the fabric but
was a bad time. Our house suffered Angela said in a neighbourly way: ‘Ooh. What then rapidly dived in. Letters were digitised
a ma or ood and t e b e ent are you going to do with all that anger?’ as if from scratch, sometimes with puddles of
refit a andled o badl t at e ad to it was a tangible thing – something that could metallic thread stitched in splatters alongside,
get m M and t e financial omb d man be picked up and carried and moulded into then stitched onto blocks that were pieced
involved. Family members were seriously ill, something else. I didn’t have an answer but and free-motion quilted. When faced with an
and there was a row that alienated me from those words buzzed around my head like a aesthetic dilemma the solution was simple –
my family for a year. When a professional bluebottle in a jam-jar. I repeatedly asked go for the joyful option.
disappointment happened after working on myself ‘what will you do with your anger?’ And it worked.The simple act of making for
it for 18 months I buckled: I went under. n t e five ear rior to t i ad com leted myself, not the audience, helped me rebuild
I was in a very dark place. In the past when I’d commissions exploring leukaemia and myself. I wasn’t overthinking the process but
been in tough spots, my practice had always blood disorders and cardiology, as well as just doing; trying to swim in the happiness of
been the safety valve. I had repeatedly used residencies looking at crippling bone diseases pinks, yellows and turquoise. Of course this
metaphor as a way to express my thoughts: or working with prosthetic limbs. It was heavy wasn’t just the quilts that bought about my
symbolic animals running for their lives; blocks going. My colour palette had gone from richly recovery but they were emblematic of the
of dark colours overpowering ambiguous saturated hues to dark, dour monochrome. journey back.
shapes.This time it was different. I had ‘maker’s Whilst my work wasn’t making me ill, it Considering I was making them for myself,
block’. I couldn’t work and felt like I was certainly hadn’t been helping. they have been exceptionally well received.
looking into a void. Writer William Stryon, So I decided I would work with colour again. e fir t t o ave been on a ro ean
compared depression to being ‘imprisoned in Brig t, vivid colo r. t didn t matter at d tour and the third was commended on the
a fiercel over eated room , b t for me it a make, whatever it was, it would be for me. shortlist for the Vlieseline Fine Art Textile
a crushing sensation. I felt overwhelmed by There would be no serious story to tell: it ard in . not er t ree it in iece
the weight of failure. would be for my own pleasure, and about in my studio and I have made three quilts
I had been doing some mentoring for the the joy of just making. And then it became as a personal response to Covid. I don’t
Crafts Council as part of its Parallel Practice apparent that what I needed to do was to know when I will get to show them but,
residencies with thread-based artist Angela make a quilt that asked in joyful colours at the moment, that doesn’t matter. When
Maddock. As the project drew to an end ‘What will you do with your anger?’ collector anted to b t e ver fir t
we agreed to continue with a reciprocal Two weeks later I bought a pack of charms Recovery Quilt I realised I couldn’t let it go
agreement to mentor each other. It took a five inc are of a ane e en and made them another version.The irony is
number of months to actually admit how fabric.They were perfect – a confection that quilt’s title is Let Go. It’s precious to me
‘stuck’ I was. In a conversation with Angela of jewel like colours, cherry blossom and beca e of t e emotional ignificance in t e
I found myself ranting about all sorts of c r ant em m , ing crane and atterned blocks of bright blossoms, swirls and splatters
things, ranging from the aftermath of the fan , all laced it fine golden rint. t fir t, of gold. I’ll never let that one go. e
ood, olitic , a erceived lac of cce and was hesitant. I hadn’t made for nearly a year. karinathompson.co.uk
l g t MB 41
profile
another SHERRI LYNN WOOD EXPRESSES strong opinions. Art quilter,

performer and educator, she is particularly vociferous about sewing and
dimension what she refers to as the ‘white supremacist’ all-pervading insistence

that it be measured, straight-ruled and perfect. It was an inculcation that
only became clear to her in 1987 when she visited Who’d a Thought
ART AND QUILTING ARE THE it?, an exhibition of Eli Leon’s collection of African American quilts, then
PERFECT HOLISTIC VEHICLES touring at the University of North Carolina’s Ackland Museum of Art.
FOR SHERRI LYNN WOOD TO eon, a trained c ologi t and gra ic de igner, a an avid ea
ADDRESS BIG QUESTIONS market and yard-sale collector. In the early 1980s he began collecting
AROUND LIFE, MEANING, frican merican ilt , in artic lar t o e b ffie Mae o ard a a
COMMUNITY AND JOY o ie ee om in . t became an ob e ion t at literall filled i
small Oakland bungalow. At his death in 2018 it amounted to 3,100
ilt b over arti t , and 68 b om in , o er elf died in
6 . Be eat ed to t e Ber le rt M e m and acific Film
rc ive B M F , eon collection of om in ilt i c rrentl
being featured in a comprehensive retrospective.
fter fir t enco ntering t em in at a olo o at B M F ,
Roberta Smith the New York Times’ art critic describes the haphazard
shapes, often electric colours and occasionally almost irreverent,
juxtaposition of found textile ephemera of Tompkins’s quilts as ‘canon-
busting’, of ‘transcend[ing] quilting’ and having ‘the power of painting’.
They are astonishing. And they were to be Wood’s epiphany. ‘They
just blew me away, they were so profound. But the main thing is that
I’d never seen a quilt made like that.’
Born in Indiana but raised in North Carolina, from the age of nine
Wood wanted to be a minister. But halfway through divinity school
Wood, then in her mid-twenties, ‘dropped out’. ‘I still felt a calling but I
wasn’t cut out for the job. I didn’t want the responsibility of leading a
c rc comm nit . Feeling lo t, e began ma ing ilt a a alliative
‘Sewing became a self-healing process.’ With ongoing projects like
Passage Quilting, which assists the mindful navigation of loss through the

pposite left Flash, 2019. 284.5 x 254 x 30.5cm. Repurposed
men’s shirt, sheets, fabric & clothing scrap and (right) Swell, 2019.
1 2.4 x 279.4cm. Repurposed orange pants, sheets and curtain.
Installed at the Joan Mitchell Center, ew rleans.
PHOTO: SHERRI LYNN WOOD
Above Sherri Lynn Wood in her akland CA studio, 2014.

From The Improv Handbook For Modern Quilters (2015, Abrams).
PHOTO: SARA REMINGTON

