author
Grace Christie
1872–1953
A leading early-20th-century voice in embroidery history, craft teaching, and design, she helped turn needlework into a serious field of study. Her writing brought both practical technique and medieval textile history to a wider audience.
1 Audiobook
Embroidery and Tapestry Weaving
by Grace Christie
About the author
Born Anna Grace Ida Chadburn in 1872, she became known as Grace Christie, or sometimes Mrs. A. G. I. Christie. She was an English embroiderer, teacher, and writer whose work linked hands-on making with careful historical research.
She studied art in London and went on to teach embroidery, becoming an important figure in the Arts and Crafts world. She is especially remembered for helping shape embroidery education in Britain and for treating needlework as both an artistic practice and a subject worthy of close scholarship.
Her best-known book is English Medieval Embroidery, published in 1938, a major study of opus anglicanum that gathered and documented known examples of this celebrated medieval work. She also wrote on embroidery techniques and design, and her books continued to influence students, makers, and historians long after her death in 1953.