Stitchery Stories

This week we celebrate our stitching, embroidery, textile art highlights from 2019.

Susan Weeks, as the host of this popular textile art podcast, shares some lovely stories and highlights sent in by listeners from around the world.

We hear from some previous guests, from new listeners, from long-time listeners.

What fabulous and inspiring messages have been received - these will cheer you up.

And in this season of goodwill, Sue also appeals for a mentor for a young woman in Russia. Let's make 2020 a fabulous year for Daria! Who can help her dreams come true?

For this episode... and to see images from our contributors, links to them all, and related past episodes, then go visit https://www.stitcherystories.com/2019highlights

Like: https://www.facebook.com/stitcherystories/

Look: https://www.instagram.com/stitcherystories_podcast/

Our contributors:

Saima Kaur

@sewsaima on Instagram

Jane Cook

'Stitch To Enrich'

Annie Taylor

@whitstabletail on Instagram

#hasshenothingbettertodo

https://whitstabletail.wordpress.com

Tim Buchheim

@tim1724 on Instagram

Rosie Creyke

Linda Harvey

@lindaharvey1973 on instagram https://facebook.com/LindaHarveyTextileArtist

Eva Kitok, Sweden

@kitokeva on Instagram

Liljevalchs Varsalong https://www.liljevalchs.se/utstallningar/varsalongen-2019/

Susan Pepper, Melbourne, Australia

Cas Holmes

www.casholmes.com

https://facebook.com/casholmestextiles

Rosemary Cousins, East Yorkshire

Courtney Cox, Austin, Texas

@courtneycoxart on Instagram

www.courtneycoxart.com

Agatha Lee 'Agy' from Singapore

www.agytextileartist.com

@agytextileartist on Instagram

Joanna Dermenjian from Ontario, Canada https://www.facebook.com/groups/canadianredcrossquilts/

Alex Law

www.elaraembroidery.com

@elara.embroidery on Instagram

Related Stitchery Stories Episodes:

Saima Kaur:

https://www.stitcherystories.com/saimakaur/

Community Stitching: https://www.stitcherystories.com/ionabarker/

Profanity Embroidery Group: https://www.stitcherystories.com/profanityembroiderygroup/ Annie Taylor

https://www.stitcherystories.com/annietaylor/

York Textile Artists https://www.stitcherystories.com/yorktextileartists/

Cas Holmes

https://www.stitcherystories.com/casholmes/

Other artists and places also mentioned:

Jen Skedd

Artisan Stitch https://artisanstitch.co.uk

Hull & East Riding Embroiderers' Guild https://www.facebook.com/HERByEmbroidery/

Burton Constable Hall

https://www.burtonconstable.com/

This week CarolAnn J Allan is our lovely guest on Stitchery Stories textile art podcast. CarolAnn loves slow stitching, taking the time to enjoy the process, and she particularly loves shibori and indigo dyeing.

We chat about her interesting journey into being a textile artist, and the community arts projects that she loves to support. Although CarolAnn was one of my guests for the live recording of Stitchery Stories, I wanted to chat with CarolAnn on her own, and we covered lots of new stuff.

Susan Weeks chats with CarolAnn about:

• Getting excited to try a new technique, Bojagi
• The delights of slow stitch and creating pieces inspired by traditional embroidery stitches
• Making time to follow our own dreams despite supporting family members young and old
• The magic of shibori and waiting to see how it has turned out
• Inspiring artists and community groups
• Creativity to generate confidence and friendship
• The importance of ongoing personal development
• Giving ourselves time and space to explore techniques and ideas
• And so much more!

Sue has had a brainwave and invites you to contribute to the 2019 year end episode. She explains all at around the 23 minute point. Contributions by Monday 16th December 2019 please.

For this episode... and to see images of CarolAnn's work, then go visit https://www.stitcherystories.com/carolannjallan

Visit: https://www.carolannjallan.com/

Like: https://www.facebook.com/CarolAnnJAllan/

Look: https://www.instagram.com/carolannjallan/

Other artists and places also mentioned:

Sara Cook and Bojagi

https://bojagiuk.com/

Dionne Swift

https://www.stitcherystories.com/dionneswift/

Sunny Bank Mills

https://sunnybankmills.co.uk/

Junko Oki

https://www.junkooki.com/

Fiona Wilson

https://www.facebook.com/fionawilsonstudio/

This is PART TWO of the Stitchery Stories LIVE recording at the Podcast Social Club!

Please listen to PART ONE before listening to this - it won't make any sense if you haven't heard Part One!

This is the second half of the live recording.

It was a lot of fun chatting with my two lovely guests, CarolAnn J Allan and Mary-Ann Toop about fabric and threads, creativity and our well-being. It was also a step out of collective comfort zones to be doing this live in front of a ticket-bearing audience :-)

Thank you to Podcast Social Club for inviting us and for organising such an interesting event. We were honoured to be taking part.

Anyway, we chatted around our cornerstone topics and as usual had a laugh doing so. We also had an interesting discussion about the emotional and social and mental health benefits of stitching and creativity.

Sue had 2 amusing contributions... a recent 'disaster' and a very old UnFinished Object.

