This year has been a bit of a blur!

Well I just do not know where the year has gone, I have been busy after missing a year in 2016 due to illness but that really is no excuse not to have updated this blog more often.

Its been a year of meeting and renewing connections as well as new challenges. The new challenges have see me project manage an arts project bringing craft and art to pre school children in Aston and Newtown and also working on more community projects, it's been quite tough and taken up a lot of my time.

You'll see from the image above that I have taken on another project which is running Jewellery Quarter Open Studios in the winter. It is a much smaller affair than the summer event, in fact this is the first time we have done it so we are starting small and building up. My studio will again be promoting the line that Craft Builds Community and so I will be opening my doors to some other makers to share the space. Some of them will have more of a product presence whilst others will be in the studio with me. I have been selective and the studio revolves around design and handcraft.

Here are the designer makers I will be sharing the company of over the weekend 9/10 December.

Mahliqua, Sarah Hazell, B18 Leather, Ruth Green, Stitches and Hos,Frilly Industries

There really will be a wealth of information and fantastic gifts on display so I hope to see you there from 10:30 - 17:00 Saturday 9th and from 11 - 16:30 on 10th. Whether the makers are there or not their goods will still be on display and available to buy. I will also have Brenda Killigrew helping me who will be talking about her pattern cutting courses that will be run in my workshop next year!!

Tina Francis Tapestry

7 Pitsford Street

Birmingham 

B18 6LJ

Follow Jewellery Quarter Open Studios on @jqopenstudios (twitter), Jewellery Quarter Open Studios on Instagram and their website 

                                                       

Good times ahead and right this very minute!

Stirchley Big Stitch

I've been quite busy behind the scenes this year working on some community projects. The one I'd like to talk about this time is the Big Stirchley Stitch at Stirchley Baths. This is a heritage project lasting until the beginning of 2018, rather than history from the centuries ago this project celebrates near history, ie history from within our own lifetimes.

When Stirchley Baths closed in 1988 there was a painting in the swimming pooel that had been painted by the caretaker Paul to cover the ugly scaffolding, we will be replicating this image in stitch!!!! Above is my stich model for the final piece which will measure 2 metres (yep 2 metres!) by 1 metre ish!!! So far we have had over 70 people add to the project, we are completing it like a mosaic so each person can stitch a small piece to contribute to the whole. Its a big project but it really has captured the imagination of all who have contributed. I will be running regular stitching sessions at Stirchley Baths on the following dates at 11-2 :-

18th September, 16th October, 20th November, 18th December. To celebrate Birmingham Heritage Week I will be at the baths on 10th September all day.

As well as working on community projects I ran another successful Jewellery Quarter Open Studios in July it was our third year and we had so many great visitors, the event really is in peoples calendars now. I will be opening my studio on 9th and 10th December this year as part of our Winter Open Studios event so if you missed me this time round then please put this date in your diary ready for the festive season! I will be featuring some great makers from around the Jewellery Quarter and Birmingham.

Rainbow Mandala

The summer really has just slipped by! But another really exciting event was the launch of XStitch Magazine, I am a contributor to this magazine along with some fantastic stitch artists. It has been great to see just how all of our work uses stitch and relies on the traditional to create the cutting edge. You can buy a copy here and see so many designs that will make you see stitch in a different light.

so on to the Autumn shows and my return to Knitting and Stitching Show at Alexandra Palace, I had to miss it last year because of ill health so I am really looking forward to coming back. I will be in the Textile Gallery with many new products. I have two new printed canvas designs and many more counted designs to bring to the show as well as my new "Framed" line which includes everything you need to stitch a fantastic design and hand it on your wall! Here's some snaps!

Mid Century Library Tina Francis 2017

"Framed" Rainbow Tina Francis 2017

Finally! I am starting to run workshops from my studio, the first one is called Canvas Compendium, its a one day workshop and you will leave with knowledge about canvas work stitches, a small set of samples and ideas about how to use the stitches on commercial printed canvas designs. I am starting small and will then be building on the workshops eventually having weekly workshops and studio drop ins.

Quite a bit to report there! Happy Stitching to those that have stayed with me until the end of this blog!!!

It's been a while!

Well time seems to fly and I never have enough of it. At a show recently someone said wistfully "if only we could knit time", that's pretty much what I need to do but with stitching!

I've been hard at work developing new patterns and kits and will be putting them up on the website real soon. I am enjoying working on plastic canvas and so some of the kits will use it. What I like is that you can use any wool rather than just tapestry wool and so they are real stash busters. I am working with Appletons Crewel Wool on some of the designs which is giving me a lot of intriguing colourways and also brings me back to my love of maths as the rhythms are created by a strict mathematical pattern.

Exciting news in the stitch world is that Mr X Stitch is bringing out a magazine which will feature some fantastic stitch designers and will also be packed full of advice and interesting articles that all have stitch at their core. One of my designs is in the magazine along with Emily Peacock, Bobo Stitch, Maria Diaz and many more. It's really great to be part of something new and I hope that you will find it just as exciting!

I hope to have some of the magazines at my studio on 29th and 30th July when I open up the doors and invite you to "come and see what we do" as part of Jewellery Quarter Open Studios. There are over 40 studios and workshops opening their doors, jewellers, brewers, visual artists, leather workers, chocolatiers, make up artists to the stars...... I will have guests in my studio which include my community stitch group Springhill Stitchers and also Shelanu who are a social enterprise that work with Craftspace. It will be great to see how craft and making can be a support to people in the local area and also that a career as a maker is possible.

