Each year at the Knitting & Stitching Shows the Embroiderers’ Guild curate a Members’ exhibition. For 2024 the theme is ‘Repair Restore Recreate’ and I’m pleased to share that Darning Sampler 2 and They Shall Grow Not Old have been accepted for exhibition.
They Shall Grow Not Old – part of the Repair Restore Recreate
Darning Sampler 2 – part of the Repair Restore Recreate
Opposites Attract
In addition to the Repair Restore Recreate exhibition, the Guild stand will have the Members’ Challenge 2024 ‘Opposites Attract’ on show – which includes my piece ‘Good Grub‘
Darning Sampler 2 is the latest addition to my darning series. A series of work celebrating the patterns and variations of the humble darning stitch.
Darning Sampler 2 – Cloth
The project started with a vintage glass cloth I discovered in my collection.
This soft, buttery and well worn cloth has a beautiful weave, and an iconic red and white logo runs through the centre. The cloth is easy to handle and provides a perfect blank space for layering and weaving the thread.
An iconic red and white logo running through the centre
I started with a test sample of Madeira Cotona thread to see how it stitched and just carried on stitching.
Madeira Cotona thread and a vintage glass cloth
By the end of the first day I’d completed two designs and was researching more.
A beautiful and buttery cloth to stitch
The act of repairing worn and damaged cloth often involves patching, mending and darning.
Darning Sampler 2 is inspired by a vintage glass cloth from my collection.
Embroiderers’ Guild Members Project 2024
The 2024 Members’ project from the Embroiderers’ Guild is based around repair. Darning Sampler 2 has been accepted and will be on exhibition at the Knitting and Stitching Shows this autumn.
“Repair, Restore, and Recreate have become buzz words …. We are all aware of the need to extend the life of what we use. But being textile artists, we also embrace the idea of enhancing and decorating textiles as we repair and/or restore them. What we repair and how, may now be far removed from the days of darning socks ….. The traditional patchwork quilts have evolved into memory quilts … Boro has moved beyond simply patching … Darning has gained a new life as a surface decoration. ” Embroiderers’ Guild.
I’m please to announce that Darning Sampler is included in Stitch Magazine Issue 146.
Stitch Magazine Issue 146
The article showcases the winning entries in the Embroiderers’ Guild Members’ Challenge 2023.
Article in Stitch Magazine Issue 146
Darning Sampler – My first thought on the Members’ Challenge ‘Layers’ theme was of threads crossing and layering over each other and planned to create an artwork that combined two of my favourite things, intricate stitch work and red thread.
The inspiration came from a little antique darning sampler in my collection. I wanted to make a sampler of my own and chose a vintage brushed cotton child’s garment to embellish with the stitches.
Using the vintage sampler as a starting point with a few variations of my own, I created a bank of stitches drawn out onto graph paper.
An early challenge was the brushed cotton surface which needed to be completely de-fuzzed to expose the cloth’s weave.
I sampled a few threads on the reverse of the garment to see which weight of thread worked best and settled on a Madeira Cotona in red and then cut out small pieces of paper about 2-inch square and pinned them over the garment to get an idea of the composition.
Size 28 x 28 cm approximately. Hand stitched Madeira thread, vintage child’s cotton garment. Mother of Pearl button added to the neckline in a red thread.