Portal, 2016, 203 x 203 x 152cm. Installation
dimensions variable. Sheer and beaded
curtains, hand quilted with wool thread, wood,
rope. Installed at Recology San Francisco.
PHOTO: NICHOLAS ALBRECHT
When I saw quilts from Rosie Lee Tomkins and others from Eli’s collection,
I was just blown away by the freedom of them. I’d never seen sewing like that
process of forming quilts from a loved one’s clothes – the notion or , i a direct reference to er fir t fora into ilting il t
of making as a form of restorative and regenerative healing has visiting a family friend’s rural Virginian farm; the women of the house
been an integral part of Wood’s practice ever since. As indeed sat at the dining-room table chain-piecing pre-cut calico squares
have the rites and rituals of faith. on an old Singer Featherweight. ‘So they showed me how to
o g er a le defined t an t e form laic ractice of a chain-piece, all those hundreds and hundreds of little squares and
particular church or creed, Wood’s performative works embrace triangles that you have to sew together so perfectly, and I thought it
a multitude of quasi-devotional and spiritual rituals. There’s the a a lot of f n. t a an e erience t at, along it t e in ence
glorious Mantra Trailer – a ‘surprising and beautiful space inside, all of her ‘drapery-making’ grandmother in Chicago who would send
quilted gold’ – that Wood ‘drove all around the country’, in which er am le boo and remnant , er aded t e ear old ood
eo le co ld meditate and record t eir er onal affirmation . nd to ave er allo ance and b er fir t e ing mac ine.
there’s the ongoing Group Stitching Mantra, where participants aving en o ed cce elling er traditional ilt at a local
im ltaneo l embroider a ibetan t le ra er ag ile vocali ing farmer’s market, Wood struggled to eschew all she’d previously
one word of their mantra as their needle pierces the cloth. ingested and adapt her process to incorporate the bolder, more
Blessed are the Piece-Makers, Wood’s most recent performative intuitive style of the African American quilts she’d seen. ‘Sewing
44 MB l g t
1
2
1 Portal (detail), 2016. The printed pattern on the shear curtains dictate the
stitching and placement of the rows of beads.
2 Six Pairs of Pants, 2016. 249 x 292cm. Repurposed materials including six pairs of
military uniform pants, comforter and cotton thread.
3 Safety Network (detail), 2016. 231 x 206cm. Made from retired safety vests and
uniforms worn by the Recology staff.
4 Business Attire, 2016. 144.7 x 1 2. cm. Repurposed men’s oxford shirts, silk ties,
linen tablecloth, fleece.
5 Pits, 2016. 167.6 x 188cm. Repurposed shirt sleeves, silk ties, mattress pad, sheet,
hand quilted with cotton thread, and Singularity, 2016. 19.05m x 25.4cm to 83.8cm
in circumference. Installation dimensions variable. Repurposed jeans, polystyrene
foam from stuffed animals. Installed at Recology San Francisco.
PHOTOGRAPHY: NICHOLAS ALBRECHT

for me had always been a restricted, precision, perfection-based performance piece that allowed the audience to express their
feminine process and in some ways a soul-killing one. And I was feelings about the US political process – and the huge box of
good at it, b t en a ilt from o ie ee om in and pre-cut patchwork squares Wood intends to use for her Blessed
others from Eli’s collection, I was just blown away by the freedom are the Piece-Makers performance-meditation, a homage to what
of them. I’d never seen sewing like that. The way they make quilts she calls ‘the devotion of generations of anonymous female quilt
is just so different to the way the white community makes them – makers’.
a tradition I’ve been raised in.’ For all the media attention that African American quilts excited,
Wanting to embrace this new way of working, Wood tried to c lminating in t e di cover of t e ee Bend ilt a remote
make one but found it looked rigid. She ended up enrolling on enclave of Alabama, mostly comprising descendants from slaves)
one of Nanc ro fir t im rovi ational im rov or o . in t e earl , ood con ider t at ilting b omen till
leading fig re in t e develo ment of t e art ilting movement, hasn’t been fully accepted as an art form although that is beginning
Crow had also been recently exposed to African American quilts, to change’.
primarily those of Anna Williams, then her friend’s housekeeper. Now based in Cincinnati, Ohio, Wood, who regards her own
Wood never looked back: ‘It was like a door opening’. creative work and teaching as parallel elements of her art practice,
iltma er for over ear , in ood bli ed The Improv i dee in t e roce of e tabli ing t e Brave atc Sc ool. Forced
Handbook for Modern Quilters: A Guide to Creating, Quilting and Living by the pandemic to teach wholly online, Wood has been thrilled
Courageously, which, soon to be in its sixth edition, has sold well over not only by its global reach but the growing multi-cultural mix of
, co ie . it btitle gge t , ood facilitating met od i her students. Keen to respond to what she calls the current ‘racial
a holistic one – both ecumenical and evangelical in approach, she reckoning’ in the US, Wood ‘woke up to the thought this summer
talks in terms of: ‘Scores (like loose jazz-led sheet notations) which that there needs to be space for quilt makers that is not pervaded
activate restorative rhythms of attention’ that ‘encourages people by white supremacy culture’. An online, diverse ‘practising’ space
to recognise that the way they improvise patterns in their quilts Brave atc i eciall de igned for im rov ilter . ilter love to
correlates to the way they make relationships in life’. meet and make community. This is a space where people share their
As someone who believes that ‘craft can be a very consumption- improv quilts and process and really get relevant feedback. A space
ba ed activit , in ood rged er elf of all er material one’. e
that will, you know, ‘celebrate differences and welcome everyone’.
and no e mo tl rec cled fabric . S e fir t embraced t i Ellen Bell
abit d ring a fo r mont re idenc at ecolog , t e a te sherrilynnwood.com
management cor oration for t e cit of San Franci co in 6,
where all her quilts and sculptures were constructed from what
she ‘scavenged’ from the dump, and these self-same materials Rosie Lee Tompkins: A Retrospective is showing at UC Berkley
continue to source her practice. There’s the red, white and blue Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive until July 18
pre-made political bunting featured in Furl/Unfurl – an interactive bampfa.org
46 MB l g t
2 3
1 Silver Lining (detail), 2016. 208 x 244cm. Freestyle quilt mash-up

made from cotton and silver lamé. 4
2-3 David Hill (1956-2010) for Quinn & Sailor, 2012. 106.6 x 119.3cm each.
Memory Passage Quilts made from the clothing of the deceased and clothing
from his young children, for his children.
4 Mod Mood Quilt, 2010. 152 x 157.5cm. ‘Using a mood colour chart created
from hand-dyed cotton fabric, I chose colours to match my mood at six
different intervals.’
5-6 Furl/Unfurl, 2019. Dimensions variable. Social practice, interactive
sculpture, performance. ‘The public was invited to sculpt their point of view
and experiences of democracy in the USA, using political bunting salvaged
from the dump, seams cut from a pair of Calvin Klein men’s jeans, and a
studio work ladder. Images document the debut engagement at the Joan
Mitchell Center, ew rleans.’
PHOTOGRAPHY: SHERRI LYNN WOOD
5 6
The Improv Handbook for

Modern Quilters, a guide
to creating, quilting & living
courageously. Sherri Lynn
Wood, Abrams £19.99

profile
Ursus maritimus, 2012.

59 x 63.5 x 48cm.
Polymer clay, faux fur, linen,
embroider o , acr lic
aint, gla , ire, foam.
PHOTO: DAN WONDERLY
‘I like to play with cuteness versus the grotesque’

animal
instinct
ebora Simon t ree dimen ional
animal c l t re tread a di ieting
at ic e tion ideologie t at
ave gro n aro nd t e ild and
t e tame, t e bea tif l and grote e
IN HER STUDIO DEBORAH SIMON makes what she
wants. A trained sculptor, painter, draughtswoman and
self-taught embroiderer, Simon can, and does, seemingly
turn her hand to anything. While by day a scenic artist for
the film industry, by night and at the weekend she sculpts,
draws and embroiders.
Such multi-facetedness is both innate and necessary for her.
An iconoclast, she sparks with energy. Though born just
outside Washington DC, Simon’s family ‘moved about a bit,
often in the middle of the school year. My father worked for
the government, and then he went to law school’. Perhaps
due in part to her nomadic childhood and the consequent
disruption to her education – ‘I rarely finished in the
same system’ – Simon not only exudes a huge appetite for
learning, doing and melding different things but also skill
in adapting to them.
The tension inherent in marrying such often antithetical
practices of sculpture and embroidery, the challenge of
‘keeping them blended’, clearly excites her. And yet, for all
this whirl of the new, the focus of Simon’s practice remains
sacrosanct: animals.
‘Animals were my first love. I’d spend hours lying on my
bedroom floor with my Ranger Rick, a kind of kid’s magazine
about animals, and copy out the photos in pencil. I had every
issue.’ With her burgeoning love affair seemingly unsated
by mere two-dimensional images, Simon got her mother to
enrol her on a Saturday morning art class at University of
Michigan’s Natural History Museum.
‘It was just before the museum opened. In the first half
we’d draw a shell, a bone or a piece of taxidermy and in the
second we’d be let loose – ten screaming eight year olds –
to draw from the dioramas.’ The die was cast. 3D won. And
having done ‘some’ in high school, Simon opted to study
sculpture at both BA and MA level.

