I’m appreciative of the foresight to make a post before the end of the year about my progress in my embroidery practice. Here are some questions and answers. I got the questions from ChatGPT. I asked:
“I am making a blog post batching the embroidery I’ve done in the last seven months. Help me by asking six important questions that you think readers want to know the answers to.”
1. What inspired you to start or continue embroidering over the last seven months?
I enjoy my relationship with thread, needle, and hand sewing. I think it’s very relaxing and accessible. I like that I can do it in my bedroom while watching TV.
Some of the projects in this post are iterations of things I’ve done before or I’m continuing to work on in terms of motifs, types of stitches, and using somewhat sheer fabric. That’s part of the experiment. In some cases, there’s shiny appliqué or patchwork involved too.
2. How did your techniques or style evolve during this time?
I recently got into the idea of using a running stitch to create patterns. I’m still enjoying the fishbone stitch—I use it a lot in my fills. Some recurring motifs include the hexagrid-patterned leaves.
There’s also this tiling method I use to make these pathways for a particular kind of appliqué style that I like. It essentially has hoops and a line through them that can be modulated in different ways to create unique patterns.
3. Which piece are you most proud of, and why?
I really enjoy the silver fabric piece. This one uses a style of taking equilateral triangles and sewing them together to create a blob-shaped piece. It has a really organic shape, and it could be added to.
I really appreciate it because it has such shine. I’m always captivated by it—especially when I play with it during performance rehearsals.
4. What were the biggest challenges you faced, and how did you work through them?
Maybe it’s because I have pretty low stakes with these pieces, or I’m not sure what the goal is—it’s more about the process and executing ideas.
The biggest challenge might be sourcing shiny fabrics. Recently, both Joann’s and a couple of fabric stores in San Francisco have closed, so fabric shopping has been kind of limited.
Another challenge is not having a thread store nearby. I don’t have a car, and when I’m walking around, I just don’t happen upon good fabric or thread/craft-oriented stores. Because of that, I tend not to use as many inventive threads.
So maybe that’s a goal for upcoming projects: to order some variegated threads online. They’re really cool because they change colors and add fun patterns, which enhances the visual quality.
5. Did any themes, materials, or motifs keep showing up?
I like embroidery. I like patterns. I like researching patterns. I’m always intrigued by things I see on Pinterest.
I appreciated thinking about the grid and how the embroidery hoop lends itself to a radial formation—especially in my last couple of pieces. I’ve been thinking about how the running stitch can be used in an organic pattern, starting from the center and radiating outward.
6. What’s next for your embroidery practice?
I’ve been really enjoying this new technique of seeing what happens with progressive running stitches, starting from the center outward. I’m thinking about what I could do to plan certain sections—or if I just want to keep it improvisational and see which shapes I like or which ones keep popping up.
I noticed this fun technique where, for maybe six rows, I’ll do a shift to the left (in this case, clockwise), and that creates a bit of a distortion in the pattern. It adds a lot of visual movement.
Essentially, it’s a mandala. I can see how, because of the slow, repetitive nature of these shapes, there are many ways to keep things interesting through tiny experiments or shifting approaches—as we spiral toward the edge of the piece.
Katarina Countiss 