How to make time for embroidery

We all have busy lives, it is important to find time for hobbies and embroidery is a great way to relax. There are three situations when I’ve found I’m able to set aside time for embroidery (or any craft project).

When watching TV

I’ve always crafted in front of the TV right back to when I had a side hustle at school making beaded friendship bracelets. In my years of crafting in front of the TV the main thing I’ve learned is that it has to be a programme you can listen to rather than watch. Anything with subtitles, a new programme where you are not yet familiar with the characters and sports such as tennis are definitely not good choices.

In online meetings

I work from home and some of the meetings I attend I need to be present at but not always have something on the agenda and therefore don’t need to be on camera. These meetings and also webinars where I’m required to listen (rather than interact or participate) I embroider. In fact I find that stitching away, especially during a webinar, helps me to listen and focus on what is being said rather than getting distracted by my emails or other pieces of work.

When travelling

One of the first things I pack when I’m off on a long train ride or if I’m flying somewhere is a craft project or two. I live in the North of England and if I need to take a train to London for a work meeting, I’m delighted by the knowledge that I’ll get 3 hours of solid crafting time. Just a note that if you are flying with a craft project then you do need to know about any rules around flying especially with scissors in your hand luggage.

Fabric Shopping in Hong Kong

In 2016 I was lucky enough to go to Hong Kong for a work project, after the conference I tacked on a few days holiday. While I was there I couldn't pass up a trip to the Garment District - Sham Shai Po. It's really easy to get to - about half a dozen stops on the MTR red line from Central.

Take exit A2 then walk a couple of blocks until you get to Ki Lung Street. When I went on a Friday morning there was a small market between the MTR exit and Ki Lung Street.

Ki Lung Street is the street with fabric shops and fabric stalls. I only walked down a couple of blocks which was enough to fill my bag. Also along Ki Lung Street there are shops selling leather and on other streets you can find shops selling ribbons, beads buttons or anything else you might need to make garments!

This wonderful blog covers everything you need to know about the garment district, how to find it and what is on offer.

At the time I visited the exchange rate was about £1 = HK$10.5
This is my haul - going clockwise from top left:

• Black chinese style floral fabric good quality cotton HK$50 per yard

• Black floral cotton lawn HK$40 per yard

• Safari print canvas (since when have kangaroos been safari animals?) HK$25 off cut

• Chinese style fabric in blue and red/black HK$35 per yard

• Blue / purple repeating horizontal panels HK$5 (YES 50p!) per yard

• Blue floral fabric draped cotton/polyester mix HK$40 per yard

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Hong Kong Temple Inspiration

I was lucky enough to visit Hong Kong on a work trip a few years ago. There are temples everywhere in Hong Kong. You can be just walking down a street and there is a little one by the side of the road full of colourful patterned objects.

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Seville Inspiration

I wish I could send some time in the sun this winter but with COVID restrictions, that isn’t an option. So I looked back to a February trip to Seville for inspiration instead.

Roman Ruins Inspiration

For the past few years I have made my partner a calendar from photos I take on our Summer holiday. As we didn’t get to go away this year due to the pandemic, I had to choose pictures from my archive. My two choices were ‘romans’ or ‘football’ as I have to live with this calendar too I chose ‘romans’.

When browsing the pictures to select them for the calendar, I also came through a few that have got me thinking about how I can incorporate these into my embroidery work. These are all from Pompeii and Herculaneum which I visited in April 2017.

Canada Inspiration (circa 1995)

During lockdown I’ve missed not being able to travel so much. I’ve embarked on a project of scanning some of the film photos I took before digital photography came about.

Some of the first photos I picked to scanned were of a family trip to Canada in 1995, these beautiful epic open spaces have provided me with some inspiration this month.

Momento Park Inspiration

A short trip outside of Budapest is Momento Park. Here statues from the Communist era are displayed as a reminder. It’s a fascinating insight into how public art can be used by Government and can also give a real insight into social and political history.

Looking back through the photos of my visit I was inspired by the range of different styles of work, and this is how I looked at them for inspiration rather than for the message they were trying to convey.

Macao Inspiration

I’ve been reminiscing back to my trip to Hong Kong in 2016. I was lucky enough to get to go there for work, but also added an extra few days to get out and about and explore. As well as heading around Hong Kong I also headed on a day trip to Macao and loved it’s beautiful colonial architecture mixed with the new flashy casinos.

