Karen Turner is a textile artist who stitches more than just fabric—she stitches memories, time, and emotion into every piece she creates. With a background steeped in both the arts and academia, she has seamlessly blended her love of hand-stitching with an intuitive, almost meditative approach to textile work. Raised in a family where sewing, embroidery, and knitting were second nature, Karen’s journey into textile arts was organic, beginning with childhood patchwork projects and culminating in a full-time creative practice.
Her work, often described as “stitched stories” or “textile poems,” embraces the rich history of vintage fabrics, allowing the past to become part of the present. Using only hand-stitching—never a machine—Karen’s pieces are deeply personal, reflecting a philosophy of mindfulness, patience, and connection. She is particularly known for her intuitive daily stitching practice, a visual diary where each thread marks the passage of time, and for her beautifully hand-dyed embroidery threads that have garnered a loyal following worldwide.
In this interview, Karen shares her artistic journey, her philosophy on mindful stitching, and the challenges of balancing creativity with running a business. Whether you’re a seasoned textile artist or just beginning your own stitching practice, Karen’s insights are sure to inspire.
Karen Turner
“Stitching every day isn’t just about creating art—it’s about slowing down, noticing the small details, and finding joy in the process.”
Tell us about your journey into textile arts
I was fortunate enough to be raised in a family with women who excelled at sewing, embroidery, dressmaking, knitting and crochet so I learned these skills very early. There were always scraps of fabric and a range of embroidery threads in the house for me to practice on. One of my first projects was a hand-pieced patchwork bag, made at about the age of seven or eight, and I made my first hand-pieced patchwork quilt aged about fourteen (it later went with me to university). My first degree was combined studies in Art and English; some years later I completed a Masters degree in English, a teaching qualification, and a PhD, while maintaining a love of stitching and art as a hobby. A couple of years ago I took the brave step of leaving my paid employment to set up as a small business, teaching hand stitching and selling PDF templates and embroidery threads that I dye myself.
What type of embroidery do you prefer to do?
I tend to think of my work as stitching rather than embroidery, as I don’t do ‘formal’ embroidery as such. Rather I think of my textile work as stitched stories or poems that depict an abstract concept, a moment in time, or a memory.
Mostly I work with vintage fabrics, usually cotton, silk or linen, that I dye myself. I like to think that vintage fabrics somehow remember their past life in service as a tablecloth or sheet, and I love seeing darned areas on old textiles where someone in the past took the time to carry out a careful repair. I’m also mindful that natural fabrics were once living things, cotton or hemp plants growing outside, or the product of a tiny silkworm. They might have passed through many hands throughout their long lives, and mine are just the most recent. Other hands will touch them when mine are no longer here.
Most of my work is either hand-pieced patchwork, or layered fabrics including lightweight sheer and textured fabrics. I dye my own silk and cotton thread but I also like Stef Francis, Oliver Twists, and Valdani threads. I rarely use the traditional DMC-type stranded cotton, but tend to work with a single strand when I do use it.
I only ever stitch by hand, never by machine; I prefer the slower, quieter approach that comes with hand work. I think there is a significant metaphor for healing and repair in needle and thread, as well as one for connection. I think of stitching as embedding experience and time in fabric with thread, inscribing human memories and imagination on cloth.
My most consistent stitching is my intuitive daily stitching practice, where I stitch a small area of a large cloth every day as a way of noticing and marking the passage of time. The older you get, the faster the time passes, and I thought if I consciously and mindfully stitched a few moments every day then time might slow down a little. It turns out I was wrong about that; it doesn’t. But it does create a very beautiful embroidered cloth that becomes an embodiment of time, memory, and experience.
How is intuitive daily stitching, or mindful stitching, different from embroidery?
The main difference between mindful stitching and traditional embroidery is that there is less planning and forethought for mindful stitching. Whereas with traditional embroidery you would normally be stitching ‘something’ – i.e. a recognisable image or pictorial/figurative design, and you would probably sketch or draw the design before beginning to stitch. Mindful stitching can be much more spontaneous. In that way it reflects life.
Most of us are just making it up as we go along and hoping for the best. With mindful stitching, or a stitch journal, there is no need to plan or draw anything in advance; you can just thread a needle, start with a simple running stitch, and let it wander wherever it wants to go. You can stitch abstract marks or lines, or you can stitch more figurative images – it’s entirely a matter of choice. It’s just doodling, really, with thread.
Mindful stitching is also generally more accessible and can appeal to a wider range of people than formal embroidery. You don’t necessarily need any needlework experience, other than having some fabric, thread, and a needle. Anyone can do this, regardless of their current skill or experience. You don’t need to be able to draw, or have any art experience. If you can thread a needle, you can work some simple lines of stitch. The end result doesn’t have to be useful or have a purpose, though you could turn it into a cushion cover or tablecloth if the lack of function bothers you. I see it more as a kind of visual diary, where the stitches record a few moments each day, witnessing the passing of time.
The end result in this case (the stitched cloth) is as useful as an old diary. It has no function in itself, but it records moments in your life that you may otherwise have forgotten. The stitched cloth doesn’t have to be beautiful (though it often is); the joy and the peace come from the calming repetitive act of passing needle and thread through fabric, entirely from the process rather than the end result. The intuitive process, with no pressure to make a beautiful or useful object at the end of it, allows for people to approach it more freely than if they were embarking on a formal embroidery that might have a preconceived outcome. I think of the stitch journal as a kind of self-portrait.
