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
Group sampler surprise
Using the Your First Sampler blocks as a starting point, adding some blocks of their own and under the guidance of Lyn Butler a group of friends made this lovely surprise gift for Beryl's surprise party. and she loved it!!! and I'm not surprised - it is really lovely; lucky girl.
Bargello Tablemat/Runner
Thank you for setting the bargello pattern up for me. After having a look at it I had a play and made a table mat which then turned into a table runner. Here is a picture of it. I shall do a demo of this on Monday evening and hope to get lots made to sell at St Michael's Hospice in November.
What to Watch in February 2013
We start the month off with yet more inspiration from the Hope Quilters’Exhibition ; this is the final part of our wander round their exhibition with Sylvia Critcher acting as guide and hostess. We enjoy work that is complicated such as Baltimore just as much as the use of simple panels that we can all be tempted into purchasing when at a show! Sylvia's group also have a wide variety of talents making small items - just you see.