The Crafting Journey: Embroidery

If you are a viewer of the Sweet Tea & Thread podcast that I host alongside Shai, then you may have seen my recent work in progress in the realm of stitching. Yes, I have taken on yet another hobby (like knitting doesn't take up enough of my time), and I have dove headfirst into the world of embroidery. But not embroidery in the traditional sense.

Ashlee, one of our co-owners at Thread, has been a big inspiration for me, as well as Anna Maria Horner, who I believe was the one that started making this style of hand stitching popular in the crafting and making community.

With this particular style of embroidery, you take fabrics that have shapes and florals and general prints that are large enough and easy enough to cut out and arrange in a type of collage. Then you stitch over this collage of work with hand stitching and traditional embroidery stitches.

Through this process of making these embroidery pieces, I have finally been able to put into words how my design process works. I have learned that I design based on visuals. I tend to be the type of artist that needs to have a tangible hands-on approach to design. I need to have visual content that I can arrange and create and merge into a single piece. I love creating collages, but I also love taking images and combining different elements into a single cohesive piece that looks like an original design. It's always been frustrating to me that I was never able to draw my imagination the way some artists can, but now that I've found my niche for design I'm running with it.

I have two projects in the works currently, both fairly close to completion. Both use the collage embroidery designs that I have seen Ashlee and Anna Maria create and both heavily use the fabrics that Anna Maria designs.

The first one I created combines Anna Maria fabrics, as well as a few other designers. I attached the shapes that I cut out to my background fabric using Wonder Under. This is a type of fabric adhesive that you can usually find with the interfacing at a fabric supply store. The one complaint that I have with this is that you really have to iron it on really well. Otherwise, your fabric piece will peel up before you get a chance to stitch them down. I also did not put batting on the back of this piece however I have changed that fact in my more recent projects. The batting just gives the piece another layer of stabilization.

This same technique of applying the pieces of fabric to my background pieces was used in the second piece.  However, my process changed somewhat.  Whereas in the first piece I was just cutting out different shapes and playing around with the layout until I was happy, the second piece had a little more thought put into it.

For my second embroidery piece I decided to go with a modern tapestry look.  Therefore I decided to make this one skinny and long. I also took some of the beautiful fabric from Anna Maria's recent collection (you can find examples of some of the fabrics on her website here and here), and just started playing around with layouts. 

This is where I had the epiphany about my design process. It dawned on me how much I love doing flat lays, collages, etc. I knew that with this particular piece I wanted it to be funky, fun, and a little out there. I was using patches of fabrics that were already square, but I knew that I didn't want them to be perfectly lined up. I wanted this piece to have movement. I wanted the viewer's eyes to follow a path and discover beauty along the way. This piece was going to be a garden of texture and color. It was going to show artistry and professionalism, but in a way that still evoked a sense of playfulness.  This was drastically different from how I started the first project.  With the first one, I simply placed things and layered them until I was happy with the result.  This one had a little bit more thought put into it.  And while I am not unhappy with how the first piece turned out design-wise, I appreciated having a little more thought put into the second piece.  It showed me that I could have a general idea in my head of what I wanted the piece to look like, but allow myself enough freedom to them take the elements I was using and make small changes to the original idea when needed.  My design process is finally beginning to evolve a little and take shape with each new project, and I am excited to see where is goes from here.

That being said, both of these pieces are still "works in progress". Both of these pieces are teaching me new embroidery stitches along the way. I am branching out and trying new things. I am looking up different techniques and trying to use these in a unique way. I am working through the process of both of these design pieces a little at a time. Which is how all great art is produced, am I right. I've gone through spurts of stitching where I can sit down and I can't put my needle and thread down. And then I've gone through long periods of time where I've set these pieces aside and allowed myself to recharge and come up with the next thing I wish to add to these pieces. Hopefully, they will be done soon. Hopefully, I will be able to finish them and enjoy them in my living space. These pieces are an expression of my artistic side. They show the more unique aspects of my personality. They speak to me on a different level than my clothing or knitting does. I love wearing black and muted colors on a normal bases. I love the fact that it isn't distracting and it allows me to clear my headspace a little with one less thing to worry about. But when it comes to my living space, I love to add texture, color, and interest. And hopefully, one day when I own my own place, these pieces will travel with me and be some of the first things that make that place home.