Page 4 - Thea Gouverneur Main Catalog

would flash in and out of the fabric, stitching tiny stitches with lustrous
coloured threads. She showed me how to draw a pattern on fabric with
a pencil, then embroider over it with twisted chain stitches, french knots
ans satin stitches. I took to embroidery quickly, and spent much of my
spare time after that making pictures with coloured threads.

My love of designing led me to the Royal Academy of Art in The Hague,
where I completed ateaching course in drawing and fashion design. It
was while I was teaching that I began to design my own cross stitch
flower design. Some years later I made charts from these initials designs
and a friend suggested I should sell them, so I approached a department
store in Amsterdam who immediately offered to sell them for me. I set up
in business designing and selling kits, which is what I have been doing
for the past three decades, with great enjoyment.

Although I now design on a computer, the way I approach each design is
still the same. I study the flowers themselves, either in the garden, in the
countryside, or I take photographs and compose a picture from several
different ones.

People sometimes ask me where I get the inspiration for my designs, a
question which never fails to surprise me.
I always answer: look out of your window and you will see inspiration
everywhere - in gardens, in hedgerows, in field, woods and hills. There
are so many beautiful flowers, plants, bushes and trees growing, that
there is not enough time to stitch them all. I knowthat I will never run
out of ideas; it is much more likely that I will run out of time first! Before
I do, however, I am delighted that I have been able to include some of
my flowers designs in this website. They are all very detailed as I like to
use lots of different colour threads. Some cross stitchers might find this
fiddly, but I think it is worth it as the end results are realistic and true to
nature. Although the designs might take you longer to complete, I hope
you have great pleasure stitching them and, as you gaze on the finished
pieces, I hope they will remind you of the wonderful glory of nature.

Thea Gouverneur, Sassenheim