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The Excellent Exploits of Mr X Stitch – Clothes Show Live 2011!

Mr X — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 09:00:26 +0000

Hello, Mr X Stitch here. I thought I’d tell you about my recent Xploits. It is a life less ordinary.

I was invited by the fine folks at Mollie Makes and Cross Stitcher magazine to join them at Clothes Show Live to teach cross stitch.

It was a crisp day in November when I headed to the Birmingham NEC and dived into the Sknitch Zone. For those of you who don’t know, the Clothes Show was a fashion TV show in the UK that was hugely popular. Clothes Show Live is the spin-off event and is packed with all manners of fashion and beauty stands. As someone who is neither fashionable nor beautiful, I found the whole thing quite bewildering!

At the Cross Stitcher stand, our mission was to encourage people to try cross stitch for the first time. Armed with a range of patterns and a whole heap of threads (thanks Coats!) we did our best to entice people to stitch with us. We had some success – over the two days I was there, I thought about 40 people how to start, stop and what to do in the middle.

It was great to find the Tatty Devine stall where they were using laser cutting technology to create bespoke perspex necklaces for people. So cool! They even made me this awesome Mr X Stitch medallion, which I love a lot.

There were a few UK celebrities there, and while I recognised some of them, it was clear that I’m not as down with the kids as I thought I might be. I wouldn’t know a star from The Only Way is Essex if they ran up and bit me, but apparently they were there. One person I did recognise is craft designer, author and teacher Charlotte Liddle and it was great to have a natter with her for a while.

One of my high spots was teaching Big Pete to cross stitch. He was from Wolverhampton and took to cross stitching like a duck to water. Such a dude.

It was a fun couple of days. The crew from Mollie Makes were great and if you’re in the UK, you’re reading this and you’ve not had a look at Mollie Makes yet, you should go and do so now! I’ll be hanging out with them again at the Stitch & Craft Show in Olympia next March, so be sure to put that in your diary!

I seem to be getting up to all kinds of exploits these days, so watch this space for more news!

The Excellent Exploits of Mr X Stitch – Knitting & Stitching Show, Dublin 2011!

Mr X — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 09:00:22 +0000

Hello, Mr X Stitch here. I thought I’d tell you about my recent Xploits. It is a life less ordinary.

Last week I explained all about Kirstie’s Handmade Britain and how I ended up losing in a needlework competition on national television. A week after the programme aired, I headed to Dublin for the Knitting & Stitching Show run by Twisted Thread.

Twisted Thread kindly offered me a space to exhibit work and show people the Mr X Stitch world, and I agreed to run cross stitch workshops while I was there. So, using the same formula as at the Stitch & Craft Show in Olympia, the Mr X Stitch Inspiration Station was born, combining amazing embroidered art, PUSH Stitchery and Emoticon Cross Stitch kits, and chocolate biscuits!

I was graciously accompanied by the fantastic Ellen Schinderman, who spent four days chatting with the crowds and enthralled the ladies of Ireland with her charm and the occasional homo-erotic embroidered pillow.

Across the wall of the stand we featured work from a range of artists, many of whom are in PUSH: Stitchery. Tugba Kop‘s Bingo Granny was a big hit with the crowds.

Featuring the work of Stitchalicious, Alexandra Walters and Raquel J Alves

If I had a Euro for every time someone told me I should have won a prize for the Whitby Abbey piece, I’d have been able to pay for my flights home. It was lovely chatting to people of all ages, and there were some fascinating stories along the way.

Featuring the work of Beefranck, Tugba Kop, Ashley Proulx, and some wiseacre called Mr X Stitch

Featuring the work of Rosie James, Bascom Hogue, Cathy Reince and that wiseacre again.

The cross stitch workshops were great fun, and it’s a real honour to teach cross stitch to people of all ages. Thanks to the team at Coats Crafts for the threads and needles!

We had a fantastic four days at the Knitting & Stitching Show, talking to everyone and we got to meet some lovely textile artists. Diana Springall has a retrospective of her work in the show, and is vastly reknowned and influential in the world of embroidery. We spoke for a while and her passion and enthusiasm for stitch was infectious. Mary Cozens-Walker was our neighbour for the four days and it was a pleasure to get to know her and her husband Anthony Green.

