Making Meaning

In this episode we are talking about what it means to work from the home, to work alongside domestic life and how that worked for women makers in the past. We both share our very different experiences of home / work life and how our domestic environment impacts the creative choices we make.

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In August I launched my new self-published book Tangled. It's been a long journey from idea in 2018 to finally having the books in my hands in 2026. In this episode I'll read extracts from the book, explain how it came about and respond to some questions asked in my online and in-person book launches about my work, the book and the making of it.

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This episode is the second of the occasional mini series Material Histories with Deb McGuire. In this one we have a wonderful wide-ranging conversation starting with what we look for in quilt shows but covers far more than that. We talk about the power of connecting through making and about showing and sharing textile works. Maker Membership: Maker Membership

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This week I reflect on 21 years working as an artist and writer. (Oops, I realised after I recorded this that I talk about it being episode 64, when in fact it's episode 65!)

Tangled is available for pre-order now: Tangled: Textile Stories of Care & Connection

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I have been asked about my ideas and where they come from more than anything else in my 21 year career (although "How long did it take to make?" must be a close second).

It's really hard for me to define where each idea came from but I've given it a go in this podcast.

Tangled is available for pre-order now: Tangled: Textile Stories of Care & Connection

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Making Histories is a new mini-series of Making Meaning Podcast with special guest co-host Deb McGuire. Deb is a brilliant historian, specialising in emotional histories of quilting, but she's incredibly knowledgable about all kinds of things. We have so many overlapping interests and things we really want to talk about in the world of textile making, textile histories and human stories. I've been thinking about a podcast co-host for a while, and when I talked to Deb for episodes 48 and 49, I just wanted to carry on talking! So we've made that a formal arrangement now and I am delighted to share the first episode of our conversations. I absolutely love talking to Deb and I am sure you will enjoy it too.

In this episode we talk about the things we are both working on at the moment, the narratives and research we are each exploring and where they cross over in a project about hands and making.

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Find out more about Deb's work:

https://www.plainstitch.co.uk http://www.withintheframe.co.uk http://Instagram.com/plainstitchdeb

A few weeks ago someone told me that she didn't know I had written several books, so I realised I don't talk enough about my writing! The podcast is about the writing of those books; three with traditional publishers and three self-published books about my work. The third self-published book is coming very soon, it is with the designer now and I hope to have it in my hands before the end of the summer. I've also written other exhibition catalogues and project publications and all kinds of things.

Find out more about my Textile Book Group and more: https://ruthsinger.podia.com/ Buy publications: https://ruthsingerstudio.bigcartel.com Find out more about my Maker Membership Buy an exhibition catalogue, Lost Threads, Mary Linwood's Legacy Join my email list Visit my website

This week's episode is about the new body of work I made for Mary Linwood; Art, Stitch & Lift exhibition. Alongside researching, curating and writing the first exhibition of Mary Linwood's work in 75 year, I also created seven new artworks reflecting elements of Mary Linwood's life and legacy.

These pieces fill in gaps in Mary Linwood's story, explore themes I find fascinating and allow me to express my own thoughts and feelings about Linwood's work and life. Sign up for my course Embroidered Herstories: Rediscovering Mary Linwood

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Making Meaning is back with a new series. It's almost five years since I started making this podcast and this is series 6. In this episode I'm solo, talking about what I've learned from the Mary Linwood Rediscovered project, from studying Mary Linwood and from sharing her story with the world.

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In this episode I'm talking to Rachel Whitworth, the curator of Fashion and Textiles at The Bowes Museum in Barnard Castle.

Find out about the Mary Linwood project and events programme Find out more about the Stitch Weekend, 22nd - 23rd Nov, Leicester Guildhall Find out more about my Maker Membership

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I'm so pleased to share this conversation with Emily Jo Gibbs, a fantastic textile maker who I have admired for many years. It won't surprise you that I love Emily's work and we had a really interesting, broad-ranging conversation about the why behind the work.

Emily's website and online course

Find out about the Mary Linwood project and events programme Find out more about the Stitch Weekend, 22nd - 23rd Nov, Leicester Guildhall Find out more about my Maker Membership

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In this episode I'm talking to the brilliant creative textile designer Jayne Emerson, known to many of you as the creator of the No Rules Textile Society - a membership group full of inspiration and creative play. Jayne is also a textile designer for fashion and interiors, she's written six craft books and creates courses and workshop both online and in person. We have a lot in common and had a great time exploring our shared and differing approaches and projects. I hope you enjoy this conversation much as we did.

