Empress Wu Designs with Wilma

#SeptTextileLove Day 13

2026-09-13T22:59:04.988+10:00

‘Rethink ’ … Rethinking a work is not unusual for me …sometimes because things just don’t work, but in one recent example , it was because I miscalculated‘ time and the deadline loomed . These small stitched pieces in my head were going to be  an archipelago but time beat me before I could stitch the ocean to allow these islands to float.. They ended up in an exhibitions as ‘Meditations  on Mercator’ depicting the size distortion of the Mercator cylindrical map projection ! What do you think of the ‘rethink’? 

#SeptTextileLove Day 12

2026-09-13T22:54:01.309+10:00

#SeptTextileLove #STL26Day12

‘Friendship’ … This is a story of friendship based on the love of textiles and fibre art . Gallerist and artist, Anne Kempton and I have been friends for 15 years , meeting when we had both retired from ‘ top’ jobs in a government department and a high school respectively. Neither of us were the retiring types - Anne was establishing the first commercial textile art gallery in Australia and I was looking for a creative direction. We discovered we were both driven by a sense of social justice and community and shared similar artistic aspirations . Since then, we have co- curated exhibitions, collaborated on many projects. supported community art and women’s causes, and grown in our individual artistic expression - Anne includes more stitching in her work and she has had a more painterly influence on mine . Moreover, this friendship is multifaceted, deep and personal and one I value and treasure . Thank you, Anne.

#SeptTextileLove26 Day11

2026-09-13T22:50:12.604+10:00

#SeptTextileLove #STL26Day11

‘Language’ …when symbols in stitch say more than words … my wonderful Wednesday Makers group has undertaken a community peace project ‘Petals for Peace’ - stitched prayer flags depicting flowers , symbolic of peace. . We have stitched many ourselves and other stitchers from all over Australia have also been contributing as an impactful counter to the hate speech which seems to have pervaded our world currently - the powerful language of stitch.

#SeptTextileLove Day 10

2026-09-10T21:56:22.844+10:00

#SeptTextileLove #STL26Day10

‘Low Impact ?’  … today I am highlighting an admirable decision by Newcastle ( NSW Australia) textile art gallery , Timeless Textiles . When you purchase from the gallery shop, the protective wrapping is made from recycled fabric - donated abandoned textiles, repurposed clothing and household linens, and sewing project scraps. Not only is this packaging practice low impact on the environment , it doesn’t cost much and making these bags requires minimal effort and only basic skills. However it has high impact as a thoughtful, aesthetic  and sustainable retail practice. 

What other practices have you noticed retailers are using for a lower impact on the environment? 

#SeptTextileLove26 Day8

2026-09-10T10:21:03.281+10:00

SeptTextileLove #stl26day8 ‘Inspiring Exhibition’ … earlier this year , the Wednesday Makers Group at Timeless Textiles ( Newcastle, Australia) celebrated International Women’s Day with their exhibition, “Inspiring Women in Stitch’ - congratulations - inspiring women honouring inspiring women .

link to video

#SeptTextileLove26 Day 9

2026-09-10T10:17:27.007+10:00

‘Craft or Art?’ … a continuing  complex question, with, I guess, has  no definitive answer.  I’ve often wondered about traditional practices especially  … as an example , temari ( Japanese stitched thread  balls ). Even authorities on temari have called it ‘an ancient folk craft ’ as well as a  traditional, highly artistic culture and skill in that each design shows the unique characteristics of the maker’s free ideas and creativity. ‘ (Japan Temari Association)… 

My mother  taught me to make temari and  she would always consider her own creations ‘craft’ and tome they are ‘art’! 

Craft or art? Does  it really matter what we call the techniques or the outcome of what we create ? 

#SeptTextileLove26 Day 7

2026-09-07T23:48:32.144+10:00

#SeptTextileLove #STL26Day7
‘Historical’ ... Family history is often a source of inspiration and information for my work. This stitched work featuring a photo of my great grandmother also acts as a commentary on the Chinese historical practice of foot binding, hence the inclusion of an x ray photograph of a female bound foot. It looks painful and undoubtedly was , but it was considered 'beautiful". What contemporary body shaping practices do we still engage in for the sake of ‘beauty’?

Historical body shaping practices included tight-lacing corsets, foot binding, and neck elongation, all used to mould the human form into culturally defined ideals of beauty. (AI overview)

Foot Binding in China

Starting from Song elites and eventually popularized and ended in the Qing dynasty, foot binding was seen as an idolized representation of women's petite beauty, and the practice was referred to as "三寸金莲" , 'three-inch golden lotus' Wikipedia.

This practice involved tightly wrapping young girls' feet to break the bones and stunt growth. Small feet were considered a supreme marker of elegance, refinement, and high social status.

Corsetry and Tight-Lacing in the West

To achieve this in reality, the corset became a popular undergarment among women in the Western world from the late Renaissance into the 20th century CNN.

Heavy boning made from whalebone, steel, or wood compressed the torso. It aimed to drastically reduce waist size while accentuating the hips and bust to create an exaggerated hourglass figure.

