Sea Captain Embroidery – FINISHED!

If you follow me on Instagram (@randomactsofamy), you know that I’ve been working on this sea captain pattern for a while. I’d start, stop, start back up again. Life happens, and I didn’t even embroider for over a month! I have an injury to my left shoulder, elbow, wrist, hand, and fingers that sometimes is so bad that embroidering is too painful. This is such a stunning pattern, and I wanted to finish him up so badly, so when I had a point where I was feeling fairly well, I got to it.

I’ve named him Bartholomew the Brave. The French knots are silver metallic floss, and I’m pretending that they’re stardust. There were a lot of little lines in his hat to stitch, and I think it gives the piece such great texture. After I was finished, I mounted him in a vintage metal embroidery hoop.

Do you want to stitch your own Sea Captain pattern? You can purchase him on pre-printed fabric from Cozy Blue.

Here are some pictures of the progress of this piece:

I’m down to the end of stitching the Salty Sea Captain pre-printed pattern by @cozyblue ! All I have left to do are the waves, but I’ve tried different stitch techniques, colors, and floss thicknesses, and I just haven’t been happy, and I’ve ripped it out about 7 times. I think I need to set him aside for a little while so I can percolate on what to do. . .. … …. ….. …… ……. #embroidery #redhat #beard #awesomebeard #pipe #sashiko #red #seacaptain #saltyseacaptain #cozybluestitchclub #texture #colorful #thrive #thriver #thriverforlife #randomactsofamy #color #palette #colorpalette #colorful #handembroidery #handembroideryartist #modernembroiderymovement #embroideryart #embroideryartist #flossshading #whippedbackstitch #backstitch

A photo posted by Amy Byrne (@randomactsofamy) on

⚓️ Finished!! Oh, how I love this salty sea captain hoop I embroidered 😍 I’ve named him Bartholomew – isn’t he a handsome gent? Check out my last post to see a closeup of how I stitched him. I was having problems trying to figure out how I wanted to stitch the waves. I ended up stitching them in whipped backstitch, & love the raised effect. I bought him on pre-printed fabric from @cozyblue and I encourage you to do the same. Liz is wonderful, & her patterns are awesome! I mounted him in a vintage metal hoop that had a price tag for 15 cents from a store called Murphy’s on the inside. #embroideryartist #artist #handembroideryartist #hoopart #embroideryhoopart #embroidery #handembroidery #seacaptain #saltyseacaptain #stardust #embroideryhoop #modernembroidery #modernembroiderymovement #embroideryinstaguild #contemporaryembroidery #embroideryart #embroiderersofinstagram #embroiderylove #abmlifeiscolorful #creativelifehappylife #cozybluestitchclub #redhat #beard #awesomebeard #pipe #sashiko #red #whippedbackstitch #metalhoop #vintagehoop

A photo posted by Amy Byrne (@randomactsofamy) on

June 27, 2016

I am a hand embroidery artist who embroiders images and text that range from the whimsical, to the unexpected, to the evocative, on a range of playful and vintage-inspired fabrics. The tactile nature of embroidery endlessly fascinates me. I love the texture and feel of fabrics and different stitches, and combine them in ways not only to better render an image, but also to entice the viewer to want to touch the surfaces, as well. Hand embroidering allows me the time to create and relax; there’s nothing so soothing as pulling floss through fabric.