For this episode... and to see images of the 2 items from Sue that caused such hilarity, then go visit https://www.stitcherystories.com/podcastsocialclubparttwo

Like: https://www.facebook.com/stitcherystories/

Look: https://www.instagram.com/stitcherystories_podcast

Podcast Social Club:

Visit: https://www.podcastsocialclub.com/

Like: https://www.facebook.com/PodcastSocialClub/

Look: https://www.instagram.com/PodcastSocialClub/

Mary-Ann Toop

https://www.stitcherystories.com/maryanntoop/ https://concordiasworld.com/

CarolAnn J Allan

https://www.stitcherystories.com/carolannjallan (From 11Dec19) https://www.carolannjallan.com/

Other artists and places also mentioned:

Mr Finch

http://www.mister-finch.com/

Meredith Woolnough

http://meredithwoolnough.com.au/

Samantha Bryan

http://samanthabryan.co.uk/

George Steinmetz

https://georgesteinmetz.com/

Burton Constable Hall

https://www.burtonconstable.com/

Hull & East Riding Branch of The Embroiderer's Guild

https://www.facebook.com/HERByEmbroidery/

Stitchery Stories LIVE at the Podcast Social Club!

This is the first half of the live recording. It was a lot of fun chatting with my two lovely guests, CarolAnn J Allan and Mary-Ann Toop about fabric and threads, creativity and our well-being.

It was also a step out of collective comfort zones to be doing this live in front of a ticket-bearing audience :-)

Thank you to Podcast Social Club for inviting us and for organising such an interesting event. We were honoured to be taking part.

Anyway, we chatted around our cornerstone topics and as usual had a laugh doing so. We also had an interesting discussion about the emotional and social and mental health benefits of stitching and creativity.

For this episode... View Show Notes, Links & some photos from the event, at https://www.stitcherystories.com/podcastsocialclubpartone

Like: https://www.facebook.com/stitcherystories/

Look: https://www.instagram.com/stitcherystories_podcast

Podcast Social Club:

Visit: https://www.podcastsocialclub.com/

Like: https://www.facebook.com/PodcastSocialClub/

Look: https://www.instagram.com/PodcastSocialClub/

Mary-Ann Toop

https://www.stitcherystories.com/maryanntoop/ https://concordiasworld.com/

CarolAnn J Allan

https://www.stitcherystories.com/carolannjallan (From 11Dec19) https://www.carolannjallan.com/

Guest also mentioned: Dionne Swift https://www.stitcherystories.com/dionneswift/

Lynn Comley is the guest today on the Stitchery Stories textile art podcast. Lynn works under the brand name of Up And Down Dale and the name gives us a clue as to the source of her artistic inspiration... the landscape around her!

Lynn has recently relocated from the Derbyshire Peak District to the North Yorkshire coast and has been enjoying several changes not just in her surroundings but in her artistic creations too. Lynn loves working with her handmade felt, with machine embroidery and increasingly, hand embroidery, to make the marks and highlights to her landscapes.

Susan Weeks chats with Lynn about:

• An endless fascination with landscape and the sea
• Inspiring vistas and miniscule worlds
• A newcomer to textile art
• Getting hooked into feltmaking
• Leaping into exhibiting with Derbyshire Open Arts trail
• Moving from hobby to business to meet demand for her work
• From novice stitcher to addicted stitcher :-)
• It's not embroidery, it's mark making with thread
• The delights of thread
• How to recreate inspiring scenes in stitch
• The patterns of the sea on the beach
• Experimenting with collagraph printing and felt
• Choosing Stitchery Stories over the BBC and Nick Knowles :-)
• The Society For Embroidered Work
• Learning from failures and revisiting them
• The pro's and con's of doing commissions
• Go with the flow
• Getting over creative block
• And so much more!

For this episode... View Show Notes, Links & Examples of Lynn's work at https://www.stitcherystories.com/lynncomley

Like: https://www.facebook.com/UpandDownDale/

Look: https://www.instagram.com/upanddowndale/

Visit: https://www.upanddowndale.co.uk/

Other artists episodes you might like: Tracey Coverley (who also shows at Derbyshire Open Arts trail) https://www.stitcherystories.com/traceycoverley/

Passionate about Batik, Tori Riley is the guest today on the Stitchery Stories podcast. Tori shares her story of being inspired by Batik as a young child living in Java, and how her love of it has led her to running workshops and talks, whilst being a busy mum of four!

Susan Weeks chats with Tori about:

• Who else wanted a colouring job when they grew up?
• an inspiring gap year absorbing the Indonesian culture and drawing
• influences from a childhood spent living in several places around the world
• combining batik and embroidery
• making it easy to started with an idea in a workshop
• how to do batik
• the challenge of marking out your design for batik
• labelling our work so future generations know more about it
• what equipment is needed for batik making
• how to apply the wax
• what type of dye to use for batik
• how do you get the wax out afterwards
• when developing some film created performance art

And so much more!

