Happy New Year everyone! It’s a crystal clear, bitterly cold January day, there’s no snow here but I guess many of you are looking out on a wintry landscape. All the Christmas excesses have been eaten; the decorations are back in the loft and new resolutions made (and maybe even broken!)
Time to plan ahead for a new year, and the first thing need to flag up is that there will not be a newsletter in February. Our lovely Sarah, who manages the distribution of this newsletter (and, believe me, we have a massive circulation so its a major undertaking) is off on her travels from mid-January to mid-February so we need to lapse our offering until the March newsletter. Hopefully I will still be getting information from our readers so we aim to make the March edition a bumper one, so keep the notices rolling in, please
A really happy notice landed in my in- box just before Christmas which I will share with you. Sometime last year I posted a request from reader Helen for help with making a beautiful piece of needlepoint into a cushion. Immediately I had an offer of help from Living Threads member Pam and was able to put the two in touch The cushion was completed in time for Christmas and here it is, looking absolutely stunning. What a brilliant outcome and I am so pleased that this came about through the newsletter.
Book tokens are a popular Christmas gift and LTTG member, Sally, was browsing in Waterstones recently and spotted this book which may be just right for new year inspiration.
–Abstract Textiles by Anne Kelly, Batsford Books £25.00
This is an exploration of abstract textile work with practical tips on how to progress from the realistic to the abstract. In this fascinating book, Anne Kelly shows how to make personal responses to themes. Illustrated with beautiful artworks by the author and other exciting contemporary artists and makers such as Sarah Z Short, Lorna Crane, Iain Perry ad Helen Banzhaf.
Based in Tunbridge Wells Anne Kelly has exhibited widely and has work in private collections in the UK and abroad, including the Vatican collection in Rome, and the Textile Museum of Canada in Toronto. Anne has also published several books, including co-authoring Connected Cloth with Cas Holmes.
If you have a good book recommendation, please contact me to share with other readers.
Diary dates for the coming months…..
Beneath the Surface: Material and Meaning by Design Nation
The exhibition runs from 6th December 2025 to 15th March 2026 at The Hub, Sleaford Navigation Wharf, NG34 7TW.
More information about the exhibition can be found at:
www.hub-sleaford.org.uk
Mary Linwood, Art, Stitch and Life will continue at Leicester Museum and Galleries until February 2026.
Stitchuation, a group exhibition by Traverse at The Sock Gallery, Loughborough Town Hall, January 15th to February 28th
Playful, provocative and thought provoking, using stitch as both medium and message, this collaborative show traverses personal, emotional and imagined landscapes through thread, texture colour and form.
NB Jan 31st and Feb 14th – limited access due to workshops
www.loughboroughtownhall.co.uk/sockgallery
Newark Quilting Show 16th and 17th January 2026 at the Newark Showground NG24 2NY Friday 10am – 4pm sat 9.30 am – 3.30 pm
Made in the Middle Craftspace, a touring exhibition of contemporary crafts made in the East and West Midlands
Midlands Arts Centre, Birmingham 14th February- April 11th.
Straitlaced and Stitched Up – A Collaborative exhibition with the Second Turning Textile Group and Leicestershire Museums Archive, Harborough Museum, Adam and Eve Street, Market Harborough LE16 7LT.
February 7th to May 30th, Tues to Fri 10am to 6pm, Sat 10am to 4pm.
Following an exhibition of the same name at the Framework Knitters Museum last year, Second Turning members were invited by the Leicestershire Museums Service to collaborate in an expanded exhibition to show contemporary textiles and mixed media interpretations inspired by the Symington Corset Collection. Curated by Sarah Nichol, of Leicestershire Museums Service, the featured works will be shown alongside the archive items that provided the initial inspiration, and fittingly, in the very building where these garments were first produced.
The Market Harborough company, R and WH Symington began by crafting corsets for Victorian women and grew into an international success, with its Liberty Bodice becoming one of its iconic products. This exhibition offers a wonderful opportunity to see a contemporary response to some of the amazing items which are part of the vast museum archive.
A very big Thank you to everyone who has sent in news, notices, reviews and recommendations to be shared via this newsletter. it is a joy to hear about all the creative activities happening across the East and West midlands, Derbyshire and Lincolnshire. Please keep them coming in. A final reminder that there is a break until our March newsletter.
Until then, Happy Stitching, Maggie