Peace & Plenty: A New Year’s Wish
I must confess a secret. I often look at antique samplers and embroideries and wonder about the lives that the stitchers lived. I wonder about their hopes and dreams, and how they stitched themselves into their work, which survives long after them. And so I want to stitch my hopes into my work, each tiny…
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Christmas 2021: Christmas hot & cold
Christmas is not all snowmen and reindeer for everyone. In Australia, Christmas Day is typically uncomfortably hot, spent under blazing blue skies with family and friends. The way we celebrate is different too: when I was little, I remember one of my grandmothers battling to create the traditional baked lunch, when it was too hot…
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Falling Leaves
Don’t you just love that crunch of Autumn leaves under your feet? My new Quaker design explores the beauty of the changing leaves of Autumn and Fall, and the creatures that you can find alongside them. In Australia, the vast majority of our native plants do not change colours for Autumn (with an interesting exception…
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Mary Barton’s Work
And finishing tips… When preparing new designs for the US Fall 2021 Needlework Expo, I was in the middle of a prolonged lockdown. I was working on a different antique reproduction, when it became clear that the lockdown would not end before Expo – meaning I couldn’t get the piece framed, or even get framing…
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Manon’s Garden
My heart skipped a beat when I first saw the antique – such a sweet collection of flowers, such a bright, rainbow palette and such an enigma. The almost anonymous stitcher only left us a single initial. Having sourced the antique from France, I decided to give her a French name, and to recreate her…
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A is for Aardvark, B is for Balloon
I’m not quite sure how I came up with this design originally – I think I was playing around with ideas for small designs that I could display in front of a row of bookshelves. I have more bookshelves than wall space, so I’m always looking for quirky ways to display my stitching. Oh, I…
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Alphabet Block Tutorial
You can do it (I promise!) Actually, these aren’t nearly as hard as they look (but don’t tell anyone …) Follow these instructions, and you’ll have your first Alphabet Block in no time. And I warn you, they’re addictive! You will need: your completed stitched design sharp scissors for cutting fabric a needle: I find…
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No ordinary cats for #themeowthemerrier
(and a quick finishing tutorial) As designers, we were set a challenge for the Fall 2021 Needlework Expo to feature a cat. It’s amazing to see how different designers respond to this brief and create such different designs. You can see them by using #themeowthemerrier I was playing around with ideas when I remembered this…
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No mud, no lotus
‘The lotus flower blooms most beautifully from the deepest and thickest mud’. – Buddhist proverb This is a very personal design for me. The shorthand version of this proverb has been my go to when I felt overwhelmed during these challenging times. It’s helped me stay mindful that growth is always possible and that beauty…
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Take Wing
No.2 in the Bushland Quaker series I’m finding Quaker-style designs are addictive. There’s something about the symmetry and the ability to combine small motifs that is really appealing. And they’re quick to stitch up too! I wanted to do a series before I even completed the first Bushland Quaker. The opportunity came faster than I…
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Mojo Stitches 