Page 79 - The Digital Cloth Holiday issue 2

Put your feed dogs down, attach an I was in a position where I needed to make
embroidery foot and the rest is up to you! my sewing pay its way, so making and
It quickly became apparent to me that selling cushion covers seemed like a good

free motion machine embroidery was the option at that time. The cushions were a
medium I’d had been searching for: that great starting point for me but the
thread could create tonal complexity, complexity of my designs, and the fragile
texture and depth, and allow me a way nature of the stitching, meant that having
into painting - I realised that I could draw them as cushions was rather unpractical.
and paint with thread! Over a decade For a start people couldn’t wash or sit on
later, I’ve become totally and irretrievably them without damaging them. A friend of
absorbed by stitching, as well as being mine who I made a cover for decided she
constantly covered in bits of thread. wanted to frame it and it was then that I felt
I should also say, though, that my mother I could make the change to creating pieces
worked as an illustrator when I was of art that I could frame and put on the wall.

growing up (she later went on to become My confidence grew as soon as I began to
a successful playwright) and so I was frame my pieces and a couple of years
surrounded by her work and watching her after that I had the good fortune to find an
create beautiful illustrations had a huge incredible framer, Jamie McAteer at Detail
effect on me for sure. She also worked on Framing in Edinburgh, who continues to
a really quite Avant Garde series of hand work tirelessly with me to make my pieces
embroideries for a period and, although
as a child and a teenager I wasn’t in the
least interested in embroidery, I’m sure

that her amazing work must have nestled
in my brain somewhere, just waiting to
pop out as an influence, when I was ready,
further down the road.
My style is always evolving and I feel I
learn something new and develop my
language with every new piece I make.
I’ve put in thousands of hours of practice
over the past 10 years (and completely
wore out my first sewing machine after
the first 7 years!) As with anything,
practice makes perfect and although

perfection is not possible, nor something
I strive for, I’m amazed when I look back
at how my technique has improved, and
evolved, over the years.
About a year after I began the degree, I
became a single parent so unfortunately,
I wasn’t able to continue at college but I’d
already found my direction so that was

ok. At first, I made cushion covers, using
my forest designs which were much more
illustrative then my work is now.