embroidery – KDD & Co

Henty-Creer tutorial

By: Kate Davies Designs March 27, 2022March 27, 2022

craft, design, embroidery, tutorialbarnacles, couching, embellishment, embroidery, lovikka, mittens, tutorial4 Comments

couched X’s and embroidered barnacles

Winter’s End

Bonnie Sennot finds inspiration at Winter’s End.

Here’s a moment of reflection, for these quiet, early days of the new year, with a guest post from my good friend Anne Whitehead. Anne found herself beginning a new experimental creative project in the early spring of 2020, and like many makers, discovered that this project came to tell its own story of a…

An ideal shopping list

By: Kate Davies Designs July 8, 2020July 8, 2020

embroidery, People MAKE Glasgow, stitch, stitchingCastlemilk, community, creativity, Deirdre Nelson, embroidery, Glasgow, Glasgow life, linen, stitch10 Comments

I’m currently working hard on our People Make Glasgow book, which approaches its final stages (exciting!) and am finding the different stories the book covers about the city’s making and producing communities really inspiring, thought provoking, and often moving. As well as creative enterprises of all sizes, in fields from woodworking to whisky, the book…

remembering Walter Crane

Walter Crane, The Triumph of Labour (1891) ©The Trustees of the British Museum It was May Day a couple of days ago, an occasion that puts me immediately in mind of this wonderful image . . . Walter Crane, A Garland for May Day (1895) ©The Trustees of the British Museum . . . which…

“I feel like a lot of textiles tell stories”: Reena Makwana

By: Kate Davies Designs June 23, 2019June 23, 2019

art, embroidery, inspiring projects, interviewchain reaction, embroidery, illustration, interview, Reena Makwana28 Comments

You may remember that a few years ago (thanks to one of this blog’s readers, Maylin) I was interviewed on Woman’s Hour for part of their “chain” series, in which women nominated other women who had inspired them, creating a series of interlinked interviews. I often find myself thinking about the interconnected nature of women’s…

Great Tapestry of Scotland 124-160

Panel 140: Cumbernauld Well, this is my final post on the Great Tapestry of Scotland! I have really enjoyed revisiting my photographs, and thinking more about the tapestry, and your comments have also provided much food for thought. These photographs are, of course only snippets, and you’ll find much more thorough information in the two…

Great Tapestry of Scotland 93-123

Panel 94: Hill and Adamson The silver herrings and striped petticoats of the Newhaven fisherwoman. In the comments on yesterday’s post, Heather linked to an interesting take on the “when is a tapestry not a tapestry” question from a tapestry weaver who strongly objects to the misappropriation of the term in reference to non-woven textiles.…

Great Tapestry of Scotland 60 – 92

There have been some interesting questions in the comments on my previous posts about the Great Scottish Tapestry. Elaine and Deborah asked what materials had been used in the creation of the tapestry – well, the stitchers used Peter Grieg linen and Appletons crewel wool throughout. Terry asked why it was called a tapestry at…

Great Tapestry of Scotland 24-59

Some more details of the Great Tapestry of Scotland for you this morning. You’ll find the first post in the series here. Panel 25: Duns Scotus. The feet of Duns Scotus, the medieval philosopher for whom we have to thank for the concept of Haecceity Panel 26: Somerled, first Lord of the Isles A beautiful…

Great Tapestry of Scotland 1-23

On Sunday I finally got to see the Great Tapestry of Scotland. I was completely blown away by the vision of Alistair Moffat (who produced the tapestry’s historical content and context), Andrew Crummy (the superb artist who designed these 160 panels) and perhaps especially by the skill and beauty of the work of the thousand…

of handkerchiefs

By: Kate Davies Designs February 18, 2014February 18, 2014

textile history, textiles, the life of thingsdrawn-thread work, embroidery, fichu, furoshiki, handkerchief, history of costume, history of dress, kerchief, neckerchief, textile history, textiles, white work111 Comments

I have a terrible cold. When one is sniffling and snuffling and generally feeling lousy, there’s nothing more comforting than a nice handkerchief, of which, it occurred to me this morning, I possess quite a few. So I took some photographs of the ones that aren’t in use or in the wash. Some of them…

Swedish inspiration

By: Kate Davies Designs January 15, 2014January 15, 2014

embroidery, knitting, Sweden, textile history, textilesAnno 1790, Bohus, Bohuslan, Eivor Fisher, embroidery, Sweden, Swedish, Swedish embroidery, Swedish textiles103 Comments

I have of late been developing an obsession with Swedish textiles, and, it now appears, with all things Swedish. This began at the end of last Summer, when I discovered that several Swedish Etsy sellers had some interesting vintage embroidery on offer . . . . . . I had to limit my exposure to…

Gawthorpe, encore

In between developing kits and other designs, I’ve been working on my Gawthorpe project (which you may remember is a commission to produce a pattern inspired by the wonderful textile collections of Rachel Kay Shuttleworth). The piece on which I’ve decided to base my design is a large coverlet, featuring deep teal-coloured woollen embroidery on…

a day at Gawthorpe

Some days I wake up and I feel massively, incredibly lucky to have somehow landed here, in this curious new life, as a designer of hand-knits. Last Thursday was one of those days. Because I had been invited — along with Debbie Bliss , Jane Ellison, Claire Montgomerie, and Emma Varnam — to visit Gawthorpe…