For this episode:

View Show Notes, Links & Examples of Tori's work at https://www.stitcherystories.com/toririley

Like:

https://www.facebook.com/Batik-Inspiration-720549448141697/ Look: https://www.instagram.com/batikinspirationuk/

Email: [email protected]

Call: 07455 885 797

Other artists episodes you might like:

Diane Gaffney from Textile Traders, who also loves Batik! https://www.stitcherystories.com/dianegaffney/

Fabric sculpture artist Mary-Ann Toop is the guest today on the Stitchery Stories podcast. Mary-Ann shares her story of leaving her civil engineering career, battling depression and starting her fascinating creative journey. Mary-Ann is determined to make her soft fabric sculptures move - and is particularly fascinated by flight... it's the engineer in her creeping out again!

Susan Weeks chats with Mary-Ann about:

• Experimenting with automata
• Making her stitched creations move
• Starting a creative journey to see what she could do
• Trying to be creative every day
• How creativity help battle depression and ill-health
• The benefits of becoming immersed in small repetitive movements like embroidery
• Exploring Pinterest... and discovering that textiles and embroidery can be art
• Who is Concordia?
• A fascination with flight
• Evolving techniques using wire, clay, fabric, embroidery
• The story of the nightshirt and the gargoyl
• And so much more!

For this episode

View Show Notes, Links & Examples of Mary-Ann's work at https://www.stitcherystories.com/maryanntoop

Visit: https://concordiasworld.com/

Read: https://concordiasworld.com/category/blog/

Like: https://www.facebook.com/concordiasworld

Look: https://www.instagram.com/concordiasworld/

Other artists episodes mentioned:

Bryony Rose Jennings https://www.stitcherystories.com/bryonyrosejennings/

Annie Taylor https://www.stitcherystories.com/annietaylor/

The Artists Way by Julia Cameron

Today on the Stitchery Stories textile art podcast, textile artist Tracey Coverley shares her story of leaving the railway industry and turning her fine art skills into creating textile art portraits of iconic figures from music and film.

She works under her brand, "Handmade In Horwich End".

Susan Weeks chats (and laughs a lot) with Tracey about:

• One day a face appeared in fabric and thread
• What do you grab first when you get evacuated?
• Why a queue of traffic is perfect for getting commissions
• Who buys the dolls?
• The differences between Instagram & Facebook for getting work
• The importance of social media for artists
• Inspirations from film and music icons
• Developing her technique and style
• Her most exciting commission
• Tracey's unique way of keeping an eye on her UFO's
• The magic of deadlines!

and much more...

For this episode... View Show Notes, Links & Examples of Tracey's work at http://www.stitcherystories.com/traceycoverley

Visit: https://handmadeinhorwichend.com/

Like: https://www.facebook.com/handmadeinhorwichend/

Look: https://www.instagram.com/traceycoverley/

Other artists episodes mentioned: Jane Sanders https://www.stitcherystories.com/janesanders/

Exhibition at : Think In NG (in Nottingham) http://www.thinkinng.org/

Today on the Stitchery Stories podcast, Diane Gaffney shares her fascinating story of developing a well-established business based around her love of travel. Diane and her husband Jim, are the founders of Textile Traders. They have been buying and selling hand made textiles from south east Asia since 1984.

Susan Weeks chats with Diane about:

• Organising World Textile Days
• The logistics of organising long duration buying trips
• How Diane and Jim created this business
• Their first forays into flea markets and festivals
• Being commissioned to collect Batik from all over Java
• A deep interest in batik
• How to manage buying 'stuff' in different languages
• Making long term friendships with inspiring village women in Java and Thailand
• The adventure of taking an adult 'gap year'
• Overland travel challenges... and toilets!
• Remembering the stories and people around purchases
• Managing a business with extended buying trips
• The benefits of having help in our businesses

For this episode... View Show Notes, Links & Photos of Diane's travels and textiles at http://www.stitcherystories.com/DianeGaffney

Visit: https://www.textiletraders.co.uk/

Visit: http://worldtextileday.co.uk/

Read: https://asiatextilejourney.wordpress.com/

Like: https://www.facebook.com/Textile-Traders-1131127837033379/

SFSNAD: San Francisco School Of Needlework And Design

Today on the Stitchery Stories podcast, the co-founders of SFSNAD, Ellice Sperber and Lucy Barter share their story of turning their chats into dreams and their dreams into reality as they established their embroidery school in San Francisco.

Susan Weeks chats with Ellice & Lucy about:

• Getting worldwide participation in their Stitch At Home challenges
• Collaborating with brands
• The heartwarming stories that often accompany challenge submissions
• The power of attraction of a giant denim Peace sign
• What started their journey to setting up SFSNAD
• Building community near and far
• Establishing a large, varied and growing Reference Library
• Drooling over embroidery from around the world
• Not everyone is gifted with the ability to teach
• The importance of having support when making strategic business decisions
• Developing their signature Comprehensive Studies Program
• Learning to audit ourselves when designing courses and training

For this episode... View Show Notes, Links & Examples of artist's work at http://www.stitcherystories.com/SFSNAD

Visit: https://www.sfneedleworkanddesign.org/

Like: https://www.facebook.com/sanfranciscoschoolofneedleworkanddesign/

Look: https://www.instagram.com/sfsnad/

Email: [email protected]