For centuries women have used cloth as a tool of comfort and as an expression of beauty within their homes. Creating cloth for warmth, cloth for shelter, our female predecessors embellished these linens with hand stitch using laborious and time consuming techniques thereby enhancing the functional beauty of objects which enveloped and protected their families. Inspired by these women I hope my creations pay tribute to and recognise the devotion expressed in cloth by our female ancestors .







''the use of traditional often time consuming process alludes to the devotion of a mother''. c K. A. Ruane 2007







Wednesday, March 4, 2026

Holiday sewing plans

 

I'm going here tomorrow for 10 days.

This little sewing kit should keep me going for a few evenings whilst I am relaxing on the balcony.

Hexagons of Liberty fabric and paper templates for Grandmothers flower garden motifs, all gathered and placed in a hand made pocket. 

Meanwhile, if you get bored, there are lots of videos on this link. 

And also on my YouTube channel. 

Monday, March 2, 2026

Grids and Guides stitching

 








It's a hardback notebook today, one of these (and no, I'm not on commission).

I can recommend stitching into one of these books.

There are pages of dots, graph paper and other linear patterns which make spacing so easy. 

The paper is very receptive to needle and thread too.

I haven't actually worked into this one for a while and I'm tempted but I must finish some other things first. 


Sunday, March 1, 2026

Stitched notebooks.

 


You have been seeing a lot of stitching in notebooks recently.

Well....I have lots of those, embroidered/stitched notebooks. 

Today it's a different one, an old one.

(you may have seen it at the 'other place')

There are lots of these little stitched/design/exploration pieces dotted around my house.

I'm tempted to keep sharing them with you. 

Saturday, February 28, 2026

Bullion knots for a seam. A short video.

 


I love embellishing a seam!

Creating a wrapping cloth means lots of seams.

Today, bullion knots.

A short video. 


 

Thursday, February 26, 2026

My current embroidery hoop and another type of overlay.

 



My current project is all consuming. 

I am not working on anything else. 

A reminder, there's a wrapping cloth and a design notebook. 

More painted cloth is being embellished for the wrapping cloth and 'different' overlays are being created for the design notebook.

There are plans for more hand made embellshments for the notebook to accompany my little mushroom tags. 

Can you tell I am enjoying this? 

Monday, February 23, 2026

Hand painted fabric and patchwork.

 




My fabric painted pieces are now evolving into a wrapping cloth.

(girls in class, I made you a short video explaining this) 

Sections of white cloth will be added to fabric painted pieces after they have been embroidered and patchwork added to the white space.

Seams will be embellished with running stitch, French knots and bullion knots.

It's growing quite quickly but next up I need to embroider another painted piece. 

Thursday, February 19, 2026

Reference, inspiration.

 


I often speak about how past work inspires and informs and consequently am a big advocate of never throwing anything away.

The books, ledgers, sketchbooks here are old, some older than others.

The red one for example was made 30 years ago.

These pieces and others are referred to regularly.

Having references like these is invaluable and I feel fortunate to have resources like these literally at my fingertips. 

 

Wednesday, February 18, 2026

Another notebook exercise.

 





Another stitched notebook....one from 'the other place'.

This one was created before my current piece which you are seeing regularly on here. 

As you will notice, I didn't develop this one as fully as the book I am working on now.

I learnt from this one, (we learn from everything don't we) and I am learning from my current one.

It has occured to me to add to this one taking inspiration from current work but sadly I have a very limited supply of this paper. 

Regardless, if I don't do anything else with this one there is still a wealth of information here to inspire in the future. 

Monday, February 16, 2026

Hand stitched overlays.

 






I have started to add the hand stitched overlays to the pages of my little design notebook.

Little mushroom tags have also been added to some pages.

There is so much more I want to do in this little book.

(notebook measures 6x81/2 inches) 

I have calculated how many more overlays I need to make....thirteen.

I best get going then. 

 

Sunday, February 15, 2026

Patchwork

 


Do you remember these patchwork flowers?

I said I would definitely create more and that I had made extra.

Here is some of the 'extra' and there are more. 

The centres are under consideration.

To add something......or not.