The Accidental Embroiderer

Some zoological embroideries

I spent my professional life working as a research biologist, so as you can imagine I’m always interested in animals - both in their biology and their possibilities as models for art. And if you follow this blog you will know that most of my designs feature birds and animals - sometimes lifelike, and sometimes more cartoonish or abstract

Some time ago my friend Cherri suggested that I design some realistic animals for a quilt she wanted to make, and as you can imagine I jumped at the chance. So here are a couple of results. First there is this quite lifelike lynx. It’s not an animal I would have chosen to do, but I think it turned out well, The zig-zag pattern comes from the fabric that Cherri used for the appliqué step and again, although it’s not what I would have chosen myself, to my surprise it looks very good

 

A zig-zag lynx

And here is another animal - a little raccoon. Actually this is a very old design which I did many years ago, but it goes very well with the other creatures that Cherri used for her quilt

 

A very old raccoon

These designs have made me think seriously about doing more animals in a less arty, more realistic style. The animals are beautiful in themselves, so there's no reason why embroideries that reflect that shouldn't be attractive too

A fish inspired by the past

As many readers will know, I live in a beautiful part of Scotland, in the middle of the Cairngorm mountains. This place is so full of history that you can’t escape it - we’re surrounded by reminders of the past, ranging from recent manor houses from the 19th century, back through castles dating from the 13th century and earlier, right back to the remains of prehistoric times. But my favourites of all these early Scottish cultures have got to be the Pictish and Celtic civilisations, entirely because of the exciting and original artworks they produced, and I’ve used their art as inspiration of much of my own work.

The other day I was browsing through some old images of my embroidery from past years and I came across this fish, which is obviously based on Celtic images. I have no memory of when or why I did it, but I think I’ll use it as the basis of another, more complex design which will include even more Pictish and Celtic motifs. It sounds interesting - watch this space and the new version might just appear in the next few weeks!

 

A Celtic fish, reimagined for the 21st century

An eccentric - although colourful - freebie

For the past few weeks, I’ve been working hard on a commission for a woman who wanted a series of funny, colourful birds. I’ve finished what she wanted and am now totally fed up with stitching out eccentric, colourful birds! However there is one bird left over, which I thought might find a home as a freebie with blog readers. It’s for the 5x8 inch (130 x 180 mm) hoop and is embroidery alone - no appliqué. The flowers and leaves stitch out first, and can easily be left out if you prefer. And do feel free to use whatever colours you like for both the bird and the flowers

A free pink heron

This won’t be to everybody’s taste, but you may be able to find a use for it somewhere. Here  it is, in .pes v.6