Here are a few of our favourite designer-makers, crafters and stitchers, why not browse their websites. Not only will you be inspired but something might take your fancy, go on treat yourself!

Lindsay Taylor- creates amazing 3D embroidered objects, we love her cabbage pin cushions and her flower tea cups!

Jan Horrox- makes charming dolls with magical clothing.

Dionne Swift- is best know for her innovative devore textile pieces.

Madeleine Millington- uses felts and wools in gorgeous colours to create folk inspired textile pieces.

Ginny Avison- is an upholstery patchwork artist based in London, we love her bold use of colour.

Zoe Murphy- using a technique traditionally used in textiles, Zoe screen prints onto furniture.

Natural Quilts- Jyoti sources beautiful hand block printed quilts direct from Jaipur.

Cas Holmes- Cas creates multimedia textile pieces from waste materials. Her artwork has an interesting sense of  history.

Mary Gamester – an accomplished quilter and creative textiles course tutor. Mary is the leading textile artist in transfer paints. She has produced a number of DVDs including Inspired Transfer Paints and Inspired Printing & Patchwork.

Linda Miller – creates beautiful free machine embroidered pictures. Her work is truly enchanting and always guarantees a smile.

Kim Thittichai – is the author of the best selling books- Hot Textiles and Experimental Textiles. Kim knows all there is to know about innovative textile materials such as Tyvek and Evolon.

Angie Hughes – creates stunning textile pieces using velvets, sheers, glitter and foils. She guides you step by step how to create similar glittering art works in the Inspired Velvet DVD, out May 2010.

Marilyn Pipe – is a top creative textile tutor, leading many workshops. She works with an exciting mixture of textile techniques.

Fay Maxwell – plays with the idea of family heirlooms, she takes inspiration from the history of textiles and reinvents age old techniques.

Ann Griffiths – the queen of soluble fabrics and machine embroidery.

Gilda Baron - intricate embroidered textile landscapes are breath taking. She is the author of the best selling book The Art of Embroidered Flowers.

Myfanwy Hart – teaches courses and workshops in machine embellishing. Myfanwy has recently filmed Inspired Embellishing Level 1 and 2, teaching the basics and further experimental techniques using machine needle felting.

Ineke Beryln – creates beautiful work using Lutradur, an exciting synthetic material.

Di Wells – is a wonderful quilter, interesting Di often uses paper in her work, creating beautifully fragile looking textile pieces.

Jill Kennedy – creates stunning silk paintings. She teaches many silk painting workshops from introductory lessons to more advanced, Jills own work is always very colourful.

More Inspiration

We produced Talking Threads to share with you the exciting world of textile art and we want to continue to do so. We desire to inspire so have recently launched the Inspired DVD workshop collection to add to your creative library:

Be inspired by our exciting range of DVDs. Join the many Colouricious Inspired DVD workshops led by established textile artists and be inspired by the versatility of fabric. Learn new techniques and absorb knowledge and creativity from top textile artists:-

Click here to visit the Inspired website.

Join the Colouricious workshop with Jamie Malden and Mary Gamester as they guide you through colour theory and teach introductory skills to patchwork, in Inspired Printing and Patchwork.

Full in love with Gilda Baron’s textile landscapes; be captivated by her use of colour, texture, paint and stitch. Inspired Textile Landscapes, 90 minutes of inspiring easy to follow workshops.

Get creative with embellishing- explore machine needle felting with  Myfanwy Hart in Inspired Embellishing Level 1 and 2

Inspired Velvet with Angie Hughes

Inspired Lutradur with Ineke Beryln

Inspired Transfer Paints with Mary Gamester