In the US people still get killed by bears and
yet they’ve been de-clawed, de-fanged and put
in the nursery. It’s kind of weird. . .
Embroidery was a home thing, a domestic thing. ‘My mom and
both my grandmothers – everybody did needlework. As a kid I
learnt to do cross stitch and needlepoint, and I always did it. But
it was separate from the sculpture.’ An undergraduate at the San
Francisco Art Institute during the Feminist wave of the late 1980s,
where the prevailing paradigm for female art students was ‘to make
things about the menstrual cycle’, Simon, who chose instead to sculpt
male nudes (‘because it was what I felt like doing’), embroidered to
de-stress.
‘After a long day of critiques and classes and the constant questioning,
I’d decompress by needlepointing – it was something to do with my
hands that didn’t involve making decisions.’ However, unable to find
kits that she enjoyed, she began ‘graphing’ her own from her favourite
artworks – the first being the angel from Leonardo’s Annunciation and
then Hans Hoffman’s Red Squirrel.
With conceptual art at its height, sculpting animals, or, indeed,
anything deemed as representative, at the San Francisco Art
Institute was a no-no. ‘If you were serious you didn’t do animals’.
In fact at the New York School of Visual Arts where she took
her Masters’, (chosen because she happened to go the American
Museum of Natural History during her initial recce and was so
bowled over, almost missing her plane, that she thought that’s it,
I’m going there) Simon painted and sculpted, only ‘shifting back
to animals at the very end’.
After her MA, Simon got a job at the Bronx Zoo’s exhibit department
where she developed skills in manipulating urethanes, fibreglass
and polymers – an experience that, as with the part-time jobs she’d
had in veterinary clinics where she’d assisted during surgery, was to
directly influence her amalgamation of sculpture and embroidery.
Some years later, frustrated that her ‘fully-furred’ animal sculptures
weren’t working or ‘going far enough’, it was while fixing her
pre-labelled, muslin pattern pieces to one of her creatures’ bodies,
that Simon realised she ‘liked how it looked just like one of those
butcher’s maps’. However, recognising that ‘I have the worst
handwriting’, she thought: ‘What if I embroider the words?’
Top: Ursus americanus: Standing, 2015

detail o o ite . . 6 . cm.
Polymer clay, faux fur, linen, embroidery
o , acr lic aint, gla , ire, foam.
Left: Ursus americanus, 2013.
45.5 x 46 x 56cm. Polymer clay,
fa f r, linen, embroider o ,
acr lic aint, gla , ire, foam.
Right: Ursus arctos horribilus,
2013. 66 x 56 x 48cm.
Polymer clay, faux fur, linen,
embroider o , acr lic aint,
gla , ire, foam.
ll dimen ion
PHOTOGRAPHY: DAN WONDERLY

The idea ‘just jumped’ and instead of words, she suddenly found
herself embroidering a blood vessel on a polar bear. Describing
herself as having a ‘natural inclination’ towards ‘extreme accuracy’,
her embellished viscera – dependent as they are upon the
availability of adequate zoological anatomical references – are
a mixture of truth and artistic licence. And though it’s the most
time-consuming element, the embroidery (aka ‘the perks’) is
her favourite process. ‘Most people tell me I should find some
grandmother upstate to do the embroidery for me,’ says Simon,
‘and I say no, that’s the part I like.’
Although there’s been interest from the press, her work can
nonetheless get a mixed reception from the general public.
‘Some people find them repulsive’ says Simon, ‘and I’ve had
some kids be scared of them.’ Nevertheless, audience response
interests her, particularly to her versions of bears and rabbits, those
anthropomorphic staples. ‘They’re animals that are so familiar,
particularly the bears. In the US people still get killed by bears and
yet they’ve been de-clawed, de-fanged and put in the nursery. It’s
kind of weird.’ Nevertheless, it’s an incongruity that fascinates her.
‘I like to play with cuteness versus the grotesque.’
Context and concept are clearly important to Simon. ‘I see the
completed work in my head without fully understanding it, and
as I think about the piece and its concepts – intellectually picking
it apart, some pieces fade away but others stay. Once they’ve kicked
around for a while, and been conceptually examined, I know they
have the staying power to last the six to twelve months of work
required to create them. It’s a balance of knowing the idea has
enough depth to make it worthwhile, without fully understanding
the meaning of the work. As I work, more aspects become clear.
Part of what compels me is discovering all of the meaning. I run
into trouble when I have a concept but no clear vision of the
physical piece. Those projects tend to fail.’
Despite recognising to her horror that she’s become an East-coaster,
for Simon, New York is home – a home she shares with her husband,
and a house-trained rabbit called Winston, who has an inexplicable
penchant for licking upholstery.
A perpetual polymath, who has just taught herself how to paint in
Photoshop (‘I am making digital paintings’), Simon is also currently
experimenting with a series of stumpwork moths to hover on and
within, her Rabbit Kamis. She talks longingly of returning to pre-
pandemic times and laughs at daring to imagine, and reveal, her
dream of featuring in the Whitney Biennial – and why not? For
this artist, the future is full of promise. e
Ellen Bell
deborahsimon.net
Top: Flayed Rabbit: Cottontail, 2016. 63.5 x 25.4 x 23cm.

ol mer cla , fa f r, linen, embroider o , acr lic aint, gla , ire, foam.
PHOTO: JOHN CURRY
ig t or in rogre in ebora Simon t dio.

o ite, cloc i e from to left Rabbit Kami: Blood Vessels, 2020.
PHOTO: JOHN CURRY
Rabbit Kami gro ing, . ac a ro imatel 6 8cm.

Pol mer cla , ret ane, cr tal, e o , fa f r, il organ a, aint, gla , ire.
PHOTO: JOHN CURRY
Flayed Rabbit: Albino, 2016. 56 x 25.4 x 23cm. Polymer clay, faux fur,
linen, embroider o , acr lic aint, gla , ire, foam.
PHOTO: DAN WONDERLY
Flayed Rabbit: Albino with Cells detail , 8. 66 . . cm.

