Episode 59 : 2022 Christmas & New Year Special Part 2 : Review of the Year

Some of the highlights of 2022 on Making Stitches Podcast! (Clockwise from top left; Figen Murray, Amanda Bloom, Khloe from the People’s History Museum, Eleanora Tully at Yarndale, Amoami, Tracy Fox, Great Northern Textile Show, Kitey from the Yarn Whisperer

It’s that time again, as 2022 draws to a close, I’m taking you on a romp through this year’s Making Stitches back catalogue with a few of my highlights.

One of Leah Higgins’ beautiful art quilts on display at the Great Northern Textile Show

You can hear from Figen Murray, Amanda Bloom from Cosy Life Boxes, Rafael Alcaide from Amoami, Beth Gillions, Conservation Officer at the People’s History Museum, Eleonora Tulley from Coastal Crochet, highlights from the first Great Northern Textile Show, Leah Higgins, Tracy Fox and Kitey from the Yarn Whisperer.

This year, Making Stitches has been listened to across 6 continents and has held the number one spot in the Apple Craft Podcast Charts in the UK, Australia, Canada, Ireland & New Zealand. It also reached the number 5 spot in the USA. Thank you to everyone who has listened this year – it’s been great to have your company.

Happy New Year!

Lindsay x

**Listen to the episode here**

To join the mailing list for the new Making Stitches Newsletter, please click onto this link.

The music featured in this episode is Winter Trip by AudioFlame from Melody Loops.
The Making Stitches logo was designed by Neil Warburton at iamunknown.

You can support Making Stitches Podcast with running costs through Ko-fi.
Making Stitches Podcast is supported by the Making Stitches Shop which offers Making Stitches Podcast merchandise for sale as well as Up the Garden Path crochet patterns created by me & illustrated by Emma Jackson.

Making Stitches Podcast is presented, recorded and edited by Lindsay Weston

Episode 56 : The Power of Sewing with Clare Hunter & Michelle Edwards

This time on Making Stitches, I’m sharing a couple of chats I had recently with authors who have written about sewing and the power it gives, from offering respite and hope in the hardest of situations and a voice to those who have had theirs silenced and the simple ability to fix a hole in your clothes.

Clare Hunter has worked with textiles for many years, working as a community artist, exhibition curator and banner maker. After hearing many stories about how important sewing and embroidery had been in peoples’ lives throughout history, she decided to write a book about it. Threads of Life; A History of the World Through the Eye of a Needle was published in 2019 and went on to become a Sunday Times Bestseller. Inspired by what she learned about Mary Queen of Scots during her research for Threads of Life, Clare went on to write a book about her too, an alternative biography called Embroidering Her Truth; Mary Queen of Scots and Her Language of Power.

You can find out more about Clare and her work through her website.

Michelle Edwards is a children’s author and illustrator working in the USA, her latest book; Me and the Boss; A Story About Mending and Love is based on a true story recounted to her in a yarn store one day. It charts the story of a young boy called Lee who is taken by his older sister (the Boss) to a sewing lesson in a public library. Along with the story, which is illustrated beautifully by April Harrison, is a sewing project for young readers to have a go at too. Michelle is passionate about teaching children about using their hands and has run childrens sewing classes herself as well as writing a column for a well known knitting magazine in the United States.

You can find out more about Michelle and her work through her website.

One of my former podcast guests, Olesya Lebedenko, a Ukrainian patchwork quilt designer and maker, who featured in Episode 41 is hosting a fundraising Art Quilt online auction. It runs until 16th December 2022 and you can bid on one of four beautiful art quilts on sale. All proceeds raised by the sale will go to supporting charities helping people and animals affected by the war in Ukraine. You can reach the auction through this link.

**LISTEN TO THE EPISODE HERE**

To join the mailing list for the new Making Stitches Newsletter, please click onto this link.

The music featured in this episode is Make You Smile by RGMusic from Melody Loops.
The Making Stitches logo was designed by Neil Warburton at iamunknown.

Making Stitches Podcast is presented, recorded and edited by Lindsay Weston.

Episode 45 : Preserving the Fabric of our History with The People’s History Museum

Part of the 2022 Banner Exhibition at the People’s History Museum

This time on Making Stitches Podcast, I’m taking you out on the road with me to the People’s History Museum in the centre of Manchester. It is the national museum of democracy and home the world’s largest collection of trades union banners. Being custodians of the literal fabric of our history requires painstaking conservation work to keep the banners in a stable condition for future generations to enjoy.

Chloe from the conservation team working on a banner for the National Coal Mining Museum

I tagged along with a tour of the current banner exhibition and was then incredibly lucky to go behind the scenes at the conservation workshop with Beth Gillions the museum’s conservation officer. My thanks to both her, the conservation team at the museum and Michael Powell who led the banner tour on the day.

To find out more about the Banner Exhibition and the work the People’s History Museum does, please visit their website.

The photos above and below show both sides of the same banner which Beth Gillions referenced during our chat.

You can listen to the episode here

The music featured in this episode is Make You Smile by RGMusic from Melody Loops.
The Making Stitches logo was designed by Neil Warburton at iamunknown.

If you would like to buy a PDF crochet pattern for Sophia the Sunflower, (£5 from the sale of every pattern will be donated to the UNHCR Refugee aid effort supporting Ukrainian refugees) you can find the link here.

Making Stitches Podcast is presented, recorded and edited by Lindsay Weston.

Episode 25 : The Art of Gentle Protest with Sarah Corbett from The Craftivist Collective

A chance conversation about a small embroidery project while on a long train journey led Sarah Corbett to unite her interest in craft with her passion for activism. Sarah says that at the time of that conversation, while working on a cross-stitch kit during a 5-hour-long train trip, she was feeling burned out by her job as an activist. But she realised there was a way to marry the mindfulness of stitching and other crafts with getting important messages across and supporting the under represented in society.

A Craftivist Collective mini banner in situ
photo by Robin Prime

Sarah now single-handedly runs The Craftivist Collective and has engaged thousands of crafters from around the world (including the inspirational change-maker Malala Yousafzai) in creating their own acts of gentle protest on a range of issues from climate change to gender equality and the campaign for a living wage.

Malala Yousafzai engaging in slow & mindful activism at a Crochet Collective workshop photo credit : Craftivist Collective

You can hear Sarah’s episode here alternatively search for Making Stitches on your favourite podcast app.

Craftivist Sarah Corbett
photo by Jonathan Cherry

My sincere thanks to Sarah Corbett for speaking to me for Making Stitches Podcast.

Graceful activism: bespoke hankerchiefs for retail company board members to encourage their company to be as ethical as possible
photo by Sarah Corbett

You can find out more about The Craftivist Collective and sign up to The Craftivist Collective newsletter here.

Jenny Eclair with Sarah Corbett
still from BBC4 Craftivism show January 2021

Craftivist Collective on Instagram
Craftivist Collective on Twitter

How to be a Craftivist by Sarah Corbett
photo by Jonathan Cherry

Craftivist Collective mini fashion statement workshop 2017
Photo by Elliott James

The music featured in this episode is Make You Smile by RGMusic from Melody Loops.

You can support Making Stitches Podcast with running costs through Ko-fi.

Making Stitches Podcast is presented, recorded and edited by Lindsay from Postcard from Gibraltar.