Neck Elongation with Rings

In various global cultures, such as among the Kayan people of Myanmar and parts of Africa, brass coils or rings were progressively added to the neck. This practice pushed the collarbones down and compressed the ribcage, creating the visual effect of an elongated neck, which symbolized grace and beauty.

Skull Deformation

Several ancient civilizations, including the Maya, the Huns, and the Indigenous peoples of the Americas, practiced artificial cranial deformation. Infants' heads were bound with boards or cloth to shape the skull into elongated or flattened profiles. This permanent modification often indicated nobility, tribal identity, or aesthetic distinction.

#SeptTextileLove26 Day6

2026-09-06T23:06:23.769+10:00

#SeptTextileLove #STL26Day6 

‘Experiment’  Plastic recycling has still not been resolved, and while reducing the amount of plastic that comes into our house has been minimised , some plastic wrappers seem unavoidable … Cutting plastic into strips and experimenting with it as thread is rather satisfying . This stitching on recycled hessian was made with wrappers from bread and paper towel and some abandoned gold thread .  

#SeptTextileLove Day 5

2026-09-05T19:29:05.276+10:00

#SeptTextileLove #STL26Day5

‘Caring’ … so much of what textile artists do involves caring - for the environment , for others, for our own health and well-being , for social justice, for our art … today I’m advocating caring about sourcing our materials . I use lots of embroidery thread and it is sometimes tempting to buy cheaper imported threads than the ones I really love to work with, - hand dyed right here in Australia by a small family business . I looked at one of the omnipresent online ads with its incorrect spelling and the suggestion that bulk is better gives strong hints about the ‘quality’ and the price makes me wonder about the working conditions and rights of those who produce and package the thread? I care that the people who make the materials I use get a fair wage and work in safe conditions. I also care that the quality of the materials I use are the best I can afford and have the least negative impact on the environment and my own health. Please care .

#SeptTextileLove26 Day 4

2026-09-04T19:20:31.759+10:00

#septtextilelove #stl26day4 … Story-telling … making ‘art dolls’ gives wonderful opportunities to tell stories … This matriarch’s story is intertwined with the cicadas which form part of the soft sculpture and emphasises what appears to be a contradiction about nurturing life and inevitable death... Cicadas spend years underground as nymphs feeding on root sap, emerging en masse as winged adults for a few days, perhaps a week, to mate and lay eggs in tree branches, then die, leaving the eggs to hatch into new nymphs that burrow underground to restart the cycle. The dormant underground phase of the cicada’s life can be from 2-17 years! In my interpretation, this forest matriarch offers a safe place for cicadas to lay eggs, only to cause their own demise … but the continuing life cycle is ensured.

#SeptTextileLove26 - Day 3

2026-09-03T22:16:21.113+10:00

Today's prompt for #SeptTextileLove #stl26day3 is " Colour’ .

I love coloured threads, and sometimes I just like to look at my stash of embroidery threads, which are organised in colour hues. However, there are times when one colour is enough…

How do you spell colour ? color?

#SeptTextileLove26 seam collective

#SeptTextileLove26- Day 2

2026-09-03T00:12:07.351+10:00

#STL26Day2 ‘Hand or Machine’ … Why not both? Two small stitched works in my stitched garden series, (left - free motion machine stitch ; right- hand stitch). Which do you prefer ? #SeptTextileLove

#SeptTextileLove26 … Introduction.

2026-09-02T07:47:05.555+10:00

A last minute decision to join #septtextilelove26 … so here I am #stl26day1 … Wilma from Newcastle, NSW , Australia , stitching in my garden - my favourite way to spend the day. I love working with textiles and found objects and as I get older, I enjoy and appreciate the gentle calm of stitching even more . #septtextilelove #empresswu seam collective

#SeptTextileLove — 2026 edition!

What began back in September 2017 has grown into something truly special — a welcoming textile community that comes together every single year!

What makes #SeptTextileLove truly stand out? It’s the connection! Every day, we at seam go through all your wonderful posts and choose three to highlight and celebrate. It’s the conversation between participants, t— and it all comes together in our final prompt on Day 30: “Your favourite post from another participant” — a beautiful way to lift each other up and wrap up the month together.

All of September: one textile prompt a day.
Respond to as many or as few as you like! Tag #SeptTextileLove so we can find, like, comment, and share your work. Three features every single day — everyone is welcome!

Stitching Stories of Strength

2026-08-20T15:56:12.966+10:00

Last month, I was interviewed by Sian Goff , textileartist.org and here is the resulting article

Member Spotlight: Wilma Simmons

Stitching stories of strength

When Wilma Simmons retired at 55 after a career as a high school principal, she made herself a promise: whatever came next would be creative. Two decades later, that promise has grown into a practice rooted in storytelling, sustainability, and a deep respect for the women who came before her.

