A sumptuous and vividly colourful journey through Deena Beverley’s imaginative take on textile art, in which she shares her passion for playfulness in all things stitched and mixed media.

Here Deena shares the key ingredient in her creative practice: play – making this book a practical route map to reconnect readers with the simple, childlike pleasure of joyful experimentation and unpressured making. With chapters including ‘The Nature Table’, ‘The Toybox’, ‘The Dressing-Up Box’, ‘The Stationery Cupboard’, ‘Storytime’ and ‘Messy Play’, Deena shares how she makes creative play a part of her daily life, turning it into beautiful, award-winning hand- and machine-embroidered, painted, quilted and appliquéd work.

Packed with simple techniques which not only inject a shot of new energy into familiar materials, but which are, crucially, fun to do, Deena describes this book as ‘messy play for grownups’ with detours to the dressing-up box, a rummage through the toy box and a deep delve into the stationery cupboard, via story time.

This palate-cleansing dopamine hit of colour and texture is a creative holiday for the soul and Deena’s distinctively rich, illustrative, compelling narrative work which readers know and love, will inspire many happy hours of playful making.