Jayne's website and membership

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Dr Heidi Strobel is my guest in episode 56 about Mary Linwood. Heidi joined me from The University of North Texas, USA where she is is Professor of Art History. She is also the author of Mary Linwood: Embroidery, Installation, and Entrepreneurship in Britain 1787-1845 which has been invaluable for my exhibition research.

Heidi and I have been in touch throughout this project and she's been an amazing support in the development of the exhibition and in the general excitement I feel about being able to share Linwood's work. This is a fantastic conversation in lots of depth about Mary Linwood's life and work. If you need to start with an introduction to Mary Linwood, there are several previous episodes including a short intro in episode 45, as well as conversations with historians in episodes 49 and 55.

Heidi's website Find out more about Ruth's Mary Linwood project

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This episode is more of the summer of stitch series, this time with the brilliant Dr Isabella Rosner, Royal School of Needlework curator, podcaster and all round historic embroidery enthusiast. She has been part of the Mary Linwood fan club for years and we had a wonderful time talking about all the complexities of Linwood's career and making practice, and reflecting on her legacy and why she's been so ignored in the last hundred and fifty years. Dr Isabella Rosner is the curator of textiles and contextual studies lecturer at the Royal School of Needlework. She is a 2023 BBC/AHRC New Generation Thinker and author of Stitching Freedom: Embroidery and Incarceration (Common Threads Press). Isabella also hosts the Sew What? podcast about historical needlework and those who stitched it.

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Sew What? podcast

Ruth on Sew What? Podcast from 2021

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Today's episode is more in the summer of stitch series, this time with a very different kind of maker. Claire-Louise Hardie is a costumier and sewing teacher, expert in making clothes and understanding how clothes work and how they make us feel. This is a really fun conversation exploring very different things than this podcast usually covers and it was great to talk to Claire-Louise and share this with you. It's a great excuse for me to think about clothing construction, the importance of fabric in telling stories and all the nerdy details of working with museum objects, which I have really loved. I also love the way she ended this conversation by celebrating how sewing is such a varied activity and there are so many branches of it, united by this wonderful experience of making stuff.

The Thrifty Stitcher

Thrifty Stitcher Instagram

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Continuing with the summer of stitch theme, in this podcast episode I am talking to the brilliant maker Jennifer Collier, who makes amazing objects in paper using textile techniques. I've known Jennifer for years and we've worked together and supported each other plenty but still needed to twist her arm to do this podcast, for which I am really grateful. We had a fantastic conversation about making and meaning and exploring the heritage of stitch and creative practice.

Jennifer Collier

Unit Twelve Gallery

Craftspace Made in the Middle touring exhibition Join Ruth's email list Find out more about Maker Membership http://ruthsinger.com/membership Full details of the episode, including a transcript

Wendy Ward - researcher, maker and campaigner around clothes, sustainability and emotional connection to the things we wear. Wendy is a PhD researcher at Sheffield Hallam University investigating product attachment, craft and broken-ness in fashion. Prior to her PhD she taught sewing to adults and wrote five best-selling sewing books. Wendy has long had an interest in sustainability within fashion, she worked at both extremes of the fashion industry: as a designer in fast fashion and for a small sustainable brand, then went on to explore novel ways to recycle textiles for her MA.

Wendy and I have a lot of overlapping interests and lots to talk about. We explore sustainability in the home sewing world, emotional connection to the things that we wear and make, storytelling in making and wearing clothes sustainably and about her campaigning work around textile waste. Wendy's Instagram Template letter and lots of other links

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This episode is a reflection on how I chose to create Cultures of Care Gathering and the sessions, talks and workshops it involves. I also explore the idea of project books, my way of collecting inspiration and ideas into sketchbooks. I'll be sharing a number of project books at the Gathering, alongside my finished works. Find out about Cultures of Care Gathering

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It's episode FIFTY! and the podcast's 4th birthday this week. This is just a mini solo one, sharing some of the story of the Cultures of Care project and how I've brought it all together to create Cultures of Care Gathering 19-20 July.

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Deb McGuire is back! We recording a long conversation and I've split it into two episodes, of which this is the second. I suggest you start with Episode 48 first, as that's where Deb introduces herself and her work. This is a continuation of our chat which focusses more on Mary Linwood and my forthcoming exhibition about her (opening 13th September at Leicester Museum & Art Gallery). Much like the first episode, this is a fun chat between two people really fascinated by Mary Linwood's life and work.

Find out about Cultures of Care Gathering

Join Ruth's email list Find out more about Maker Membership http://ruthsinger.com/membership Full details of the episode, including a transcript