Based in Newcastle, Australia, Wilma has become a fixture of the textile art world, a longtime volunteer at the Timeless Textiles Gallery, a two-time solo exhibitor, and a member of Stitch Club almost since its very first year. Talking with her, it's easy to see why her work resonates: every piece carries a narrative, and every material has been chosen because it means something.

Wilma Simmons, Thorax with Eucalyptus.

Wilma Simmons, Wall, inspired by Ana Buzzalino.

From clay and jewellery to cloth

Wilma's creative path didn't begin with textiles. Before retirement, she trained formally in contemporary clay and spent time designing jewellery, teaching at stitches-and-craft shows around Australia. But something about jewellery never quite satisfied her.

"I didn't feel it was the right medium... it is all just very superficial. Stitching became so much more - I guess part of my soul was released somehow."

It was picking back up a creative embroidery correspondence course, one she'd set aside while completing a master's degree, that brought her back to textiles. Around the same time, a textile art gallery opened in Newcastle, and Wilma became involved almost immediately. She's been immersed in the medium ever since.

Wilma Simmons, Enveloping Exhibition, Timeless Textiles Gallery.

Wilma Simmons, Stitched up Dolls.

Letting materials carry the message

If there's a single thread running through Wilma's body of work, it's her conviction that the material itself should be inseparable from the story it tells.

That philosophy has led her to some striking, unexpected choices. For a piece about her Chinese heritage, she stitched with used tea bags, drawing on tea's significance in her family history. For an installation memorialising 193 girls who lived in a 19th-century Newcastle welfare institution, she built dolls from sticks and scraps of cloth, imagining how the girls themselves, with almost nothing, might have made their own toys. Working alongside a local historian who had documented each girl's life, Wilma gave form to stories that might otherwise have been lost.

Perhaps her most unusual material discovery came almost by accident. Wanting to explore the healing properties of plants, Wilma began stitching botanical imagery onto old X-rays - hand-embroidering eucalyptus leaves and other medicinal plants directly onto the films, using dissolvable fabric to build the stitching before punching holes through the X-ray itself and sewing it in place.

"It's not easy to do," she admits of the punching and stitching. But word spread, and now friends and neighbours arrive at her door with suitcases of old X-rays - of broken legs, broken fingers, chests once shadowed by pneumonia - each one a small, discarded piece of somebody's medical history, waiting for a second life.

Wilma Simmons, Metacarpals with Kangaroo Paw / Patella with Lichen and Shelf Funghi.

Nothing goes to waste

That instinct, to give overlooked, discarded things new purpose, extends into everything Wilma makes. She's candid about what motivates it: partly sustainability, Wilma is appalled by the amount of textile waste that goes into landfill, and partly a fascination with transformation itself.

One of her most moving recent works began with a bag of women's handkerchiefs - beloved by an elderly woman who had passed away, but unwanted by her children and grandchildren. Wilma turned each handkerchief into a feather, and the feathers into a pair of human-sized wings. The woman's daughter, who hadn't wanted the handkerchiefs herself, was delighted with the wings.

Wilma Simmons, Wings & Wings (detail).

"I really love that idea - that these handkerchiefs were so loved by this woman but not wanted by the next generation... once they were made into something else, they were quite desirable."

Since then, more bags of inherited handkerchiefs have found their way to her - each one, she says, holding "a hundred stories to tell." She's currently stitching miniature gardens onto them.

Wilma Simmons, Edith - Stitched Garden (detail).

A practice built on planning and surprise

Despite the intuitive, story-led feel of her work, Wilma describes herself as a planner, sometimes to a fault. "I guess my main fault would be overthinking a concept," she laughs. She sketches extensively before starting, though her plans rarely survive intact - as with the X-ray series, which shifted entirely once she realised real X-rays, sourced from friends and family, would tell a far more powerful story than embroidered outlines of generic body parts.

That balance between careful planning and openness to serendipity was tested when Wilma took part in a collaborative exhibition with a friend early in her exhibiting career. The two artists, she discovered, worked in completely different rhythms - her friend moved quickly and had nineteen pieces finished before Wilma had settled on her third or fourth. It wasn't the show's commercial outcome that stuck with her, but what it taught her about her own process, and about textile art more broadly.

"It made me really appreciate other textile artists' work so much more. I see other artists' work critically but sympathetically as well."

Wilma Simmons, Gold Collage 1 & 2, inspired by Jette Clover.

Stitch Club and beyond

Wilma has been a Stitch Club member since nearly the beginning, and describes finding real value across the whole range of workshops. A collage workshop with Jette Clover led to an invitation to join Clover's year-long master's course - the two later met in person when Clover travelled to Australia. Techniques picked up from other workshops - coiling, needle sculpting, dyeing - regularly resurface, remixed, in Wilma's stick-figure dolls and mixed-media pieces, one fabric sometimes threading its way through several completely different works. One notable example is her ‘Summer Forest Matriarch’, pictured below.

Wilma Simmons, Summer Forest Matriarch, created with fabric dyed using Deb Cooper’s techniques and fabric wraps from Julia Wright’s workshop.

