About Me

Hi!

I'm Kate, a maker and a mother living on the north Kent coast, UK.

I have loved making things for as long as I can remember.  I grew up in a Yorkshire village in the 1970s and spent my free time making things, reading books and having adventures with my friends.  My mum had been a needlework teacher before having children and she spent so many hours helping me with peg dolls, rag dolls, dressmaking and Blue Peter projects for my Sindy doll.  She kept a ready supply of yogurt pots and Fairy Liquid bottles, milk bottle tops, fabric and glue so that I could always spend my time creatively.  It's largely thanks to her love and patience that I've been able to experience and enjoy so many different types of crafts.

My younger brother and me in that hot summer of 1976

My mum and her parents, my brothers and me I think in 1977, outside the back of our house

some recent peg dolls made in 2020, one for Litha with symbolic embroidery on her apron, a gift for a friend and the other is Plump Peggy, wrapped up warm in her winter sweater.

After doing an art foundation course in York, I went on to study for a degree in embroidered textiles in Manchester which I enjoyed immensely, (largely I admit because of the great friends I made there and the fun we had, rather than the stitch techniques learnt)!  Since completing my degree I moved to London, met and married Chris and then worked for architectural practices, amongst other places. We moved to southern Spain in 2003 where my daughter was born and then back to the UK where we moved a few more times up to Cambridgeshire, Essex, York (where my son was born) Lincolnshire and now we live in Kent.  I've been able to continue stitching, knitting, crocheting and painting in my spare time and I occasionally sell work through my etsy and folksy shops and sometimes through craft fairs.

For me, a stitching or creative project, being outside on a walk in the woods, the hills or by the sea is where I find real happiness.

I've started this blog as a personal record to share my work, my thoughts and my day to day.

Thank you for stopping by and I hope you enjoy reading it.