One of the things I always appreciated in the Harry Potter series was the idea of facing your fears by laughing at them.

See more cool stuff from The Phantom Moon here.

A deviation from Nike Schroeder month this week, as we feature the work of Tracey Emin.

Tracey Emin is one of the UK’s most famous artists, and over the past twenty years she has produced a large body of work across a range of different media. In this post, we’ll be focusing on her appliqued blankets.

Tracey’s work is autobiographical and unflinching in its honesty. Part of her appeal comes from the rawness of her work and the ways in which she processes her life history through her work – sharing it with the audience and making us witness to her experience. Her blankets are big pieces, filled with colour, vitality, passion and energy and replete with spelling mistakes. They are covered in messages and textures that take you on an emotional journey as you read them.

The pieces feel like outbursts; their immediacy and the expressive phrases on the blankets create tensions with the methods of production.The deliberate construction of misspelled dialogue adds weight to the messages and leaves a lasting residue. They are powerful works.

You can find out more about Tracey Emin all over the place. There is an exhibition of her work  – “Love Is All You Want” at The Hayward Gallery in London until the end of August.
This evening (30th June) there is a workshop at the gallery, where people are invited to come and stitch their expressions in response to the exhibition. It will be hosted by none other than me (!) and is free to take part in. Why not come along?

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The Cutting & Stitching Edge is brought to you in association with my new book!

Domestitchery is  where we take a look at how talented people make ordinary domestic items extraordinary through creative needlework, but today we’re looking at how talented people use creative needle work to make stitchery of extraordinary domestic items.

TheMistressT has been assured (& encouraged) by the management that applique counts as needlework here at Mr. X-Stitch so she is sharing with you just a few of the great throw pillows out there.

The first signs of spring are popping up in TheMistressT’s world and reminding her of the beauty to come… and lawn mowing.  PillowHappy must be in the same hemisphere; her “Tall Grass Pillow” is like a glimpse into the future.

The Wooly Lady must be right there with us and inspired to create her “That’s One Big Poppy” pillow.

Pink Cheeks Studio shows us that applique is appropriate for kids of all ages…

… even actual kids  as shown with  Krakracraft’s“Rooaarr!”

While TheMistressT can’t stand in front of the meat counter very long without getting nauseated, she has a weakness for butchers’ diagram.  This GoBuggyGo‘s “Pig Meat Chart” pillow tickles her.

Thank you for indulging TheMistressT’s strange urge to refer to herself in the third-person.  You know how she is.

TheMistressT is so glamorous she cries glitter tears.  Her mottoes include “any excuse for a costume” and “there’s no such thing as too much carpincho.”

Tugba Kop is an Illustration graduate from Kingston University.

Her work charmed me, and I contacted her to find out more:

“I’ve been interested in sewing for as long as I can remember! Both my parents were working in the textile industry, so I was surrounded by textiles from an early age. My mum would bring home black bin bags full of unwanted fabrics for me to play with. I later rediscovered my interest in sewing as a means of image making, as opposed to construction. I would say that I mainly learned through experimentation, trial and error. I was never that interested in the technical side of sewing though, it was always the more decorative and unconventional sides that really fascinated me.

“I place great importance on the drawing stage of my process. Without a quality drawing, the sewn versions would be doomed from the start! My drawing style is quite linear so it translates well with the sewing machine. I’ve always been interested in drawing and sewing seperately, so I think it was only a matter of time before I brought the two together. Stitching my drawings into fabric just felt like the natural transition to me.

“I draw inspiration from everywhere! Firstly, I love interesting looking people. In my foundation year, I grew obsessed with drawing beautiful people, but now I’m the complete opposite! I look for character in the people I draw – the stranger the better! Other than that, I’m inspired by everyday observations that go unnoticed, fabrics, colours, films, photography, fashion, blogs, other artists work-the list is endless!

“As well as image making, I also use my sewing machine to make leather accessories that I sell in my Etsy shop. There is so much I am interested in, that I try to incorporate my work into different mediums. I recently created an image especially for the front cover of a sketchbook I was making.

“I even rework my finished pieces. I turned my family portrait image into a cushion! By reworking it, it completely changed the meaning of the piece. I liked the idea of displaying a family portrait in a more homely way, while creating something practical for the home at the same time.

I really like Tugba’s work; the intelligent free machine embroidery captures the quirks of human behaviour and evokes nostalgia in a similar way to that of Gillian Bates and yet there’s a hint of darkness reminiscent of Emily Eibel. The use of different materials gives the work that extra edge, and I find the use of leather to be both novel and natural.

