Greetings cards featuring my latest artwork are now on sale. It’s a mixed media piece made using paint, ink pencils, appliquéd fabrics and hand stitch, showing Bass Rock island near Dunbar with a stunning textured seaweed-strewn beach in the foreground. Available as an A5 blank card to purchase in my online shop and on Etsy.
Writing for TextileArtist.org, I recently explored the art of textile collage and found that it is versatile, open to experimentation and a great technique for any stitchers wanting to develop their own unique style. It was lovely to work with five collage artists to research this article, too, all of them producing fantastic work in very different styles.
A new work is completed. This one has been in progress for eleven months, and I’ve been slowly building up the layers over time in amongst everything else that has been going on. It’s been a pretty full twelve months with a major operation, a complicated three-stage house move and the Covid pandemic. And now, I think, it’s finished! It’s a really textured piece showing the mounds of seaweed on the beach and the iconic Bass Rock island in the distance. 
It’s a big weekend for shoppers and so over on Instagram @heidiingramtextileart I have been promoting Justacard’s #indieweek and their campaign to encourage people to support small businesses, artists, designers and makers this Christmas.
So why not avoid the frenzy of Black Friday sales and instead wander along to some Christmas fairs, visit local independent shops or shop online from designers and makers to find some unique and original gifts. Cards, coasters, notebooks and notelets are available in my shop, too.
I am excited to be part of the Society for Embroidered Work’s first exhibition and my selected embroideries are now winging their way to London. The exhibition is at the Clerkenwell Gallery from 12th-17th November.
It will include artworks by: Cat Frampton, Emily Tull, Lou Baker, Edith Barton, Vivienne Beaumont, Rachel Brown, Rebecca Bruton, Stacey Chapman, Nancy Cole, Deborah Cooper, Claire Cooper-Walsh, Elizabeth Griffiths, Dr Jessica Grimm, Sarah Gwyer, Amanda Hartland, Catherine Hicks, Jacqueline Hockley, Sue Hotchkis, Sarah J Hull, Aran Illingworth, Heidi Ingram, Linda Izan, Anne Kelly, Angela Knapp, Rowena Liley, Anna Liversidge, Marna Lunt, Christina MacDonald, Reena Makwana, Niki McDonald, Ellen Moon, Claire Mort, Lydia Needle, Sue Nicholls, Julia O’Connell, Vicky O’Leary, Frances Palgrave, Sharon Peoples, Yvette Phillips, Imogen Rhodes-Davies, Christine Rollitt, Holly Searle, Arlene Shawcross, Jo Smith, Sue Spence, Bridget Steel-Jessop, Sue Stone, Dionne Swift, Annie Taylor, Olga Teksheva, Kate Tume, Lilach Tzudkevich, Alison Wake, Maria Walker, Helen Walsh, Joan West, Alison Whateley and Holly Yates.
Two of my miniature landscapes have been selected for an exhibition organised by the Society for Embroidered Work, in London, 12-17th November 2019. This is the first ever SEW exhibition and they will be showcasing the huge variety of stitched contemporary art being produced today. As they say, “Stitched Art is Art”. A chance to see many stitch artists coming together to show and sell their work.
Two excellent opportunities this week…
I was lucky enough to be able to take a quick trip to London over the weekend. It was very exciting to see my embroidery landscapes on display in London Olympia, in the National Needlecraft Awards exhibition. The artworks were in good company with the other excellent finalist entries. What a confidence boost and a real treat to see lots of other exquisite stitch-work! While I was there I browsed the huge range of stalls and treated myself to some interesting textured threads for future projects.
And on top of this, I received an email today to say my submission to become a member of the Society for Embroidered Work has been successful. The group was set up to promote stitched, contemporary art and I am delighted to gain membership.
Yesterday I found out I have two of my landscapes shortlisted for the National Needlecraft Awards 2019, to be exhibited at the Knitting and Stitching Show in London in February. Absolutely delighted! One is in the miniature category and the other for best original embroidery design.
Barley Field, a view from West Mains Farm, Morham, East Lothian
Purple miniature landscape
Here’s some folk art stitching I completed this month. I read an article on goldwork in the summer and really wanted to try it. I made up this design using bright, cheerful pinks. When I started this work my daughter had become seriously ill and then needed months of recovery care, so it has taken a long time for me to complete it. I knew that goldwork would be perfect for the decorative festival head-dress and I am really pleased with how it turned out. I’ll be using the technique again in the future as it was really fun sewing in all the gold chips.
I completed this embroidery thread painting in December and was delighted to sell it the very next day. A lovely lady at Haddington Christmas Fair was very complimentary about my work – her husband sneaked back to my stall later on in the day to buy this piece as a surprise Christmas present! It shows the Isle of May as seen from Dunbar cliff tops and uses fabric painting, machine embroidery and hand stitching for the detail.
