Gallery

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Robin Hood as featured in Australian Inspirations magazine
Issue 106

Kits available from Inspirations Studios

www.inspirationsstudios.com

Home Sweet Home

Embroidered for the Embroiderers Guild exhibitions at The Knitting and Stitching shows in 2019

Timmy Willie

Taken from the Beatrix Potter figurine.  Timmy Willie features in the Tale of Jonny Town- Mouse.   Timmy is hungry and goes into the vegetable patch and eats to many peas, so climbs into a pea pod and goes to sleep.

 

Mushrooms & Blackberries

The blackberry stem and the three mushrooms are all made separately then sewn in position over the ivy and cow parsley surface embroidered background

 

Peter Rabbit

I have a life long love of all Beatrix Potters characters, especially Peter Rabbit.  I was given a peter rabbit cuddly toy by my Great Aunty Bertha when I was 2 1/2 , I still have him, he is looking very dishevelled now, but he is 70 years old but still very much loved.
When the Embroiderers Guild held their exhibition at The Knitting and Stitching shows 2018
with the title ‘Page 17’ – this could be a picture/quote, anything from a book, not necessarily page 17, it had to be Peter Rabbit.  Peter, the spade and robin stand away from the background.

 

The Robin

We have three robins in our garden that demand, during the winter months, breakfast of cheese, dried mealworms and suet nibbles.  One sits on a cable that runs from Mick’s workshop to the greenhouse.  A few years ago I took several photographs of the robin and thought it would be a wonderful stumpwork to make, but have the robin sitting on a branch instead of the cable.........that went into the ‘to do’ file.

At the end of 2016 Trish Burr wrote an article for the Australian embroidery magazine “Inspirations” called Winters Song and featured the most beautiful Robin.  A few years ago I had had a class with Trish on needle painting, so cheekily wrote to Trish and asked if I could use her Robin pattern for a stumpwork idea, Trish very generously said I could.  

I wanted to make the robin stand off the background, giving him a natural look, so made a free standing branch for him to sit on, the branch is held in place by two tiny stitches, the ivy sprig, which is also free standing, also has just a couple of tiny stitches holding it in place.

Mouse & Blackberries

 

Amazon Adventure

This is my Amazon Adventure depicting rainforest plants and animal life from the jungle.

To see close up pictures Click Here

3D Walled Garden

The 3D walled garden is an interpretation of Owens Davis's 'Knot Garden'

To see more details of this box and close up pictures Click Here

Extravaganza

In the summer of 2010, my two teaching friends, Pat Trott and Hazel Everett and I were asked to take a three-way summer school at Knuston Hall, in Wellingborough, Northamptonshire.  Pat is a surface embroidery expert and Hazel is a gold-work expert.  The students were given patterns for the flowers which they could work in either of the three mediums or a combination of all three.

Acorn branch

The inspiration for the branch was made in the autumn of 2011 when the oak trees were turning their lovely shades of gold and orange.  The acorns are made by wrapping thread round  a purpose made resin bead.  The cup is formed by detached buttonhole stitch over padding. The needlelace leaves were worked in white silk then painted.

Bunch Berries

This embroidery was made for the Embroiderers’ Guild South East Region exhibition at Hall Place in the summer of 2010.    My friend in America had sent me a picture of the Bunch Berries and as the theme of the exhibition was ‘Around the World’ it fitted nicely.  I cut out the shape of the leaves and placed them onto the background, after painting the shapes they were embroidered with split back stitch. The free standing embroidered flowers  and berries made of needlelace round a bead make the free standing elements.

Elizabethan Sampler   

The swirling shape and motifs used is a typical Elizabethan design.              

Fairy on a Branch  

The fairy, branch and a couple of the acorns were made onto the background fabric.  A separate branch of painted needlelace leaves and a wrapped resin bead for the free standing acorn were made and attached

Fairy on a Mushroom

This embroidery was made for our Figures book and is a particular favourite of mine.

Jacobean Flowers 

This Jacobean inspired embroidery was made for a friend. 

Hedgerow  

This was my first venture into ‘layered’ work. Leaves, berries , flowers and insects were all made on the background fabric.  I then made another set of leaves, flowers and berries which were attached to a length of wrapped wire.  This was then attached in a couple of places to the background, giving a more natural effect of a hedgerow.

Mistletoe, Holly and Ivy  

I love 3D work – it is the challenge of making elements of embroidery as neat on the back as the front.  I like making a Christmas card from a piece of embroidery, and didn’t know what to do for Christmas 2011, but a walk round my garden soon gave me inspiration.

Pansy  

An Elizabethan inspired piece combining stumpwork and goldwork.

Spring Sampler  

The inspiration for the embroidery came from the profusion of colour and flower shapes I see in the spring.
When planning the embroidery I had just finished a commission that depicted a stained glass window.  The window had a casing of small squares using the colours in the window, I liked this effect and wanted to use it as a framework around the embroidery.  The most satisfactory way of doing this was to paint the small areas then machine in the lead lines. 
After choosing which springtime flowers and trees to embroider, I decided to make the flowers into a raised embroidery sampler showing different lace and embroidery stitches and techniques.  To bring the colours together I went back to the stained glass framework idea.
Having put together the initial plan, I started by painting the overall background and the framework of small blocks using the colours chosen for the embroidery. I used Water Soluble Crayons to paint with.  I then machined over the lines.   The background embroidery of the viola, snowdrop, hyacinth, catkins and fritillary came next.  The freestanding petals and leaves were worked over the next few weeks then sewn in position.

Summer Sampler  

The inspiration for the lace came from memories as a child of fields of daisies and poppies growing in the Sussex countryside and the foxgloves on the high road-side banks of  Devon. Iris, pansies, fuchsia’s, sweet peas and roses grow in my garden, including the buttercup (which is the bane of my husbands life!)
After completing the Promise of Spring picture I liked the sampler format and decided to make another picture depicting the next season, just changing the background and edge colours slightly to compliment the brighter colours of summer.  The difficulty came in choosing which flowers to make, in the end it came to which flowers have, or have had, an impact on my life.  I love my garden at home, so to choose which garden flowers to feature, I decided to walk round it one afternoon last summer and what ever was out at that moment, would be included.  I have really happy memories of spending holidays with my family in the Sussex and Devon country-sides where, in the 40’s and 50’s, poppies, daisies and foxgloves grew in profusion.
Having put together the initial plan, I started by painting the overall background and the framework of small blocks using the colours chosen for the embroidery. I used Water Soluble Crayons to paint with.  I then machined over the lines.   The background embroidery of the fuchsia, rose, and foxglove came next.  The freestanding petals and leaves were worked over the next few weeks then sewn in position.