New year, new thing...
or starting as I mean to go on...
I’m new here so starting slowly and quietly. It may take a while to settle into regular writing and posting but I wanted a place to write a little more about the things I make, read, see and do. I hope you find it interesting.
The first week of 2025 started well as I finished ‘Tucked Up’. I began this piece by stitching together samples made following an online workshop with the brilliant Heidi Parkes on the Quilty Nook, a treasure-trove online resource and community hosted by the equally brilliant Zak Foster.
I grabbed some plain linen-ish squares of fabric, began stitching while watching the workshop and just kept going. I got to nine squares of folds and lines and thought I’d join and quilt them in between the pintucks. I like the drawingness of the stitching, the lumps and bumps formed by the pintucks and how the border was pulled in and out by the quilting. I intend to write more about my own work going forward but, for today, here’s the finished piece.
With ‘Tucked Up’, finished, I returned to a piece I started in a weekend workshop with textile artist Sabine Kaner way back in November 2022. I’ve begun again by adding more stitching to the painted calico background and tethering the appliqué with blanket stitch. I am a little worried that it’s never going to be fully resolved, I need to remove the clumsy, blurry text and I’m struggling with the drabness of the background. However, I am interested enough to continue building up the stitches and layers to see if I can pull it around. Definitely a case of ‘wait and see’.
Here’s where I left it in 2022…
And here’s where I’ve got to so far…
Moving on through the week and Thursday morning’s village make and mend group was its usual glorious mix of production line, therapy session and comedy moments. We’ve been meeting every week for a couple of years now. It’s a no-pressure, bring what you like and do what you want couple of hours and, again, there’ll be more on gathering and making another time. The plan here is to post a weekly update and then, fortnightly-ish, a longer piece on a specific theme. I hope you’ll bear with me while I find my writing rhythm.
The weekend started with helping to demonstrate fabric cording and basket making at another local textile group. Formerly an Embroiders’ Guild branch, its members continue to support each other’s work and organise regular workshops by a wide range of textile artists and makers.
Yesterday we were introducing members and visitors to the basics of fabric rope making, coiling, wrapping and stitching. The possibilities are endless from practical baskets and mats to sculptural shapes and forms. Again, a pretty big textile topic in itself and another to add to my list but if you head over to Instagram, search for me at slowquietwork and scroll back a while you’ll find a reel of some of my basket making endeavours.
And finally, to finish the week, I’ll be settling down in front of a Sunday fire with this beauty, a belated Christmas gift to myself. A quick flick through has already revealed page after page of delicious photographs of textiles from across the globe. A feast for the eyes.
So, that’s me during the first week of January 2025. Thank you for taking the time to take a look. I’ve popped a subscribe button below if you’d like to get a ping when I’ve posted and if you have any comments, please get in touch. See you next Sunday.
J x