Stitching with Jessie Chorley at Loop, London

Jessie Chorley - Designer, maker, shop owner

I have just been on an Embroidered & Appliqued Illustrations workshop with Jessie Chorley at Loop in Camden Passage, London.  Jessie, designer, maker & shop owner, is a textile artist who combines hand stitching with applique and patchwork to create scenes and stories.  

Jessie Chorley - All Day Still

We started the day with tea and biscuits and a kit that Jessie had put together to get us started.  This included some base fabric, some precut shapes, some of Jessie's lovely printed pieces and a key stitches info card.  Jessie had also brought along lots of fabric & threads for us to dig into.

Pack of goodies to make our piece

Everything Jessie had brought looked enticing & was all displayed in her characteristic style...

Jessie Chorley's Suitcase of Equipment

Handmade Buttons - Jessie Chorley

Button Tin

Handmade Brooches - Jessie Chorley

Packs to stitch and embellish - Jessie Chorley

Her stitched samples were a great inspiration and she showed us her key techniques of couching, seed stitching, button making, running stitch and back stitch.  In no time we were stitching away.

Jessie Chorley - Samples Book

More from Jessie Chorley's Samples Books

The time whizzed by and at the end of the day we all laid our pieces outside to check out our progress...

Our achievements at the end of the day

Detail from some of the above pieces

It was a great day.  And afterwards there was still time to look round the wonderful Loop.  Situated in Camden Passage, it's well worth a visit - and impossible to leave without buying something! 

Loop in Camden Passage, London

I haven't finished my piece yet but I did work on it on the train home and I am pleased with how it's progressing.  I hope to get some more done this week!

My piece so far

You can find Jessie's shop at 158a Columbia Road, London, E2 7RG  - open Thursday to Sunday from 11am to 6pm.

What a fab day - thanks Jessie & Loop! 

Making Lampshades with Marna Lunt at Preston Park Museum

I have just been on a very enjoyable lampshade making course with Marna Lunt at Preston Park Museum.  You can check out the fabulous inspiration Marna provides on her website - Little A Designs.  All materials for the course were provided in one of Marna's black totes emblazoned with a very topical quote from Matisse together with a lovely notebook in which to record any hot tips. 

Hot tips in here!

There was a lot of fabric to choose from.  Here's my stash: 

First choose your fabrics

After drawing round our lampshade templates and sketching out our designs it was time to cut out, stick & stitch the fabric in place ...

Draw round your template and add your design

Stitch in place and decorate

Using embroidery thread to add detail was the next step.  Then it was time to put it all together which was a bit fiddly ...

And finally - put it all together

... which is altogether just a bit fiddly but worth the effort

But I got to go home with a fab lampshade - now I just need to find a lamp nice enough to go with it.  Thanks, Marna!

If you want to see the fab makes of all the other lovely course goers hop over to Marna's facebook page for a look.

I didn't have time to explore Preston Park Museum and Grounds so I'll just have to go back another time but I can tell you the adventure playground looked ace!