Inspired by a recent Stitch Club workshop, Wilma is deep into a personal book project profiling tribal women across the South Pacific and Southeast Asia, with a particular focus on women in Papua New Guinea and Nepal - two countries where she's done hands-on volunteer work herself.

Wilma Simmons, Portraits 1 & 2 (works in progress), inspired by Batool Showghi.

In Papua New Guinea's Eastern Highlands, while her husband was building a school, Wilma organised funding to bring ten hand-operated sewing machines to a village with unreliable electricity. She asked the women what they wanted most, and delivered it - along with needles, thread, and fabric bought locally to support the regional economy. The very first thing every woman wanted to sew was curtains, for privacy in one-room woven houses. School uniforms and clothing came next.

In Nepal, Wilma supported Seven Women, an organisation founded after its creator discovered seven disabled women living in a shed, melting down discarded restaurant candles to survive. One of those original seven women, once abandoned by her family, is now an accountant and runs the organisation herself.

"Textiles can change lives.”

Wilma Simmons, Bound & Blue Interlude with Tea (detail).

Honouring the women who came before

Underpinning almost everything Wilma makes is her family history - one she describes as "a long line of very strong women." Her father died when she was young, leaving her mother to raise Wilma and her sister alone. Her husband's English family includes several women who were politicians. Photographs of Wilma's great-grandmother and grandmother, and her

husband's ancestors, have found their way into her mixed-media pieces.

For her recent 100 Day Project, Wilma chose to spotlight inspiring women largely absent from mainstream history. It's a natural extension of everything else she makes: work about resilience, about voices that went unheard, about strength passed down through generations - whether or not it was ever formally recorded.

Wilma Simmons, 100 Day Project - Inspiring Women.

What's next

Retirement is not on Wilma's agenda - not really. Instead, she's focused on passing her skills to the next generation, teaching her granddaughter to stitch during after-school visits. She continues to meet weekly with both a community group at Timeless Textiles Gallery and the Newcastle Creative Embroiderers and Textile Artists (NCEATA), drawing energy and ideas from working alongside other makers.

"I think for me, what’s ahead is more learning.”

Wilma Simmons, at work in her garden.

It's a fitting note for an artist whose creative life began with a promise to herself at 55, and who - through tea bags, X-rays, handkerchiefs, and driftwood - has spent the two decades since finding new ways to make sure the stories of women like her great-grandmother, and the hundreds of women she's met since, don't go unheard.

Taste Over Health?

2026-07-10T12:12:33.599+10:00

Wilma Simmons: Thorax and Eucalyptus Leaves :hand embroidered x-ray; 2024

For a few years, I've been learning more about the healing quality of plants and testing out various well known remedies ... for example, boiling up eucalyptus leaves to use as a steam inhalant does act as an effective respiratory decongestant.

It takes a little more effort to create meals which hit the sweet spot of being tasty, nutritious and health promoting. Did you know that it's predicted that our brain processes taste information first, before perceived health and this can affect our overall decision making?

“For many individuals, health information enters the decision process too late (relative to taste information) to drive choices toward the healthier option. ... We’ve always assumed people make unhealthy choices because that’s their preference or because they aren’t good at self control ” says study coauthor Nicolette Sullivan. “It turns out it’s not just a matter of self-control. Health is slower for your brain to estimate–it takes longer for you to include that information into the process of choosing between options.” Taste over health: This is how your brain decides on a snack

Of course, we don't need research to tell us that taste will always win over health options particularly when we are making quick snack decisions and when we are enjoying excellent health, without any immediate medical issues . However, I think adjusting modern dietary habits prove we can find a balance, but you need some extra time and planning to indulge in some slow cooking. Last night's dinner was a good example....

It took almost 2 hours of boiling a mixture of roots and herbs to make a soup stock which not only tasted good but also had many health benefits , The mixture consisted of milk veitch (astragalus) root to boost immune system and for liver and heart health; Siberian ginseng to boost immune system; cnidium for and energy boost and anti infection support ; Jujube (Chinese red dates ) also for immune system support and increased energy and mulberry bark as an antioxidant. However, the last additions before eating, took only a matter of a few minutes. To the boiling stock, I added some rice noodles, small pieces of chicken and some fresh buk choy leaves, with a dash of white wine and kecap manis and grated garlic and ginger. The result was a very satisfying dinner bowl of steaming, tasty and healthy chicken noodle soup.

Yes- it is possible to find a balance!

Stitched Gardens and Magpies

2026-06-30T12:32:19.636+10:00

Magpies are always around in our garden , strutting, poking about for insects and having a splash in the birdbath. They often call if the water is at a low level in the birdbath until one of us replenishes the water supply. It is no coincidence then that they have figured prominently as part of recent little works in the stitched garden series.

I also like to include human figures in my gardens, especially taken from old photos of family members. This "impressionist ' stitched garden features my husband's great aunt, Sarah Ann Bath. I like to think of her in this abundant garden , when in reality, she grew up in the early 1900s in rather cramped living conditions in Birmingham UK

See more and read more about my stitched gardens - other posts:

How does your garden grow with stitch?

