In the past couple of weeks, I’ve been enjoying a stitch workshop with English textile artist Gwen Hedley whose art in stitch I’ve admired for a long time. The workshop was around mark making with paint onto fabric, and then stitching across parts of those fabric pieces to blur the boundaries between them.

Very good video and workbook instructions suggested we use our stitching in a scroll fastened around things like old thread spools, with Gwen showing us how to wire the edges to enable a low 3D rippling arrangement. A wall hanging was also suggested. Instead of spools, some people used pieces of drift wood, another used a massive rock crystal and there were other ideas for presenting what we did. ‘Presentations’ is one of my Pinterest collections, and one idea I’ve been meaning to use some time is little fabric ‘boxes’ with inserts of textile art at the back of what is in effect a shadow box, and I felt this was a time to try that.

From some canvas I cut squares 2 1/2″ and removed 1/4″ corner squares, sewing those edges together to create the box – it would have been less fiddly if I’d cut larger squares 🙂 but, anyway, once I had 4 boxes in place, I cut a small square of printed and stitched work and basted that into one of them. This photo shows all the construction phases I think you need to try this out yourself.

• All kinds of textile art things could form the visual pattern in what is essentially a 3D grid.
• Various other materials for the grid could be tried; I also tried leather and a really heavy duty plastic sheeting, but neither were successful.
• Right now I will do more with the bit of canvas I have, knowing also that if I paint or rust it the canvas it will be stiffer.
• Hand stitch or some kind of tying could be used to hold the walls close together, maybe.
• Also, the ‘walls’ don’t have to be 1/4″ – that’s just what I did for this sample …