Get to know Tugba via her blog, marvel at her work on her website and buy pieces from her etsy store. Tugba has only just begun and I’m excited to see where she goes.

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The Cutting (& Stitching) Edge is brought to you in association with Embroidery As Art, the inspirational stitched art blog from the legendary Jenny Hart.

Yesterday we introduced you to LeighLaLovesYou and her All American Sideshow project. Today we introduce you to the Hairy Woman.

She’s a lovely lady, heart of gold, face of hair.

Mandy Besek is a textile artist from Selinsgrove, Pennsylvania. When I came across her amazing work on etsy, I contacted her straight away for an interview.

“I’ve always been fascinated with ancient culture and nature, and I’ve never stopped creating art about it, trying to show people small glimmers of things in the natural world that I thought were important.

“As a child, I wasn’t easy to deal with. On any given day I would be roaming the woods behind the backyard. I would be out until sunset, armed with my trusty bucket and giant goldfish net, catching everything from baby birds to trout in the random neighbor’s pond. It was kind of embaressing actually, I would run into someone’s front lawn to catch a butterfly and steal from people’s gardens to study different parts of the plant. I knew it was wrong, but I couldn’t stop, I had the strongest instinct to explore the natural world and the things that inhabit it.

“That instinct has given me the “talent” if you will, to envision flora and fauna beyond our history, our planet. When I create art I feel like I am emotionally connecting to the natural world as it is currently, but also its past and its future. I still walk through the woods with a fluttery heart like a child, wondering if I will come across an ancient Native American tribe. I know it is silly, but I still get excited about it just as I had when I was a child.

“I actually used to be a painter, because growing up in the public school system, I had no idea that there were so many possibilities in fiber art. I had this phase in high school where I literally spent four years painting dolphins. On a family vacation, I even took one of those “be a dolphin trainer for a day” programs, which was hell for me. One of the baby dolphins was swimming around the pool when the trainers wanted it to stay away from me, and of course it didn’t. I guess they were afraid it was going to bite my legs off. Maybe it was simply not obeying their commands to do a trick. Either way they punished the poor thing by making it stay in a 5 foot “time out” area. My heart just sunk. At that moment I realized that it didn’t matter that I had fun making it do tricks earlier. It was a lonely prisoner that will never have the freedom to explore the natural world like I did when I was a child.

“That moment opened my eyes to specifically HOW I wanted to portray nature in my art and WHY it was important. My art simply explores all of those beautiful small moments I had as a child exploring nature, studying it, tasting it, digging, smelling, and all of those other strange things that kids do. I like to zoom in on parts of an animal, even down to cell structures, as a way of saying “Hey, check this out. Isn’t it beautiful? Interesting? I want to know how it evolves, changes, migrates, adapts… it is important. We should protect it, even though we do not fully understand what importance it plays in the big picture.”

“Yes, my art is inspired by natural history, but there is always a slap of “Wow, that is so strange how she combined all of those different materials”. I’ve been obsessed with using mixed media to support my fiber artwork, such as colored pencils, crayons, paint and ink. I like the surprise element of it. I love nature because you can always find a bizarre cominbation of textures and colors, and I am inspired by that in my art. The more you explore my work, and the closer that you inspect it, the more that it changes.

“I wasn’t smart enough for a degree in natural history, but I did get sucked into a bachelors degree from Kutztown University in Art Education, with a minor in Crafts. Thankfully, I was able to learn a great deal of fiber techniques from it, but I have no intention of ever becoming an art teacher. I need space to breath, relax, and be calm to be able to reflect on what inspires me. Generally, teaching is too fast paced for that, at least for me. I would end up putting up all the “bad” kids in time out, like at the dolphinarium. After all, we are all animals. I’ve always thought it was weird how we were the only species to “put ourselves in captivity” in a sense.

” hope to inspire people to enjoy nature and keep a sense of curiosity, and have the courage to explore it. We learn that nature is dangerous, that it is everywhere, that we need to “control” it and that we know pretty much everything about it. I think it is more than that, something I can’t even fully explain.

Although I use a variety of fiber techniques, my work will always incorporate some aspect of textiles because, like nature, I feel as though it is this vast beautiful realm that I am only beginning to touch on. The fact that working with fiber is at one of the basic levels of the survival of humans through the ages intrigues me even more. When I sew with a needle, I wonder about who has sewn things before me, hundreds, even thousands, of years ago. In a sense, textiles helped us survive to where we are today, and I beleive they will help us from destroying the world, little by little, as I am doing by shedding a little light on what is important, beautiful, intrinsic to our culture. In a way, when I am sewing, I am sewing with the same thread of my ancestors, and my children and their children will continue to sew with textiles. In essence, sewing is mending, sealing, healing a wound. The world is suffering, and I am healing it in my own little way.”