How does your garden grow with crayons?

Stitched Faces

2026-05-29T16:59:24.397+10:00

I 've always enjoyed that imperfect line of "not quite in control' free motion machine stitching.... I think it really suits creating portraits , giving them some character and even a quirkiness that hints of personality plus. These ones below are from my " Red Cheeks" series from a couple of years ago, and are amongst my favourite stitched portraits.

The current Stitch Club ( textileartist.org) workshop, by Batool Showghi has inspired me to stitch more this week. Batool , of course, is in complete control of her machine stitching and her works are exquisite and they tell a moving story. ... " Working with paper, print, paint and stitch, her textile art bears witness to displacement, silenced women and the damage that authoritarian regimes impose on ordinary lives.

Batool’s mixed media wall pieces are incredibly striking, but her artist books truly set her apart. Printed imagery of family photographs, birth certificate documents and her own Farsi handwriting are complemented by intricate machine stitching and paint.... " from https://www.textileartist.org/batool-showghi-threads-of-resistance/

Batool Showghi, Woman Life Freedom, One Body, 2024. 45cm x 45cm (18″ x 18″). Fabric, thread, marker pen. from https://www.textileartist.org/batool-showghi-threads-of-resistance/

While I'm currently doing #the100dayproject, highlighting 100 women who have inspired me #100daysofinspiringwomen and it is close to the end, I started to think about creating a concertina book as explained by Batool and feature either the amazing women I've worked with in Papua New Guinea or in Nepal . The first photo in the blog isn't quite what I planned as a practice run for Nepal, but this one below looked like one of the girls in the village in the Eastern Highlands, PNG. While I like stitching onto botanical prints on khadi paper, I am still undecided which of the countries I should feature?

When I put both of these latest stitched faces up for comment in the Stitch Club , I got some good suggestions to create "Colourful Women of the World", instead of limiting to one culture - what do you think?

Meditations on Mercator

2026-05-11T22:57:00.009+10:00

‘The Timelessness of Stitch’ was an invitational group exhibition at Timeless Textiles Gallery, Newcastle NSW , 1 April – 10 May 2026 …. Across generations and cultures, the act of stitching has woven together stories, traditions and identities. Each thread carries not only aesthetic value but also the memories and emotions of those who crafted it, demonstrating how this simple act transcends time and place.

I was honoured and humbled to be amongst the twenty-three artists (national and international) participating in this exhibition.

My small installation took some time to develop…. Although I knew about this exhibition for some time, I kept procrastinating, going from one idea to another and not settling on any.

Recently, I came across the word “mercator” and while a vague notion of maps was recalled, I really needed to research. Besides the modern commercial connections, Mercator has its origins in cartography, which Is often a source of inspiration for my artworks.

The term Mercator most commonly refers to Gerardus Mercator, the 16th-century Flemish cartographer who revolutionised navigation with his world map projection.

Mercator Projection: Created in 1569, this cylindrical map projection allows sailors to plot a course as a straight line (rhumb line), making sea travel much easier.
Size Distortion: While excellent for navigation, the projection famously distorts the size of landmasses far from the equator. For example, Greenland appears nearly as large as Africa, when Africa is actually about 14 times larger.
Web Mercator: Modern digital maps like Google Maps and OpenStreetMap use a variant called "Web Mercator" for their street-level displays ( Wikipedia)

While the maps of the time were fascinating subjects; I simply had run out of time to stitch a map …. So I began to think about stitching islands onto a background fabric…. I even bought a circular board which was going to represent a world map projection. This was until, a conversation with the curator about this idea, and a suggestion and ideas flowed with the creation of stitched landforms, to be mounted directly on to the gallery wall in a random fashion.

I chose a colour palette inspired by “Farmer’s Market” , hand dyed thread by Cottage Garden threads and from then, it was serious stitching until nine “meditations” took shape.

Meditations on Mercator: As I stitched these small meditations, my mind wandered into unknown territories where ancient maps took shape as if lands had been there since the beginning of time, but had eluded human definition. These stitcheries ae imagined “terra incognito”.

More information about Mercator:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerardus_Mercator https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercator_projection

Embroidery Threads : https://www.cottagegardenthreads.com.au/

#the100dayproject : Inspiring Women Days 1 - 4

2026-03-06T19:09:00.002+11:00

#The100DayProject is a free global art project that takes place online 🎨

Every year, thousands of people all around the world commit to 100 days of creating. Anyone can participate .

The idea is simple: choose a creative project, do it every single day for 100 days, and document and share the process online.

2026 is my 8th year of participating. I have stitched daily observations, painted my egg cup collection, collaged postcards and envelopes, written poems, explored colour palettes .... this year I am researching, sketching and stitching 100 inspiring women.

Fortunately I purchased a piece of beautiful linen, with preprinted outlines of 100 women ... just one issue - the figures are tiny (height 6cm /2.5 ins)

My first week started tentatively ... I thought I would start with Empress Wu, after whom I named my creative activity. This is when I discovered how difficult it is to applique and stitch on these very small figures - I used tweezers to put pieces of fabric down, tried to blanket stitch around the pieces and felt I was going blind in the process.