Jean Bennett’s work blew me away again and the Beryl Dean exhibition remains one of my highlights of the show – some of the finest embroidered work I’ve ever seen. The Knitting & Stitching Show will be back in 2012 and I’m sure the calibre of art on show will be as excellent as always.

The Dublin adventure was great fun, with good humour all day long. Big love to Schinders for her part in the adventure and thanks to everyone who came to the show and said hi. Here’s to next year!

Showtime! Bust Christmas Craftacular!

Mr X — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 21:00:19 +0000

SHOP, CRAFT, DANCE AND MAKE MERRY at the BUST magazine Christmas Craftacular, with over 70 stalls of the hottest in handmade, DJs, drinks and DIY workshops.

DON’T MISS >> Tatty Devine Tombola >> Bake and Crafthouse Café >> Made in the Shade Pop-Up Craft Library, STARRING Jazz Domino Holly, Tatty Devine, State of Craft and Carrie Maclennan >> PLUS the chance to win a Janome sewing machine in The Make Lounge Raffle

DO IT YOURSELF >> CRAFT a recycled paper rosette with The Create Place 1pm-3pm >> MAKE a designer dog collar withPrescott & Mackay 2pm-4pm >> STITCH an Xmas card with Mr X Stitch 3pm-5pm >> FASHION felt slippers with The Merry Bobbins 4pm-6pm

Visit BUST for more info!

Introducing Emoticon Cross Stitch Coasters from Mr X Stitch!

Mr X — Fri, 30 Sep 2011 15:00:18 +0000

Mr X Stitch is proud to present emoticon cross stitch coasters!

O.o

That’s right! Emoticons!

In cross stitch!

XD

And you can make them into coasters? How cool is that?!

^_^

Perfect for anyone who has ever used, or seen, a computer, the emoticon cross stitch kits are the ideal project for beginners or people who’ve never stitched before. The patterns are simple to follow and are quick to complete. If you are an experienced stitcher, you will love creating these cool coasters for everyone you know.

Each pack contains all the supplies you need to stitch your very own emoticon cross stitch and then make it into a square coaster!

There are two kits available, each of which contains patterns for all four emoticons

O.o : ) ^_^ XD

The basic kit contains the supplies to stitch one emoticon as well as one acrylic square coaster.
The deluxe kit contains the supplies to stitch all four emoticons and comes with four acrylic square coasters.

The coasters are 96mm square and will contain an 80mm stitched piece.

The kits are available now, from the Mr X Stitch etsy store! Go get ‘em!

The Excellent Exploits of Mr X Stitch – Summer Edition part 3!

Mr X — Thu, 28 Jul 2011 09:00:12 +0000

Hello, Mr X Stitch here. I thought I’d tell you about my recent adventures. Last week I told you about Stitched Science – this week it’s adventures at the Southbank Centre!

The Tracey Emin exhibition “Love Is What You Want” runs over the summer at the Hayward Gallery. On the last Thursday of each month the gallery is holding a workshop where visitors to the exhibition are invited to express their responses to the show in creative ways. For the first workshop I was asked to facilitate things and I came up with the idea of Outbursts.

I brought three lace tablecloths and invited anyone who came along to stitch phrases and expressions into the cloths to produce a communal commentary. I also had a few simple cross stitch options available as well. The Dan Graham Waterloo Sunset Pavilion is a groovy glass walled room with a nifty view (of a huge straw fox at the moment) however on a hot Thursday evening as cool as it was, it was a little bit like an oven in there. However as the sun went over the horizon, a few people came along and got their stitch on.

There was a nice relaxed atmosphere and some real creativity in the responses. With events like this you never know quite how it’s going to turn out, but we had just the right number of people who enjoyed stitching and chatting on a summer’s evening down by the river.

I like the Southbank Centre, there’s always lots of stuff happening round there. I’d been at the Centre a couple of weeks before helping out the Craftivist Collective with their Don’t Blow It Campaign. The Collective are such a great bunch of people and they get have run some great campaigns using crafts to tackle issues in creative and inspiring ways. I went along and stitched a message for my MP which is winging its way to him at the moment.