I really like Mandy’s work. She uses a great range of techniques and blends them together to create some really exciting pieces. Stitching on paper, applique work, fibre jewellery; the breath of her creative output is most impressive. Mandy’s raw talent exudes throughout her work, and it’s great to observe her creative journey and see how it evolves.

Visit her etsy store to buy her art and to gaze at her fantastic work.

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The Cutting (& Stitching) Edge is brought to you in association with Embroidery As Art, the inspirational stitched art blog from the legendary Jenny Hart.

Children Playing with Fire, aka Jennifer Andrews, lives in Austin, Texas, and “likes to make things. All kinds of things. Things, things, things.” Luckily, that includes stitchy things!

There are a few themes to the work that I’ve seen from her so far. She’s done a series of embroideries featuring characters from Twin Peaks. Yes, those are all french knots in Killer Bob’s beard. Wow!

She has also been building a robot army. Don’t worry, though, they are only armed with love.

Her most recent project is a series of torture themed appliques.

According to her blog, she was inspired to create these when researching medieval tapestries, needlepoint and embroidery which included a “massive amount of torture images”.

I really enjoy Jennifer’s work, and I hope you do, too! See more from her at her flickr photostream or her blog.

Beefranck’s Emporium is brought to you by Kreinik Threads – go get some!

A new piece of work from Gillian Bates is always a treat and she continues to capture lovely vignettes of British seaside life.

These beach huts combine applique and machine embroidery and I think they’re charming. Visit Gillian’s website or etsy store to see more of her work.

Susan Sorrell, also known as CreativeChick, is a mixed media artist from South Carolina.

She creates fibre art that mixes different techniques with exciting effects.

Painted fabrics, beading, applique, hand embroidery; Susan’s work takes these disciplines and mashes them up. Her enthusiasm for the art form vibrates throughout every piece she makes.

Susan’s artwork has won her several awards and scholarships over the years and she actively engages in sharing her skills with her community through Open Studio events. Having spent time exploring her websites and blogs I have massive admiration for her creative output.

It’s clear that Susan is technically adept – these mixed media pieces are an assault on the senses (in a very positive sense) and each one merits close investigation. The sense of fun exudes throughout all the pieces and brings a smile to the face.

If you want to see more of her work, and I would advise that you do, you can see her blog and her Flickr photostream and you can buy her work from her shop. Fantastic!

And thanks to Victoria for sharing Susan’s magnificence with us!

Jessica Adanich is a designer from Cleveland, Ohio who makes fantastic quilts.

I asked her to describe her work and this is what she said:
“In 1971 the Whitney Museum changed the way art looked at quilts. They were no longer just objects that dressed the bed; they became pieces of art framed on the wall like a painting with strokes of fabric. The work I am creating now are indeed art quilts, art quilts of pin-up girls. I find them to be fascinating in the role they have played in history as a superficial symbol for an idea. While men were putting their lives on the line, they were being fed imagery of sweet American women doing their housewife duties in stiletto heals and lingerie. While on the other hand the act of quilting and sewing throughout the ages has been viewed primarily as a “woman” duty.”

“By quilting pin-up girls I am creating new contemporary images of pin-up girls, ones that portray the female as an independent and strong as well as beautiful. As a young female artist I feel my work takes quilting and the role of women to the next level. “

“I create each image on the computer using Adobe Illustrator and print out for my appliqué pattern. Each piece is cut out and satin stitched down while the faces and detail work are hand embroidered. Heavy consideration and thought goes into fabric choices and layout.”

There’s no denying Jessica’s skill – not only does she have a terrific sense of character design, I really like the execution of her quilts. The choices of fabric are intelligent, and to a great job of adding texture and dimension to the work.

I really like the style of her pieces, echoing the classic 1950′s pinups but with a contemporary twist. And I think her choice of celebrities is very intelligent – strong females who are admired, but who have integrity. Jessica’s work is glamourous, but clearly honours the subject matter; her women are gorgeous and aspirational. I’m looking forward to seeing her body of work develop.

If you’d like to see more of Jessica’s work, visit her website. Once you’ve seen all the other work she produces,  you will realise the full scope of her talent. She’s awesome.