DISCOVERING MARY SEACOLE - stitch on plant dyed indigo backing.
‘Against all odds, Mary had an unshakeable belief in the power of nursing to make a difference’ - Sylvia Denton - Royal College of Nursing. Mary Seacole served as a nurse in the Crimea War and was of Jamaican and Scottish parentage - a truly multi-cultural figure. I chose to celebrate her life with a small stitched portrait for the Embroiderers’ Guild project - ‘Reasons to be Thankful'. Her statue stands outside St Thomas’ Hospital in London with which I have a strong personal connection. For me she represents all the many doctors and nurses working in the NHS.
HOME - stitch and appliqué on patchwork. Plant dyes.
‘Home is where the heart is …….’ A personal perspective of home stitched for the Embroiderer’s Guild project - ‘Home'. Plant dyed thread, silk and cotton - embroidered on an indigo dyed patchwork background.
THIS WOMAN’S WORK - stitch and appliqué including plant dyed fabric on work apron.
One of my work aprons, embroidered with stitched words and plant-dyed appliqué. It shows some of the tools I use as a maker but also lays bare parts of my personal life that often lie hidden and don’t get talked about.
PLANTS FOR PURPOSE - plant dyed swatches of colour, stitch and print.
A sampler using left-over scraps of colour and dyed threads on calico. It’s a loose representation of my grandmother’s paintbox - a very old Reeves set of watercolours in a metal box which I inherited from her and often use.
STITCH SAMPLER - black and white thread on grey and white wool fabric.
Another sampler type project to re-acquaint myself with different styles of stitches.
LOG CABIN - hand stitch and plant dyed cotton. Madder, Indigo and Buckthorn.
A hand pieced and sewn log cabin block. Historically, the centre patch of the log cabin block was often made of red cloth to represent the hearth or fire.