ol mer cla , fa f r, linen, embroider o , acr lic aint, gla , ire, foam.
PHOTO: DAN WONDERLY
ll dimen ion .
52 EMBROIDERY l g t
l g t EMBROIDERY 53
material matters
T H E WAY S H E WO R E
t cent r al ing ac et eld at Ban field M e m
conceal t e e traordinar tor of a ni e oman
ver once in a ile a m e m it a ri e of S , . i ie note for ma ing r nning re air d ring er ear
E come acro an ob ect t at et

t e c ratorial blood racing. t not
nece aril omet ing t at e ce tionall
give an in ig t into er motivation. ant
to rove at a oman can do. Men t in
t at omen co ld not do an t ing b t
on t e road. e ac et i orn in lace
and t ere are definite ign of re air. o can
ee er mar in it, add linor.
bea tif l or val able. t ma be omet ing it at ome. t ant to o t at t e e ear and re air a ell a t e di tance
ordinar , n re o e ing even. Somet ing co ld do omet ing el e. travelled a a great deal abo t i ie.
omemade, orn and atc ed. More often i a definitel omet ing el e, a al oman of irit, one feel . Someone
t an not, it an ob ect t at introd ce t at too er from Ne or to anada, not ea il deterred. ere ere
to a great tor . Not nece aril abo t an t en acro t e tlantic to ngland, and on di co ragement . Finance a an i e.
eminent er on, or an e oc c anging to ro e before t e o tbrea of t e Fir t etter to er fat er a ed for mone . More
moment. More a b ect t at tir t e eart, orld ar bro g t er to a alt. i ie dramaticall , in Se tember e a
one o tart creating a film aro nd in o r a initiall accom anied b arr , b t e arre ted in Berlin for t ro ing a bo et
mind beca e, o ldn t ever one no oon left er and ret rned to merica. M at t e ai er ile earing a co bo o tfit
abo t t i band came it me on t e fir t art and a lacard mar ed , mile .
i ie m rie al ing ac et i one of t e o rne . B t en e ad al ed blicit t nt robabl , b t a g t one.
c ob ect. t art of a gro of material for alf a ear e got tired of t e ole leven mont after t at incident, t e
di covered b i ie famil after er globetrotter b ine and too a teamer ar began and t e globetrotting to ed.
deat in 6 and b e entl given to bac to Ne or . t li e a man. e con ict ic l b med t e tor
er ometo n m e m of Ban field. t i mong ot er t ing , arr ad claimed of i ie al . S e ret rned fir t to er
an e traordinar collection of eemingl to be a c am ion long di tance r nner, ave famil in or ire and t en to anada. ittle
m ndane item t at co ld ea il ave fought in the Boxer Rebellion and reported i no n abo t er b e ent life. at
been lo t to t e ti a v nec ed bodice t e Boer ar. M fat er o ld ave at ma e t i material o ignificant. t
omemade , an em t i tol older de cribed im a a omancer . t er tell a tor ot er i e lo t. er relative
al o omemade , a air of al ing boot , ma e le indl term , given e too ave al a tal ed abo t i ie. e re
cra boo , noteboo , o ter , o tcard it im m c of t e mone t e ad ro d of at e did and e t t e
and film reel . n eclectic gro of ob ect rai ed to cover t eir al . cra boo it ne a er re ort t at
t at toget er trace t e intrig ing tor of i ie a no a oman on er o n. o o e a vie ed at t e time. ne
i ie m rie e ad lobetrotter. S e carried on al ing. arried on rai ing ort film cli a al o rvived. t lovel
i ie a a oman doing an e traordinar f nd b elling o tcard of er elf and to ee er in t e o tfit and t e rece tion
t ing in e traordinar time , e lain giving lect re at t eatre en ro te. ac e received. ere ma be more film in
c rator linor amille ood. e material tal a accom anied b film footage of merica, e don t no . ere are lot of
i ite ni e in Ban field collection. t lace vi ited and eo le met. Ste b mi ing art of t e tor .
n al to ave one iece of co t me and te e cro ed co ntr after co ntr Fragmentar i t e ord linor e .
no o ore it, ere t e ore it and Britain, Scandinavia, Finland, ia, art of a larger ole, omet ing left
al o ave t e feel of t e er on it in it. raine, erman . be ind, di connected. t i t e tor of
e ac et i t e tart of a reall intere ting S e o ld be an internet en ation toda . man m e m ob ect . nd it i t e or
and in iring tor t at t e material a a S e a a good blici t even t en. oo of t e m e m to connect t em to iece
ole tell o ell. at t at to . t a te tile billboard. lain toget er a i tor , to nder tand t e
Born in alifa , or ire in 88 , i ie d rable clot embroidered it t e fact of conte t in ic omet ing e i ted and
emigrated to anada in 8. S e ad er o rne . t i a ractical garment, one in are an in ig t t at mig t be revealed.
everal ob t ere, incl ding or ing on ic e co ld move freel . e titc ing at at Ban field a been doing it
t e tage a l ie el e , before moving ma e clear t at a im ortant. S e i ie material, fir t in di la ing it along ide
to merica ere e met and married a covering 8, mile . t at of ot er omen traveller it alifa
arr m rie in Man attan in it mo t omemade garment t ere lin dit r am, ertr de Bell and
Se tember . eir one moon a i no tated ma er, onl ec lation abo t nne i ter . en in re earc , or ing
ent al ing t e , mile from Ne o it mig t be. band arr ad made it er famil and local i torian to fill
or to Florida. t a t t e tart. n l i o n claim being of co r e a ma ter ome of t o e ga . t arc et al m e m
, t e too a ager to com lete a embroiderer , b t it eem li elier t at it a or , omet ing t at ta e lace da after
8, mile ro nd t e orld al in fo r t e or of i ie er elf. S e ad trained da , ear on ear. ratorial foot logging.
ear . e c allenge ad been i ed b t e a a dre ma er in alifa o ad t e ill . Somet ing o feel i ie o ld re ect. e
Ne or ba ed olo Mont l Maga ine S ill t at o ld ave been e tremel ef l June Hill
54 EMBROIDERY l g t
1
I want to prove what
a woman can do. Men
think that women
could not do anything
but sit at home. I just
want to show that they
could do something
else – Lizzie Humphries
1. Lizzie’s walking jacket with

embroidered leather bag.
2. Detail of the walking jacket showing
various badges and medals collected
during Lizzie’s travels.
3. Detail of the arm of the jacket showing
the name of the magazine.
4. Postcard of Lizzie with her wearing her
jacket. These postcards were sold by
Lizzie to help fund her travels.
PHOTOGRAPHY ©CALDERDALE MUSEUMS
2 3
Lizzie Humphries’ walking jacket

is currently on display in the Oak
Gallery at Bankfield Museum.
Other items from the Museum’s
collection can be seen in its
Fashion Gallery, which has changing
displays throughout the year.
calderdale.gov.uk/museums
l g t EMBROIDERY 55
STITCHED TEXTILES: ANIMALS
WHAT TO Mr Bertim
It’s not often that you discover
READ an artist who brings such
sensitivity and originality to
THIS figurative machine embroidery but
Mrs Bertimus (the pseudonym of
MONTH… artist Letitia Thompson) is one

