A textile book exploring how we feel when we stitch, for the Mary Linwood exhibition
Mary Linwood left no written record about how she felt about embroidery, although she must have enjoyed it to spend her life on it. Ruth Singer invited women who stitch today to share some of their feelings and emotions when stitching or reflecting on stitchers of the past.
The fabric book is on display as part of Mary Linwood: Art, Stitch and Life at Leicester Museum and Art Gallery. Makers were asked to respond to a brief, set at part of my Mary Linwood project.
You can scroll through images of the book below, and also find further images, captions and details of the makers of each piece further down the page.
Made by
AmyLoveToSew, Ann Stephens, Anne Menary, Cynthia Wood, Debbie Rosser, Denise Hagan, Eva Cantin, Hannah Moore, Jane Booth, Jane Charles, Jo L, Jo Livingston, Joanna Wilde, Joanne Kaye, Julie Gibb, Kate Youens, Kay Steven, Liz Ruth, Lynn Hebblethwaite, Michelle Webster, Monica Hamakami, Morag Bixley, Pamela Hardy, Ruth Duffy, Sara Smith, Soraya Smithson, Sue Condie-Gardner, Susan Green, Susan O. Fennel, Vicky Bilton, Victoria Oulton.
Mary Linwood: Art, Stitch & Life
Exhibition open now until 22nd February 2026
Leicester Museum & Art Gallery, New Walk, Leicester.
Explore Mary Linwood’s life and legacy, and extraordinary embroidery alongside artworks by Ruth Singer illuminating aspects of her life. Free to visit!
Mary Linwood exhibition events
Workshops are now open for bookings including Embroidery Masterclass and Meet The Artist Gallery Tour. There are also free events, talks, tours and more. On 22-23 November there will be a whole weekend of embroidery-related activities including mini workshops, demonstrations, historic textile study session, talks and a relaxed time to meet others and stitch.
Top left
Denise Hagan, Eva Cantin, Julie Gibb, Kate Youens, Liz Ruth
A collaboration by six of Ruth’s Maker Membership group. This patchwork of pieces used circles of words to reflect their feelings about stitching and what it brings them.
Top right
Lynne Hebblethwaite
This piece has evolved as I progressed. The word came first, then the water. I feel submerged whilst working on a project.
Bottom left
Anne Menary
I have seen Mary Linwood’s embroideries and am interested in the painterly effects of thread painting. Using old stranded thread, split stitch and collage I explored my version of this technique.
Top left
Joanne Kaye
When I sew I feel connected. Connected to the process of making the intangible become tangible; visually representing a liminal space or threshold where thoughts become stitch.
Top right
Vicky Bilton
When I stitch, I need to focus, so I feel that it acts as a form of meditation, allowing me to escape from the chaos of everyday life.
Bottom right
Liz Ruth
Emotions whilst embroidering – Happy written in Gujarati. Thoughtful expressed with green running stitch and Calm illustrated with blue running stitched circles. Threads are naturally dyed wool. Inspired by Gujarat.
Top left
AmyLovesToSew
I wouldn’t class embroidery as a relaxing pastime; my neck aches, my eyes strain, I stay up way too late. But its versatility fulfils my need to create.
Top right
Eva Cantin
Results of a multiple-choice survey of local women stitchers, shown in three formats. Each stitch represents a response, each block represents a question. More information: stickyfingerstuff.blogspot.com
Bottom left
Kay Steven
Simple stitching carries difficult, invisible and stifled emotions and thoughts through the cloth transforming them into powerful words, actions and deep magic.
Bottom Right
Hannah Moore
When sewing, I feel connected to my late Mum and all the other women who have influenced me through sharing their skills and knowledge, or just donating tools and materials.
Left
Susan Green
I find the vibrancy of blended, layered threads coupled with the textural qualities of handstitch forms a unique outcome – that’s when ‘stitch’ becomes a unique ‘persona’ and partnership.
Top right
Joanne Kaye
When I sew I often feel restricted. Restricted by time, creative direction, or confidence. Stitching is regularly punctuated by these restrictions, represented by black French knots.
Lower right
Denise Hagan
Banish the ‘shoulds’: Leaning into what I feel comfortable doing. No ‘shoulds’, just comfort and peace, using beautiful fabrics and threads with meaning and joy.