Here’s Craftivist Collective Chief Wrangler Sarah Corbett and Guardian craft darling Perri Lewis. Judging by their faces I’d clearly been enthralling them with fascinating stories and great wit…

The next day this was made, which was nice:

Find out more about the Craftivist Collective and get involved. Many of their campaigns are open-ended, so if you wanted to stitch a train carriage with a message on it, it’s simple!

There are still more adventures to talk about, however for this week’s episode I will finish with the final issue of FiberArts magazine (such a shame!) which features an article about portraiture and textiles, considering the work of Penny Nickels, Luke Haynes, Cayce Zavaglia and Alicia Ross. It’s written by some wiseacre called Mr X Stitch, but it’s a great issue and if you don’t have it already, go and get it!

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The Excellent Exploits of Mr X Stitch is brought to you in association with my new book!

The Excellent Exploits of Mr X Stitch – Summer Edition part 2!

Mr X — Thu, 21 Jul 2011 09:00:58 +0000

Hello, Mr X Stitch here. I thought I’d tell you about my recent adventures. Last week I told you a tale of New Art, this week it’s all about Stitched Science!

Many moons ago I was invited by the Science Museum and the Stitch London crew to join in their first Stitched Science weekend! Stitched Science was designed to give people the chance to combine traditional craft skills with a healthy dose of science – there were opportunities to Knit a Neuron with a team of proper Neuroscientists, create knitted illusions with the fine folks at Woolly Thoughts, create aliens with the people from the Make Lounge and much more!

Armed with aida, threads, emoticon cross stitch patterns and a spring in my step I made my way to the Science Museum for the start of a weekend that would fly by! I was joined by Holder of Anime, Lil Miss Firefly and Cakester, (a dream team) and between us we introduced about fifty people over the two days to the joys of cross stitch.

Cross stitch is one of the loveliest things you can teach people. It’s always kinda hectic for the first five or ten minutes, but then people grasp the technique and settle into it. No matter the size of the group, it always goes quiet about ten minutes in and you know that everyone’s in a good space, stitching at their own rhythm and discovering the magical creative space that al us stitchers know and love. I never tire of introducing people to it.

Holder of Anime dazzled people with his awesome video game inspired stitcheries and was a terrific ambassador for the craft – it was an honour working with him and his enthusiasm rubbed off on everyone. For the unfortunate participants, once they got into the quiet zone of stitching the emoticon or favourite phrase, there was little else to do than explore new jokes and old ones and general try to make people laugh, while occasionally undoing a knot for people. It was a good couple of days.

The event was really well organised and filled with communal art projects that filled the different planets with life over the course of the event. There were displays of science inspired textile projects – I was pleased to see some embroidered mould by ElinArt (I’m a massive fan) and continually perplexed by the optical illusion knitting of Woolly Thoughts – truly amazing!

You can see more pictures from Stitched Science at the Stitch London blog, where you should sign up for their excellent newsletter.

On the Saturday evening between the Stitched Science days I took a wander around “Love Is What You Want“, the Tracey Emin exhibition at the Hayward Gallery and formulated my view on the work. You can read some of my thoughts in the Edge post that went out on the day that I headed back to London for more stitchy adventures!

And you’ll find out about them next week!

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The Excellent Exploits of Mr X Stitch is brought to you in association with my new book!

The Excellent Exploits of Mr X Stitch – July 2011 Edition!

Mr X — Thu, 14 Jul 2011 09:00:20 +0000

Hello, Mr X Stitch here. I thought I’d tell you about my recent adventures. It is a tale of highs and lows. Are you sitting comfortably? Then I’ll begin with a tale of New Art.

In 2010 I applied for an arts bursary from the MK Community Foundation. I was one of eight people shortlisted for the award and it was a great honour when we were invited by the Director of MK Gallery to participate in a group show at the gallery. Entitled New Art MK the show is now on and runs until 18th September.

For my part of the show I decided to build on my four-piece spam stitch series – cross stitches that are inspired by spam emails or spammy comments I’ve received on Mr X Stitch. From the start of 2011 I threw myself into stitching the eight new pieces that I was aiming for, taking stitchery with me everywhere I went.

