The Accidental Embroiderer

After the exhibition

Well! I thought that things would calm down a bit after the exhibition last week, but in fact life has become even more hectic since it closed. As last year, the embroideries were wildly popular. Not only did I sell a lot during the show, but I’ve collected several commissions which I need to get finished as soon as possible

 

The Accidental Embroiderer at the North East Open Studios exhibition

The show was very well attended and as usual people were fascinated with the machine and what it could do. Not many people in this part of the world have seen these machines and they were amazed at the variety of work that it produced. A note for all embroiderers who want to sell at shows – people really love to handle the embroideries, and to rummage through piles of samples. They make selections of their favourites and as often as not end up buying them. Most of the things I sold were small, unmounted “sample” embroideries, and although I didn’t charge much for them, I sold so many that I ended up with a respectable profit.

After a while I began to get a feel for what people liked, and tried to replace as many as possible of the ones that sold well. The owls were madly popular and I calculate that I stitched and sold seven eagle owls during the week. (I'm not sure if this is really an eagle owl, but it's what he's come to be called)

The Eagle Owl - top seller at the exhibition

Also popular was a large fish which I’d stitched over Mylar. People were fascinated with the effect and I sold several of these for people to use as bathroom decor

Mylar fish: now featured in several Scottish bathrooms

The Mexican Birds

I’ve missed my usual posting this week – this is because I‘ve been so busy preparing for our upcoming exhibition that I haven’t had time to do any new work to put up. The show is in two weeks time and there is still a huge amount of preparation to do. In the past week I’ve added borders to a couple of large panels (very difficult for me as a non-sewer) and also mounted a couple of dozen embroidered pieces – and there is still a lot left to do

However I don’t think I‘ve put this piece up before, so it will do to keep things going. It’s based on Mexican designs and colours that I remember from summers spent in Mexico when I was a child. I’ve always loved the intense colours that feature so much in Mexican folk art and although I don’t think I’ve captured the feeling exactly, the birds still remind me of time spent in that exciting country

Memories of Mexican folk art