It could only get better ?

Day 2 - It helped that I chose Ruth Williams Khama, a brave Englishwoman who married Seretse Khama , heir to the throne of Bechuanaland ( see the movie "A United Kingdom). She and her husband defied opposition from both their families and the British and South African governments to establish eventually an independent Botswana. Lady Khama's legacy " extends beyond the borders of Botswana , in a model of harmony which exposed the injustices of apartheid and colonial rule" . The dress was a simpler design and it meant fewer very tiny bits of fabric and I even managed to stitch some sort of leafy pattern on the skirt ....

Day 3 was a surprise choice - I happened to read " who was born today" and Ettie Rout appeared - a little known World War 1 nurse , shunned by her own country New Zealand but celebrated in France as a hero for her working to prevent sexually transmitted disease amongst serving soldiers. This was the day I began to doubt if I would ever make it to day 100 .... a hat and a 2 piece outfit which measured about 4cm /1.5 ins!

From the dull "brown/beige" to the brightest colours of Yayoi Kusama on day 4. This was relatively easy - just coloured polka dots for which Kusama is most well known...

So far this has to be one of the most challenging projects, but also one with many more layers to it ... will I manage to research, sketch and stitch for the rest of the 100 days?

Follow each day on Facebook or Instagram

A Jaunty Josie from JOY - How did that happen?

2026-01-13T19:02:00.002+11:00

No new year’s resolutions , but I like the idea of words shaping a year …. I did not choose JOY - I chose PLAY and CHALLENGE, which I think also fits the upcoming Chinese Year of the Horse…. “ The year 2026 signifies a fresh start, embodying the dynamic Year of the Fire Horse in the Chinese zodiac, representing energy, freedom, and innovation, coupled with a Universal Year 1 in numerology, signalling new beginnings and pioneering action “

How did JOY become the focus of this story?

Where better to start than with the weekly colour prompts #coloricombo by EsteMacleod …these are published each Monday night ( Australian Eastern Summer Time) , so I’ve had a week to work on these . Added to the colour prompts Este has also intensified the challenge by including a different shape or form each week.

This week, she chose the word/letters J O Y

Between workshops, travelling and other projects, I spent a few hours cutting and pasting a “mood board” and did a few doodles – ultimate playing and so much fun!

Now the Challenge bit … I decided to do some free motion machine stitching using the word JOY . I wrote it in free machine stitch and turned it upside down , following one of my doodles and planned a face , with a fancy hat to accommodate the loops of the J and Y and circles of the O

Then more stitching J O Y shapes

- a big O for the face
- Js two ways for for the neck and and backward J for nose
- a little Y for the lips
- lots of random sized J shapes to create embellishments for the hat.
- circles were added for- O shapes rosy cheeks and smaller ones for the pupils of the eyes.
- roughly stitched Y shapes along the neckline

Having finished a rough “sketch” in stitch, I added some hand stitching in the jade tone on the hat, and the orange for the cheeks and a white highlight in the eyes.

To add more colour

- -water colour paint on the main part of the hat and dress

- - water colour paint for hair.

- - pencil for skin tone

Jaunty Josie is born from JOY.... A little crazy, but I really enjoyed the play and the challenge.

Week 1 of 2026 words achieved!

And if you haven't already chosen some words for 2026, here's a fun way to start.

Watch this space for what happens during the next week.

The Making of a Matriarch

2026-01-01T21:10:00.003+11:00

Matriarch? Definitions of ‘matriarch” don’t differ much, but the following one suits my purpose ….

A matriarch is a willing protector, a nurturer, and a leader of her family and community. She is a role model, particularly for women, and a fierce advocate for causes close to her heart. She is empowered and makes it her job to empower others. She is open-minded and utilizes her wisdom for the good of all. ( from https://medium.com › a-matriarch-in-the-making-52b42)

The debate whether a matriarch is the exact opposite of patriarch delves deeper into power relationships and the established dominance of gender in governing bodies. I will not be subscribing to that serious debate in this blog as I just wanted to make an art doll which has a story.

The Matriarch I created is an amalgam of European and First Nations concepts of matriarchs:

Guardian of Nature
Protector of Environment
Healer and Nurturer
Cultural Keeper
Decision Maker

In October, 2025 at Gumnut Dollies Newcastle ( a local doll making group), doll maker/sculptor Bobbie Oliver introduced us to her collection of “crones” and showed us her techniques of needle sculpting fabric heads with character.

Is a crone the same as a matriarch - not quite… When I had sculpted the face, it wasn’t quite as ‘old’ or a deeply secretive as I imagine a ‘crone” might be, so as soon as I got home, I began thinking about other words for women of an age and came across this distinction …

Some modern frameworks add "Matriarch" as a fourth stage between Mother and Crone. In this view, the Matriarch is the powerful, active leader , while the Crone is the older, more withdrawn sage who "walks between worlds.

