Anne Brooke – The Love of Stitch, an Obsession and an Accident

Anne Brooke started her talk by saying she hoped that nobody would fall asleep. She need not have worried about that! She treated us to a truly inspiring, entertaining and amusing evening.  

Having a creative and resourceful mother, Anne grew up always making things which had a practical use. But art was her passion, and she chose to study Visual Arts at Salford University. A career in teaching art followed,  and she taught A’ Level Textile Art. She loved to recycle different materials and use free machine embroidery. Anne discovered the pleasure of stitching onto different types of paper (e.g. postcards, maps, dressmaking patterns) and layering her designs. When she was invited to submit work for an exhibition, she was amazed when people wanted to buy them! But when she started to get orders from shops, she found that mass production killed her creative spark. She wanted to just stitch and realised that it wasn’t necessary to produce work that had a practical use, and she started to stitch something small every week. This led to the 52 tag challenge, which several STACS members took part in. She was overwhelmed when over 700 tags were sent to her from around the world, often with accompanying letters telling her how she had inspired them and helped them through difficult times. The stitching community is very dear to her heart. 

Through following a Donna Watson course, Anne delved deeper into her own identity and discovered that the concept of circles, and the holes within them, were of great importance to her. Two years ago, she gave up teaching and is now tutoring and producing stunningly beautiful work. She often uses multiple embroidery hoops where she tells her personal story, producing breathtaking works of art.