Sarah Appleton - Textile Artist Blog

When I wrote my first blog post about making a block for  Little Amal's Skirt of Welcome  I never expected there to be a second part to the story from my perspective. But after posting a picture of the square that my Mum and I had made on my Instagram  I was surprised to be invited by  Annie Symons  to head up to London to help out with assembling the skirt. I was even more surprised when after I jumped at the chance, my Mum said that she was also up for the adventure too, so in October we headed from Dorset to Highgate Library, with sewing machines in tow. There we met up with a whole team of ultra talented creative people; some sewing, some ironing, some organising and all super friendly and welcoming. I was overjoyed to see our block coincidentally waiting at the top of the next pile on the table to be sewn in as soon as we arrived.  I did various jobs throughout the afternoon, including sewing, trimming, unpicking and sewing again, measuring, cutting, m...

During September I worked on a project with my Mum in which we collaborated on a single square to be sent off as part of a bigger project called ' The Nationwide Skirt of Welcome '. The giant skirt is being made from many patchwork squares to welcome Little Amal (who is anything but little) to the UK and raise awareness for refugees - especially displaced children. If you want to know more, or to donate, please use the above links - at the very least you should check out the amazing puppeteering; I can tell you from first hand knowledge that working with these giants is not easy! It was my Mum's idea to take part in the project but given my history with giant puppets  I was happy to help! The theme of the skirt is British Flowers, so we decided to make a bluebell and dandelion applique and embroidered piece. I sketched out the design and we both worked on the actual making of the square. Here it is in its finished glory: It ended up being a good representation of both of o...