Lisbon Inspiration

I visited Portugal for the first time in 2017 and absolutely loved Lisbon. The the tiles on the buildings, the trams (I have a bit of a secret tram obsession!), the food and drink (hello pastel de nata & a glass of port). As well as Lisbon we also took a day trip to Sintra with its Moorish style architecture.

Here are some of the pictures from this trip that are inspiring me at the moment.

Malta inspiration

I can’t believe it’s been 5 years since I visited Malta. I was lucky enough to be sent to Valetta for work and after 4 days stuck in a stuffy conference room I got one day to explore the wonderful city. The architecture is so different from that I’ve seen in other countries.

Poland inspiration

This summer I travelled around Poland. It’s a really fascinating country with many of the beautiful town squares painstakingly rebuilt as they were before their destruction in World War 2. The pastel colours of the buildings were particularly inspiring.

The Neon Museum was one of the best places that we visited and the history of neon signs during communism was fascinating.

Food and drink was also a source of inspiration from the autumnal colour palette of the beer tasting platters to the traditional crochet table centre pieces.

Finally, the Solidarity Centre in Gdansk built on the site of the shipyards and out of weathered iron had some amazing textures (a photograph of textures is how Salt Stitches creates all her work).

Bilbao inspiration

In Summer 2015 we headed to the Basque region on our holiday visiting Biarritz, San Sebastián, Bilbao Santillana del Mar and Santander. I'd been wanting to go to Bilbao for ages to go to the Guggenheim and San Sebastian for the food.

Whenever I travel I get inspired by what I see and both the in museums and the architecture In Bilbao inspired me.

The Guggenheim Bilbao reminded me of silver beading. Whilst the floral puppy sculpture by Jeff Koons at the Guggenheim Bilbao reminded me of a patchwork toy. . The colourful windows of a building on the opposite side of the river from the Guggenheim were beautiful and the white stone a great contrast to the bright blue cloudless sky. It got me thinking about bright and colourful crochet blankets. Whilst opposite the entrance to the funicular railway was this mish-mash of a building. Art Deco, Moorish and modern architecture all in one space. The art deco curves reminded me of the beading on 1920s flapper dresses.

NYC modern art inspiration

No trip to NYC is complete without a visit or two to an art gallery. We headed to the Guggenheim and queued around the block to get in for free (if you are there on the right day this would be my top tip to save $$). We also paid a visit to MoMA, although it is undergoing some building work it still has all the big hitters as well as some other fascinating work.

Hilda af Klint - Guggenheim

Hilda af Klint - Guggenheim

Hilda af Klint - Guggenheim

Sonia Delaunay-Terk - MoMA

Lyubov Popova - MoMA

Theo van Doesburg - MoMA

Max Bill - MoMA

Joan Mitchell - MoMA

National Museum of the American Indian inspiration

When I visited New York for the first time 18 years ago I spent a wonderful few hours in the National Museum of the American Indian right at the bottom of Manhattan island. At that time I was obsessed with beadwork and in particular the beadwork of Native Americans. I filled my sketch book with carefully drawn designs from the pieces I saw in that museum.

So as soon as the trip to NYC was booked for this April, the first thing I checked was that the museum was still there and open. This time, with the invention of the digital camera I was able to snap pictures of my favourite pieces for inspiration.

But as well as the permanent collection of pieces there was also a temporary exhibition of the work of TC Cannon. His story and his beautiful paintings are sure to inspire some future work of mine as well.

NYC architecture inspiration

It’s been 18 years since I last visited New York. There is so much to see and do there, here are a few images from my recent trip that have been a source of creative inspiration since I returned.

Brussels and Bruges inspiration

I love a trip on the Eurostar (who doesn’t!) and wanting a bit of inspiration I was flicking through some photos and found these. Despite the grey and cold on this particular trip, the shapes and colours of the buildings are great inspiration.

Cambodia inspiration

I’d wanted to visit Cambodia for a long time and in summer 2018 it actually happened. South East Asia is so different to the UK so I find it hard not to be inspired by the sights, food and plants.  

Recently I wanted to experiment with printing photos onto fabric to embroidery over and I knew immediately the image I wanted to pick. 

The image below I used as inspiration in module 2 of my City & Guilds course - this was a design module and we had to pick a theme. The theme I finally settled on was ‘blocks’.

The other images below are different textures from my trip which are sure to be sources of inspiration for future projects.