Chez Grey Home Page

Maggie says: 'Thank you for visiting my website. I mostly hang out at my blog these days (see below), so please join me there for some chat'.

Maggie Grey is a textile artist living in the south of England. She practises all forms of stitch and paper craft. Machine embroidery is her usual method of construction but she likes to do this on complex surfaces built up with layers. These layers may be fabric or paper, usually painted. Backgrounds are often simple materials such as commercial felt with foil ironed over it. A variety of sheer fabrics can be layered over this, often with heat applied. This method is sometimes enhanced by the use of the embellisher machine.

She enjoys the design process for new work and this often spills over into sketchbooks which are heavily textured with gesso or texture gels. Walnut inks, Moon Shadow Mists and embossing powders are often used here. The computer is brought in to assist in the design process and the results printed out to form a base for hand or machine embroidery. You can see some examples of her work in the Gallery.

In addition to her own work, Maggie gives talks, teaches and has led workshops by invitation all over the world.

She edits Workshop on the Web and writes books for D4Daisy Books. She founded D4Daisy Books (www.d4daisy.com) in partnership with photographer Michael Wicks. Her book, 'Stitches, Straps and Layers', was published in July last year. About to hit the streets - and in partnership with Isobel Hall - is their latest book Mixed Media: Studio Techniques. Previous books for D4daisy have been 'Textile Translations', published October 2008 and 'Embellish & Stitch', published March 2007. Her recent books offer free online classes (more details and pics on the D4daisy site).

She exhibits with Wessex Textile Artists (www.wessextextileartists.com) and the deadlines for their exhibitions are her driving force for producing new work. You can see the work of this group at the London and Harrogate Knitting & Stitching Shows later this year.

Maggie's Blog
As many of you will already know, Maggie has a blog which you'll find at www.magstitch.blogspot.com. It's updated every few days (when she's not teaching). The blog often contains mini-tutorials and, with the comments offering a chance to discuss issues from design to the best sort of sewing machine, gives rise to a lively dialogue. There's even a video on using embossing powder hidden in there (20th November 2007 - click Archive 2007). More recently, there's one on Painting and Gilding (21st January 2010).

Workshop on the Web WoW
In the September issue of Workshop on the Web, Angela Bentley is back with some sculpted stitch, Maggie's showing you some great ideas using fresco figures as a base, Jenni Cadman creates highly textured frayed layers, Monica Morgan is free-knitting, great surfaces with lots of added stitch, Karen Rao is a felt artist and shows a dynamic approach with a whirlpool theme, Lesley Irving is always a favourite and this time it's 'pagoda pots' Melanie Testa is a quilter who uses mark making techniques with embroidery flosses (see right), Carol Wiebe gives us new ideas for displaying quilts and embroideries, Pauline Parker brings us the delicacy of shells and the Celebrity Interview is with Leslie Morgan. If you haven't seen Workshop on the Web, visit the site and click Taster for a free preview containing exciting workshops.

Maggie's Talks
Maggie and Clive join forces for their talks to groups. Using a digital projector linked to a computer, they combine excellent quality still images with movies which demonstrate the techniques which Maggie is discussing. Very popular are her technique talks which describe particular methods of achieving given effects. Maggie is known as a lively and amusing speaker and Clive generally stays awake. Maggie is finding that she is often asked to give live demonstrations before her talks and these are sometimes expanded into 'branch days' where the branch arrange traders etc. and make a day of it. Click the pic left for details of talks.

You can contact Maggie by email at