Unless stated otherwise my courses all take place at The Hearth in Horsley, Northumberland. This small rural arts centre has studios for 9 resident artists and I hire a nice big room to teach in with plenty of space for you to work and me to lay out materials. At lunch time we can take advantage of the café on site which serves delicious light lunches ,snacks and cakes and I usually open up my personal studio for a short while so you can see what I am currently working on.
You may be disappointed to find all my courses are FULL so if you really want to get on a course you need to sign up for my newsletter as it is definitely worth being on the waiting list. Students sometimes pull out for one reason out another.
Home Saturday 30th November at The Hearth 10-4 £50 incl all materials
Now FULL please contact me HERE to be put on the reserve list
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Home is where the heart is and with the sale of my childhood home it is a subject which I keep returning to in my own practice. I have always loved the house motifs that appear in many old Amercian quilts and this course allows you to practice the art of finger turned appliqué to create your own. You should also have time to put your house into a garden and I will show you how to contextualise it with flowers and simple tree shapes. I will provide a piece of vintage quilt for you to work on ( unfortunately not quite like the rare one in this picture!) and the other materials that you need to build up your folk art inspired picture.
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Doll Sunday 1st December 10-4 at The Hearth £50 incl materials now FULL please contact me here to be put on the reserve list
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I did not run this course in 2018 and I really missed teaching it as it has been a seasonal favourite with students over the years. I will show you how to make a tiny doll which could just be a keepsake doll or a Christmas angel. I will show you the simple techniques I have devised to make the doll and will have a wide variety of lovely fabrics trims and hair tresses to dress your doll, Very relaxing hand sewing workshop in the midst of a stressful season!
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Chicken Saturday 29th February 10-4 at The Hearth £50 incl all materials FULL please contact me HERE to be put on the waiting list
Many of you couldn’t get on to my Chicken course last term so here it is again! You will work up a textile collage on to a piece of quilt using tiny bits of fabric.The real art comes when you start to apply hand stitches to bring it to life and capture the marks on the plumage There will be a certain amount of artistic licence with the colours as what we are trying to achieve is the spirit of cockerel or hen but you are welcome to bring a photo of a particular breed if that is what you would like to do. I am particularly in love with grey hens!
To be put on the waiting list on this course please contact me HERE.
To be put on the waiting list on this course please contact me HERE.
Blues and Boro Sunday 1st March 10-4 £50 incl. all materials. FULL but please put yourself on the reserve list as places sometimes become available . Contact me HERE
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Traditional Boro textiles from Japan provide the inspiration for this course where the palette will be the blues. The Boro aesthetic patchworks rags and old fabrics together and then holds them in place with lines of obvious running stitching which remind us of the lines and marks of painters and has rightly elevated these beautiful textiles, which emerged from poverty ,into what is now regarded as art pieces..In this course we will not be copying Boro as we will be mixing the cultures up a bit as I will have sourced blue worn quilts from Cumbria for you to use in conjunction with indigo and woad dyed cloth, block printed Indian and ikat fabrics. This is very much free style patchwork which is harder than you think but I shall show you how!
To be put on the reserve list for this course contact me HERE |
Sketchbook Kickstarter Saturday 28th AND Sunday 29th March 10-4 at The Hearth, Horsley £100 incl. some materials FULL but contact me HERE to be put on reserve list
Do you want to have a go at mixed media techniques but don’t know where to start? A small sketchbook is an ideal way to experiment. You don’t need to be able to draw to do this course as I will show you numerous ways to build up beautiful pages which rely on collage, tracing, table top printing, resists, masking and “working into”. You might want to have a theme but I strongly suggest you use this weekend to open yourself up to colour, texture, mark making and accidental possibilities. On the first day I will guide you with many demonstrations and on Day Two you will have time to work on developing your own ideas and themes. A full list of materials that you need to bring will be provided and that includes an apron. This course is really about messy play for adults!
