Worcester Stitch and Textile Art Group Worcester Stitch and Textile Art Group

Monthly meetings

Other meetings:

Unravelling the Threads, Fran Reilly and her sister, Mary Harlow

05 March 2024

Mary explained both loved working with textiles, but from very different directions.

Mary had spent 30 years studying and investigating Roman history, her particular interest being textiles/ clothing. She had spent time at Copenhagen University studying textiles in depth and explained, in a very interesting and lively way, how experimental people had been, both in their use of colour and clothing design. One interesting point was that items were woven from the bottom up! Mary also gave a detailed explanation of how colours/ dyes had evolved.

Fran, her sister, lives in the Cotswolds. She had travelled to Cambodia and her photographs were used to base the workshop on. Fran inherited her love of crafting from her grandmothers. Her “Memory Quilts” workshops held mainly in Cheltenham, had been successful and further textile work developed. Fran joined the Embroiderer’s Guild and had particularly enjoyed using re-cycled and sustainable textiles in her work. She, like her sister, uses many plants from the garden / allotment to dye textiles, threads etc.

LK