I also referenced the Aboriginal cultural tradition of considering trees as matriarchs (or grandmother trees) . These trees are not merely plants but are viewed as living ancestors and guardians that hold deep spiritual, generational, and protective significance.

Attaching her body to a piece of wood also made her not only human, but also arboreal. I tried all sorts of fur pieces, muslin and thread textures as a mantle, but decided on stitching leaves in hand dyed fabric and some other skeleton leaves made by free motion machine stitching machine on dissolvable fabric. I had already decided from the beginning that her head would be covered with “dread locks” or what may now also be interpreted as tree roots or branches. This idea was inspired by a photograph of an older Finnish woman from Pinterest.

The decision about including the cicadas as part of this matriarch’s story is to emphasise what appears to be a contradiction about nurturing life and inevitable death... Cicadas spend years underground as nymphs feeding on root sap, emerging en masse as winged adults for a few days, perhaps a week, to mate and lay eggs in tree branches, then die, leaving the eggs to hatch into new nymphs that burrow underground to restart the cycle. The dormant underground phase of the cicada’s life can be from 2-17 years!

In my interpretation, this forest matriarch offers a safe place for cicadas to lay eggs, only to cause their own demise … but the continuing life cycle is ensured.

This is the story of an imagined matriarch and the making.

Wilma Simmons, Facebook /Instagram

Links to Doll making/sculpting groups - Ask to join:

Bobbi M Oliver's Creations

Gumnut Dollies

Reflecting on Christmas Cards Past - November Project Update

2025-11-28T00:06:00.003+11:00

It's so close to the end of the month, but honestly, I'm not ready to give up yet. I've only had one day when I was too tired to give any creative attention to making a card. Some other days have been hard to fit in the time as I set myself the goal of taking a photo of a finished little work by 5pm each day.

What have I found difficult?

- choosing a postage stamp.

- coming up with 'different' ideas and bringing the ideas to life quickly

- including both stamp and stitch into the design ( occasionally) .

- compromising by using some previously stitching samples.

- no time for revision.

What have I enjoyed?

- knowing I will have 30 Christmas cards made , ready for posting by 1 December.

- sorting through my stash of beautiful Christmas stamps.

- combining media ( although that is also what I found difficult!) .

- deciding who will be the recipient of each card.

- the focus of creating something every day.

- the spontaneous nature of the project.

-using up scraps of fabric, abandoned samples of work and multiple used stamps.

Link to introductory post A November Project

A November project

2025-11-04T17:46:00.002+11:00

A few years ago, I began scheduling into my day, the routine of a daily art practice.... seven years later, I still love #the100dayproject and am a strong advocate of "create something, anything, every day" .

In more recent years, I haven't been content with a mere 100 days and have often pursued shorter /or longer projects requiring some daily attention. For example, I completed 145 days of slow stitching my garden and then another 60 day random cross stitch garden.... but that's a digression....

This month, I am being far more practical... I still like to send and give Christmas cards, but am always getting them in the post very late, and trying to make some special unique cards for the family the night before.... so all this month, I am making Christmas cards - just one a day. By 30 November, I should have some to choose from for posting within Australia and for giving in December. Here are my first 4 days ....

If you're wondering why bother with a daily art practice, there are many explanations and advocates online... this is what Google AI generated....

A daily art project is a creative endeavor where an individual commits to making art every day for a set period, such as 30 days, 100 days, or a year. The core idea is to build a consistent art-making habit to practice skills, develop a style, and generate a portfolio. These projects often involve smaller, themed works and are shared on social media, creating a sense of community and helping an artist gain exposure.

Benefits of a daily art project

Improves skills: Consistent practice helps you refine your techniques and experiment with new methods.
Builds a habit: It makes art-making a routine, similar to other daily habits, and can be done in short bursts of time, like 5–10 minutes.
Fosters creativity: By exploring a theme or using specific prompts, you can overcome creative blocks and discover new ideas.
Creates community: Sharing your work online can connect you with other artists and an audience who encourage your growth.
Provides a record: The project creates a cumulative body of work that documents your journey and progress over time.

and here's a bit more about one of my approaches to a daily creative routine

the 100dayproject - what and why

..... starting a daily art practice tomorrow?

How does your garden grow with stitch?

2025-10-27T17:58:00.002+11:00

"How does your garden grow with stitch?" is an update on a post I published way back in 2015, when I stitched my first "impressionist garden" for a course I was studying at the Embroiderers' Guild.

Gardens are my constant inspiration for my artwork, and I create gardens in cloth and stitch repetitively, using many different techniques. I am particularly fond of this heavily stitched embroidered "impressionist" garden.

In 2016, I stitched two small gardens in this style for an exhibition and they included photos of my husband's grandmother and her brother and sister as children. Although the collector who bought these two works did not know our family, the children reminded him of his own family from England of about the same era. These two 'gardens' have become my "stitch" reference and images which best showcase the technique although I don't have the originals any more.

