About Kate
Kate grew up in North Wales and originally studied costume at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama in Cardiff before graduating in 2001 with a BA Hons in Theatre Design. Following this she worked as a freelance costume maker at Glyndebourne Festival Opera and then as part of the Touring Wardrobe department at the Welsh National Opera. Kate has always loved hand embroidery, and got the stitching bug from her Nan at an early age, so in 2013 she decided to take the plunge and re-train as an embroidery tutor at the Royal School of Needlework (RSN) at Hampton Court Palace.
Kate graduated from the Future Tutors Programme at the RSN with distinction in 2016. During the course she studied many traditional hand embroidery techniques including goldwork, Jacobean crewel work, blackwork, stumpwork and silk shading. In 2015 Kates Advanced Silk Shaded budgie “Smuggler” was accepted by the Royal Academy of Arts for their annual Summer Exhibition. The piece was also made into a greetings card.
Kate loves to design her own embroidery kits, using traditional techniques in a contemporary way. She also likes to combine her embroidery with her love of historical dress, creating kits based on original pieces. Her classes can cover all levels of ability, from absolute beginners to more advanced stitchers. When she’s not involved in freelance projects Kate works as a stitcher for the RSN in their commercial studio, working on conservation, restoration and private commissions.
Kate has taught for the Royal School of Needlework at Hampton Court Palace, RSN Bristol, Bath Fashion Museum, Williamsburg School of Needlework in the U.S., and the RSN 2018 Summer School in Lexington, Kentucky. She also teaches for The Craft Sanctuary, Needlework Tours and Cruises, The Alpine Experience, Crewelwork Company, and justhands-on.tv !
In 2018 Kate was runner up in The National Needlecraft Awards 2019 Embroidery Designer of the Year category.
Signature Technique
Silk Shading
Top Tips
- You invest a lot of time and love in your stitching so always buy the best quality materials and equipment you can afford. This will give you better results and will create pieces that will last and hopefully become heirlooms!
- To help stop your threads from becoming knotted and tangled, work with a fairly short length in the needle. About 30cm is a good length and it will also help to maintain the condition of the thread.
- Don’t be afraid to have a go! Even the best stitchers get very good at unpicking! One of the nice things about hand embroidery is that you can take things out if you’re not 100% happy.
- Use traditional techniques in a contemporary way to create beautiful textile art.
- Practise, practise, practise. I know it’s a bit of a cliche but every has to start somewhere are the more you stitch the better you get.
- Don’t underestimate the healing effects of hand sewing. Your projects don’t need to be complicated, even simple stitching can bring great pleasure and calm.
Videos
Posts
Pauline’s Patchwork’s New Shop
Val: My friend Valerie and I decided that we neededa day out and what better excuse that to visit a quilt shop. Pauline and Sarah (Pauline's Patchwork) moved from Brewers Quay in Weymouth into their new shop in Poundbury back in January. I managed to find directions from GOoglemaps but interestingly enough Poundbury is not marked on the recent traditional maps - it can be found on the western edge of Dorchester (Dorset) and is actually more of a development (and work in progress judging by all the diggers still there) than a village. A number of small artisan shops surround Pauline's and there are several really lovely places to eat.
Golf fundraising day for Momentum
A team of 4, headed up by husband Stuart, joined in the fundraising golf day at Richmond Golf course to raise money for Momentum. Here is a pic of the four (the front view isn’t pretty!) the day was a huge success and raised more than £5,000 for the charity. For more information you can go to their site www.moment-um.org
Quilting retreat at Dunford House weekend – June 2011
Our weekend get together at Dunford House in Midhurst was, if I say it myself, a great success. There was a great deal of laughter and not only during the quiz and Jennie's talk which included various layers of clothing being taken off (!)but there was also a lot of quilting and patchwork done; Jennie's class got to grips with the 3D effect and inset Y seam and Sarah's class beavoured away making jelly roll quilts like they were going out of fashion - and several were layered quilted and bound!!! and my group got to grips with UFO's.
