What Are You Stitching?

The back cover of the book ‘Botanica | The Three-Dimensional Embroidery of Julie Kniedl’ explains her work by stating that ‘Drawing subject matter from the natural world, simple materials and techniques are combined with ingenuity and a meticulous approach to create stunning flowers, intriguing succulents, graceful foliage and much more.’

This week we’re sharing the work of the Inspirations Community who have also taken their inspiration from nature, combined it with simple materials and techniques that have allowed them to produce simply stunning results!

Cynthia Long

‘I began learning embroidery from my grandmother at the very young age of four. I still have my first piece ever, a kitten, and it reminds me of where I came from.

As a child of the ‘60s and ‘70s, most of my work was composed of embroidering my jeans with flowers.

While playing in the Society for Creative Anachronism, my attention was caught one day by a 15th Century German alms pouch and everything changed! I began embroidering and embellishing in earnest. My focus was clothing and accessories from 14th Century England, the Central Asian Steppes and Norse cultures.’

‘I create all my own designs; I love pencil and paper. My favorite needlework techniques include applique, crewel, Medieval and Elizabethan techniques.

That said, give me the basics; chain, stem and blanket stitch, and I'm in heaven! It's amazing what those three stitches can accomplish.

I swoon over natural fibers, especially wool, wool felt and cotton velveteens and prefer threads of silk/wool blends, wool, pearl cotton and linen. I dream of going to England and taking classes at the Royal School of Needlework or reproducing clothing in Colonial Williamsburg. It could happen, right?!’

Cynthia, your pouch speaks to your love of natural fibres. Combined with your inspiration from nature, your stitching has created a pouch that is warm, textured and somehow invites us to hold it so we too can enjoy its warmth and texture!

Elaine Rodgers

‘I bought this kit for the project ‘Graceful Butterfly’ when Inspirations Magazine issue #52 arrived but had not had time to get stitching until recently. A few more years of experience have probably improved the finished piece, especially a couple of goldwork classes from Anna Scott and Nicola Jarvis.’

‘My grandmother taught me lazy daisy, satin and stem stitch when I was eight years old and I have always had something on the go, but career and children meant it took a very long time to complete anything. I am still working but now have an empty nest – even my granddaughter has started school, so time is finally available!’

Elaine, your version of Tanja Berlin’s Graceful Butterfly is as every bit as graceful as her original! We love that inspiration from nature combined with the eye-catching technique of blackwork can produce such simple, but incredible results.

Kathleen Klein

‘I designed a wool fish quilt with lots of embellishments!’

As always Kathleen, you work is interpretive, colourful and has a certain whimsy about it. We love that nature can inspire such joy!

Has nature inspired you to create something with your needles and threads? We’d love to see what it inspired! Email photos of what you’ve created along with a few details about the inspiration nature provided to news@inspirationsstudios.com