To be put on reserve list for this course contact me HERE
To be put on reserve list for this course contact me HERE
Fabric Books Sat 18th April OR Sunday 19th April 10-4 at The Hearth, Horsley £50 incl materials
I have been making exquisite books out of fabric for many years. My hand stitched pages can be simply sewn together with a pamphlet stitch, nestled inside a man’s wallet or a piece of quilt, stretched out as a scroll or the fabrics can be used inventively within a concertina format. The books can be used to collect together in one place precious tiny pieces of fabric with special resonance and in a sense the decorative stitches become the story thread that runs through. In this course you will be shown a number of options for making books out of fabric, how to build up a theme and use stitches imaginatively and then you will then create your own little hand stitched book that you will treasure forever. If you want to make a book in a wallet you will need to provide your own man’s leather envelope wallet. You could of course come for both days and make 2 different book forms.
To book on this course contact me HERE
To book on this course contact me HERE
Hare. Sunday 10th May 10-4 at The Hearth, Horsley £50 incl all materials FULL please contact me HERE to be put on the reserve list
We know that Spring has come when we start to see hares racing across meadows and ploughed fields. They are my favourite animal at this time of year and I enjoy the challenge of trying to depict them through a careful selection of scraps of fabrics and stitch to create silhouette, fur and features. You will work up your own hare fabric collage on to a piece of vintage Durham quilt and each part of the process will be demonstrated so even if you do not finish on the day you will know how to. Bring a hare image you like and we will develop a template from it or use one of mine if you can’t draw. All hand stitching.
Contact me HERE to be put on the reserve list for this course.
Contact me HERE to be put on the reserve list for this course.
Bird Alert! Saturday 30th May OR Sunday 31st May 10-4 at The Hearth, Horsley £50 incl. all materials
1 in 4 UK birds are now on the Red List of Conservation Concern. This is an emergency for UK bird life and to create awareness this bird textile collage course will focus on the birds on the RSPB lists. My little bird is a Dartford Warbler ( on Amber!) but the list includes the skylark, Fieldfares, starling, house and tree sparrows, lapwing and beloved of the North East the kittiwake. You might like to have a go at building up a picture of one of the birds on the list but I will of course allow you to do any British Bird if you like, so templates will be available of our common and beloved birds such as Robin, Wren and Blackbird! You will work on to a piece of old quilt and everything will be hand stitched.
Contact me HERE to book on to the course.
Contact me HERE to book on to the course.
Fish Saturday 11th July 10-4 at The Hearth, Horsley £50 inc. all materials. FULL but please put yourself on the reserve list
For a long time I have been looking for an excuse to use my beautiful metallic and lustred fabric and threads and fish have swum into view! Have a go at building up a textile collage of a warm golden cod, a pretty speckled trout, the common herring or another of our British fishes. We will work by hand on to a background of a damask table cloth building up the layers and then putting in the details and the sparkle with hand stitching.
Contact me HERE to be put on reserve list.
Folk Art Applique Sunday 12th July 10-4 at The Hearth, Horsley £50 incl. all materials FULL contact me HERE to be put on the reserve list
Folk art often grew out of the home garden and the domestic and in this course you will have the opportunity to construct a small textile picture using traditional folk art motifs such as flowers, birds and hearts. I will show you where I gets my inspiration from and how to do the traditional finger turned appliqué to build up your design on to a piece of old quilt.You will decorate the surface of your piece with traditional embroidery stitches. You don’t need to know stitches or be able to draw as handouts will help you!
Contact me HERE to go on the reserve list for this course.
Contact me HERE to go on the reserve list for this course.
Telling the Bees Saturday 25th July or Sunday 26th July at The Hearth 10-4 £50 incl all materials
We are all becoming aware of how important bees are to our ecology and how we need to halt their decline and encourage more of them into our gardens. In this course you will learn how to embroider some bees, set the context with a beehive and learn make to the hexagon patchwork structure used by the bees to hold their honey. We might even have time to pull a little bit of garden into the textile collage too by including bits of flowery domestic embroidery. Lots of techniques in one day but a true summertime inspired course.
To book please contact me HERE
To book please contact me HERE
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