Galleries
Katie’s Embroidery
‘Take Time to Smell the Roses’. Hand drawn design. Hand embroidered. Embroidery thread, cotton cloth.Recognised with 1st Prize Artistic Director Award for Design & Technical Excellence for the The Embroiderers’ Guild “Life’s Rich Pattern” Members’ Challenge 2019.
‘Time for Tea’. Hand drawn design. Hand embroidered. Vintage thread, vintage cotton cloth. Based on my childhood memories.
‘Lancashire Cheese and Onion Pie’ .
Hand drawn design. Hand Embroidered. Embroidery thread, cotton cloth. I have very fond memories, coming home from school and eating cheese and onion pie – Wednesday was the day my Mum made it for tea for me and my siblings. My favourite day of the week.
‘Lancashire Cheese and Onion Pie’ – Detail.
‘Take Time to Smell the Roses Watch’. Hand drawn design. Hand embroidered. Embroidery thread, cotton cloth. This was the first time this clock face appeared in my work – sourced from a hand drawing in my journal.
‘First Day in the Mill’. Hand drawn, Hand embroidered. Embroidery thread, cotton cloth.Features a poem, written in Lancashire dialect, by Louisa Bearman; surrounded by jobs in the Cotton Mills. The central motif is a hand embroidered Lancashire Rose. Created as a nod to my Grandfather who was 12 on his first day in the mill. Exhibited at The Festival of Quilts 2019.
‘First Day in the Mill’ – detail.
‘First Day in the Mill’ – detail.
‘Sound of the Kenwood Chef’
Hand drawn design. Hand embroidered. Embroidery thread, cotton cloth.
Recognised with ‘Commended for Beryl Dean Award for Hand Embroidery’ for The Embroiderers’ Guild “My Favourite Things” Members’ Challenge 2020. Hand embroidered onto a vintage pillowcase that belonged to my Great Grandmother.
This embroidered poem shares the childhood memories of my Mum baking every Saturday morning. Jury selected: Mcr ‘International Women’s Day’ Exhibition 2021, Bankley Open 2021 in Manchester, Walk Bye 2021 in New Jersey.
‘Sound of the Kenwood Chef’ – detail. Recognised with ‘Commended for Beryl Dean Award for Hand Embroidery’ for The Embroiderers’ Guild “My Favourite Things” Members’ Challenge 2020. Hand drawn, Hand embroidered. Embroidery thread, cotton cloth.
‘Resilience’ Hand drawn design. Hand embroidered. Embroidery thread, cotton cloth, linen cloth.
The piece shows a Lancastrian weaving shuttle in a Cotton Weavers hand. Exhibited in the ‘One Red Thread’ 2021 touring exhibition in Australia.
‘Matchbox Challenge’ Hand drawn design. Hand embroidered. Embroidery thread, silk thread, cotton cloth, vintage finds. Created for the Embroiderers’ Guild Members’ Challenge 20/21, ‘Exquisite containers’
Awarded
– Winner of the ‘Margaret Nicholson Award for Composition’
– Overall Winner of the ‘Constance Howard Award for Most Outstanding Piece’
‘Bound: Part 1’.
For generations women have been bound to the home and a life of domesticity.
This piece is a celebration of the tools of their trade.
Beautiful Skyline products manufactured in the Lancashire town of Burnley, well-worn wooden spoons, and unusual utensils. Each piece tells a story through the imperfections, scars and dents it has collected through use.
Vintage kitchen utensils, hand bound with vintage crochet and Sylko threads. Artwork is mounted onto a cotton tea-towel woven in Quarry Bank Mill.
‘Worker Bees’.
Hand drawn design. Hand embroidered. Embroidery thread, cotton cloth. The central panel of worker bees has been symbolic of Manchester’s historic textile industry since 1842. In the 1800’s Manchester was full of cotton mills and hundreds of hard-working people went to work in these buildings. The mills came to be described as ‘hives of activity’ because they were so busy, and the employees were likened to worker bees as they put so much effort into their jobs.
This piece is 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.
‘Moors of Home’ was designed in Spring 2021 during lockdown in the UK and is about a special place I long to return to once ‘normality’ returns. The central panel is an extract from the poem ‘Pennine Ramble’ written by Ebron, which was first published in “A Lancashire Miscellany”, a newspaper column featured in weekend editions of the Oldham Chronicle between 1956 and 1959.
Hand drawn design. Hand embroidered. Embroidery thread, cotton cloth. Jury selected: ‘In the Open’ 2021 at Ryedale Folk Museum, Fronteer Open 2021.
‘Headspace – Self Portrait’. Hand drawn design. Hand embroidered. Embroidery thread, Linen cloth. Exhibited in the Knitting & Stitching Show’s Self Portrait Exhibition 2020.
This piece represents the thoughts and dreams that inspire the creation of my art.
‘My Rochdale Lad’. Hand drawn design. Hand embroidered. Embroidery thread, cotton cloth. This piece is a handmade cloth pocket based on a traditional design from the Victorian era. These pieces were threaded onto a ribbon – like a belt – and worn in pairs under a woman’s garments to hold her hand kerchief and money.
‘My Rochdale Lad’ features work by the Lancashire Dialect poet R. R. Bealey. The poem was written just before the Lancashire Cotton Famine in the 1860’s and shares the story of a lass singing the praises of her sweetheart, ‘My Johnny’ a Rochdale Weaver. The artwork is hand embroidered, constructed by hand and forms part of a collection of work focussing on Lancashire dialect.
‘A Weaver’s Tale. Hand drawn design. Hand embroidered. Embroidery thread, cotton cloth.
Exhibited in the ‘Stitch Your Story’ Exhibition in Blackburn Cathedral, part of the British Textile Biennial 2021
Covid-19 Part 1 . Hand drawn design. Hand embroidered. Embroidery thread, cotton cloth. This piece is about our shared experiences of the first lockdown in 2020. It was designed in late summer and stitched just before lockdown 2. As I was stitching, I found myself doubting that some of these things had actually occurred – no planes in the sky and the loud sound of birdsong. We all lived through a joint experience in March that we’ll remember for years to come.