Why do you enjoy hand embroidery?

I love embroidery’s endless opportunities for creativity, experimentation, and learning. I have realized over the years that I don’t need to be skilled at all the techniques, and I certainly don’t have to be precise all the time to create beautiful pieces that are expressions of who I am and my life experiences.

Embroidery traditions differ from country to country and yet the use of embroidery to embellish and mend, and as a cultural expression, is universal. My day job (which has nothing to do with textiles) has taken me to five continents. As a textile lover at heart, my passion has provided a unique window on the culture of the countries I have lived in, especially the traditions of women. I like to explore all sorts of quilting, embroidery and sewing techniques. Working in western China and Türkiye, I learnt about the journey of the tambour technique along the ancient Silk Road from Asia to Europe. Recently I have enjoyed learning the Korean jogakbo patchwork technique and have used it in my own way, making a quilt out of silk kantha scraps from India. During my travels I have hunted down handmade needles from the last needle craftswoman in Japan just before she retired, learnt about indigo dyeing of natural fabrics such as ramie in China, seen cotton weaving in Tanzania, made an enduring friendship with an award-winning Baltimore album quilter in Maryland, purchased an antique Japanese boro coverlet at a street market in Paris, discovered the embroidery techniques of women in the conflict affected region of Mindanao in the southern Philippines, and heard the stories of oya – needle lace flowers that were traditionally used to adorn women’s head scarves to convey messages about a woman’s emotions, in Türkiye. In my experience, the world of textiles is endlessly fascinating and surprisingly accessible.

I marvel at the historic English embroidery pieces at the V&A and love to learn traditional English embroidery techniques such as those I have learnt from Kelley. But I equally enjoy more playful, less precise embroidery practices. My summer holiday luggage usually includes a box of mixed threads and fabric from my stash – a palette of color with only a vague plan and limitless possibilities. This summer I am making pages for a fabric book – the background of each page is vintage indigo dyed fabric from China onto which I kantha smaller indigo fabric scraps for texture. The main embellishments are a mixture of applique, embroidery, fabric manipulation, and English paper piecing in bright jewel colored fabric and threads. I stitch whatever pops into my head as I pick up my needle. I’m using beads, sequins, ribbons, trinkets, and a wide range of threads – even leftover knitting yarn. It is wild and fun, there are no rules and no plan. The results of these summer adventures are often some of my most interesting work. As this summer draws to a close, I will be working again on Kelley’s gingerbread house advent box and very soon I will start hand quilting a quilt I have made from Liberty scraps and Japanese chambray fabric. There’s endless variety in what I make. That’s what I enjoy most about hand embroidery and textiles.

What’s the first thing you can remember stitching?

A little felt owl for my mother whose nickname (in her native language) was “Little Owl”. She kept the owl her whole life and it came back to me a few years ago when she passed away. I don’t remember exactly how old I was when I stitched it - probably around 5 or 6 years I think.

What are you currently working on?

Several projects, as is my way: in addition to the projects I’ve already mentioned, I’m also working on a long term project that has taken me several years already. It is a fabric book that will showcase embroidery made by several generations of women in my family, including my great grandmother, two grandmothers, a great aunt, my mother, sister, my two daughters, and, of course, me. 

What is on your wishlist of stitching projects?

Very hard to say! So many things. I’d love to do another stumpwork project because I love the challenge of the construction (I am a trained engineer, after all.). Maybe there will even be a knot garden in my future!