You have some gorgeous sketchbooks on your site – is that your go to place for inspiration when starting a new piece?
Sketchbooks are vitally important to me, and I have a lot of them in various shapes and sizes and in various stages of completion. I especially like to make my own, as that gives more choice over the size and dimensions and you can include different weights and styles of paper. Commercial, A4 sketchbooks can times feel too big and become too full if you work a lot with collage and layers.
I usually like to make a stitched cover for my sketchbooks once the general theme of them becomes apparent. I find that stitching and sketchbook work are mutually supportive – sometimes a sketch will inspire a textile, and sometimes a stitched work will inspire a sketch or collage. It’s all mark-making, really, whether you do it with a pen, a brush, or a needle and thread. I also find that I have to do the work in order to do the work. Ideas don’t just arrive spontaneously, it’s only when I put paint or pencil to paper that one mark leads to another, or a beautiful colour palette develops, or the textures in a collage inspire the layering of fabrics. It’s always a delightful surprise when a new idea emerges from random marks on a page or cloth.
You sell threads and fabrics alongside your more creative work? How do you manage your time and get everything done?
When I first left my paid employment to be ‘a full-time artist’ I was very excited about the prospect of being able to create art all day every day. As a sole trader, it very quickly became apparent that the mechanics of running a business – general customer service, tech support for customers, accounting, marketing, photography, shop management, packaging/posting orders, ordering supplies, responding to social media comments and messages, and more – actually left less time to create than ever.
In any regular business, all of those roles would be carried out by a separate person or department. As a sole trader you have to learn how to do all of it, and also how to manage your time effectively. It has, at times, been a very steep learning curve, and it still involves spinning a lot of plates simultaneously. It’s a good job I like to be busy! In the beginning I was working long hours, often seven days a week, taking no holidays, and that isn’t sustainable long term. This year I’m resolving not to work at weekends, and to take a half day out every week to focus on doing the creative things I enjoy.
You’re a really consistent blogger – easier said than done! How do you find things to say to your followers?
I think of the blog as a witness to my work, generally, so I write about whatever I happen to be working on that week. The daily stitching offers an opportunity for a post once a month, as each month is completed, and occasionally a reader will provide the subject matter by asking for a blog post on a specific aspect of stitching – managing the tension when not using a hoop or frame, for instance. My favourite part of the blog is the comments section, where readers kindly share their own thoughts and processes. Usually I write a blog post once a week or so. The blog also functions as my website, and has pages with links, helpful information and any publications in which I’ve been featured.
How do you go about selling and promoting your work?
Marketing is not something that comes naturally to me. Like most introverts, I’m not fond of promoting myself. I’ve been very lucky in that so far I haven’t needed to pay for advertising as my threads tend to sell themselves, sometimes more quickly than I can replace them. As a one-woman enterprise dyeing thread at the kitchen sink, I can’t produce huge batches at once as they all have to be hand-wound into smaller skeins. I have very loyal customers all over the world who kindly support my work, and I’m enormously grateful to them. I have a link to the shop and my Teachable school on my blog, and I sometimes post hand-dyed threads and other products on Instagram. For now that seems to be enough to keep me going.
Do you ever lack inspiration? If so, how do you get it back?
I’m rarely completely stuck, and when I am, it’s usually because I’m over-loaded and need a break. Mostly my problem is too many ideas, and not enough time or energy to see all of them through. Sketchbooks and notebooks are probably the answer for anyone struggling with inspiration. I sometimes begin by looking through books or magazines, or searching online, or outside, to find images or patterns that speak to me. Then I might pick out and draw some of the lines or marks that I can see in these images.
I like to use a viewfinder to isolate specific parts of a picture or composition – you can make one very easily by cutting a square or rectangle out of a piece of white card – as this helps to focus in on the detail I find most interesting. Most of my work is abstract rather than figurative, so I rarely draw ‘a thing’ in any detail. I really enjoy collage, as you can cut or tear shapes out of coloured paper and move them around on a page until you have a composition that you like. I paint my own papers for this purpose.
You could also try the same process but with words or music as the starting point. One of my favourite loosening up exercises is to put on some music and then draw what I hear. Use a big pen and draw moving your whole arm from the shoulder; shut your eyes for some of it so you can’t think about what you’re doing. You can then look at the lines you’ve drawn and decide whether you want to join up any disjointed lines and add some colour or pattern – cross-hatching, for instance, or dots. It’s a lot of fun, if nothing else.
What artists inspire you personally?
My favourite artist is probably Paul Klee, though I like many other twentieth-century abstract artists as well. I also like the landscapes of contemporary Dutch painter Ton Schulten. I hugely admire the beautifully conceived art quilts of Judith Martin and also the stitched work of Penny Berens.
What do you have coming up?
I don’t produce enough work at present to form an exhibition but I do have plans this year for some new online classes, probably more mixed media than hand stitching – how to make your own sketchbooks, paint collage papers, use collage for design, etc. At some point I’d like to write a book on intuitive daily stitching to accompany my online course. There’s no shortage of plans but there’s always so little time.
Follow Karen Turner
- Website/blog: https://stitchinglife.uk (there is a stitch journal FAQ page with some basic information about getting started with daily stitching)
- Online courses: https://karen-turner-stitching-life.teachable.com/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@stitchinglife
- Daily stitching templates and hand-dyed threads are available in my online shop: https://stitchinglife.bigcartel.com