of this rare breed. In this book she
Make time for explains how to create captivating
summer reading animal stitched portraits using
fabric collage, free-motion
with a variety of machine embroidery and a dash
new titles destined of hand stitch, where, ‘the thread
for the textile becomes the pencil and the fabric
bookshelf becomes the paint.’ She breaks
down the process into easy-to-
follow steps, including lessons
QUEERING THE on, and insights into, sketching
SUBVERSIVE STITCH your subject, techniques and
M N N composition, and creating original
FN work that tells a story through
oe McBrinn your choice of portraiture. There
It seems the Victorians have a lot to are three projects, but all of the
answer for. Men may have threaded examples in this book are a work
their own needles ever since of art in their own right that
medieval times (as well as knitting, everyone will be able to recreate.
stitching and making lace) but when Searc re . b
needlework became aligned with
notions of the feminine in the 18th
and 19th centuries, suddenly the idea of men stitching became
undesirable – even taboo.
Joseph McBrinn hopes to set the record straight, unpicking
the hitherto hidden history of male needlework. The history of
the male stitcher remains shrouded in cultural perceptions of
the effeminate or subversive but, more often than not, writes
McBrinn, is absented from culture entirely.
Several threads run through his book. The opening line
namechecks Rozsika Parker’s The Subversive Stitch, which forms
the touchstone of his research. Parker’s book is central to
contemporary discourse on needlework and writes McBrinn:
‘No other book has made me think so deeply about the implicit
gendering of hierarchical systems of cultural production
and their social, economic and political implications past
and present’. He then expands upon two main themes: how
needlework operated in the making of modern masculinities
through the exclusion and effacement of men, and its
overlooked yet central presence in modern homosexual SIMPLY SASHIKO
identities, and various forms of subcultural resistance. Ni on og e
Along the way he champions the forgotten stories of men
In troubled times, we all need a creative escape, one that’s
of all walks of life and professions (not just artists but kings,
undemanding but still satisfies the soul. Sashiko is a good
Hollywood actors, sailors and everyone in between) who
candidate – a centuries-old tradition, which requires only
produced creative textile work. He includes examples of men’s
four key materials (needle, thread, thimble and fabric).
needlework, as well as visual representations of the male
What’s more, its elegant designs suit contemporary tastes;
needleworker, which he unearthed from museum collections,
no wonder it’s become a firm favourite with the modern
artist’s archives, magazines and specialist publications, popular
mending movement.
novels and children’s literature, photography, film and TV.
Simply Sashiko is a complete guide to the technique, with
I devoured this in one sitting and will no doubt read it again.
36 different patterns that will appeal to both embroiderers
McBrinn has drawn together such a readable history of this
and quilters. With actual-size templates and step-by-step
hitherto overlooked subject, which not only demands to be
instructions included this book lives up to its subtitle
recognised alongside Parker’s, but prompts fresh discourse
of ‘classic Japanese embroidery made easy’.
on men’s history in needlework.
ttle bli ing . b
Bloom b r i al rt . b
56 EMBROIDERY l g t
KAFFE FASSETT IN THE STUDIO MODERN FABRIC
B N S N S M S S N F S N S N
affe Fa ett NS N N F
‘Obsessed as I am by colour’s power, I bb ilc ri t, melia oole
often call my house a colour lab, yet I’d Step inside the studios of today’s rising textile design stars.
never label myself a colour expert’ writes From the subtle patterning of Naomi Ito (of Nani Iro) to the
Kaffe Fassett in his introduction. We retro style of design collective Ruby Star Society – Modern
have to disagree. Kaffe Fassett in the Studio Fabric profiles a sophisticated, eclectic group of designers
takes us inside the vibrant creative world who reflect the breadth of contemporary surface pattern
of his home and studio, with an in-depth design. We find out about their beginnings, their creative
look at his textile practice and sources of process and dreams, and how they run their businesses.
inspiration, paying particular attention Illustrated throughout with beautiful, detailed images of
to his colour work. their studios and fabric designs, Modern
Like most artists, his Fabric offers endless inspiration and a
work is inseparable fascinating insight into the lives of textile
from his life – and both designers from around the world.
are photographed in rinceton rc itect ral re b
stunning detail, plus
he generously shares
some of his favourite
patterns for patchwork,
knit and needlework.
There’s only one word
to describe this book –
glorious.
bram b
MAKE THRIFT MEND

S , , N,
N
B
Katrina Rodabaugh
Slow fashion influencer
Katrina Rodabaugh
follows her bestselling
book, Mending Matters,
book,
with this comprehensive
guide to building (and
keeping) a wardrobe
that matters.
Written in part as a
THE STORY OF THE BAYEUX TAPESTRY manifesto for change
N N N M N N S through conscious living,
avid M grove, Mic ael e i it’s also her attempt to
share a written version of
Most of us are familiar with the Bayeux Tapestry,
the personal art project
but what do we really know about this 68m strip
that began in August
of narrative embroidery, beyond its depiction of the
2013 (with her original
Battle of Hastings? Who made it, when, why, where
fashion ‘fast’) through tutorials, essays, quotes,
and what for? The authors dip into its possible
photographs and extensive resources. She
origins, creation and narrative, which depicts the
breaks down the subject into four chapters
years leading up to the Norman Conquest and its
Build (pausing, organising and researching);
decisive outcome. It’s a fascinating way to brush up
Make (tools and techniques); Thrift & Dye,
on medieval European history, as told through the
and Mend – each accompanied by a range
threads of this historic cloth, which is an exciting
of projects to make. Beautifully illustrated
portrait of political intrigue, treachery, heroism,
throughout, Make Thrift Mend champions
brutal violence, victory and defeat that defines one
the way for sustainable, creative living.
of the pivotal episodes in English history.
bram . b
ame and d on b
l g t EMBROIDERY
review
EILEEN AG A R
ANG EL OF A N A RC H Y
Whitechapel Art Gallery, London 19 May–29 August 2021
N 8 i c an attern and er e of collage a favo rite re lendent in er at made of cor and

intere ting arti t and t i e ibition at t e tec ni e of rreali m. er ainting ere trimmed it coral, ea ell , fi bone, ea
itec a el aller , ondon ar l often l and atc or , a in Muse of rc in and ot er fo nd ob ect , all tra ed
c rated b a ra Smit i timel . Construction and The Bird 6 . on afel it a ide band nder er c in.
omen arti t are increa ingl being ree dimen ional c l t re and bo ed S e generate lent of conf ed glance
reclaimed and redi covered, a t e o ld or in t e e ibition o ca e fo nd from t e eo le a e a e t em b .
be. gar i of intere t not t for er art b t ob ect ic ed b gar d ring er e BB voiced narrator comment on
al o for er ivotal role in Briti rreali m. beloved beachcombing. Oval stone with face t e onloo er ma ement or env at
gar fir t come to Britain from rgentina painted on it and Painted Shell are found t e tro ble it a oman, o never can
in t e , aged i and alone, to attend ob ect t rned into art. n fact, t e e ibition tell at e i t in ing.
boarding c ool. S e ta ed ntil , i titled after er c l t re Angel of Anarchy or ing arti t for over ear , and t
before moving to t e centre of t e art orld c 6 , com o ed of fabric, ell , bead , con i tent in er vi ion, gar i bot an
at t e time ari . and diamant tone b ilt to ma e a in iring oman and an incongr o fig re
i e ibition, a large over or ead it o t a face. in t e art orld. romenading t ro g t e
com re en ive gar retro ective, begin e main ll for te tile aficionado ere gallerie at t e itec a el left me anting
it er earl or mainl ortrait and ma be t e at and t ree dimen ional to no more abo t t e arti t be ind t e
t dent etc e made en e a at t e ob ect . ne of t e mo t famo or . o tr and nravel t e torie e a
Slade Sc ool of Fine rt in ondon, from otogra of t e arti t er elf earing telling in er art. nd to nder tand better
on ard . i art of t e e ibition Ceremonial Hat for Eating Bouillabaisse, t e eccentric and formidable oman er elf.
a re mabl am ered b t e fact gar ( 6 i an image t at a ta ed it me gar or i er a not great art b t, a
de tro ed mo t of er earl or in . ince fir t a it. nd it i at fir t dre far a am concerned, it reac e lace t at
B t at t ere i , o ca e tec ni e me to er art. ere i a min te long film ort of art often doe n t.
and t eme gar o ld ret rn to again from t e in t e e ibition. t o Jane Audas
and again t e bold e of colo r, form and gar tr tting do n a b rban ig treet, whitechapelgallery.org
1 2 3
1 Eileen Agar, Dance of Peace, 1945. Collage and gouache

on paper. Dimensions unknown. Private Collection.
©ESTATE OF EILEEN AGAR/BRIDGEMAN IMAGES
2 Photograph of Agar wearing Ceremonial Hat for Eating

Bouillabaisse, 1936.
PRIVATE COLLECTION ©ESTATE OF EILEEN AGAR/BRIDGEMAN IMAGES
3 Photograph of Ceremonial Hat for Eating Bouillabaisse, 1936.

