I’m afraid that over the past couple of weeks I’ve haven’t been posting regularly. There are several reasons for this, but the main one is that I’ve committed myself to two large exhibitions in the coming months. The first one is the usual North East Open Studios event, which I do every year, but this year I’ve also been asked to be the “Featured Artist” at Larks Gallery (http://www.larksgallery.com/index.htm) The Larks exhibition isn’t until much later in the year, but I really want to put together a good selection of interesting work for it, and it’s not too early to start right now
The problem is that the pieces for exhibition are much larger and more complicated than my usual things. I can digitise one of my ordinary bird or plant designs in an afternoon, but exhibition pieces can take as long as a week or even two to draw, digitise, paint and stitch. Also, I often don’t get them right at first and they sometimes need to be re-digitised and stitched out several times before I’m happy with them. This all means that finished embroideries that I can post on the blog now tend to be few and far between, so posting every week is often just not possible. So I won’t be posting regularly for a while, but I’ll put up finished pieces when I have them ready, and will try to get back to the weekly posts as soon as I can. And I won’t forget the monthly freebies!
One of William Morris's birds
And talking of freebies, here’s one for July. It’s taken from one of William Morris’s wonderful bird designs that he drew for his tapestries. It’s a big design – that is, it’s for the 5×7 hoop which isn’t that large, but it has nearly 37,000 stitches and takes me well over an hour to stitch out, which as far as I’m concerned is a big design! It’s also quite dense so I wouldn’t recommend stitching it on a very light-weight fabric. It would probably buckle or pull, so use something robust such as a lightweight felt or a light canvas, and stabilise it well
Thank you so much for this fantastic bird! I’ve been remiss in not letting you know how much I’ve enjoyed your posts! Your work is just spectacular. Best wishes for successful shows and please don’t worry about missing weekly posts; yours are worth waiting for 🙂
Belle numérisation, belle broderie
Merci Mia et bon courage pour ces expositions
A bientôt
Mia, fantastic bird. He is gorgeous. If you miss a post, no problem. We understand. You will do great in both of your shows.
Thanks so much. Beautiful design.
Thank you so much for another awesome design!! I really like the feather like fill that you used for the feathers. Work on your exhibits and do not worry about us. I will look forward to seeing your finished pieces that you will be exhibiting in your two exhibitions. I have been gone for almost a month and got a mild case of shingles while I was gone. Thank goodness it appears that I just have the scabs of the blister like shingles left and no pain.
Wishing everyone a Happy 4th of July
He is a true beauty, as are all of your creations. Love the featherwork on both him and the leaves. Thanks for sharing!
Absolutely LOVE this bird, Mia. Thank you!
That’s wonderful that you’ve been asked to exhibit in a new show! Congratulations. I know it will be a lot of work, but I hope you really enjoy putting the pieces together for it.
Thank you for the bird design and the tips for stitch-out.
Wow! How did I just find you? Your work is absolutely stunning! Thank you for posting the free designs. It looks challenging for me, a beginner, but I am going to try some of these. It is more like artwork, so I know that special gifts for friends need designs like these. I would like to get some (any) of the older designs, but I cannot find your contact info on the site here. I am Mary, from Michigan, USA
Mia, thank you so much for the freebie bird. He is beautiful.