Stewart Francis Easton making the quilts.
The quilts are on display at Midlands Arts Centre 14 February – 12 April 2026.
We will be telling the stories of the 40 objects over our 40th year, from March 2026.
Learn more about the story behind each object here and on social media.
To celebrate Craftspace’s 40th Anniversary, we commissioned visual story-teller Stewart Francis Easton to create a quilt series. The 40 objects depicted across the four quilts each play a vital part in telling our story of championing the power of craft to change lives and communities.
In this work, Stewart has combined traditional craft skills with digital media to highlight the forward-thinking nature of Craftspace. The quilts also celebrate our roots in traditional and historical making in the Midlands.
Yarning podcast illustration by Stewart Francis Easton.
Find out more about Stewart Francis Easton
Stewart Francis Easton is a visual storyteller who breaks the traditional boundaries of craft fusing together hand embroidery, sonic art, music and meditation. Now based in London, he grew up and studied in Coventry, graduating in Illustration and Animation.
He employs bold colours, repetition and geometric abstract motifs and is inspired by folklore, folk art and counter cultures.
Talking about his embroidery technique he said in an interview with SCP Journal “I developed a technique which I teach, which combines hand embroidery, meditation and abstract art. I use the process of stitching as an anchor, to help train the mind. When I was working on large scale embroideries my work was very figurative, so you would spend a lot of time focusing on trying to get something to look right. So, I would be working for 12 hours a day stitching. I noticed it was almost like a mantra, I would be doing the same thing over and over again. So I decided to see if it was possible to use the embroidery as a means of meditation.”
Stewart exhibits internationally particularly in the USA and his work is in private collections.
Stewart has worked with Craftspace over many years:
“I feel that I am part of Craftspace’s story after successfully working with them on projects. The first being ‘Making Moves’ and the second ‘Gathering’. Craftspace has supported me from the beginning of my career through to the mid stage. I have garnered a wealth of experience since the early days of Making Moves and have successfully worked on projects both nationally and Internationally. Craftspace was one of the first organisations to support me and it helped propel me forward, I would like this opportunity to give something back.”
You can find out more about his work on Instagram @stewarteaston and on his website.