stitch – KDD & Co

mend

We celebrate the new edition of Wheesht with this essay exploring the creative work of mending and Celia Pym’s inspiring practice

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…

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 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 I was completely blown away by the vision of Alistair Moffat (who produced the tapestry’s historical content and context), Andrew Crummy (the superb artist who designed these 160 panels) and perhaps especially by the skill and beauty of the work of the thousand…

a kiss from France

By: Kate Davies Designs April 9, 2013March 5, 2018

embroidery, History, textilesembroidered postcards, embroidery, first world war, first world war postcards, First World War silks, postcard history, postcards, sentiment, silk postcards, stitch, textiles, World War 1 silks82 Comments

I so enjoyed your translations and comments on this post, that I thought I’d continue the First World War theme with some of my favourite items in my postcard collection. Known to collectors generically as “silks”, these machine-embroidered cards first appeared around 1900, and were produced in vast quantities during the twentieth century’s first two…

Modern Embroidery

By: Kate Davies Designs June 17, 2012June 17, 2012

books, color, colour, embroidery, textiles1970s, Carousel, carousel sweater, design, Ike Rosen, Kate Davies, Modern Embroidery, Sheep Carousel, stitch, stitching, textiles35 Comments

A few weeks ago, I discovered a craft / design book that really blew me away. This hasn’t happened for a while, and I love this book so much that I’ve been itching to mention it. Here’s how I came across it: back in April, I decided I would design a tea cosy for Woolfest.…

stitched up

Though I love the Gainsborough films, Tony Richardson’s Tom Jones and Michael Winterbottom’s A Cock and Bull Story, I am not generally a fan of contemporary cinematic takes on eighteenth- and nineteenth century literature. This is probably because of what I do: a generation of students who have grown up with the unshakeable idea that…