About Dionne
Dionne paints with stitches to create dynamic, vibrantly coloured textiles. Her needle becomes her pen and thread her ink. The scale, emotion, and energy of her landscapes are inspirational.
Dionne is a graduate of Goldsmith’s College, London University. She has a Masters in Textiles from UCE. And she has been recognised by the industry for her incredible work, e.g. Shortlisted Finalist in the Fine Art Textiles Award at The Festival of Quilts 2020.
Now based between Yorkshire [UK] and Abruzzo [Italy], she exhibits and tutors internationally.
You can watch Dionne demonstrate how to use free motion embroidery to create a range of patterns, textures, tones, and shades in an episode of The Makers Studio series, brought to you by Janome and justhands-on.tv.
Signature Technique
Painting with stitches
Top Tips
- Use a vibrant mix of thread weights, colours, and styles to build up a more dynamic texture.
- A machine with an extra wide throat makes it easier to manipulate your piece.
- Cover your hoop with fabric to give it more grip. You need the fabric to stay drum like as you manoeuvre it.
- Drawing your subject first, with pencil on paper, can help improve your observation and knowledge of your subject – try not to work from a photograph.
- Practice by stitching your signature to get started. Your muscle memory will help you.
- Think of painting with stitches as an orchestra with the sewing machine, threads, fabric, hoop, and you (!) coming together to work as one.
- Don’t be afraid of the machine. After a few hours of speed sewing it becomes second nature.
- Try not to have a set image of the outcome. You are not stitching an exact replica. The result is where you get to. There is no wrong in there. Enjoy the journey.
Videos
Patterns
Posts
18 November 2016
New Videos Every Friday Workshops Jennie's Stripy Stripey [...]
West Country Quilt Show Update
An amazing time was had by all at the West Country Quilt show last weekend - 11/12 and 13th Nov Valerie's demonstrations of scrap quilts, table runners and crazy patchwork were very popular and we got to meet and interview some of our regular contributors like Kate Findlay, the Stitch Witch, Vanessa from Lady Sew and Sew, Izzy from Creative Quilting, Angela Daymond, Nancy Adamek, Chris Porter and Mary Gamester to name a few.
Floral Cutwork
The justhands-on.tv community stretches far and wide and one member from France, Sandra, made these gorgeous cutwork pieces by following instructions from Kathleen Laurel Sage in one of her kits . She's very pleased with her results. One picture is of the kit she received, and the second one is made from a photo that she found on Kathleen's site.