Step 14sewing thread. Leaving a long
end, sew large gathering stitches
around the edge of the fabric
outside the hoop. Pull up the two
ends to gather the fabric towardsthe centre of the hoop and tie the
ends together securely.14
Cut out the circle of felt you
marked in Step 2. Centre it
behind the embroidery, covering thegathered fabric, and use another long
length of cream thread to whipstitch
the edge of the felt to the fabric very
close to the hoop. Your embroidery
is now ready for hanging.CHLOE REDFERN
Wheredoyouliveandwork?I live in the
suburbs of Birmingham, England, and work from
home from a small workspace in my bedroom
(though I confess I often find myself in the living
room stitching in front of the television!) It is
only a very small space, but I tend to work on
quite small-scale pieces and like to keep
everything around me quite minimalist and
tidy, so it works well for me. Part of me likes a
minimalist, natural look and part of me likes a
colourful look to a space, so my working area
has a wooden floor and neutral walls, with lots
of little pops of colour added around the place.
When did you first become interested in
embroidery? I studied art and photography
at college and always thought I would work
in the field of photography, but when I did an
art foundation year after this, I really got into
working with textiles. I was very influenced bymymother, who is a textile artist. For several
yearsI worked with mixed media fabric and
papercollage, very often incorporating stitch,
beforestarting to work with more 'pure' hand
embroidery around three years ago.
Wastheremuch trial-and-error involved in
yourearlystitching attempts? Oddly enough
therewasn't, though I did spend quite a bit of
time carefully drawing out the pattern and
marking it onto fabric first. There has been a
fair bit of trial and error over the years though,
starting new projects and then ending up
discarding them if they didn't quite work out.
How often do you get the opportunity to work
on your craft? Embroidery and embroidery
pattern design is my full-time job, so generally
I will work on it every day. Sometimes admin
takes over though, and I don't manage to do
any actual stitching until the evening.
Do you find it relaxing when you sit to sew- or are there daily demands on your time
and professional designs and, therefore,
stress? Sometimes the demands of daily life
can take over a bit and I don't have a chance
to actually sit down and start stitching until
the evening. Generally I do find it relaxing and
absorbing when I get started, whether I'm
working on a project to turn into a pattern
or an original sales piece.
Do you get absorbed in your stitching and
forget to take a break? I can quite often get
absorbed and be surprised at the amount of
time that has passed while I've been stitching!
That said, I am a big fan of my cups of tea and
quite partial to the odd biscuit, so I generally
know when to stop for a tea break!
About how many projects have you tackled
over the years? Ooh, that's a diff icult one!
According to my computer there are just over
100 photographs in my embroidery folder,
where I keep one 'studio shot' of each
embroidery I've ever done, so it must be
around 100 at least, since 2015.
Is your style ever-evolving or do you like to
stick with your tried-and-true designs? I always
like to feel like I'm progressing in some way, such
as by improving my technique and finding ways
to make my designs look better, but I must admit
I generally do stick to a certain style and my
birds always seem to have a particular sort of
look to them. I spent a lot of time changing and
developing my style when working with mixed
media a few years back, so I think that has fed
into the way I work today with my embroidery,
and made me slightly more sure of my own style.
What are three stitching/crafting things you
couldn’t live without? Well, apart from the
obvious things like needles, thread and
scissors, it'd have to be the following:- Embroidery hoops: I couldn't do without
embroidery hoops; I am always very impressed
by people who can stitch without them. - My computer: It's a bit of a slow old beast at
times, but I definitely couldn't do without my
computer as I use it to do research, design
and write up patterns, promote my work on
social media, run my Etsy shop and edit
photographs, among many other things. - My thread box: I spent ages looking for a
thread box that would hold a large amount of
thread so that I didn't need to have four or more
boxes to fit all of my colours into. Thankfully I
eventually happened upon a fabulous big
double-sided one. It's easy to move around with
me wherever I'm working, and I can easily see
and access all of my threads.
Gett ing to know ...
68 Homespun