I’m thrilled to be giving this year’s Kelmscott Lecture, the annual lecture hosted by the William Morris Society. I’m excited to be dipping my toe into the world of the Arts and Crafts movement. Join us in person or online! Tickets are here: williammorrissociety.org/events/the-k...

Autumn really brings the best views from my window at work. Here’s yesterday’s view and today’s 🌈

Popping in to say I’m writing a book! And St. Martin’s and @bloomsburybooksuk.bsky.social are publishing it! I’m very excited! Extra big thanks to Emma Bal at Madeleine Milburn!

Woohoo! Please join me!

Best thing ever from the V&A stores today: on the front of Margret Mason’s 1660 sampler are clothed “boxer” figures (little men holding gifts, acorns here). Turn the sampler over and the men look much the same but are completely naked!

Last year I identified a third circa 1650-75 embroidered cabinet made at the Perwich school, one of 17th-century Hackney's major girls' schools. This example is owned by Doncaster Heritage and the others are in LACMA & the Fitzwilliam. My article about the find is in this issue of Hackney History!

The Royal School of Needlework is hosting its first conference and though in-person tickets are sold out you can still join us virtually! I’ve put an embarrassing amount of work into this so hopefully it’ll be a fun and informative conference for all! royal-needlework.org.uk/events-exhib...

Bookings are now open for the Royal School of Needlework's first ever conference, “Stitched Together: Needlework Research and Making”! Join us at Hampton Court Palace on Thursday 21 and Friday 22 August, either in person or virtually. Find the conference schedule and tickets here: bit.ly/3FUc4kB

Early modern palaeography folks, please help! What does this death record from 1603 say? I see the name "Suzan Gabery" but cannot read the rest of it. Thank you in advance!

Thanks for the dress love! Got my wedding pics so have to share the other embroidered details we included! I had a token embroidered by my Royal School of Needlework coworkers, vintage embroidered tablecloths, a cake that looked embroidered, and embroidered name cards (I stitched all 90 of them!)

Having a real “pinch me” moment today! I’m in this week’s issue of The Observer, kindly recommended by brilliant novelist (and daughter of Ingmar Bergman and Liv Ullmann) Linn Ullmann. What a huge honour!

Popping in briefly to say I got married yesterday and had the best day of my life and because of who I am I wore an entirely hand embroidered dress!

There's a new ep of my podcast, Sew What?, about one of my favourite embroiderers of all time, Lorina Bulwer. Lorina spent the last 15 years of her life incarcerated in the Great Yarmouth Workhouse, where she embroidered huge, angry, biographical scrolls. Listen here: buzzsprout.com/1075825/epis...

It’s hard to find time to leave my desk during the workday but this weather has been hard to resist. The office looks so good in the sun!

New extremely good early modern book title dropped: 'A perfect School of Instructions for Officers of the Mouth'. Written by Giles Rose in 1682, this bad boy is all about teaching women how to host a banging dinner party

I turned 30 today! It was a lovely, sunny day and I spent it eating gluten free pastries and pizza, seeing some good textiles, and walking 30,000 steps all over London. I hope the rest of my year is this good!

There’s a delightful new sampler exhibition up at the Quaker Tapestry Museum, called “Sampled Styles.” Would definitely recommend checking it out if you’re in or near Kendal anytime soon!

Does anyone know what Bible story is being depicted here on this mid 17C needlework? Inclusion of camel in corner suggests Old Testament and sizes of figures and use of tent suggests a king and either a non-royal man or servant. The smaller man looks to have a sword or staff. Thanks for your help!

Very much enjoying @isabellarosner.bsky.social on 17th-century girls' education and needlework in Hackney! (I will not be learning rococo stitch anytime soon.)

I'm thrilled to be giving a talk at Hackney Museum about the needlework and other artworks made by girls at female academies in 17th-century Hackney. Please come along if you're in the area!

Major A.T. Casdagli’s embroideries made during his time in four German POW camps in WWII are some of my favourite pieces of needlework of the 20th century. Now his entire wartime diary is available online as a free pdf. Check out my post about it here: www.instagram.com/p/DHVvcfRsWQ...

I'm thrilled to be giving a talk at Hackney Museum about the needlework and other artworks made by girls at female academies in 17th-century Hackney. Please come along if you're in the area!

Happy #IWD! One of the joys of studying textiles is getting a glimpse into the world of countless girls and women. We can see those worlds here, in this coverlet made by Ann West in 1820, in the V&A. It's covered in scenes of everyday characters and occupations, a look into early 19th-century life

I had 26 hours in Edinburgh and it was jam packed with textiles. I spoke at Dovecot Studios and saw their tapestry studio and tapestries, spotted Phoebe Anna Traquair’s stunning embroidery at the National Gallery, and popped in to say hello to the fashion and textile gallery at the National Museum

Needlework portrait of Queen Elizabeth I, c1580, possibly originally applied to the front of a presentation purse containing sweetmeats or presents of money, the higher nobles and bishops having to present the Queen with gold coins enclosed within ornamental bags at the New Year.

