Embroidery Update

It’s ages since I posted about embroidery and I realised that I hadn’t even shared the exciting news here about my forthcoming book ‘Modern Crewel Embroidery’ which is due out in October.  Since my Moxie arrived I’ve been very taken up with quilting but in the background there is always some embroidery going on and specifically stitching with wool (the definition of crewel).

I can’t share much more about the book yet other than to tell you it contains ’15 fresh samplers stitched with wool’! It’s published by Stash Books, who published my New Patchwork and Quilting Basics book, and it’s already available to pre-order from Amazon or wherever you can pre-order books. I should have more to share in the summer. I just can’t wait to reveal all the projects I’ve designed for it!

I spent a lot of last year working on these and despite loving every minute, as soon as I finished I was desperate to start stitching something just for me, with no restraints. And so I began work on this flower embroidery, now named ‘Zinnia’.

Up until last year I have been lucky enough to spend a week in Tenerife with my sister every December. This is always a much needed break and a taste of summer in the middle of winter. I often try a little drawing and painting while I’m there and the Zinnia design was based on the painting (above left) I did a few years back.

I have been using Aurifil 12wt wool thread for my crewel embrodiery since I first tried it out a couple of years ago. This led to my Modern Crewelwork thread box and I have since expanded my thread collection to include almost all of their shades. All of the embroideries in this post have been stitched with Aurifil wool. Doubled it has a similar weight to crewel wool and is excellent for filling, and with a single thread you can achieve much finer detail.  The addition of acrylic to the thread means it doesn’t break or twist the way traditional crewel wool does. I recently wrote a whole blogpost about Aurifil wool thread for the Auribuzz blog here. It’s a great read, even if I say so myself 😉

I had a look back through some other ‘Tenerife Paintings’ I’d done and found this ‘hidden peacock’ which I thought would also work well as an embroidery.  At the time of painting I’d been very taken by a David Attenborough programme about jungles in India and I also created this companion piece with a tiger too (my next embroidery maybe?!).  The peacock ended up as a commission for Stitch magazine and that issue (130) has just been published.

I have to say the peacock embroidery may well be my favourite ever! Stitch mag is now available to buy from any good newstands or as a digital copy from this website.

I’ve also produced a kit with the exact same Zweigart linen I used, the Aurifil wool threads, wooden hoop and needle.  I have just a handful left in this first batch but I hope to get more in the future.  You can purchase your kit here, but please note it doesn’t include the pattern, you will have to purchase the magazine separately. This is just the first of a range of embroidery kits I’m hoping to create including one for the Zinnia design and ones to accompany my new book projects.  Meanwhile I have a number of single spools in Aurifil 12wt wool available to buy from my website here.

Around the time I was working on my Zinnia embroidery I was producing the video workshop for my Journey to the Centre of the Earth class for QuiltCon Together.  I had the idea to combine elements of the two things to produce the Journey to the Centre of the Flower quilt!  I finished the top a month ago but it’s in the ‘Moxie Queue’ at present.

I love the way my two craft loves, quilting and embroidery, continue to inspire each other and the story doesn’t stop there as I then realised I could begin a new embroidery that looked like the Journey… quilt.  I started this a few days ago and I think it’s going to be another favourite! And to make talking about it a bit easier I’ve shortened the title to ‘Flower Journey’ embroidery.

Well that’s you lot all caught up with my embroidery adventures. I’ll be back with more soon!