Category: textiles
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Red clay and faded madder
Following the day’s colour prompt, I looked for a summer orange but what I found was an autumn russet, terracotta, brick. Had it been a sunny day, I might have thought of Tuscan roof tiles, glowing at sunset, but on an overcast, post-heatwave day when everything seems faded, it’s brick I see. Good, solid English…
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Hand & Heart textile days
A new series of events for textile folk in and around Loughborough Hand & Heart is my new project exploring sense of touch, textiles and sewing and I would like to invite you to join me for the first events in September and October. Do you love textiles & sewing? We invite you to join…
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Material Histories, Showing and Sharing Textiles: Making Meaning Episode 66
This episode is the second of the occasional mini series Material Histories with Deb McGuire. In this one we have a wonderful wide-ranging conversation starting with what we look for in quilt shows but covers far more than that. We talk about the power of connecting through making, about showing and sharing textile works and…
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Textile Book Group Autumn-Winter 2026
Four more book group sessions to take us through to the end of the year I’ve now hosted 12 months of Textile Book Group and we’ve read 11 books (with a break earlier this summer). The next monthly sessions are now open for bookings. Textile Book Group is on zoom, on a Monday evening at…
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21 Years of Ruth Singer, artist and writer. Making Meaning Episode 65
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This month, July 2026 marks 21 years since I left a very nice, well-paid job in the museum sector (at the V&A no less) and set off on this journey of second-career self-employment. It’s been varied to say the least and full of successes and failures, risks and rewards. In this new podcast episode I…
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Where Do I Get My Ideas From? Making Meaning Episode 64
I have been asked about my ideas and where they come from more than anything else in my 21 year career (although “How long did it take to make?” must be a close second). It’s really hard for me to define where each idea came from but I’ve given it a go in this podcast.…
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Nature connection and colour
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Exploring green in the garden During my first nature-based residency in 2023, I read that humans can see more variations of green than of any other colour. That’s because we evolved to live in green places, needing to identify plants and food. I developed a lovely activity to explore this, using threads in many shades…
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Stitching The Garden
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Nature-inspired embroidery workshop in Mill Field Forest Garden on 8th August I keep saying I am going to stop running workshops but I can’t resist one more in the wonderful community garden I help to run. I was artist in residence here 2024-2025 and I still find it endlessly inspiring and I want to share…
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Introducing Material Histories with Deb McGuire. Making Meaning Episode 63
Material Histories is a new mini-series of Making Meaning Podcast with special guest co-host Deb McGuire. Deb is a brilliant historian, specialising in emotional histories of quilting, but she’s incredibly knowledgable about all kinds of things. We have so many overlapping interests and things we really want to talk about in the world of textile…
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Beautiful but hollow
My view of ‘Dirty Looks: Desire and Decay in Fashion’ exhibition at The Barbican My initial review of this exhibition, written on the train home, was a list of things I didn’t like and disappointment at what could have, in my opinion, been done better. I didn’t make enough notes, take enough photos, nor do…