PRIVATE COLLECTION ©ESTATE OF EILEEN AGAR/BRIDGEMAN IMAGES
4. Eileen Agar, Angel of Anarchy, 1936-1940. 57 x 46 x 31.7cm.

Plaster, fabric, shells, beads, diamante stones, other materials.
©TATE IMAGES
5. Eileen Agar, Precious Stones, 1936. 26 x 20.9cm.

Collage on paper. Courtesy Leeds Museums and Galleries.
©ESTATE OF EILEEN AGAR/BRIDGEMAN IMAGES
4 5

review
M AK ING N UN O
JAPAN E SE T E XT I L E
INNOVAT I O N F ROM
SUDOO RE I KO
Japan House, London 17 May–17 July 2021
THIS EXHIBITION is the re-opening show incredible) contemporary textiles is what the story of Kibiso thread, made out of the
after lockdown at Japan House in London. et ei o and N no a art. nd t e tor of (usually) discarded tough outer layer of silk
The team of Japan House, the Centre for how they make them provides the narrative cocoons. Nuno has developed it into a viable
Heritage, Arts and Textile (CHAT) in Hong backbone to this exhibition. product and a vitrine displays lovely examples
Kong (who originally hosted the exhibition The projections make you feel as though you of ei o etc e and am le made
in 2019) and Nuno in Japan worked across are stood alongside a craftsperson who is from Kibiso. Finally, there is a large table-top
three time zones and pandemic restrictions making the textile.You observe the process display of all sorts of historic textiles from
to reconfig re t i o for ondon. Not of making their washi paper and velvet Nuno’s collection, arranged in perfect
the easiest circumstances to work in. But Amate fabric and see a fascinating polyester colour gradations.
we’ve really missed exhibitions – textile ell fi material coo ed eated into a e. Many visitors will bemoan the lack of
exhibitions, in particular – so this is a very A 1,008-thread installation called Jacquard metres of pretty textiles hanging on walls ‘just
welcome show. ‘Making Nuno’ isn’t textile Weaving: Colour Plate i t e final in tallation so’ here.That is how textile exhibitions usually
exhibition business as usual though. It’s an in this space, constructed with help from work, after all. But Simon Wright, Director
exhibition about process and sustainability, students on Central St Martin’s weave of Programming at Japan House, worked
rather than textiles per se. course.Then there are several lovely it and ei o to re ent omet ing
S d ei o, t e oman at t e eart of film to atc of craft eo le at N no. with a little more investigation to it. I started
Nuno the company, has developed extensive Alongside the installations in the main lockdown having just seen the Nuno fan
networks with textile producers across downstairs space, upstairs (where you installation at Compton Verney, so to come
a an. Some five of t eir eciali ed te tile enter a an o e , t ere i a ite ecific out the other end with a chance to see more
productions are showcased using projections installation called Maku Manmaku, a Nuno was great.They are a lesser-spotted
in the main exhibition space downstairs patchwork curtain of 288 different Nuno textile company in the UK. That alone is
at Japan House. Production of just these te tile . ei o de igned it to ea of t e reason enough, for me, to visit this exhibition.
five te tile alone re ire a total of 65 different centres of regional textile Jane Audas
manufacturers in 14 cities across Japan. production Nuno works with and helps
Their dedication to achieving (sometimes support. Alongside this, the exhibition tells japanhouselondon.uk

what’s on 1
On show IGSHAAN Adams: Kicking Dust SHOEPHORIA! until 31 January

until 25 July. Hayward Gallery, 2022. Fashion Museum Bath,
ALICE Curiouser and Curiouser Southbank Centre, Belvedere Assembly Rooms, Bennett
until 31 Dec. BAGS: Inside Out Road, London SE1 8XX. Street, Bath BA1 2QH.
until 16 January 2022. EPIC Iran southbankcentre.co.uk fashionmuseum.co.uk
until 12 September. The V&A,
Cromwell Rd, South Kensington, JOANA Vasconcelos: Beyond SOCIAL Fabric until 11
London SW7 2RL. vam.ac.uk until 9 January 2022. Yorkshire July. Fold Gallery, 158 New
Sculpture Park, West Bretton, Cavendish St, London
ALL in the Same Storm: Barnsley S75 4BY. ysp.org.uk W1W 6YW. foldgallery.com IN Praise of Makers: Ed Klutz
Pandemic Patchwork Stories
JOURNEYS by Crossing SNEAKERS Unboxed: Studio 3 July-4 October. Colne Valley
until 5 September. De La Warr
Oceans Textile Artists to Street until October. Design Museum, Cliffe Ash, Golcar,
Pavilion, Marina, Bexhill On Sea,
until 11 July. OUT There: Museum, Kensington High dder field .
East Sussex TN40 1DP.
Sue Lancaster until 10 July. Street, London W8 6AG. colnevalleymuseum.org.uk
dlwp.com
Farfield Mill, ar dae oad, designmuseum.org LLANGOLLEN Bridge
ANNE Kelly: Well Travelled Sedbergh, Cumbria LA10 5LW. UNFOLDING Stories 4, patchwork installation by Luke
until 17 July. MONOCHROME: farfieldmill.org CQ West until 12 July. West Jerram as part of Llangollen
work by 20 contemporary
LEE Miller: Fashion in Wartime Lansdown Gallery, Stroud International Musical Eisteddfod
makers until 17 July. Ruthin
Britain until 8 August. THE GL5 1BB. lansdownhall.org (LIME) 9 July-5 August.
Craft Centre, Park Road,
Road is Wider than Long until international-eisteddfod.co.uk
Ruthin, Wales LL15 1BB. VERONICA Ryan: Along a
31 October. Farleys House SOPHIE Taeuber-Arp 15 July-17
ruthincraftcentre.org.uk Spectrum until 5 September.
& Gallery, Muddles Green, Spike Island, 133 Cumberland October. Tate Modern, Bankside,
ARCHIE Brennan: Tapestry Chiddingly BN8 6HW.
Goes Pop! until 30 August. Road, Bristol BS1 6UX. London SE1 9TG. tate.org.uk
farleyshouseandgallery.co.uk spikeisland.org.uk
ovecot St dio , nfirmar STITCH by the Sea: South
LOEWE Foundation Craft
Street, Edinburgh, Scotland VISUALise at 78, VISUALise Devon Stitchers 3 July-5
Prize 2021, online digital
EH1 1LT. T 0131 550 3660 until 18 July. 78 Derngate: The September. Torre Abbey,
exhibition theroom.loewe.com
dovecotstudios.com Charles Rennie Mackintosh The King’s Drive, Torquay
loewecraftprize.com
House, Northampton TQ2 5JE. torre-abbey.org.uk
CHINTZ Cotton in Bloom MAKING Nuno Japanese NN1 1UH. 78derngate.org.uk
until 12 September. ANNIE Textile Innovation from Sudo SYNERGY Preston Threads
Phillips: Ancient Technique WITHIN the Reach of All: 7 July-20 August. PR1 Gallery,
Reiko until 11 July. Japan House
and Contemporary Art The Century Guild until 31 Victoria Building, University
London, 101-111 Kensington
until 12 September. The August. William Morris Gallery of Central Lancashire,
High Street, London W8 5SA.
Fashion & Textile Museum, 83 Forest Road London E17 4PP. Preston. PR1 7HD.
japanhouselondon.uk
Bermondsey Street, London wmgallery.org.uk uclan.ac.uk/facilities/pr1-gallery
SE1 3XF. ftmlondon.org MEDITERRANEAN Threads:
18th & 19th Century WE ARE Commoners,
CHRISTIAN Newby: Boredom Greek Embroideries until Opens July Craftspace national touring
/Mischief/Fantasy/Radicalism/ 19 September. Ashmolean ARTIST Rooms: Louise exhibition 10 July-4 September
Fantasy, tapestry commission Museum, Gallery 29, Beaumont Bourgeois in Focus 24 July-16 2021. Leicester Gallery, De
until 29 August. City Street, Oxford, Oxfordshire January 2022. Tate Liverpool, Montford University Vijay Patel
Observatory, Edinburgh. OX1 2PH. ashmolean.org Albert Dock, Liverpool L3 4BB. Building, Mill Lane, Leicester
collective-edinburgh.art tate.org.uk LE2 7PT. thegallery.dmu.ac.uk
NORTH Country Quilts:
EILEEN Agar: Angel of Anarchy In Celebration of New CREATIVE Stitch Graduate
until 29 August. Whitechapel Acquisitions until 9 January Show 24-25 July. Needham Opens August
Gallery, 77-82 Whitechapel 2022. The Bowes Museum, Market Community Centre, FLAVOURS: Carole Dawber
High St, London E1 7QX. Barnard Castle, County School Street, Needham 7 August-4 September.
whitechapelgallery.org Durham DL12 8NP. Market, Suffolk IP6 8BB. The Atkinson, Lord Street,
GRAYSON Perry: The Vanity thebowesmuseum.org.uk Southport PR8 1DB.
EBB and Flow, Threadmill
of Small Differences until 3 July PORTABLE Sculpture until 26 July-31 November. National theatkinson.co.uk
East Gallery, Cavendish House, 29 August. Henry Moore Waterways Museum, Ellesmere NATURAL Selection –
St Andrews Street, Norwich Institute, Galleries 1, 2 & 3, 74 Port, Cheshire CH65 AFW. Nature’s Hidden Beauty:
NR2 4AE. nua.ac.uk/university- The Headrow, Leeds LS1 3AH. boatmuseum.org.uk nine artists working with
life/east-gallery. henry-moore.org ecologically sustainable plant
GRAYSON Perry: The Vanity of
HAEGUE Yang: Strange SAMSON Kambalu: New Small Differences Touchstones, based printing and dyeing
Attractors until 26 September Liberia until 5 September. Rochdale 16 July-24 September. processes on cloth. 28 August-4
Tate St Ives, Porthmeor Beach, Modern Art Oxford, 30 Touchstones Rochdale, The September. Cowslip Workshops,
St Ives, Cornwall TR26 1TG. Pembroke Street Oxford Esplanade, Rochdale, Greater Newhouse Farm, St Stephens,
tate.org.uk OX1 1BP. Manchester OL16 1AQ. Launceston, Cornwall Pl15 8JX.
HERE Comes the Sun: modernartoxford.org.uk link4life.org cowslipworkshops.co.uk
community quilt project led SHEILA Hicks: Music to My HIDDEN Depths, Ten Plus THREADS Through Creation:
by Lois Blackburn until 16 July. Eyes until 3 July. Alison Jacques Buxton 31 July-26 September. Jacqui Parkinson 18 August
Bury Art Museum & Sculpture Gallery, 16-18 Berners Street Buxton Museum & Art Gallery, -26 September. Salisbury
Centre, Moss St, Bury BL9 0DR. London W1T 3LN. Terrace Road, Buxton Cathedral, Salisbury SP1 2EJ.
buryartmuseum.co.uk alisonjacquesgallery.com SK17 6DA. derbyshire.gov.uk salisburycathedral.org.uk

