Alison Cowan Textiles
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My dining room table was rarely used for meals!
I live in Edinburgh, Scotland.  It is a beautiful city steeped in history and known worldwide for its annual arts festivals.  Many people are unaware that Edinburgh has a seaside on the shore of the Firth of Forth - and that is where I live.
 
One of my earliest memories is playing with my mother's embroidery threads and my childhood fascination with colour has stayed with me.  My mother, an old-school sewing teacher, nurtured my interest in textiles and taught me to knit, sew, embroider and crochet.  These skills have given me great pleasure and I continue to develop them and add new ones such as felting, fabric painting and macrame.

Over the years I accumulated a large stock of dressmaking scraps, pieces of material I had never quite got around to using, odds and ends of wool and embroidery threads - it drove my husband mad!  I started combining strips of these materials to form my distinctive fabrics and used these to make my own designs of bags and cushions.

My creations were widely admired and I began to collect material from more sources - my stock was growing, not shrinking!  I have become a regular visitor to charity shops. Family, friends and customers give me material they have had tucked away along with buttons, ribbons, threads, wool and anything else they think I might use.

What started as an occasional hobby in the dining room slowly grew and the family grumbled.  I have now taken over what was once referred to as the study but was often a dumping ground.  It is a lovely bright room overlooking our back garden and when I open the window I can often hear the sea at the bottom of the street.  I am lucky to have this space to shut myself away with my fabrics and threads and I am at my happiest working out new colour combinations and product designs.

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