In love with this book, Pemmy’s Alphabet Book, made in 1942-5 in the Japanese internment camp Brastagi in east Sumatra. Though handiwork & books were banned, Mies Aalbersberg & other women embroidered the book as a birthday gift to Mies’ daughter Pem Hagers. Pem donated it to the Rijksmuseum in 2018

Be still, my heart!

From the Archive: The Canton Trade in Silk Fabrics – A Swedish East India Company ship: 1750-1752 (2400 words). www.ikfoundation.org/itextilis/th...

Thrilled to say that the Royal School of Needlework is hosting its first ever academic conference, in conjunction with @pasoldresearchfund.bsky.social! Here is the call for papers for “Stitched Together,” which will be held on 21-22 August at Hampton Court Palace. Please share!

Happy Valentine’s Day from me and my favourite WWI sweetheart pincushions. These were made by recuperating soldiers using beads, embroidery, sequins, and preprinted panels with regimental crests and messages of love. These are from Amgueddfa Cymru, National Army Museum, Sally Antiques, & Invaluable

Saw some really good Regency dress at the viewing of “Empire of Fashion: The Barreto Lancaster Collection of Napoleonic Regency Dress,” Kerry Taylor’s upcoming auction. Looooved seeing such great goldwork and whitework on display. I even ended up matching one of the lots up for sale!

Three dimensional flowers blossom on Louise-Marie de France's stomacher in her 1763 Drouais portrait, as if her dress's floral silk had come alive. Our stomacher from a rich British farming family illustrates how widely the styles of the French aristocracy were copied across Europe. #fashionhistory

Listen to our super fun episode of You're Dead to Me! I had the best time recording with @gregjenner.bsky.social and Cariad Lloyd

My @historytoday.com article about the earliest Barbadian sampler is free to read this week! Check it out here: www.historytoday.com/archive/hist.... I've also written a blog post on the RSN website about the discovery, which you can read here: royal-needlework.org.uk/archive-coll...

This is a sewing pattern. It is also a page from a late 14th century manuscript that is one of two primary sources for an important Icelandic saga (Sturlunga saga), but that was probably not important to the 17th century person who really needed a sewing pattern. #upcycling

I found what I think is the oldest known Barbardian sampler, in the RSN collection. Made by Martha Collymore in 1771. There's more about my discovery in this month's History Today & here: collections.royal-needlework.org.uk/object-rsn-1.... Caribbean material culture folks, I'd love to talk to you!

If you want to see the piece of embroidery from the Royal School of Needlework Collection which Cariad describes in the episode, here it is! It was made by the Royal School of Art Needlework in 1889. You can learn more about it here: collections.royal-needlework.org.uk/object-col-2...

‼️NEW EPISODE ALERT!🚨 You’re Dead To Me tackles the Arts & Crafts Movement, featuring the wonderful Cariad Lloyd & needlework expert Dr Isabella Rosner. It’s a very fun, big vibes one! Listen first on BBC Sounds! www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...

Yes!!!! @isabellarosner.bsky.social - cannot wait to listen!

Yay! It's @isabellarosner.bsky.social talking about William Morris & posh arty chums. (I became obsessed with Morris when I was 16, and did my A-level Art 'Personal Study' on florals in art. Pre-internet - almost entirely researched by borrowing one book from my teacher, and one trip to the V&A!)

I got to be on my favourite podcast, You’re Dead to Me, and it’s out today! It was such a treat to talk to @gregjenner.bsky.social and Cariad Lloyd about the Arts and Crafts movement. Listen to it here or check it out on @BBCRadio4 tomorrow morning at 10am: www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...

Happy (almost) new year from me and Marlene Dietrich, one of my favourite things about 2024. This year has been a pretty good one for me and I’m hoping for more good stuff in 2025! And I hope the same for you all!

Really enjoyed the opportunity to write about Susanna Perwich and her needlework a few years ago. Have been writing about Susanna a bit recently and am thrilled to be immersed in the world of 17th-century Hackney girls' schools

Can’t wait to read this!

As it's Christmas Eve I'm thinking about Alice Eugenia Ligon's embroidered dress, a Christmas present she made for her children (now in the Smithsonian American Art Museum). Ligon was a patient at Fulton State Hospital in 1949-1953. She embroidered and crocheted this dress from her hospital gown

Missed this article when it came out a month ago but just read it and loved it. What a fascinating, beautifully written article chronicling such exciting discoveries. Give it a read if you haven’t already!

A silver leaf. Detail from a crimson velvet binding for a book of sermons from 1596, front and back covers embroidered in silver thread and silk with the arms of Elizabeth I. SSS.24.32 @theulspeccoll.bsky.social @theul.bsky.social

The final Sew What? episode of 2024 is out now and it's a holiday special featuring interviews from Gressenhall Farm and Workhouse's Gathered at Gressenhall textile takeover day! It's unlike any episode I've done before. Listen here: buzzsprout.com/1075825/epis...

Big fan of this hanging (in the Victoria and Albert Museum) embroidered by nuns in Heiningen, Germany in 1516. It’s a great example of a nun’s theological and classical education on the eve of the Reformation. The name of the prioress ‘D[omi]na Elisabet’ and 58 nuns are embroidered on the piece