Cloth Stories

Ali Ferguson reveals the secrets of her textile art and shares her ingenious methods for finding inspiration within the home.

Textile artist Ali Ferguson’s exquisite work focuses on the world of the home, taking inspiration from domestic life and the objects that surround and comfort us. But it is far from mundane: vintage fabric and hand-embroidered text are beautifully paired to create evocative, nostalgic pieces that are imbued with the magic of everyday existence. In this wonderful book Ali reveals the secrets of her work and shares her ingenious methods for finding inspiration within the home.

Chapter One explains how to create “threads of thought” that stem from the tiniest details within the rooms of your home, resulting in extensive mind maps you can use to inspire your finished work. Chapter Two shows how to translate these ideas into stitch, including selecting the perfect materials for the mood you want to convey in your work. The rest of the chapters take you through the different rooms in a typical home, from kitchen to bedroom, giving a wealth of ideas for finding inspiration from each of these spaces in your own household, accessing memories, stories, and emotions to help you create intensely personal, nostalgic, and meaningful textile art pieces.

Beautifully illustrated with the author’s own work and that of other leading textile artists who draw inspiration from the home, this book revels in cloth and the joy that it brings to every textile artist. It is the ideal book for any artist or embroiderer who wants to explore new sources of inspiration on their very doorstep.