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April 17, 2026
Design collection from contemporary embroidery

 


Do you remember the gingham drawstring pouch?

This is a small selection of the design work which accompanied that piece. 

I am drawing on this collection to inform my current work, some of which you saw yesterday and I feel very fortunate to have all these resources at my fingertips.

 

 


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April 16, 2026
Accessories. from contemporary embroidery

 

Accessories, embellishments, adornments.

These have been made for some time, all part of a bigger collection, the little silk book, the wrapping cloth, the embroidered notebook.

Today I'm assessing, assessing embellishments, wondering what other forms of accessory I can create to complement this body of work. 

Remember...your stash can never be too big! 

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April 6, 2026
Design for Embroidery. from contemporary embroidery

 











We've been doing a little design work in class so these sheets created a while ago came out.

It's such a good creative exercise to examine pieces like this.

They reinspire and spark new ideas regardless of your current project.

Techniques used here are transferable 

Colour, theme and pattern may differ but presentation technique can be used again and again.

 

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April 5, 2026
Doodling with needle and thread on paper. from contemporary embroidery

 



A paper base, lots of French knots, some running stitch, fabric snippets, paper inserts, beads and sequins.

Just doodling really but hoping this evolves into a design sheet crammed with information and inspiration.

More has been added to this since I took these photographs. 

I will show you that progress soon. 

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March 23, 2026
Another page. from contemporary embroidery

 



Another page completed in for this ever growing collection.

Next step here is an overlay.

The embroidered cloth piece relating to this work is also progressing along with a small embroidered fabric book. 

The ideas keep coming..... 

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March 22, 2026
Embroidered samples....how to preserve them, keep them safe. from contemporary embroidery

 



I have so many embroidered samples, I'm constantly questioning the best way to preserve them, to keep them safe, unscathed.

Large paper sheets are one option as are very large sketchbooks.

I'm still not sure which is the best way if I'm honest.

This is discussed in the video today.

What do you think?


 

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March 20, 2026
Pattern and stitch from contemporary embroidery

 



Thi spiece popped up in my Facebook memories today and I'm so pleased it did.

It has provided more inspiration for my current design work especially the gimp and the buttons but also the composition, the placement of paper alongside embroidery.

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March 2, 2026
Grids and Guides stitching from contemporary embroidery

 








It's a hardback notebook today, one of these (and no, I'm not on commission).

I can recommend stitching into one of these books.

There are pages of dots, graph paper and other linear patterns which make spacing so easy. 

The paper is very receptive to needle and thread too.

I haven't actually worked into this one for a while and I'm tempted but I must finish some other things first. 


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March 1, 2026
Stitched notebooks. from contemporary embroidery

 


You have been seeing a lot of stitching in notebooks recently.

Well....I have lots of those, embroidered/stitched notebooks. 

Today it's a different one, an old one.

(you may have seen it at the 'other place')

There are lots of these little stitched/design/exploration pieces dotted around my house.

I'm tempted to keep sharing them with you. 

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February 26, 2026
My current embroidery hoop and another type of overlay. from contemporary embroidery

 



My current project is all consuming. 

I am not working on anything else. 

A reminder, there's a wrapping cloth and a design notebook. 

More painted cloth is being embellished for the wrapping cloth and 'different' overlays are being created for the design notebook.

There are plans for more hand made embellshments for the notebook to accompany my little mushroom tags. 

Can you tell I am enjoying this? 

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February 18, 2026
Another notebook exercise. from contemporary embroidery

 





Another stitched notebook....one from 'the other place'.

This one was created before my current piece which you are seeing regularly on here. 

As you will notice, I didn't develop this one as fully as the book I am working on now.

I learnt from this one, (we learn from everything don't we) and I am learning from my current one.

It has occured to me to add to this one taking inspiration from current work but sadly I have a very limited supply of this paper. 

Regardless, if I don't do anything else with this one ...

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February 16, 2026
Hand stitched overlays. from contemporary embroidery

 






I have started to add the hand stitched overlays to the pages of my little design notebook.

Little mushroom tags have also been added to some pages.

There is so much more I want to do in this little book.

(notebook measures 6x81/2 inches) 

I have calculated how many more overlays I need to make....thirteen.

I best get going then. 

 

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February 14, 2026
A little page play from contemporary embroidery

 


It's been a notebook morning.

Cutting papers, stitching pages, painting pages.

 

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February 13, 2026
The past few days. from contemporary embroidery

 



Tags, embellishments, embroidered and stitched papers, tiny artist book pages....

All ongoing explorations of a design theme.

I'm having so much fun with this.

Now I'm wondering where I can go next. 

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February 7, 2026
Fabric paint and embroidery. from contemporary embroidery

 



New embroidered work.

Fabric paint and embroidery inspired by this collection.

There are lots of French knots and tiny snippets of cloth embellishing the painted areas along with a little running stitch.

There's along way to go with this one. It's developing over in class.

Small applique circles on each piece is the next step.

I will play with the placement of those later. 

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February 6, 2026
Feeding creativity from contemporary embroidery

 


It's time to take a closer, more considered look at my current design project.

I have created and gathered a large amount of work and sometimes I'm blinded by it all.

Today I've collected a few pieces together for more focus, (less clutter) in order to move forward.

So now I'm digesting the information here, in this image. There's more clarity which will help the decision making and hopefully generate ideas going forward.

If you'd like to catch up on this current collection there are several links below. 

here, 

here, 

here, 

here, 

here, 

here ...

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February 1, 2026
Stitched papers for my current collection. from contemporary embroidery

 



Last time it was buttons, today it's stitched papers.

I'm building a huge stash of complimentary bits and pieces for my current, ever growing design collection. 

Who knows what will be next.

I am enjoying this one so much. 

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January 28, 2026
Building a collection from contemporary embroidery

 



The collection of embroidered accessories for my latest notebook project is growing.

There are now buttons, weavings, fabric swatches, delicate embroidered papers and beaded overlays.

The beaded overlays will be used to enhance the notebook as I progress. 

Fabric painting is happening in the background, in class, and to my girls....I made you a video this morning updating you on my progress.

A note for my subscribers.

I believe your emails weren't the best quality in terms of images.

I think, I hope, I have rectified that now. 

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January 23, 2026
Two pages from contemporary embroidery

 




Last time I was here it was all about the hand stitched overlays.

Today it's two new pages which will each have an overlay too.

I'm possibly going to add more to these, that's why they don't yet have an overlay. 

The embellishment here is all hand stitch, scraps of cloth and scraps of paper too.

You may have noticed a little watercolour in the backgrounds. 

I'm not sure of the gsm of the paper in this notebook.

It's quite thin and almost certainly not made to accept wet media but it didn't ...

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January 21, 2026
Hand stitched overlays from contemporary embroidery

 




Hand stitched overlays for the pages in this little book.

They provide depth along with space to add more embellishment.

They are yet to be attached as I have plans for fabric swatches too and perhaps some little buttons for the pages, all coordinated of course. 

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  • surface design
  • Page 1 of 12 ( 223 posts )