Mary McIntosh

Mary McIntosh is a textile artist and tutor living on the Suffolk Essex border. http://www.marymcintosh.co.uk/

Mary completed her City & Guilds Diploma in Patchwork and Quilting in 2011 and since then has taught textiles for Creative Stitch and as principal tutor from 2019. 

https://sefwi.org.uk/creative_stitch/courses

Mary also teaches at the Festival of Quilts, Knitting and Stitching Shows and offers talks talks and workshops around the UK. Mary is open to international offers!

Mary has her own blog with regular updates on her teaching, exhibitions and http://thecopperqueen.blogspot.com/ 

Mary's most recent work is inspired by the weaving industry. Having been born in the Scottish borders (wool weaving) and then moved down to the Pennines (cotton weaving) and lived there for many years in a town which had 27 mills, now all gone. Now Mary lives near Sudbury which is the heart of the silk weaving industry.

This piece called 'Picking Up the Threads' is inspired by the weaving of velvet with the pile being represented by the cut satin stitch fringing on this very long continuous strip.

This started as plain calico, stitched with white cotton thread and then dyed and discharged to create the textured background. 3400 metres of thread was used to stitch the fringing. 

The display reels are from Vanners Silk Mill in Sudbury, from looms no longer used. 

'Picking Up the Threads' was shortlisted in the Quilt Creations category at the Festival of Quilts 2020 and will be exhibited at Snape Maltings as part of the first Spotlight Textiles exhibition in 2022

Here is the reel as used on the original Jacquard loom

Another recent design inspiration has been the traditional mat making of the North East. Mary's thrifty Granny made rag rugs using hessian and recycled fabric off-cuts which were worked from the back and pushed though to create colourful, textured and warm floor covers.

Here Mary is exploring the idea of slits and slots in her design work

Cut slits in paper can be replicated by stitched and cut buttonholes

Here in 'Hookie' strips of dyed fabric are woven though stitched buttonholes. Again the fabric all started as white, stitched with white thread, then dyed and discharged for the background. 

In 'Proggy' again inspired by shorter lengths of fabric used to create shaggy mats, dyed fabrics are pushed through stitched buttonholes.

This series was called 'Out of the North East'