1 The Atkinson: Carole Dawber.
2 3
2 Llangollen International Musical
Eisteddfod: Patchwork installation
by Luke Jerram.
3 Loewe Craft Prize online:
She, Fanglu Lin’s winning entry.
PHOTO: COURTESY LOEWE
4 Ruthin Craft Centre: Anne Kelly.

5 Bowes Museum: North Country
Quilts, In Celebration of New
Acquisitions.
6 Henry Moore Institute: Portable
Sculpture feat. Do Ho Suh.
©DO HO SUH. COURTESY THE ARTIST,
LEHMANN MAUPIN & VICTORIA MIRO 4 5 6
7 Hayward Gallery: Igshaan Adams.
©IGSHAAN ADAMS, 2021. PHOTO: MARK BLOWER
Opens September
A LINE to Follow: Nolitex
15 September-7 November.
THREAD Running Through: 7
Textilia 3 15 September-7
November. Farfield Mill,
Garsdae Road, Sedbergh, CRAFT Festival Cheltenham FIBERART International 2022
Cumbria LA10 5LW. 13-15 August. craftfestival.co.uk organised by Fiberarts Guild
farfieldmill.org of Pittsburgh, USA. Exhibition
CREATE Day 2021. Global 3 June-20 August 2022.
ANNIE Morris 16 September-5 showcase of creativity. Online 4 Closing date 31 Aug 2021.
February 2022. The Weston September. createday.org fiberartinternational.org
Gallery, Yorkshire Sculpture
LONDON Craft Week 4-10 INTERNATIONAL Textile
Park, West Bretton, Barnsley
October. londoncraftweek.com Biennial 2022 organised by
S75 4BY. ysp.org.uk
LONDON Antique Textile Fair Kunststichting Perspektief vzw.
DRAWING Threads & Exhibition 22-30 October 2022.
organised by The Textile Society
Celebrating 1,000 years of Bury Haacht, Belgium. Closing date
10 October. textilesociety.org.uk
Abbey: Out of the Fold Textile 1 March 2022. artksp.be
Group 22-26 September. The NEW Designers Online. 30
Guildhall, Guildhall Street, CORDIS Prize for Tapestry June-10 July. newdesigners.com TEXTILE Study Group Teachers
Bury St. Edmunds IP33 1PR. 23 October-12 December. Award (£500). Closing date 30
burystedmundsguildhall.org.uk Inverleith House Gallery, PAULINE Burbidge open Nov. textilestudygroup.co.uk
Edinburgh Botanic Garden, studio 6-9 August. Allanbank
THE Regency Wardrobe: paper Inverleith Row, Edinburgh Mill Steading, Scotland. THE Art of Embroidery 2022
costumes by paper textile EH3 5LR. rbge.org.uk paulineburbidge-quilts.com organised by The Worshipful
artist Stephanie Smart opens Company of Broderers. London
September-October. Firle EXPLORING the Global THE Festival of Quilts exhibition 22-27 February
Place, The Street, Firle, Lewes Nature of Textiles, The 29 July-1 August. NEC. 2022. Submissions open 3 Sept.
BN8 6NS. firle.com 62 Group 1 October-28 thefestivalofquilts.co.uk broderers-exhibition.co.uk
November. The Whitaker,
THREADS Through Creation: Haslingden Road, Rossendale THE Knitting & Stitching THE Cordis Tapestry Prize 2021
Jacqui Parkinson 29 September BB4 6TB. thewhitaker.org Shows: Alexandra Palace, (£8,000). Closing date 23
-7 November. Priory Vicarage, London 7-10 October. August. thetapestryprize.org
Priory Close, Lancaster YOUNG Poland: An Arts and Harrogate 18-21 November.
Crafts Movement 8 October- theknittingandstitchingshow.com TEXTILE Society ‘Museum,
LA1 1YZ. lancasterpriory.org
30 January 2022. William Morris Archive & Conservation Award’
Opens October Gallery, Forest Road, London Opportunities (up to £5,000.) Closing date
E17 4PP. wmgallery.org.uk 1 Sept. textilesociety.org.uk
BEAUTIFUL People: 14th INTERNATIONAL
The Boutique in 1960s UK events Biennial of Contemporary
Exhibition dates and opening hours
Counterculture 1 October- Textile & Fibre Art Scythia. are subject to change at short notice.
February 2022. The Fashion BRITISH Textile Biennial 2021 Exhibition 2-16 June 2022, Many galleries insist on advance
& Textile Museum, 83 1-31 October. Venues in and Ivano-Frankivs’k, Ukraine. booking and visitor numbers may be
Bermondsey St, London around Pennine Lancashire. Closing date 1 Feb 2022. limited. Please check with the venue
SE13XF. ftmlondon.org britishtextilebiennial.co.uk scythiatextile.com before making your journey.
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Embroiderers’ Guild
EDUCATION / THREADIT COMMUNITY / GUILD COLLECTION / OPPORTUNITIES FOR MEMBERS
We are a national charity dedicated to supporting and educating people of all ages about the
world of embroidery, from the sheer pleasure of stitching to the design, creativity and production
of unique inspirational works. Everyone is welcome, beginners and those who already stitch.
JOIN US TODAY
Don’t miss the exclusive embroidery subscription offer for NEW and RENEWING
Guild members in the September issue.
www.embroiderersguild.com
Gorgeous knitting, crochet & embroidery supplies
LOOPKNITTING.COM
LONDON, ENGLAND July August 2021 EMBROIDERY 65
www.siestaframes.com
Lapman
Large Clip-on Magnifier The frame and stand simply folds
This handy magnifier can be clamped into the carry case.Comes with a handle,
to frames, table tops and desks. The shoulder strap and wingnut tightener,
46cm (18inches) arm for longer reach 12" Lapman (Green Case)
combines with a 13cm (5 inches) lens £45.99 Code LAPM/1
with x1.75 magnification. 15" Lapman (Burgundy Case)
Price £25.00 Code CM1 £49.99 Code LAPM15/1'
18" Lapman (Blue Case)
£54.95 Code LAPM18/1
standing WTF24 Tilt Stand 24" £59.95

