On Saturday, I met a friend at Alexandra Palace so we could spend the day at the Knit and Stitch Show (formerly known as the ‘Knitting and Stitching Show). We had a very good time at the show, including some gentle star-spotting as a large number of the contestants from this year’s Great British Sewing Bee were in attendance and we kept passing well-known sew-ers in the aisles!
My favourite part of the show was the section devoted to textile artists, so that’s where the focus will be today. All the photos below were taken with the permission of each artist.
It was a real joy to see Lynn Setterington’s exhibition. I have loved her work since first coming across her kantha-inspired pieces about home and domestic life in the 1990s. There were two examples of this on show, including ‘Objects of Desire’, 1990:
On the wall opposite were two quilts by Lynn, both depicting houses:
On the left is ‘Patchwork of Memories’ made from garments belonging to the artist, her sister and her mother. The traditional ‘schoolhouse’ block has been subverted by the inclusion of one disrupted, upside-down house.
(I did also buy some new fabric for two new projects and a new small pressing board for the studio as the last one is beginning to show signs of wear. Oh, and some wool tops for a felted, embroidered jacket that I am working on.)
On the right is ‘Safety Pin House’, which echoes the one above. Again, there is a single upside-down house. The ‘disruption’ in both quilts and the use of safety pins in the second quilt, hint at impermanence, the difficulty for some of obtaining housing and perhaps also the trauma of having to move out of a home.
I appreciated the clever use of absent stitches in the poignant large-scale cross-stitch piece about bereavement.
If you didn’t get to the Knit and Stitch Show, you can see Lynn Setterington’s work in an exhibition at Gallery Oldham from 8 November 2025 to the end of February 2026. Find out more about Lynn’s work on her website: https://lynnsetterington.co.uk/
I also loved seeing the work of Anne Kelly, including embroideries forming part of a suitcase, which was very inventive:
These embroidered mixed-media collages are so decorative and there is something of a nod to the tradition of a sampler in them, I feel.
This display of samples from Anne Kelly’s book ‘Abstract Textiles’ caught my attention. The whole collection had the feel of a museum display, full of intriguing objects.
See more about Anne Kelly on her website: https://annekellytextiles.com/
Finally, I was intrigued by the imagery and the exceptional stitching in the work of Woo Jin Joo in her exhibition entitled ‘On a Thread of Wonder’. There were large-scale three-dimensional stitched pieces on her stand, but it was the intricate embroidery in the smaller framed pictures that impressed me most. Her technique is described as ‘meticulous freehand machine embroidery’ which has the look of threads couched down by hand. She takes inspiration from East Asian folklore and mythology, Mysterious creatures are portrayed in layers of thread.
The creatures depicted here are portrayed as deities but with human-like attributes. They were both mysterious and beautiful. See more about Woo Jin Joo here: https://www.woojinstudio.com/about-1
I did also do a little shopping for myself – four pieces of fabric for two upcoming projects, a new table-top ironing board (the last one is showing definite signs of heavy wear!) and, from ‘The Maker’s Marks’, two charming textiles-themed coasters, to use in the studio (newly re-organised, as mentioned in last week’s post here)
Thank you for reading my blog. Quilt Patterns are in the Etsy shop here, Fabrics are on the Spoonflower website here, Classes are on this website here
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My ‘Thankful’ pattern is often in demand at this time of year. Get the pattern here
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