Hippystitch: December 2018

Mum with Red Striped Scarf - Jenny Dutton

You may have moved onto this post having had a look at Harrogate Knitting & Stitching Show 2018 - Part 1. If not you may want to have a gander at that blogpost too. Here is a further taster of the wonderful textile art at the show...

Mum With Spotty Bow & detail - Jenni Dutton

Jenni Dutton's Dementia Darnings - portraits of her mother, who had dementia, in thread and wool, show both the ageing process and the effect of the illness. These portraits were sensational but I found the later ones incredibly hard to be with.

Then a Moment Later She Smiled & detail - Jenni Dutton

Caren Garfen's What's Going on Upstairs was a bedroom installation which dealt with the issue of eating disorders. It included a quilt using a pattern designed by a creative young women called Alex who died as a result of a complex eating disorder.

What's Going on Upstairs - Caren Garfen

Room6 is a group of 6 artists including Caroline Bell & Consuelo Simpson. Their exhibition was called Missing Elements.

Fire, Water & Earth - Caroline Bell

Gathering & Storing - Consuelo Simpson

Nigel Cheney's homage to the men of Naseby who fell in WW1 and his family connections to the war has resulted in Decorated - Tour of Duty where uniforms and kit bags have been grafted together to form a sort of "body bag" with hand & machine embroidery and digital print...

Adapted Uniform & Kit Bag - Nigel Cheney

Fabricated Narratives, an exhibition by a group of New Zealand artists, was showing works as part of fabricated stories...

Helene Carpenter

Marianda Twydell

Indigo Mantle - Marianda Twydell

And the rugs from John Allen's Spirit of Place were very colourful & covetable...

John Allen

Clare Bullock, feltmaker & textile artist was demonstrating in the Artists in Action area & had all sorts of interesting things to show...

Clare Bullock

I hope that's provided some inspiration - it's always worth a visit to the Knitting & Stitching Show!

Grass Lake (cropped) - Denise Oyama Miller - SAQA

The highlight of the textile calender, for me at least, is the Knitting & Stitching Show. Whilst it travels to 3 venues, I go to Harrogate. London & Dublin are the alternatives. It is full of amazing exhibitions, talented artists showcasing their working methods, a plethora of supplies and workshops where you can have a go at making something yourself. Here are some pics of the work on show...

Electric Fields (cropped) - Elizabeth Barton - SAQA

The SAQA (Studio Art Quilt Associates) exhibition, entitled Concrete & Grassland explored natural landscape & the constructed environment shown either separately or together.

The Cork Textiles Network had a Tales exhibition with works made in response to a chosen book...

Book of Phrases, Phrases to Live By - Rose Mary Cullen inspired by Good Wives by Louisa May Alcott

disleksia - Christina Jasmin Roser inspired by the English Dictionary

All The Lights We Cannot See - Clodagh Caulfield - inspired by All The Lights We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr

In the Folk Tales exhibition by Anne Kelly we see her work combining the natural world and folk art. Her collaborative piece "Travel Tags - Moving Memories which looks at travel and migration was also on show.

Small Suitcase 2 - Anne Kelly

Self Portrait - Anne Kelly

Travel Tags - Collaborative Piece - Anne Kelly

In the Studio 21 - Colour Notes exhibition, the artists explore their use of colour in different ways...

Wedding Collar - Ross Belton

Protection - Jill Flower

Music of the Hills - Marion Glover

A Cumbrian Spectrum - Anne Froggatt

Cas Holmes' Tea Flora Tales, supported by the Embroiderers' Guild, is an ongoing collaboration with artists and makers to explore our relationship to the landscape and the work of Plantlife, a British conservation charity working nationally and internationally to save threatened wild flowers, plants and fungi. You could prune a bit of the display to take home for a donation to Plantlife.