Top left
Ann Stephens
This piece is made up from vintage fabrics from France. My motto is ‘Stitch by Stitch’ – meditative stitches, to think thoughts one by one in time.
Top right
Jane Charles
Vintage embroidery with English paper piecing patchwork reminds me of my grandmothers’ craft work and lives. I inherited both of their sewing boxes. Eco printing of my grandfather, they all loved their gardens. I often think of them when I am hand stitching and creating new work.
Bottom right
Jane Booth
There is a gravestone in St. Margaret’s Church, Leicester, for Agnes Barbour, 1444. It is mostly women who stitch and embroider; particularly in the domestic sphere. Embroidery connects women across time.
Top left
Jo L
Stitching connects me to my personal heritage. Kantha and fabric weaving reminds me of my much loved grandmother, memories that soothe and comfort, maternal love and a safe sanctuary.
Top right
Liz Ruth
This piece has been inspired by an amazing trip to Gujarat and incorporates the words of the emotions I feel whilst embroidering. Happy, Thoughtful and Calm written in Gujarati.
Bottom left
Susan Fennell
In engaging with these pieces, I found myself emotionally in an imaginary “landscape”, wandering and exploring with a needle, thread, texture and colour. It felt like a needed place to shelter.
Top
Eva Cantin
Results of a multiple-choice survey of local women stitchers, shown in three formats. Each stitch represents a response, each block represents a question. More information: stickyfingerstuff.blogspot.com
Bottom
Susan Fennell
In engaging with these pieces, I found myself emotionally in an imaginary “landscape”, wandering and exploring with a needle, thread, texture and color. It felt like a needed place to shelter.
Cynthia Wood
My word is resonance.
Latin origin meaning: echo.
Like a thought/sound coming from the past
and still relevant in the future.
A stitch that binds and holds together
two women working across time.
Julie Gibb
Embroidery is often seen as a passive activity. I wanted to record the feeling of empowerment that I – and past, present and future generations of women – experience when stitching.
Morag Bixley
Sewing is my productive happy place. I feel calm (blue), creative and curious (yellow), at one with my mum and nana (suffragette colours) and all women who sew. It is the place where I learnt to persevere (red).
Joanna Wilde
‘Interior Landscape’ – Drawn from microscopic images of the clear cell cancer inside me, fractures with touch texture of scar tissue. Embroidering moves fear, pain and grief through haptic repetition.
Soraya Smithson
Sewing is often undervalued as ‘women’s work’, making it subservient. My Mixed Emotions Sampler expresses my relationship with sewing, using thread and fabric as creative resistance.
Monica Hamakami
“Resilience” – Stitches became a therapy to release anxiety. The abstract running stitches represent my feelings: delicate and detailed, repetitive compulsive behaviour which it becomes a piece of art.
Left
Victoria Oulton
Feelings of nostalgia resonate as the silent repeated motion connects us across time and place. Memories of my Grandmother’s embroidered hankies and my Mother’s quiltmaking come together in this piece.
Right
Michelle Webster
I sew daily. My sampler developed organically from a spiral of words that I generated as I stitched. Purposeful – absorbed – peaceful – timeless – calm – steady – cheerful – light-hearted.
Top left
Sue Condie-Gardner
Stitched on translucent layers echoing the passing of time and the seasons changing. Remembering Grandma through her hydrangea which has been passed down through cuttings, flourishing still in gardens across the country.
Bottom left
Ruth Duffy
Discussing stitching in a group revealed how emotions such as calmness, thoughtfulness, and being challenged undulate and weave together. Where, why and what is being stitched to create emotional reactions.
Bottom right
Jo Livingston
Me and My Maternal Antecedents. Stitching calms me, gives me satisfaction, and helps me feel connected to my female ancestors as I use skills they would also have possessed.
Top
Sara Smith
Nanna’s scissors and the happy memories of learning to sew with her. The back resonates in a more meaningful way to me – asemic writing – abstract words which convey the love.
Bottom left
Pamela Hardy
Using the emotion love, I have chosen to depict some favourite things. Chain, satin, back and stem stitches were used. I have been totally immersed in this Biro Remedy (anagram of Embroidery) experience.
Bottom right
Debbie Rosser
Vintage cloth stitched onto backing fabric and dipped in walnut ink, hand stitched in specified colours.
Ruth Singer 