Reflecting on Stitch Weekend

A wonderful vibrant event celebrating Mary Linwood and all of us that love to stitch

Last weekend I hosted a joyful event at Leicester Guildhall in celebration of Mary Linwood and all things stitch. I had lots of visitors as well as a brilliant team of artists and academics being part of this great event.

We had demonstrations of machine embroidery by Alison Carpenter-Hughes and spinning by The Leicestershire Guild of Spinners, Weavers and Dyers.

We had historic textile study sessions – I brought in 1800-1850 embroidery and some 18th century dress fabrics on Saturday, and 19th century dress and accessories on Sunday.

I had lovely chats with Dr Heidi Strobel (left) and Dr Isabella Rosner (right) about Mary Linwood and her work.

Hannah showed visitors how to make stitched wool balls based on my exhibition piece Accomplishments and taught flame stitch / Florentine stitch / Bargello and a gorgeous series of pieces were made.

Ali ran an introduction to working with wool needle painting inspired by Mary Linwood’s own stitching too.

I had a table of lovely antique and vintage textiles for sale which definitely went down quite a bit as some lovely pieces found new homes.

I sold some of my books too – both still available from my online shop.

Although I was feeling really poorly after a week of a rotten cold, we had a wonderful time. Thanks to Mandeep and Meghan for helping out, welcoming people, selling things and generally keeping everything moving.

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Events

There are a few more events coming up alongside the Mary Linwood exhibition including a tour in the gallery with me on Saturday. I’ll be talking about my own work, the group projects and how the exhibition came together behind the scenes.