Whimsy Wendy Stitched Art

It still amazes me to see my hummingbird art translated into an embroidery design.I like the thread colors and how even the wing lines are added on top of the wing base.Thanks to my friend Wendy who generously agreed to stitch some samples for me to share with you. Let's take a look and learn more about Whimsy Wendy.

Lambzie. This coordinates with my Amelia Harper Collection for Modern Yardage. Think how much fun you can have creating clothing or home decor projects that have the added bonus of matched embroidery images.

Peas and Blossoms

Strawberries and Blossoms

Pussywillow

Dragonfly as a napkin embellishment

Whimsy Wendy, Wendy Jo Miller

Here is Wendy and her Janome Memorycraft 500e she used to create the wonderful embroidery samples. She loves her machine and is currently busy with embroidery orders for gifts with personalized towels, totes/bags and pillowcases. She has so many ideas and not enough time to tackle them, but has some open creative days marked on her calendar in bold and underlined to devote to her passion.

I met Wendy at The Linden Tree a few years ago and loved her children's costume tutu's, butterfly wings and princess hats that were sold there. Wendy started her business in 2007 as soon as her girls were in school full-time. She was itching to do something creative. At this point 75% of her work is custom that includes personal embroidery orders and upholstery work such as curtains, box cushions and recovering pillows. The other 25% comes from her Etsy shop that includes party decor, children's costumes and home dec.

Wendy said she could see my designs being used for home interiors.The fact that you can tailor the thread colors to blend into people's spaces gives them a lot of versatility, just like you can when you change personalized colors for fabric orders. She feels the personalization of products and services is so important to people these days.  Thank you, Wendy, for bringing my designs to life. Here's Wendy's business links:

Etsy
Facebook
whimsywendy@yahoo.com

As a visual artist, it helps me see how my work looks in its finished form in order to know how to create future images. This inspires me to design new images for sewists to use on a variety of fun projects. Thanks to Janome for these amazing machines.

Graycliff Illustration

As a huge Frank Lloyd Wright fan, I was thrilled to work with the Graycliff Conservancy on this illustration. It is the summer home sitting on the Lake Erie shore designed for the Darwin Martin family from Buffalo, New York completed in 1931. It was saved from demolition in the late '90's, was renovated and now welcomes thousands of visitors annually.

I first became aware of the Graycliff Estate when the gift shop manager, Ryan, purchased some of my cards and prints thru Etsy wholesale for the gift shop. I mentioned that I previously illustrated the Park Inn Hotel and Bank by Frank Lloyd Wright in Mason City, Iowa for their gift shop and asked if they'd be interested in cards and prints of Graycliff. The board approved and Ryan took numerous photos for me since I live so far away. Although now I really want to visit!

One of many photos taken this Spring

The estate is spectacular. My favorite design features the first floor windows that show the lake view from the front of the house thru the back of the house. I added a couple tree trunk silhouettes to try to get the point across. Another unique feature is the use of local limestone that contains iron. Some of the stones in the house and in the pond area have brownish rust streaks to illustrate that.

Here's my pencil that went thru some tweaks before the color version.

pencil drawing

It was wonderful working with Ryan who advised me thru the project. I just got the cards printed and prints made and sent to the Graycliff Estate gift shop.