Sarah Appleton - Textile Artist Blog

To keep myself busy over the first hurdle of summer, besides the odd job here and there I also decided to enter an embroidery competition via my local library. Since my usual style of embroidery is somewhat ermm... Postmodernist  and I haven't had a lot of time for personal projects lately I thought it would be a lot of fun to create something a little more traditional. The competition, called 'Postcards For Peace', entailed designing an embroidered silk postcard in the style of those made during the First World War (such as these ) for the Centenary which falls this year. I'd never come across these postcards before but the colours, designs and textures in them, not to mention what an important memento they are in terms of textiles within history were so inspiring that I couldn't wait to start. If you want to know more about the whatnots of the competition you can click here This was my entry: I used real silk for the backing fabric to keep the authentic to...

Just over a year ago my great gal pal Gemma over at  Dark Matters  asked me to make her some bespoke bunting  for her gourmet brownie stall business which was just taking off. Well last week she mentioned that the business is doing so well that she can now make what she calls a 'double pronged brownie attack' on the world [e.g. have two stalls open in two places at once] and therefore needed another string of bunting! Of course I was happy to oblige and I think it even turned out nicer than the original bunting I made for her: Fronting Backting I used all the same heritage style fabrics for the 'front'; plaid, houndstooth and gingham, but changed the 'back' up with some different ones; a titchy polyester check-like woven fabric and a geometric patterned woven wool which I absolutely love (but sadly don't have enough of to make a garment)! I used both the right and wrong sides of the wool to make alternate flags; one has more blue and one has more gr...