We had a fabulous day with Harriet Riddle on Saturday 18th January – she was a energetic and generous tutor who kept us all going with her infectious enthusiasm though the day.

After a rearrangement of dates due to her solo show at the knit and stitch shows last year it was wonderful to welcome Harriet to Stitching Kitchen. On arrival Harriet unloaded a suitcase of fabrics and thread and a trusty Bernina (1970s vintage) together will tea towel prints of her work which we hung around the studio.

The workshop was a real treat and I have to confess that getting the chance to work alongside and learn from experienced artists is one of the major perks of running stitching kitchen.  I get to learn and develop my textile art skills

Once everyone had arrived and I had set up PFAFF Quilt Ambition 635 machines for those who needed to borrow one of the demo models Harriet got us started by loosening up our bodies and getting into the flow of free stitching on the sewing machine.  She encouraged us to move the machine in all directions, forming wiggles, words and stick men.  Harriet rather dances behind her machine, I can see how that body movement helps the lines of stitch flow more freely.

I had a dual role on the day as I was acting studio assistant as well as participant.  A couple of participants needed help tweaking setting on their machines.  I forget how much hands on experience I have with machines but I can pretty much get any machine running nicely for Free Motion – I even solved the incessant beeping from a Bernina 570QE – I have that model and it all to do with turning off the BSR when you are free stitching – that way you are in control of speed and therefore stitch length.  

We then watched Harriet as she created a portrait of me on her machine, she explained how she starts with the eye and then this dictates the size of the portrait.  It is all to do with facial proportions – we have five eyes across our faces, the nose edges align with the inner eye and the mouth edges with the pupils.  Harriet also grabbed some fabrics to combine small snippets of colour into the portrait to form my earrings, clothes and brooch.  

We headed down to the creative studio space to sit around the large table and sketch each other.  Harriet made this lots of fun – you should have heard the giggles as we used our non-dominate hand, closed our eyes and developed a more relaxed style of drawing.  All this time we tried to ensure the portraits were formed with one continuous line just as we would draw with the sewing machine.  

We returned to the sewing machines and made a start on sketching our first face on the machine – Frieda Kahlo – taking real notice of the facial proportions, sketching on the machine in one line and adding in colour using fabric scraps.  

Harriets style of adding fabric is totally different to any method I have used before….. she eyes up where the colour needs to go, lifts the presser foot and moves the work from under the needle, places the fabric in place and returns it where she finished stitching, tugging on the needle thread from the top of the machine to keep the top thread taught.  She then draws the shape she wants onto of the coloured fabric and once completed moves the work from under the needle and trims the loose edges – leaving the fastest and most carefree raw edge appliqué I have ever seen.  Such a freeing method of stitch.  

I tried my best to emulate this free raw edge appliqué to add roses, earrings and clothes to my Freda.  

After lunch we had a go at drawing a self portrait – using a mirror or taking a selfie and using the phone!  Harriet had prepared a photo for each of us on magic wash away fabric – however we all managed quite well at free sketching so only a couple of people had time to try the method using the template.  Everyone had a great time and everyone achieved some great results no matter their level of experience with free motion stitch.  Harriet is a great tutor – if you get a chance to see her work, or even better learn from her in a workshop I would recommend you do.  

You can hear more about Harriet’s work on this recent podcast with Mr X Stitch

I am certain that we will invite Harriet to return to Stitching Kitchen in the future, do let us know if you would like to come along when she returns.