Items

Advanced search

Patch by Sue
I craft because I enjoy it. I enjoy the process, the feel of the fibre or fabric in my hand, the colours, patterns, textures and the joy in creating. I ‘craft’ rather than produce ‘art’. Stitching, knitting, crochet and weaving rarely command a reasonable financial return for the skill and time involved. Recently, I completed a hand-dyed and embroidered book cover. A craft shop owner saw it and asked me to produce more for her to sell. There were more than 40 hours of work in it. I suspect she would be unable to offer me even 50p an hour return on my crafting. This patch is a piece of gratitude to five women who have supported me on my craft journey. It began as a very small toddler, being given buttons to arrange and being allowed to play with the skeins of embroidery cotton of my childminder Lilian and her sister-in-law, Evelyn. The buttons are from that same button box. The skein of embroidery floss and the embroideries were Evelyn’s. My grandmother Alice taught me to embroider, knit, crochet and tat. My debt to her is enormous. The little piece of Aida represents those early steps in embroidery. There is no time in my life since then that I have not had a project on the go. Mary, my college tutor, paid for me to do a City and Guilds in Embroidery, a wealth of skills. All the embroidery threads in the piece were dyed during the course. The brown fabrics were dyed using onion skins, (the silk dupion is from my wedding dress). The Aida was dyed using Alder Buckthorn. Finally, gratitude to K3nClothtales (YouTube) who is a rich source of creativity skills and who inspired this piece.