Embroidery Inspo: Making Art With Needle and Thread

Embroidery is an age-old needlework craft. Combining traditions and techniques, stitchers set out to embellish and adorn everyday and ordinary items with ornamental designs using an array of different stitches and colors and types of thread. As mothers, grandmothers, and great-grandmothers come to mind and into hand, embroidery is rooted in tradition. Borrowing and applying methods here and there, the craft becomes an expression of self and personal style.

Two skillful artisans and visual storytellers, Tracie Noles-Ross and Lillis Taylor, both multi-tasking and dual-purposing wizards, stitch and sew art into every part of their lives, and they connect and share freely the lessons they learn along the way. In this gallery, they share their work, their inspirations, ideas and techniques.

Tracie embroiders nature stories and symbols. She crafted the quilt pictured above (called "crazy quilt") with hand-dyed fabrics repurposed materials, hand-me-down threads and inherited toolkits. "It’s a family portrait focusing on insects and plants growing around the family's home in Upstate New York. I dyed fabrics with plants that grow in their yard and that also grow in mine," Tracie explains. "It’s all about connection to natural world and place!"

This tutorial sample was created by a member of the Bib & Tucker Sew-Op in Birmingham, AL for teaching beginner stitches. Lillis, the executive director of the sew-op, learned a lot during her first workshop and now she's adding her own stitches to help instruct others. If you can’t go to a workshop, find online video tutorials and experiment on scrap fabric before you begin your project. The great thing about embroidery is you can easily undo any mistakes.

As a tribute to Frida Kahlo, Lillis combined Mexican icons, La Calavera Catrina and Frida, and she accentuated the design with colorful floss embroidered onto broadcloth and by using a variety of stitch types to paint and fill in. Using an embroidery hoop helps keep the fabric taut while stitching for the purpose of consistent stitch tension and to retain the shape and integrity of the base cloth.

Inspired by the Day of the Dead holiday, Lillis stitched the Calavera and sacred heart symbols onto digitally printed fabrics of her own designs. With bold and bright embroidery floss, she used backstitch, running and satin stitching. She framed the finished pieces with handpainted, wooden embroidery hoops.