Bit by bit I developed the collection, tackling each new spammy phrase with gusto and creating the designs on the fly.

Some pieces were easy, some took more effort that I first thought, but I ended up with twelve five inch hoops with polished up bits of electronic fluff in them.

With much care and attention they were installed in the gallery and I picked up some interesting tips about hanging stuff from the gallery guys as well.

As well as my pieces, the show features a terrific range of art from seven great local artists – if you’re in the area you should pop by and have a look. I could spend a lot of time describing them all, but I don’t want to keep you forever. Suffice to say it is an honour to be included in such a talented group, so just go and see it okay?

The opening night of the show on 7th July was terrific, with about 600 people coming to have a look. I’ll be honest, I get slightly intimidated by the art scene and so I was quite shy and didn’t really talk to many people about my work, but I hope they liked it.

New Art MK is on at MK Gallery until 18th September – miss it and miss out!

I have much much more to tell you about – tune in next week to hear about shenanigans with the Craftivist Collective, the Hayward Gallery and the Science Museum! And that’s before we get to the TV program! See you then!

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The Excellent Exploits of Mr X Stitch is brought to you in association with my new book!

Showtime – New Art: MK

Mr X — Mon, 04 Jul 2011 21:00:27 +0000

New Art MK

Eight Artists From Milton Keynes

8 July – 18 September 2011

This summer MK Gallery presents an exciting group exhibition by eight emerging artists from Milton Keynes, who work in a range of media including photography, drawing, painting and cross-stitching.

All eight artists were shortlisted finalists in the MK Community Foundation’s Arts Bursary Award 2010.

The eight exhibiting artists are:

Jamie Chalmers (aka Mr X Stitch), brings the world of cross-stitch and embroidery to a whole new audience, aiming to “restore embroidery to its rightful position within the art world”.

Caroline Devine uses the human voice as raw material for much of her work, layering sounds and exploring speech, song, text, oral history, memory and acoustic space.

Lauren Keeley‘s recent body of bold, expressive paintings explores surface and medium through the use of structures and systems alongside arbitrary aesthetic decisions that drive her painting process.

Jason Smith is based at Westbury Studios in Milton Keynes and makes works on paper and large-scale sculptural installations such as those shown at the Open University, MK City Centre and Woburn Abbey.

Stuart Southwell works with photography, using a clever balance of horror and humour, to create a fictional family, commenting on identities adopted within society along the way.

Kamil Szkopik (born in Poland) produces photographs of strangers that often play with conventions of identity, sexuality and society.

Frazer Waller has worked as a reportage photographer for extreme sport and music magazines but also produces his own series of photographs focusing on the creative exploration of social, cultural and personal issues.

Emma Wilde produces meticulously observed drawings which are rendered in pencil or paint often on cheap everyday materials like notebooks or newsprint.

The Cutting (& Stitching) Edge – Introducing PUSH: Stitchery!

Mr X — Thu, 28 Apr 2011 09:00:14 +0000

It is my absolute pleasure to introduce you to Push Stitchery: 30 Artists Explore the Boundaries of Stitched Art.

Curated by some wiseacre called Mr X Stitch, this book features 30 of the best contemporary embroidery and needlework artists on the planet. This is not hyperbole, check out this list of talent!

I might be a bit biased, but that is an impressive display of stitchy talent and a true reflection of just how awesome the stitched arts can be.

It’s been a real honour for me to curate this book and I’m excited to see the project come to fruition.

The book is published by Lark Books, will be out in all good retailers in September, but you can pre-order it on Amazon right now!

Spread the word!

Newsflash – Join our mailing list!

Mr X — Mon, 18 Apr 2011 17:21:03 +0000

Hi everyone!

We’ve got lots of plans for the Mr X Stitch site and at some point we’re gonna want to share news and even pick your brains about them! So to make the process easier, we’re compiling a mailing list. We love you and we know you love us too, so it would be really cool if you can add your deets to our list.

We promise we’ll not share the information with anyone, nor will we spam you or nothing. We’ll only share the good stuff!

Thanks!