tapestry stand WTF27 Tilt Stand 27" £61.95
with knee joints WTF30 Tilt Stand 30" £63.95
Sonata Seat Stand WTF36 Tilt Stand 36" £65.95
WTF42 Tilt Stand 42" £68.95
, A versatile, fully adjustable sit
, ..� upon stand. Holds hoops, Bar
".Frames and roller frames
,.,,, , up to 12". Features
"., � '
include 360 ° rotation, quick
" ' flip top and height adjustment.
Frame as shown not included. StitchMaster Lap Stand
The frame simply rests on the
Price £22.95 Code SONATA
two arms of the lap stand and
holds frames up to 21".Height
and angle are adjustable.
(Frame as shown not included).
Price £29.99 Code SM LAP
StitchSmart
Floor Stand
This stand has an
unique swivel system
allowing 360 ° rotation.
Height and working angle are adjustable.
Available as a complete unit with stand,
LED light-magnifier and chart clamp, or
just the stand on its own.
Stand with LED light-magnifier and chart
clamp £149.99 Code D24047 & D25020
£79.99 Stand only Code: D53047
Wooden frame as shown is
NOT included
Stitchmaster Floor Stand
Made of wood with lacquered finish.
No Clamping onto frame, eliminates damage
Available from your local stockist or from Siesta at: to the work. Holds any type of working frame.
Siesta Frames Ltd., Unit D, Longmeadow Ind. Est., Working height and angle adjustable.
Three Legged Cross, Wimborne, Dorset BH21 6RD Price £44.95 Code SMFST
Tel/Fax 01202 813363, www.siestaframes.com
Other66products available at
EMBROIDERY www.coleshillaccessories.co.uk
July August 2021
A event for anyone with a
love of textile based crafts
7–10 October 2021 18–21 November 2021

Alexandra Palace, London Harrogate Convention Centre
67
To book tickets, visit: theknittingandstitchingshow.com
July August 2021 EMBROIDERY
THE PROFESSIONAL SERIES
WORLDʼS MOST
ADVANCED
SEWING
MACHINES
HD9 – Heavy Duty straight stitch only

Memory Craft 6700P – All metal flatbed machine, steadfast even at high speeds
Memory Craft 9450 QCP – Spacious, free arm machine with ruler work function
AirThread 2000D – Air threading Overlocker
Continental M7P – The ultimate home sewing machine!
ASK FOR A DEMONSTRATION

Visit janome.co.uk to find your local retailer

Embroidery Magazine July August 2021

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T H E T E X T I L E A R T M AG A Z I N E

July August 2021

Develop your skills to achieve the highest standard

Flexible course you can start throughout the year

Choose days that suit you

Jacobean Crewelwork, Blackwork, Canvaswork,

Expert tuition from the international

Also taught in venues across the UK including

July August 2021 EMBROIDERY 3

ON THE COVER Michelle Holmes,

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July August 2021 EMBROIDERY 5

SHODDY LOVED CLOTHES LAST PATCH WORK

July August 2021 EMBROIDERY 7

I graduated with a BA (Hons) in Embroidery from Manchester Metropolitan University

Stitch in Bloom: Botanical

8 EMBROIDERY July August 2021

PHOTOGRAPHY: ©MATT RUSSELL

1-2 Lora’s Flower Stem Blanket, as featured

July August 2021 EMBROIDERY 9

July August 2021 EMBROIDERY 11

‘IT’S BEEN AN INTERESTING journey.’ very journey is different, of course. Michelle’s

12 EMBROIDERY July August 2021

July August 2021 EMBROIDERY 13

1. Mystery, 2019. 18 x 22cm.

14 EMBROIDERY July August 2021

I made the castle in lockdown. . . It’s an evocative piece for me.

July August 2021 EMBROIDERY 15

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July August 2021 EMBROIDERY 17

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July August 2021 EMBROIDERY 21

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July August 2021 EMBROIDERY 23

24 EMBROIDERY July August 2021

1. Eyes of the Beholder, 2019. 2 x 3 cm.

July August 2021 EMBROIDERY 25

these images of plus-sized women lounging around in their 2

26 MB July August 2021

1. Linear, 2020. 2 x 3 cm. Cotton thread, acrylic paint, cotton. Backstitch.

7. Tangled in Flowers, 2020. 2 x 30cm. Cotton thread, Liberty of London

July August 2021 MB 27

28 MB July August 2021

July August 2021 MB 29

Left to right: Dartboard Target, 2019. 20.3 x 25.4cm.

30 EMBROIDERY July August 2021

PHOTOGRAPHY: NNEKA JONES, @ARTYOUHUNGRY

1 Dartboard Target in progress, 2019.

32 EMBROIDERY July August 2021

PEOPLE ARE USED TO SEEING

July August 2021 MB 33

Obsessed by textiles since her youth, Brooklyn based

Opposite: Burn It Up, 2006.

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July August 2021 EMBROIDERY 37

2. Stronger Faster, 2017.

e eriod bet een 6 and omo obia ad ffered ear earlier.

another SHERRI LYNN WOOD EXPRESSES strong opinions. Art quilter,

dimension what she refers to as the ‘white supremacist’ all-pervading insistence

42 EMBROIDERY July August 2021