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
What you can enjoy watching on the site in December 2012
An Exhibition to wander round We have started the month off with a wander round the Hope Quilters’ Exhibition that was held in Kent earlier in the year; this was a fantastic exhibition organised by Sylvia Critcher to showcase the work created (and finished!) by her students over the previous 3 years – and boy is there a lot of it! (so this is just part 1!) Still time to make things for Christmas As Christmas is just around the corner we thought you might like a couple of really quick ideas to help with making some wonderful woven cards (but these will be good for other occasions too) from The Stitch Witch plus a really quick last minute wall hanging decoration from Valerie.
Dresden Plate and Grandmother’s Fan
These traditional patterns work so very well for scrap quilts but here are some that Valerie put together from petals sewn by one of her students: The challenge was to see what different settings worked and also how to use up the various petals which had been made at random!
Handing over more qults to Momentum
Major fundraising event for Momentum this weekend at the Kew Sparkle nr Richmond Surrey; lots of quilts will be available to purchase and here are just two that were donated: Momentum is a registered charity established in 2004 which aims to help children (up to the age of 17) and the families of children, undergoing treatment for cancer in Surrey and South West London.