About Kay and Michael
In the late sixties Kay attended a textile course and as part of that course studied the basic techniques of needlelace. Although running a home and having a full time job took over for several years, the kindling interest of needlelace remained.
In 1983 she had the opportunity to attend a specialised needlelace class. For the following two years Kay made very little else other than needlelace and started 
teaching the craft to local groups. As time went on, and her reputation grew, groups around the country started to book her to teach their groups.
It was through needlelace that she first came across stumpwork in 1989. After studying stumpwork in depth she started to teach this beautiful and fascinating form of embroidery.
In 1997 after taking redundancy from employment, stumpwork embroidery became her full time occupation. In that same year Michael excepted early retirement from his full time employment and became a professional Woodturner.
Kay and Michael, live and work in a leafy suburb of London on the edge of the Hertfordshire and Buckinghamshire countryside which is where the inspiration for many of her embroideries originate from.
Each of her embroideries is unique. Although she works in a traditional style, with the use of needlelace, embroidery, sometimes machine embroidery and modern day materials, they have the appearance of a 21st century design.
Kay now teaches at private groups around the country including branches of the Embroiderers Guild. She also works for Adult Colleges, including Knuston Hall and Missenden Abbey, and at Hampton Court. In 1997 she began teaching the City & Guilds 7822 Stumpwork syllabus at Missenden Abbey and now teaches the City & Guilds 7722 Stumpwork syllabus at The Embroiderers’ Guild, Hampton Court. Two of her students have, from the 7822 courses, gained their Medals for Excellence from City & Guilds.
Kay has written articles for textile related magazines and in 2001/02 was featured in "Stitch with the Embroiderers Guild" followed by an article on stumpwork.
Her first book "Stumpwork for Beginners" was published by Search Press in 2001.
In 2003/4 Michael began to suffer from the effects of wood dust created during the turning process and despite trying all forms of filtration systems the problem continued. This led to him giving up woodturning but he kept the equipment in case he wanted to turn the odd project.
In 2004, due to an increase in my workload, Michael joined her in a partnership to help out. Apart from driving her, helping out at those classes where there was a lot of travelling and assisting to give talks on stumpwork, he has been instrumental in the provision of drawings for the books and now writes a number of student notes.
Our second book "Stumpwork Figures" was published in the Spring of 2006. This has been followed by a third book entitled "Stumpwork Seasons" published in October 2007.
In September of 2005 we started a company entitled KAY DENNIS STUMPWORK. The only change that has happened in the forming of this company is that we have developed a range of stumpwork kits (See the kits page) and are offering stumpwork supplies on-line and by mail order. (See products pages)
In 2006 Michael realised that he was probably not ever going to turn again and disposed of all his woodturning equipment. This was replaced by some professional Frame making equipment to enable him to offer a specialised framing service to embroiderers. (See Framing page)
Also in 2006, following requests from students, we launched two distance learning courses on Stumpwork. (See the Classes page)
Following a request to teach a class Elizabethan Embroidery and Goldwork, Kay has now added both of these forms of embroidery to her repertoire.
But, Kay remains passionate about Stumpwork.