An Embroidered Country Diary
Final piece featuring stitch and mixed media techniques inspired by the book ‘The Country Diary Of An Edwardian Lady’. 4 final textile art, each representing the seasons, my experiences and the animals/flowers featured in the seasons- 2026
This series of work was my final collection for my university degree.
Inspiration for the pieces came from ‘The Country Diary Of An Edwardian Lady’ book, where the author ‘Edith Holden’ illustrates and writes about her experiences in nature. This book has a gorgeous vintage feel along with beautiful and cozy illustrations. I wanted to create a vintage inspired piece, that captured MY experiences in nature but using textile art instead of the traditional illustrations of the book. The pieces are large panels with a raw edge to appear as if pages were taken out of a book and stitched into artwork.
I want people to feel enchanted with my work and feel as if all the wee animals are chatting and have a story.
The piece heavily features embroidery (hand and machine) as well as mixed media practices such as, beading, image transfer, screenprint, ribbon embroidery, fabric dyeing, water-soluble fabric stitching and applique. I didn’t want the piece to be like a traditional historical piece of embroidery with flat long satin stitches which look realistic. To give a modern take on embroidery I layered many different techniques to create a 3 dimensional artwork that emerges from the edges of fabric to give that natural aesthetic and feel.
My favourite technique to use is water soluble fabric. This is a special fabric that you stitch into and wet with water, which dissolves the material, so you are left with the stitches. I loved using this technique to make 3-dimensional petals but allowing the stitched to dry curved made the flower look realistic and natural.
The finished artwork has a vintage quality with the tea/coffee-stained fabric which were once old bedsheets. The text featured, is personal stories and memories from each season which was then screen-printed on the fabric in a cursive text.
The piece took around 300 hours with the odd 18hour day of working! I broke 8 needles and used blood, sweat and lots of tears to finish it!! The pieces were then hung alongside my sample and testing samples at the Degree show at The Northern School Of Art.
The Spring piece featured: 5 water soluble and machine stitched crocus flowers, 9 ribbon embroidery with watercolour tulips, 11 water soluble fabric with machine stitched buttercups, 25 water soluble fabric with machine stitched bluebells with beading, 13 machine stitched and appliqué ivy leaves, 110 water soluble fabric with machine stitched cherry blossom flowers and 5 stitched characterful animals
The Summer piece featured:14 pin wheel stitch wheel stitch with ribbon roses, 26 water soluble machine stitched foxgloves with metallic details, 10 appliquéd strawberries with hand stitched metallic embroidery floss, 10 3D water soluble machine stitched strawberry flowers, 3 meters of purple ribbon for buddleia bush along with 48 hand stitched seed beads, 12 appliquéd leaves and 164 beads used throughout the piece
The Autumn piece featured: 14 3D embroidered water souble stitched autumnal leaves, 14 Machine stitched blackberries with bead details, 5 charmful stitched animals using machine stitch and image transfer onto fabric, 150 stitched beads throughout the piece and 60 appliquéd stitched leaves
And finally the Winter piece featured: 40 French knot with wool Holly berries, 20 3D water souble and machine stitched Holly leaves, 33 Machine stitched snowflakes with metallic thread, 14 ribbon and watersouble snowdrop flowers, 30 walled stitched snowballs and 4 happy stitched animals.
The pieces displayed at 'The Northern School Of Art Degree Show 2026