Clare Workman

About me

I love all textile arts & crafts… especially patchwork and quilting! Sharing my passion through teaching classes & workshops brings me a lot of joy, especially in my studio on our small organic farm in the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park.

My early professional career was in medicine, but after 20 years I realised I could marry my love of textiles with improving people’s health and wellbeing in a different way – teaching creative textiles! – I’ve been doing it ever since.

I studied City & Guilds Creative Textiles & Embroidery at colleges in Lancashire and Yorkshire and later C&G Millinery in Glasgow. I set up Thistle Threads Arts & Crafts Studio in 2002 which saw 10 wonderful years of teaching, sharing and connecting with a creative community.

I have a wide range of experience, skills & interests in patchwork and quilting – truly a lifelong addiction with endless variety and scope.

I am a long standing member of the Quilters Guild of the British Isles and The Modern Quilting Group and have exhibited work in galleries and shows across the country for many years. I’m happy to work to commission too.

In my own personal creations I enjoy a wide variety of techniques and styles. Design is my passion and I am very inspired by the natural world. My current work is developing improvisational piecing, often with my hand dyed fabrics, for increasingly abstract landscapes. This feeds into my modern patchwork featuring bold, clear colours and asymmetric geometric piecing using lots of negative space to create pieces with impact.

Specialities

Design
Teaching to all levels of patchwork, quilting & appliqué
Quilting by hand – traditional, modern, art, Celtic,Italian and shadow .
Quilting by machine – with walking foot and free style
Creating a welcoming & encouraging atmosphere in my workshops and classes

Things I love

My family and our animals. Nature, walking, cycling, paddleboarding, surfing, snowboarding, reading, yoga and meditation… Designing. Stitching. And I simply love teaching and sharing the joy creativity can bring.

Adventures begin when you enter your sewing room. Travelling to discover that sewing room is doubling your adventure and creating memories in fabric is a tactile visual treat.