Results of Embroidery Survey

Hello everyone

Thank you to all those who participated in the Embroidery Survey – we had more than 1500 contributors which is fantastic! I am going to share the results with you but before I start please be assured that if your style does not feature in the categories with higher votes this does not mean that you wont see future patterns in this style. The results are simply to help me to know which designs are favored and to give you more of these in the future.

Those who chose not to participate in the survey but emailed us your results instead, these are not reflected in these results but I have listened and will do my best to take your requirements into consideration in future.

So lets get started. There were 10 questions in the Survey – you can see the question and the results following for each category.

Question 1

As you can see the top vote was nature, followed closely by birds and botanical. The good news is that you will see more patterns in the nature category this year! With regards birds, I generally chose bird photos that have a pleasing form, outline and colour and it is not always possible to provide species from specific countries of origin as we have to cater for a global audience!

Question 2

There were a few surprises here! The top vote was for floral themed embroidery followed closely by animals, insects and historical themes. I can tell you that you will be seeing more insects and historical themes in this style of embroidery this year and I will do my best to include the floral theme in the mix.

Question 3

The overwhelming majority voted for Needle Painting which is not surprising but personally I like to mix it up and have a change from the intricacy of Needle painting every now and then. I have this idea to add some 3 Dimensional aspects to Whitework with colour, think it will be fun and hope to share my work in progress with you as I test this out. One never knows how it will pan out but its good to have the courage to be different and try new things?

Question 4

I was relieved to see that most of you prefer medium and small designs which is my preference too. I find large designs put stress on my hands and shoulders whilst I stitch – it is so much easier to hold and control a smaller piece. I also like to have variety and tend to get bored of a project that goes on for months and months! For those who prefer a larger design you always have the option of enlarging any of my designs to suit your preference?

Question 5

Linen won by an overwhelming majority! Linen may be a bit more pricey but there is no doubt it is worth spending the extra. There is nothing more beautiful to stitch on then a good quality linen, it is so forgiving, and will always bounce back into shape despite repeated washing and handling. Cotton is offered as a more cost effective option but I may discontinue it this year as it is becoming very difficult to source the right quality of cotton for embroidery. There is no reason why you cannot source your own cotton following my provided guidelines – I hope to touch more on different fabrics for embroidery in a future Blog post.

Question 6

I posed this question because I am currently testing out a linen fabric from Belgium that is slightly heavier in weight then the premium linen and comes in different colours. The premium linen available on my site is only available in white, but there is no reason why you cannot use coffee/tea to achieve a cream shade. We will also address dying your own fabrics in a future Blog post.

Question 7

This was probably my biggest surprise! I thought most of you would vote for Iron on transfers but it has made me re-think this option and I am now looking into a way of providing printed fabrics for all future patterns. Nice to see that some of you still prefer to trace your own outlines.

Question 8

Great to see that most of you prefer to purchase digital downloads. It is so much easier and cost effective then shipping a physical item and much kinder to our planet!

Question 9

Digital download it is. I am working on online courses at present and hope to make these available in a few weeks time. Thank you for giving me an indication of which format you would prefer.

Question 10

I know this was a tricky one for you to answer and most of you answered both, which is great because I now know that you like to purchase individual patterns but also like the option of purchasing a book every now and then. My published books are released on average every 3 years, which is how long it takes to produce an embroidery book from conception to release, so it is helpful to know in advance as we are now looking at 2023 for the next publication.

Till next time wherever you are in the world keep smiling and happy stitching.

Trish