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Stitching Sabbatical

Are you ready to start your own stitching sabbatical?
Here’s a free pattern to get you going!

click here to download the free pattern

Watch the video tutorial for this pattern and follow along

Notes: This pattern is for personal use only. Do not sell or redistribute this pattern. Do not sell the finished embroidery made with this pattern.

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@Stitchingsabbatical

Some detail photos from Boris’s embroidery that Some detail photos from Boris’s embroidery that I never posted. There are a couple of things with this portrait that I feel really bring out the realism - things that I would skip over with my past portraits because I felt like they would be too hard to embroider.⁣⁣ ⁣⁣ First, and most obviously, is the neck fur. If you look at my early work, you can see that I would just stitch this whole area sort of smoothed down because I didn’t know how to handle all of the fur direction changes and colors. But capturing all of those little chunky areas of fur gives so much life and personality to the portrait! There’s also a lot of depth and texture there. I almost feel like I could run my fingers through it.⁣⁣ ⁣⁣ Secondly, I gave the whiskers the same amount of thought and attention as I did the fur. They weren’t quickly stitched on at the end like an afterthought. I don’t know why, but with my earlier pieces I would give the cats about 4 whiskers and they’d all be one color. Probably because I was so tired at the end of the portrait that I just wanted to see it finished. But now I add more whiskers and use multiple colors to give them some depth.⁣⁣ ⁣⁣ There are a few other things, but really the point is that it’s taken me a handful of years to realize these are the things that add realism and personality into the portrait. My goal is to make them look as realistic as possible and I have so much fun finding ways to improve my skills! It’s always a good idea to critique your own work and look for areas of improvement. I still see things that I would like to improve on and will work that into my future pieces 🤍 ⁣⁣ ⋆⁣⁣ ⁣⁣ ⁣⁣ ⋆⁣⁣ ⁣⁣ ⁣⁣ ⋆⁣⁣ ⁣⁣ ⁣⁣ #CatPortrait #HandEmbroidered #PetPortraitArtist #ThreadPainting #ModernEmbroidery
#artvsartist2021 roundup. I definitely didn’t ge #artvsartist2021 roundup. I definitely didn’t get through as many portraits as I wanted to and honestly, I’m a bit down about it. HOWEVER I am so proud of myself for finishing the ones I did! This year I really pushed myself with the compositions of my pieces (as seen with Felix and the Orchid Mantis and the two portraits I’m working on now) and started adding in thread colors from other brands, too. I had a lot of complicated portraits that took a fair amount of time to finish and I loved working on them so much. Thank you for believing in me this year and supporting me. 2022 is going to be full of surprises but I have a good feeling about it! Hoping to take things a little slower to really hone my skill and push myself even further. ⁣ ⁣ ⋆⁣⁣ ⁣ ⁣ ⋆⁣⁣ ⁣ ⁣ ⋆⁣⁣ ⁣ ⁣ #HandEmbroidery #DMCThreads #ModernEmbroidery #EmbroideryArtist #PetPortraits
Orchid Mantis. Hand stitched on Kona cotton with b Orchid Mantis. Hand stitched on Kona cotton with both DMC and Anchor threads. 7” hoop and frame from @acmsllc . Countless hours worked and dozens of colors used.⁣ ⁣ I’ve really been enjoying making little ’scene’ compositions for my portraits. They do take longer, but the compositions bring so much more to the embroidery. I sourced several different references for the flower and leaves (free commercial use images) and paid for the main orchid mantis reference image. I was definitely out of my comfort zone with this piece - but not in a bad way! I learned a lot and I’m looking forward to future opportunities to do ‘hairless’ portraits ✨ ⁣ ⋆⁣⁣ ⁣ ⁣ ⋆⁣⁣ ⁣ ⁣ ⋆⁣⁣ ⁣ ⁣ #RealisticArt #EmbroideryArtist #Entomology #EmbroideryLove #ThreadPainting #ModernThreadPainting
I’ve got some updates for you! 🗣 ⁣ First of I’ve got some updates for you! 🗣 ⁣ First of all, I’ll be doing a little book signing this Saturday, December 4th at @paragraphsbookstore in the morning from 10-12pm! If you’re in the Ohio/Columbus area I’d love to say hi! ⁣ Also, if you’re interested, I’ve made two fb groups for pet embroidery! The first one is called Hand Embroidered Pet Portraits and it’s a free for all group where anyone can join and talk about their pet embroidery. This group has links to guides and resources for learning pet embroidery and you can network and chat with other people who are making their own portraits, too! I love seeing everyone post their WIPs and following along 🥰 ⁣ The second fb group is specifically for my book, and it’s called Pet Portrait Embroidery - Learn the art of thread painting! In this group, you can ask me for help if you get stuck on a pattern (you’ll have a more direct line to me here than through ig messages), share your progress, and see how others are doing the patterns. This group is pretty small at the moment but I hope it grows!⁣ ⁣ Lastly, I’m also taking a break from live streaming for the rest of the year. This is my first year I’m not going to be doing my “12 Days of Going Live” and I’m so sad but at the same time I’m incredibly burnt out creatively and I just need to take some time off from anything scheduled and anything extra other than getting my current batch of commissions done. I’ll be back in January with streams!⁣ ⁣ Okay that’s it 💕 ⁣ ⋆⁣⁣ ⁣ ⁣ ⋆⁣⁣ ⁣ ⁣ ⋆⁣⁣ ⁣ ⁣ #PetEmbroidery #EmbroideryPattern #EmbroideryHoop #DMCEmbroidery #ThreadPainting
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