TextileArts news and re:views

Call For Entries

The Textile Directory has announced their Spellbinding Textiles Competition, open to anybody with an interest in any area of textiles, including fashion, interiors, textile art and design and 3D work.

The theme of the competition is magic and entrants are asked to produce an item based on their interpretation of this theme.

The overall winner of the competition will receive £1000 to spend on Pfaff products and there will be an exhibition of the 30 best entries at The Forge Mill Needle Museum in Redditch in February 2009.

The closing date of the competition is 31 October 2008. Anybody wishing to enter the competition will need to submit 3 - 4 images of their finished piece plus a short artist's statement by this date to or you can post a CD of your images to

The Textile Directory, 8 King Charles Court, Evesham, Worcestershire WR11 4RF

A gallery of entries will also be included on The Textile Directory website.

More information at Spellbinding Textiles Competition.

From the Oxfam web site:

Staff in our Leeds office have just started a new campaign to create a giant baby blanket, with each square knitted representing a mother who did not survive pregnancy or childbirth to be able to care for her baby, because she couldn't access the medical care she needed.

We're aiming to get 250,000 squares by September, which is the number of mothers who could have been saved in that time if decent healthcare had been available.

We need knitters to make 9 inch squares for the giant blanket, which will be handed into the Government as a sort of 'patchwork against poverty petition', to demand a world where everyone has access to free basic healthcare.

More information on the Oxfam web site and the Stitch and Bitch web site.

Found via Solveigh Goett at The Textile Files

The latest issue of Fibre&Stitch (issue 3) is newly out, offering a feast of techniques, projects and information. Scanning down the table of contents, some headings immediately caught my eye - Terri Stegmiller with a series on techniques and methods for writing on fabric, and special guest articles by Linda Stokes on shibori with transfer dyes, and Helen Suzanne Alexander on achieving depth and distance in fibre landscapes.

There's also a fascinating article by guest author Virginia A. Spiegel in which she explains how she collects and records information in her studio journals, and shares the thought processes that led to a particular series of art quilts.

The talented artists who contribute to Fibre&Stitch have a seemingly inexhaustible supply of ideas for colourful and beautiful projects and this issue is no exception. I especially liked Terri Stegmiller's cheerful 'scrappy fabric coasters' and Debra Jo Hardman's 'thread-play scarf', to name but two - and there is much more here to stimulate creativity.

To see what's on offer, you can download the table of contents in PDF format from the Fibre&Stitch web site, or to get a practical taste of Fibre&Stitch, look at the generous range of projects and techniques on the free projects page.

Fibre&Stitch is a quarterly electronic publication in PDF format. You can subscribe online ($29.95 USD for a year's subscription), and a single issue is $8.95 USD.

Bags2Riches 2008 is the 3rd annual handbag competition to prevent homelessness.

The brief is to create an original handbag to be eligible to win the "The Most Original Handbag Award" with Grand Prize Package. The deadline for entries is August 20, 2008.

The judges will select 10 finalists, with selection criteria including originality, unique design elements, and quality of workmanship. The finalists will be highlighted in a fashion show at the Artsgarden in downtown Indianapolis on Wednesday, October 8 2008, between 11am and 2pm. The Grand Prize winner will be determined by the most purchased votes, and each of the ten final handbags will go home with a lucky voter.

Bags not chosen to be a finalist will be sold or auctioned, with the proceeds benefiting Trusted Partners' efforts to prevent homelessness in Indianapolis. Trusted Partners is an organisation that matches volunteer mentors with families and individuals in homeless prevention programmes to increase the number of people who remain housed.

For an entry form and more information, go to www.bags2richesindy.org.

A group of contemporary lace makers is to give an ancient craft a twenty-first century edge with a new exhibition of modern lace.

To mark its 10th anniversary, the 98 Lace Group is bringing together the best of its work to challenge all preconceptions about this often delicate, intricate textile. No longer the preserve of old ladies in bonnets, the pieces exhibited range from wall-hangings to bags and vessels, all demonstrating the surprising possibilities of lace.

The pieces create colour and texture out of a web of different materials. Plastic, paper and raffia, metal, linen thread and wire are worked in different combinations to make a stunning whole, echoing the finest lace of the past while belonging firmly in the present.

