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
De Vere Denham Quilting Retreat 8-9 Oct 2016
What a great time we had; here are some pics of the girls at work in Sarah's class and what they were working on; they all gone at least one top done!!! and some lovely comments from delegates (who are now safely back home) I had a lovely weekend , thank you for organising it.Thank you too for the lovely goodie bag!I have sent my booking form and deposit of £50 today, for next year,2017, I wanted to say ‘thank you’ to you and all the team for a great weekend. It was enjoyable to meet all the different women, to see their work and to spend concentrated, dedicated time on producing something lovely. I just wanted to say how much I enjoyed the weekend. This was my first retreat and it was wonderful. To just be able to do something you enjoy without any distractions was great I just want to thank you and Maggi for a super relaxing weekend.
7 October 2016
New Videos Every Friday Justhands-on.tv Stitching Getaway We [...]
Filming day at a Fluff-a-torium in Dorking
What a brilliant day we had - Matt Dave and I - in Dorking with Gillian Harris in her shop Gilliangladrag at Fluff-a-torium in West Street. Gillian is the queen of felting so we got to learn how she makes wet-felt; adds some decorative needlefelting; learnt about the kits she sells and then a great tour of the shop -so keep watching!