A lovely day of textile art, catching up with friends and buying things I really needed (not!😂)
An annual trip to Harrogate for the Knitting and Stitching Show is one of my favourite things and I was really looking forward to this one, not least as the Textile Gallery was hosting shows by Alice Fox, Debbie Lyddon and Dionne Swift.
The journey down showed winter is really on its way from frosty Newcastle via foggy York.
And in Harrogate even the statues were wearing hats and scarves!
Inside the show was glowing with colour, a real tonic. I was so excited to see new textile artwork and I wasn’t disappointed. Interlace textiles combination of colourful fabric and grey concrete immediately caught my eye, and I caught their’s – my orange and lime colour combo matched their Spectrum piece 😄
The lovely Alice Fox is spearheading a rusty revolution, her influence is spreading as her reputation grows. Found objects,beautifully altered and adapted, were displayed like museum treasures in her show. A sense of calm exuded from the work – seasoned with a pinch of ‘How did she do that?!’ So impressed that I had to get the book! 
Dionne Swift’s exhibition ‘Expressive Stitches’ was powerful, capturing the rawness and space of moorland. I love the way the stitched work echoes the drawn lines. Looking at this makes me desperate to get out with my sketchbook..( note to self- do it!!)
And then there was Debbie Lyddon. I’ve been following Debbie’s blog and enjoying the way she writes as much as the art she creates but to see the work firsthand was fabulous. So much so that, yes…
That’s my red dot! This is so redolent of the East Anglian coast near where I grew up. I feel like I can hear the clanking of masts and smell the salt marshes as I look at it .
Donna Cheshire Textiles 