Now here’s something a bit different that I did for the Larks exhibition. I really like drawing figure studies and portraits, so I suppose it’s surprising that I don’t use the human figure more in embroideries. But I think I’ve only once embroidered a human form – that was the Birdcatcher that I did a while ago. But this new idea started when the owner of Larks gallery turned out to be a quilter, and also owned a black cat. She asked me to design and embroider a black cat for her to use in a quilt, which I did. But then the idea expanded into a design of its own, with the owner holding the cat, so that she got turned into embroidery as well as the cat.
It's more complicated than it might look - there are five separate appliquéd areas, and the arms were really tricky to do - the right hand overlies the left arm, and the left hand overlies the right arm, so you have to stitch them in four separate parts and even now they're not quite right. But I like the idea, and I might do more people in the future. It would be fun to try a series of embroidered portraits
Well, we’re getting very near Christmas and many of us will be busy with things other than embroidery, so I’ll take a break from blogging for a couple of weeks. I hope you have a very happy and peaceful holiday season