I have just completed the first piece of a year long project to make one ‘textile’ book per month. I may not limit myself to producing a cloth book each time as I think a painted or sketched one is just as likely to evolve, depending what I’m working on during the year. This first … More January Book Of The Month Winter Flowers

For Ellie – my mathematician – who sometimes, just sometimes – checks in on this site! x  

This morning I found some old samples of ‘seaweed’ printing, one of the first textile printing techniques I was introduced to way before I had any interest in creative embroidery. It was shown to me on a primary teachers’ course and I remember it being very successful in the classroom as it is so easy! … More Seaweed Printing

Hard to photograph as usual, but here is the finished concertina card made from my recycled collection. It’s probably fortunate that I didn’t make it any longer as it has taken me ages to finish today and I really did want to complete it so that I can move on to something else, but as … More Recycling Christmas Cards – Part II

I was sent this lovely Christmas card by my friend Jo and wanted to use it as inspiration for a little concertina book. The picture is by Vanessa Bowman and is called Blackbird And Churchgoers. I love blackbirds, we have lots in the garden, and I wanted to use some more winter foliage in my … More Recycling Christmas Cards – Part I

Merry Christmas to all of you that have time the day before Christmas Eve to be looking at blog posts! I have hastily put this concertina book together, making it from old Christmas cards. I’m sure this idea has been used before, but once I thought of it I was so excited I had to … More Merry Christmas

Some time ago I had some alliums (blog post from January 2019) printed onto fabric thinking I might make a lampshade with the material. The scale didn’t quite work but I decided to stitch into the flower heads anyway, with nothing in particular in mind. I just used simple straight stitches and then put the … More Combining Hand And Machine Stitch

Having used hydrangeas so much this year I thought it appropriate to use the last fading blooms from the garden in my Christmas wreath. A gentle, restrained, no-ribbons, no-bling, no-glitter wreath this year, just the foliage from the garden with the addition of some  artificial pink berries which I originally bought for an arrangement last … More Hydrangea Christmas Wreath

Recently I received a packet of Uni Posca pens as a gift, a set of pastel colours, with a medium nib. To these I added a black, white, silver and gold pen so that I could add some definition and highlights. On the packet it states that the pens can be used on ‘wood, textile, … More Posca Pens – Flowers As A Theme

Earlier in the year I was lucky enough to find some John Lewis curtains in a charity shop in St Austell – lovely bright cacti design, good quality cotton and great price for such a large quantity of fabric (£7).  I thought that I would be able to use the material in some way, maybe … More Cacti For Christmas