The Stitchery of Catherine Hill, a Lancashire Lass
A little textile inspiration from my YouTube Textile Collection. Today it features the work of Louise Mabbs. Louise uses Mathematical principles to design and construct her bold geometric, colourful art quilts. In this video she explains the concepts and design theories behind these pieces.
Louise’s embroideries are inspired by her home near the sea – sunset walks along the coast, beach huts, wind mills and her love of the landscape. Filmed at The Festival of Quilts 2019.
I’ve just heard that 2016 will be the last Art in Action ever. So sad. Such an amazing event that will be sadly missed. This year’s date is already in my diary, but I wanted to show you how brilliant last years event was.
……..Art in Action 2015 was as a sunny and inspiring as ever.
The Show was held on part of a working farm at Waterperry. There was plenty of space for parking and for the twenty plus marquees that were bursting with every artistic talent imaginable.
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| This fabulous Sculpture was at the entrance to the Show |
I had a wonderful day out with a fellow ‘mad textile’ girlfriend. Our first port of call is always the Textile Tent – so much talent! I loved chatting to the artists and finding out about the techniques & materials they used. It was a perfect time to check out if they had spaces on future workshops. Between us we managed to chat to every wool, textile, embroidery, illustrative, printing and clay artist at the Show – that’s lots of talking!
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| Maria Boyle – Embroiderer |
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| Bridget Bailey – Millinery |
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| Carol Naylor – Embroiderer |
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| Harper & Carr – Clothing |
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| Roanna Wells – Artist |
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| Bobbie Kociejowski – Weaver |
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| Trude Timlin Brown – Weaver |
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| Wendy Dolan – Embroiderer |
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| Work by Wendy Dolan – Embroiderer |
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| Kirsten Scott of Elsa Cappelli Hats |
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| Amanda Wright Embroiderer of Goat Street Gallery |
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| Helaina Sharpley – Wire work Artist |
By the end of the day, we were on such a high – our feet were killing us, our shopping bags were full and our heads were bursting with ideas. A perfect day.
We couldn’t wait to get home and try out some ideas for ourselves.
I can’t wait for Art in Action 2016!
Question: How do you create 40 pieces of 6″ x 6″ embroidery in 60 minutes?
Answer: 40 embroiderers and Speed Stitching !!!
The rules:
The aim is that all Stitchers in the room have access to all the colours and textures on offer and have very little time to think about their design – they just grab fabric and thread and sew! – oh, and no-one is allowed to take work home! – this creates the incentive to sew as fast as possible. Raw edges and experimental embroidery are welcomed (and don’t forget your 1/2″ seam allowance all around the calico).
This is how my design evolved. It’s surprising how much sewing you can acheive in an hour and how much chatting you can do too!
These final stitched squares are to be pieced with this green linen to create a table cloth for an Embroiderers’ Guild event later in this year.
It was a brilliant group activity. We had a room full of very happy, chatting embroiderers.