Stitchy Snippets - Silhouettes

The French artist Nastasja Duthois explores silhouettes and shadows with needle and thread. Common themes occurring in her work are people, landscapes and animals and she likes to express the fleeting moments and surprises in everyday life.

Nastasja began incorporating embroidery into her artworks several years ago as a progression from her pictures using a biro or ball point pen. 'I have done a lot of art with ball point pen and I use needle and thread, in the same way, to trace contours or to fill areas.'

Nastasja creates beautiful line work in her unique style, often transferring techniques adopted with the pen such as cross hatching with thousands of individual hand stitches.

Currently exhibiting in Auray, France, it's exciting to see what she will produce next.

Friday Instagram Finds No. 38 with @naive_needle

Hello Stitchers! It's Friday - hooray! I'm excited because in two days I'll be headed to sunny Florida with my son to visit my parents. It will be nice to leave the colder temps in Chicagoland for the sunshine of Orlando!

Today I'm introducing you to Anna of the Instagram account @naive_needle. Anna creates pretty hand embroidery, and what strikes me most about her pieces is that she often uses satin stitch or needle painting to fill spaces in her work. The results are beautifully composed embroidery pieces that are colorful and pretty. Her "flower flamingo" is particularly clever. I came across Anna's work because she tagged some of her pictures with #feelingstitchyig.Take a look!

@naive_needle

Image by @naive_needle

Image by @naive_needle

Image by @naive_needle

I hope you enjoyed this week's edition of Friday Instagram Finds! Join in the conversation by commenting below. While you're on Instagram checking out Anna's work at @naive_needle make sure you follow Feeling Stitchy! We'd love for you to stop by and say hello. You can find Feeling Stitchy on Instagram at the handle @feelingstitchyish. You can find Amy @randomactsofamy on Instagram.

Want to be featured in Friday Instagram Find? Tag your best stitch-related photos with #feelingstitchyig!

 

Friday Instagram Finds No. 29 with Girly Stitch

Hello, Dear Readers! If you're reading this, it must be Friday - hooray!! I don't know about you, but I have been So. Busy. I've been working away at my day job as a library branch manager, and I come home every night and stitch, stitch, stitch the night away. I have to set an alarm on my phone to go off at 9:30 pm every night to get myself in bed. (Just because it goes off doesn't mean I actually get in bed, but I shoot for it.)

@girlystitch
Today I bring to you Tamra from @girlystitch! Tamra has a lovely, clean style that features beautiful typography, pop culture fun, and gorgeously needle painted pieces of art. Like many of the needle artists I feature here, Tamra used #feelingstitchyig to get "discovered" for this weekly feature.

Tamra's pictures are always so beautiful. They're nice and bright and clear, and I particularly love the close up shots. Take a look at a snippet of her talent in the pictures below.

(Pansies are my absolute favorite flower, and have been since I first watched Alice in Wonderland. Wow, oh wow! Check out her pretty pink pansy below!)

Image by @girlystitch

Image by @ girlystitch

Image by @girlystitch

Image by @girlystitch

That's it for this week's edition of Friday Instagram Finds! Join in the conversation by commenting below. While you're on Instagram checking out Tamra's work at @girlystitch, and make sure you follow Feeling Stitchy! We'd love for you to stop by and say hello. You can find Feeling Stitchy on Instagram at the handle @feelingstitchyish. You can find Amy @randomactsofamy on Instagram.

Want to be featured in Friday Instagram Find? Tag your best stitch-related photos like Tamra did with #feelingstitchyig!

Friday Instagram Finds No. 22 with The Stitch Smith

Hello! I love today because it's the day my best friend in the whole world was born! Say Happy Birthday to Debbie :) And when her birthday rolls around, I know that mine's not far behind on October 3rd. I have some fun news to share about my birthday and an art show, and you can read that at the end of this post.

Today let's go to New Zealand and check out @thestitchsmith. Liz creates contemporary needlework, and also teaches classes and has kits for sale, too. I discovered her because she used #feelingstitchyig on some of her pictures. I enjoy her feed because her work is so bright and colorful. Let's take a look!

@thestitchsmith

This elephant stitch sampler is awesome on so many levels! The colors are so bright and happy, elephants are just plain wonderful, and the stitches Liz used are perfect and varied. I see the fly stitch, split stitch, and feather stitch. Which others can you spot?

Image by The Stitch Smith

Liz features many birds of New Zealand in her designs, like this Kakapo on this needlepoint pillow. I've never tried needlepoint because I always thought it looked too old fashioned, but Liz and her designs have totally changed my mind! I like the geometric triangles that make up the bird, the neat design on its beak, and the repeating pattern for the background.

Image by The Stitch Smith

Here's another one of Liz's embroidery patterns, and like so many I see on her feed, I love how there are a variety of stitches and colors.

Image by The Stitch Smith

Here's another of Liz's birds of New Zealand, and it's a kaka. Liz has these in her neighborhood, which is amazing to me! In the colder climate where I live, we don't have exotic-looking birds like this. Her needle painting is beautiful, and helps the viewer to see the movement of the feathers. The picture below it is a closeup.

Image by The Stitch Smith

Image by The Stitch Smith

That's it for this week's edition of Friday Instagram Finds! Join in the conversation by commenting below. While you're on Instagram checking out Liz's work at @thestitchsmith, and make sure you follow Feeling Stitchy! We'd love for you to stop by and say hello. You can find Feeling Stitchy on Instagram at the handle @feelingstitchyish. You can find Amy @randomactsofamy on Instagram.

Want to be featured in Friday Instagram Find? Tag your best stitch-related photos with #feelingstitchyig!

!!! Fall ArtScene in Rockford, IL !!!
The good news I have to share is that I am going to show some of my embroidered artwork at the Fall ArtScene in Rockford, IL! This is a dream come true for me. Rockford is my hometown, and I have always loved to check out the art for the Spring and Fall ArtScene events. I've always wanted to be a part of it, and this year I'm showing a couple of pieces at Lucette Salon and Spa. You can read the details here, and get some sneak peeks of what I'm working on over at my Instagram account @randomactsofamy. If you're in the Northern Illinois area, I hope you'll stop by. I'll be at Lucette the evening of Saturday, October 3rd, which also happens to be my birthday!