Katie, Author at Arnolds Attic

11th May 202211th May 2022

Charlotte Pocket Needlecase

The Saltaire Arts Trail 2022 at Salts Mills, Bradford, was a brilliant weekend and I was delighted to be hosted in a wonderful textile shop nestled within the mill itself – the Stitch Society Shop owned by Charlotte Meek. As soon as she knew I was a stitcher, Charlotte kindly gave me access to her vintage cloth and garment off-cuts so I could start hand stitching a site specific piece as a memento of the weekend – and this included some of the iconic ticking from the shop. This inspired me to create the Charlotte Pocket Needlecase.

Before starting the project I played around with several cloth combinations and settled on blue and orange -then introduced some vintage Sylko red thread and vintage haberdashery found at the shop. My plan was to create a large pocket needle case to pin onto my apron.

collecting material ready to st — Collecting together some iconic Stitch Society cloth before stitching

The gorgeous text cloth mark needed a little extra stitching to enhance it.

The piece is embellished with handmade linen and cotton hexagons, a vintage button & handmade red cord, plus the iconic Stitch Society logo.

Pocket needle case using iconic cloth from the stitch society shop — Pocket needle-case

Inside the needle case, orange pages are filled with pins.

orange pages of cloth for pins — Orange pages of cloth for pins

Finally touches – a label on the back of the piece.

back of the work — The back of the piece

Size: 16 x 14 cm and entirely hand stitched.

Thank you to Charlotte for allowing me to use your iconic cloth in this project.

7th May 20227th May 2022

Salts Mill in Bradford

This was my first ever visit to Salts Mill in Bradford. It’s a stunning former working Mill full of the most wonderful industrial architecture and a stunning setting to host the Saltaire Arts Trail 2022.

Down Victoria Road nestled withing the Mill at Location 10 on the trail is The Stitch Society Shop – a perfect setting for me to share my work.

Caroline at The Stitch Society kindly gave me access to her vintage cloth and garment off cuts so I could start hand stitching a site specific piece as a memento of the weekend – I’ll share more in another post.

My artwork exhibited together for the first time.

The weekend will always be very special to me. It’s the first time I’ve had a collection of my work on exhibition together – Summer ’76, The Sound of the Kenwood Chef, Covid-19 Part 1, Worker Bees, Sound of the Mill, Time for Tea, Take Time to Small the Roses, Matchbox Challenge and Moors of Home – and the first time I’ve really had a chance to experience the visitors’ reactions to my work.

I’ve had requests for an expanded selection of cards, artwork prints, talks and workshops so I’m putting my thinking cap on.

printed cards — A new addition – Selling cards for the first time

All tidied up — That’s a wrap – all packed up

The weekend was a huge success. I met some amazingly talented artists and more importantly I made some new friends.

Saltaire Arts Trial 2022 poster featuring the event poster and mill architecture — Saltaire Arts Trial 2022

6th May 20227th May 2022

Sound of the Mill

Sound of the Mill #1 & #2 – created as companion pieces for ‘Worker Bees’ – feature Lancashire Dialect poetry from The Cotton Mill poem, first published in The Bolton Chronicle in 1864.

The growth of cotton manufacturing during the industrial revolution changed the landscape of Northern towns forever. Workers lived in rows of terraced homes within earshot of the Mill they worked in, each long day of work starting with the call of the factory bell. By 1860 there were 2650 cotton mills in Lancashire, employing more than 440 000 people and producing half of the World’s cotton.

This extraordinary poem, by an anonymous machine operator, with its onomatopoeic effects and rhythms echoed from heavy industry captures concisely the atmosphere of the working mill. It moves from the sounds of the machines to the behaviour of the human operators.

Size: each panel 13 x 9 cm. Hand embroidered and hand stitched using vintage Sylko threads onto cotton cloth which has been eco rust printed.

These pieces were created as a nod to James and Jane Nixon, my ancestors who worked as weavers in the Mills in Blackburn at the time this poem was written.

Sound of the Mill and Worker Bees — Sound of the Mill #1 & #2 and Worker Bees

I was delighted to share them in an exhibition of my hand embroidered work at the Saltaire Arts Trail 2022, Salts Mill, Bradford.

A recent exhibition of work at Saltaire Arts Trail 2022, Salts Mill, Bradford

These pieces form part of a body of work on Lancashire dialect poetry from the Lancashire Cotton Famine 1861-1865.