Since then, quite a few other gardens have grown, often to celebrate significant birthdays of family and friends ... pictured, one square in 2017, stitched as a contribution to a family quilt for my husband, and the other in 2018, for a friend's 80th birthday.

What prompted a recent return to these stitched gardens? Over the last few years, I have stitched a series called "Garden Threads" - a slow stitching abstract exploration of colour, using only basic stitches - running stitch and random cross stitch. This year, I started embroidery some "healing" flowers and really enjoyed the process of representing flowers in stitch again .

And like that, a new series was started this year, 2025 .... and just this last weekend, I shared the process with six lovely stitchers, who I think enjoyed the experience of stitching a garden too.

( Look for a future post about the workshop fun )

Link to the previous post about stitched gardens , including the colouring of the backgrounds with crayons .... How does your garden grow with crayons?

https://empresswu.blogspot.com/2015/04/how-does-your-garden-grow-with-crayons.html.

Bilby Infatuation

2025-05-18T16:00:00.005+10:00

Wrapped wire and fabric bilby sculpture : Wilma Simmons 2016

Over the years I have been fascinated with the plight of the bilby and it has inspired quite a few of my cloth creations...

With long pinkish-coloured ears and silky, blue-grey fur, the Bilby has become Australia’s version of the Easter Bunny. Unlike the rabbit, bilby numbers are falling rapidly.
There were originally two species but the Greater Bilby is now commonly referred to simply as ‘the Bilby’ as the Lesser Bilby (Macrotis leucura) is thought to have become extinct in the early 1950s... Bilbies are nocturnal, emerging after dark to forage for food. Using their long snouts, they dig out bulbs, tubers, spiders, termites, witchetty grubs and fungi. They use their tongues to lick up grass seeds.
Bilbies have poor sight and rely on good hearing and a keen sense of smell. To minimise threats from predators they’ll mostly stay within 250m of their burrows, but sometimes roam further afield depending on the food supply.

from https://www.bushheritage.org.au/species/bilby

Bilby Girl Travelling Art Doll ; finished by Wilma Simmons 2013

In 2013, I made Bilby Girl - a "travelling" art doll and this doll made its last stop at my place in Australia. Bilby Girl returned to her owner , the original doll maker in USA. These "travelling dolls " would start off as a body, then travel somewhere else and get a head, and then onto another country to get arms and legs, and at its last stop the doll would be clothed and accessorised.

Australian Bush fabric

Fast forward to this year, and in the textile.artist.org Stitch Club, Christi Johnson's workshop was about sculpting personal mythology inspired by an animal. Reflecting on personal interest in Australian fauna and the recent climate concerns, I chose the bilby - it was close to Easter too!

Bilby collage : Wilma Simmons 2025

I made a toile from some abandoned eco dyed cotton and I really liked it, so did a bit of stitching on the front, and closed its opening on the back with a fabric circle, fussy cut from an Aboriginal print. For the other, I chose a really bright pink cotton, referencing the chocolate bilby Easter treats which were sold at easter to raise funds for the "Save the Bilby" campaign. On the front of the pink bilby, I embroidered a plant which I hope resembles Acacia gordonii (a wattle) which is also an endangered species The back features another motif from an Aboriginal print.

Bilby and Gordon's Wattle Embroidery : Wilma Simmons 2025

I had so much fun making this little soft sculpture, which I why I went searching for my 2016 version, tucked away at the back of a shelf in my workroom. This wrapped sculptured bilby is made with all reclaimed materials - wire, scraps of fabric, with plastic bags as stuffing,.. It's great to reminisce about why you return to favourite subjects and while these might be fun projects, the reality is far more serious....

Currently, there are more than 169,000 species on The IUCN Red List, with more than 47,000 species threatened with extinction, including 44% of reef building corals, 41% of amphibians, 38% of trees, 37% of sharks and rays, 34% of conifers, 26% of mammals, 26% of freshwater fishes and 12% of birds .https://www.iucnredlist.org/

Save the bilby and other endangered species ...

Bilby work in progress/reclaimed materials : Wilma Simmons 2016

Empress Wu Designs with Wilma

#SeptTextileLove Day 13

#SeptTextileLove Day 12

#SeptTextileLove26 Day11

#SeptTextileLove Day 10

#SeptTextileLove26 Day8

#SeptTextileLove26 Day 9

#SeptTextileLove26 Day 7

#SeptTextileLove26 Day6

#SeptTextileLove Day 5

#SeptTextileLove26 Day 4

#SeptTextileLove26 - Day 3

#SeptTextileLove26- Day 2

#SeptTextileLove26 … Introduction.

Stitching Stories of Strength

Taste Over Health?

Stitched Gardens and Magpies

Stitched Faces

Meditations on Mercator

#the100dayproject : Inspiring Women Days 1 - 4

#The100DayProject is a *free* global art project that takes place online 🎨

A Jaunty Josie from JOY - How did that happen?

The Making of a Matriarch

Reflecting on Christmas Cards Past - November Project Update

A November project

How does your garden grow with stitch?

Bilby Infatuation

#The100DayProject is a free global art project that takes place online 🎨