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
Take 3 from Joanne
Hi All, just a quick note to say thanks to you all for all the information and videos on your site. This is the first quilt I have ever made and although not perfect, I am very pleased. I machine pieced the 3 strips together before cutting and added the border by machine. Everything else has been done by hand and I even managed to embroider our family names in the corners.
September 2013
Beginning of September already – how quickly the summer seems [...]
Love the site
Query (and praise) from Sue: since I started to subscribe to just hands I use it more and more as my reference 'book'. I have loads of patchwork and quilting books, but if I want to know something in a hurry i.e. as today different applique methods I could use on a project I'm doing, its as quick to turn on my computer without even getting out of my seat to go to the bookshelf and search through dozens of different books!!.
Then, when I stop for a break I can put down my sewing and enjoy lots of other interesting ideas I might need in the future.