The UK-wide fellowship of textile teachers and artists aims to revive and maintain the ancient skill of lace making to prevent it being lost for good. Members are offering a rare opportunity to learn their craft at the De Morgan Centre in a series of workshops for children and adults.

Visit the 98 Lace Group web site at www.98lacegroup.org.uk.

A new website connecting tutors, organisations and students in UK for arts and crafts subjects

If you've noticed recently how much harder it's become to find adult leisure and recreational courses in the UK since the government's decision to focus resources on younger people, you'll welcome this site that aims to fill the information gap.

To find out more, visit www.leisurelearners.com. The site launched in October and aims to become a treasure trove of information on tutors and on classes or potential classes. Learners register to find suitable courses and workshops, how tutors can be contacted, what their backgrounds are and many other details, such as location and fees. It's a free service to learners, who can check in as often as they like to see the latest information, and registered members receive a regular email newsletter with site developments and other useful information.

If you are an individual tutor or course provider of Arts and Crafts /Humanities recreational courses or workshops, including residential courses, Leisure Learners offers a cost effective way to advertise - less than the cost of a newspaper advert. The service has the potential to grow into a great resource, and it needs you and your course(s) - there's a special promotional offer running through December, offering a discount on tutor registration, so now is good time to join.

The information is being gathered and constantly updated by two friends:
Ingrid Ellis, who has been running her local Embroiderers Guild' group over a number of years, has encountered a large number of tutors and is also a tutor herself; and
Zoe Ainsworth-Grigg, who is also a Member of the Embroiderers' Guild and has taught silk painting.

For further information please contact Ingrid or Zoe via www.leisurelearners.com

The Textile Conservation Centre at the University of Southampton is threatened with closure - see the Institute of Conservation site for more information. If you are a British citizen or resident, please consider signing the petition against the closure that has been set up on the Government's e-petition web site. We cannot let this unique resource be lost.

Some blog posts about this issue:
at Lincoln Stitchers
at On boundaries
at Martin Tod

"Art, Nature, Creativity, Life" is a new online book by Virginia A. Spiegel, available now with 100% of the proceeds going directly to the American Cancer Society.

"Art, Nature, Creativity, Life" is full of essays; art, art, and more art; recommended books for artists, nature lovers, gardeners and other creative types; over 80 inspirational photos; more than 35 haikus, and much more. The nineteen chapters are greatly expanded versions of the best issues of Virginia Spiegel's e-newsletter of the same name.

You can find ordering information, reviews, and more information about the online book, and a sample chapter, on Virginia Spiegel's web site.

Please Touch!

Textile artists (individuals and groups) are invited to submit a piece of work for Tactile Textiles, an exhibition at The Red House Museum, in Christchurch, Dorset, from 5 July to 25 August 2008.

The exhibition will provide a stimulating and exciting experience, enabling visitors to touch the exhibits. When we are working with textiles, we are constantly handling them, yet in exhibitions the urge to touch is usually restrained by "Please do not touch" signs. This deliberately tactile exhibition will dispense with this barrier and create a display that can be touched, experienced and enjoyed by all, and especially by children and visually impaired people.

There will be various prizes including cash awards from CADArts and an Xpression Embellisher machine from Janome. In addition Workshop on the Web, the online embroidery magazine, have donated a cash prize of £50 and there are embroidery supplies from Coats Crafts UK, Fibrecrafts, Jennifer Gail Threads and Gillsew.

Organised by CADArts, (Christchurch & District Arts), the competition is open to anyone and you can enter by post if you pay the return postage. The event is being supported by the Culture, Learning and Lifestyle Action Group of the Christchurch Community Partnership.

For further details please visit the Tactile Textiles page on the CADArts web site.

This special exhibition will be on show from 8 November 2007 to 9 March 2008 in the Museum of Arts and Design in New York.

Participating artists are from 12 countries and include Judy Chicago, Elaine Reichek, Tilleke Schwarz, Berend Strik, Andrea Deszo, Mattia Bonetti, Nava Lubelski, Clyde Olliver, Kate Kretz and Benji Whalen. A catalogue is planned.

Into the Woods (detail), Tilleke Schwarz