Page 63 - The Digital Cloth Issue 7

French Bulldog. Amazingly the
one quick photo I took ended up
being just right to use for my next

embroidery project. I wonder what
the lady would think of the rainbow
version of her pet bulldog?

I love the process of creating when
happy memories are linked to the
experience, but I think this is even
more so now than normal because
travel is not an option due to

COVID19. Selecting images from
travel experiences has been a great
form of escapism. I was saddened
when the amazing Keukenhof
Botanical garden in the Netherlands
was cancelled this year due to the
pandemic as I had only visited there
in spring last year. All their
incredible flower displays were
ready and then they had to cancel
just days before they were due to

open. By creating my tulip
embroidery it helped me to process
this and hold onto the happy
experience. I have also enjoyed
experimenting in the past with
combining areas of cross stitch with
my freestyle embroidery, as seen
in one of my flower embroideries,
which was inspired from a

photo taken at the Hortus Botanicus
Amsterdam. This was
surprisingly tricky as I had to make
sure the scale of the freestyle
embroidery matched the
cross-stitched area accurately. I
have embroidered Hands a
number of times now also. There
are so many different ways to
position them, and they create great
colour variations and shadow,

helping to create a more 3D effect.
.
I am a primary school teacher, and
as a busy working mum most of my