The link to the Open Studios blog is here, I will be linking to it on twitter so please do follow me @tinafrancis15.

Happy Stitchings! 

Off to beautiful Wales

Work in progress - Tina Francis - Martin Christie (image)

So the end of March came and went which heralded the end of the ICHF Stitching shows until later in the year. I really enjoyed myself and am looking forward to being part of their new show at Harrogate in May.

The exhibition "Where Wool Meets" at Clerkenwell went really well and we are now looking for new galleries to exhibit together.

This coming weekend I will be at Wonder Wool, Wales at the Welsh Show Ground. I am very excited about exhibiting there because it will be my first time exhibiting in Wales. I am taking the printed and counted kits alongside stationary and homewares. Also there will be a limited edition kit especially for the show which has a real Welsh flavour!

The kits use my "Welsh Weave" design which I am using for my current art piece "Same But Different", they have unique colourways because I promise never to combine these colours ever again! (Some of them are truly 1970's caravan!). The mandalas are coming along too and I have been working on some kits for release later in the year.Some of the kits will use 30cm diameter size mandalas!

Tina Francis Tapestry 2017

So a short update from me, I'll have more to tell when I return!

Happy Stitching!

Tina

Trying to stitch time!!!

Elisabeths Mum - Tina Francis 2017

I am back on the gallery trail next week when I will be part of a really exciting exhibition called "Where wool meets....". I am exhibiting with two other makers Suraya Hossain and Judith Watson both of whom use wool or its related machinery in their practices.

Suraya knits with wire and produces the most exquisite jewellery, she also uses wool in her knitting kits. I am really excited to see Surayas main piece in the exhibition which is a knitted wire skirt that includes swarovski crystals.  It is a major feat of both knitting and engineering, here is a sneak peak

Suraya Hossain - 2017

Judith combines knitting, tufting and weaving in her practice and is particuarly interested in rare breed wools. She has been very busy collecting samples from rare breeds around the UK and will be displaying where the wool has come from in one of her pieces, for now hers a taste of how she uses texture!

Judith Watson 2017

We are collaborating on a central piece for the exhibition too which has really stretched me so it will be very interesting see how it works.

Our exhibition will open on 27th March and close on 2nd April, you can find us at 33-35 St John's Square, Clerkenwell, London EC1M 4DS, hope to see you there!

Thanks to Manchester!

Tina Francis - mandalas

I had a fantastic time at ICHF Stitching and Sewing Show in Manchester last week.  I have never exhibited there before but will definitely be back.  I was made to feel very welcome by everyone especially Val Hughes who was my next door neighbour for the duration. We had a fair few laughs mainly about how we couldn't have a chat because of the amount of people on our stands!

This was my first solo show since being away ill last year and so I was a little nervous about how I would hold up! But I did and really enjoyed my time there.

Manchester seemed to especially like "Use Your Stash" and so I had many conversations with people about their stashes, inherited stashes and how one loft is just not big enough! Many people set off home with a pattern and the promise yo use what they already have and to send me an image once they have finished. I am looking forward to seeing what comes through.

The plastic canvas circles are becoming more and more popular and another way to "Use Your Stash" for not much outlay. I heard about 3d dragons being made from plastic canvas and also keepsake boxes. I am definitely going to be producing more patterns and examples on plastic canvas this year.

My next show is Craft 4 Crafters in Exeter, again another show that I have not done before.  I am on the stand with Brenda Kiligrew of IDC Redditch, we will be talking about our Textiles CPD course and City and Guilds 7168 as well as all the other workshops available at IDC. It will be great to see you there and talk all things stitch. 

I am busy preparing for an exhibition at the end of March called "Where Wool Meets..", I am really lucky to be exhibiting with two great friends Suraya Hossain and Judith Watson, there is a lot of work left to do but knowing I will be exhibiting with them is pushing my on.

Thanks for looking after me everyone!

Happy Stitching!

Up next!

Same but Different - Tina Francis 2017

So the new year is well and truly underway, during 2017 I will be revisiting my ongoing project "Same but Different" where I stitch the same design but in different colours (see what I did there!) Around 25 of these small needlepoints will be exhibited at Sewing, Stitching and Hobbycrafts show in Manchester and then on to Glasgow, Birmingham and Harrogate. I am really looking forward to exhibiting in Manchester and Glasgow as these were places that I had to decline last year due to ill health. In three years time the work will be exhibited again here in Birmingham and America, the collection will have grown by then to I hope over 100 pieces.

At the Manchester show I will also be exhibiting stitched Mandalas as part of my "Use Your Stash" campaign. With wool being the most expensive part of any kit it's important that we use what have before we buy more. I'm hoping that I will be able to hang them as a "curtain" at the end of may stand.

Mandalas - Tina Francis 2017

One of the great things about the start of the year shows is that you get to meet up with other artists that you may not have seen for a while, I am really pleased that my stand is next to my extremely lovely friend Val Hughes. We share a love of the Nordic design and cave painting is in our list of top ten things! We are going to have a great time there, it's a few years since we've been "allowed" to have stands so close together so please come round and visit us both and see just how much we have in common!

It seems likely that my solo exhibition 7 Stages of Grief will also be on display at Manchester we are just looking at whether there is enough space to hang it. If not then the exhibition will be in a Manchester Gallery in 2018.

Back to the stitching now and also proof reading my new canvas sampler pattern and instructions that will be launched at the show.

Happy Stitching!