First Sale!

You know how it is when you wake up and realise it's Monday again, especially if like today it's cold and frosty outside. My mood soon lifted when I checked into Etsy and saw that I'd made my first sale! Hurrah! It was a lovely surprise to wake up to and very interesting in several ways. Firstly, it was not the design I expected to sell first as I have others which have been more popular (in terms of favourites) and secondly it was to a man. Don't get me wrong, I know that lots of men love embroidery in all forms as a hobby and I rarely do 'girlie' designs. Yet all the attention I've had so far on Twitter and on my shop feed has been from female stitchers. It is very exciting to know my patterns appeal to both men and women.

 

So, you're wondering what was the pattern? It was (drumroll optional...) the Art Deco Bird, as featured in an earlier post. Click the link to read more about the inspiration behind it.

 

I've been very busy this month working on designs for hand-embroidered cards which I'll have on sale next year. This is partly because I love experimenting with embroidery on paper and also because I have a stack of pretty papers and card blanks that I really need to do something with. I'll have some romantic-themed cards ready in time for Valentine's Day and some nature themed cards suitable for all occasions. I'm also planning to write a tutorial about stitching on paper at some point in the near future so watch this space.

 

Until then, happy stitching!

 

Art Deco Bird Cross Stitch Pattern

One of my favourite sources of inspiration is old books. I am lucky that the love of old books runs in the family so I have plenty to browse when I'm looking for new ideas. There has been debate in recent years about whether books will become obsolete with the growing popularity of digital literature. Not as long as there are people like me in the world they won't! I find the suggestion quite ridiculous. I love everything about old books: the texture of their covers, the artwork, the fonts and of course that smell of the pages of a book that has been loved and cared for by several generations of readers and bibliophiles.

 

 

 

My next few blog posts will be about some of my designs which have been inspired by various lovely old books. The first is my Art Deco Bird pattern which was inspired by an illustration in a children's story anthology published in the 1930s. The copyright page shows two stylised birds, one on either side of the list of contributors. I am not certain exactly what they are but they are clearly some kind of birds of prey. They are created by using simple shapes and art deco motifs. My cross stitch version is worked mainly in black with a few touches of gold to give a hint of art deco opulence.

 

 

This anthology contains a large number of short stories and poems, many by very well-known authors such as Sir Walter Scott, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Robert Louis Stevenson and Frances Hodgson Burnett. I was quite excited when I came across a story by Hans Christian Andersen entitled The Red Shoes, which is about a little girl called Karen. I had a pair of red shoes when I was little and I've known for a while that my name is Danish so I was eager to read what happened to my namesake in this story.

 

 

I was expecting there to be magic but I wasn't prepared for how shocking it is in places! I won't give away the ending but it's a moral tale about pride and selfishness. I will now think twice before buying any more red shoes!

All photos (c) Karen Eley 2014