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Why tapestry?

Recovering from a short illness in 2019, my wife suggested I buy a Tapestry kit. Once I stopped laughing, I had a look at the kits online, and saw one, just one, that I liked the look of. This could be interesting, I thought. Why not have a go?

I made lots of mistakes, but was soon hooked on the quiet, contemplative, methodical process, watching the design gradually emerge from the canvas to take on its full depth of colour and texture. It couldn’t be hurried. It had to be done with care and thought, sensitivity and patience, and a fair amount of determination and persistence. I had spent most of my working life as a designer and maker of handmade furniture, but there is a big difference between working with wood and working with wool.

The kit eventually became a cushion, but it set me thinking. I could really enjoy this, but I certainly didn’t want to buy kits for making cats or cottages, horses or homilies, and we have
more than enough cushions. I wanted to
design my own.

I’m a keen amateur computer programmer, and as I sat there stitching and enjoying my tapestry kit, I thought to myself – I could write a computer program here. What a great way to combine two activities I enjoy! I could create a type of drawing/graphic program to design the tapestry using sketching and manipulation tools, to create palettes from commercial wools, such as Appleton’s or Anchor, to calculate wool content, price, and to compile orders. I could then use the program to work from while stitching, zooming in and out, modifying it, copying and pasting, saving and editing. It’s a reasonable working program now, with lots of features, although I’m always adding to it and tinkering with it, looking to improve it, and to iron out those bugs…

Tapestry 35

Tapestry 38

This is a condensed site for mobile phones. Get more information, including a few techniques, and more about the Design program by logging in to the site from your computer.

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