When I was younger, I used to cross-stitch (I vividly remember using a lot of pink thread to sew Mr. Blobby), however I’d always thought of embroidery as being more old-fashioned. Recently, with the craft comeback, ‘old’ crafts like sewing, embroidery and dress-making have seen a revival, with talented craftspeople and artists turning to embroidery hoops as modern day canvases.
I love the following designs for their simplicity and humour – they certainly bring embroidery into the 21st century, and I love how the hoops frame the finished work. When searching for inspiration, I came across Mr X Stitch, the ‘kingpin of contemporary embroidery’, and found a lot of wares on Etsy.
When you’re young, your first introduction to cross-stitch and similar crafts is through patterns, but I love the idea that you can just come up with your own idea, and start sewing it onto a hoop, even creating an abstract embroidery hoop by randomly selecting coloured thread and patterns.
As well as using these as inspiration, you could take inspiration from greetings cards, immortalise funny things your kids have said, or frame personal mottos. These are great for decorating the walls of your own home, or giving as thoughtful gifts to friends and family to brighten their day!
For further information, visit these sites:
1. The Love Whale Embroidery Kit, Studio MME | 2. Little Mountain Range, Powerfulanimals | 3. Geometric Hand Stitched Embroidery Hoop, Powerfulanimals | 4. Beetle Geometric Asymmetrical 4 inch Embroidery, Rehabbed Handmade Vintage | 5. Dinosaur Embroidery Hoop, Stephanie Tillman | 6. Hug 4 inch Hoop Art, Grace Gatley Textiles | 7. Friendship Sloth, Stephanie Tillman | 8. Oh, Hey! 5 inch Embroidery Hoop, Sarah K Benning
Thank you so much for featuring my Love Whale!
My pleasure – I love your kits!
Those are really cute. I’ve been meaning to get into embroidering but haven’t taken the chance to buy a kit and get to it. Thanks for the reminder lol.
http://prettyloved.wordpress.com
Ditto! It’s on my to do list =)
The whale and the beetle are interesting and well executed, but I honestly think the words in a hoop thing has been done to death- it’s no longer a witty play on an old cliche, it’s just an old cliche, but very often done without the skill of the original cliche( I see no reason why modern embroidery has to be done so sloppily, modernity should not mean poorly executed).
I think it probably depends on what you embroider on the hoop, and what it means to you, but I take your point about the execution. I’ve seen some really amazing detailed embroidery recently, quite unlike some of the above, but I still love the use of the embroidery hoop as a canvas =)
A great article and a great selection of stitcheries! Thanks for including me in the mix. 🙂
My pleasure! I spent a lot of time on your site. Hope to attend one of your Drink Shop Do workshops shortly!
These are great. What’s neat about embroidery is the person making it has full creative rights. They can make what they’d enjoy seeing day to day. It’s a fun art and so free! Wonderful examples. Thank you for sharing. 🙂