Woodland Fox by Gwendolyn Sheppard

Today, we’re delighted to welcome AuriKid and guest blogger Gwendolyn Sheppard. We just love her style and have truly enjoyed following along with her creative journey!

Her debut collection, Spool-en-dids, featured 10 delightfully bright colors of our Aurifloss, Gwen’s preferred thread for her stitching, which she’s now been doing for half of her life! Her second collection, Woodland Spool-en-dids, debuted at Fall Market last year and featured 10 small spools of 12wt thread.

Gwen’s mom, Wendy Sheppard, is also an Aurifil Designer and they are quite the mother-daughter duo. We can’t say for sure if creativity is genetic, but seeing Wendy and Gwen create together makes us pretty certain that it is. We see wonderful things in the future for this talented young lady!

HUGE thanks to both Gwen and Wendy for making today’s post possible — we’re thrilled to showcase Gwen’s work and to celebrate her dedication to such a wonderful craft.

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Hello everyone, this is Gwen again!  I am excited to be back to share a bit of stitching from a kid’s point of view.

To start, let’s catch up on a few things that have taken place in the last few months.

Last time I was here, I shared the little flower basket that I designed and stitched for my 5^th grade teacher. It is a free design available for download HERE.

In my spare time from school and other educational activities my Mom had me do, I managed to finish up a few projects for Just Cross Stitch Magazine.  Unfortunately I can’t share those images with you yet, but as soon as allowed, my Mom will share them… You know my Mom, right?  She is Wendy Sheppard (known as ivory_spring on Instagram).  Every once in a while, Mom lets me reply to the kind responses left for me!

I have also been working on the dollhouse sampler, based on the book A Little Princess. Mom said I don’t have enough stitched yet to show you, but we’ll get to share soon! It will finish at about 15” x 15′ – and it will be my “magnum opus” for the 2020-2021 school year.

About two weeks ago, I received news that my stitched cat sampler won First Place in the Junior Division of the 57^th Woodlawn Needlework Exhibition. I am really excited about that! This piece is stitched ONLY with the colors from my first Aurifil embroidery floss collection, Spool-en-dids.  You can read more about it HERE.

Last year at Quilt Market, Aurifil released my second thread collection called Woodland Spool-en-dids. The threads in this collection are not embroidery floss, but rather a cotton 12wt.

I use them for hand embroidery.  I love stitching large counted cross-stitch pieces, but sometimes I just want to stitch and not have to count. Hand embroidery is especially relaxing to me. With my Woodland Spool-en-dids threads, I stitched this Woodland Friends & Fun scene that I had drawn and designed.

If you’d like to stitch up your own, the pattern is available for purchase HERE.

I have also used the same threads to stitch a few blocks from Susan Ache’s Sanctuary SAL in partner with Aurifil.  I really loved all the motifs that she created! Here is picture of one of my blocks.

Stitching from a kid’s point of view #1:
Sometimes a kid just wants to do something small and for fun.

I wanted to embroider, but I didn’t want to spend a lot of time doing it because summer is for exploring the woods in my parents’ backyard. So, I took just a few motifs from the Woodland & Friends design and randomly placed them in a new setting.

I filled in the empty space with mindless and random confetti stitches just for fun. Oh – Mom wants me to mention the needle I use to do hand embroidery. I use the John James chenille needles (size 22) for Aurifil 12wt threads because the needles have bigger eyes, and the tips are sharp enough to poke through fabric.

Stitching from a kid’s point of view #2:
Even when I think that one of my stitched pieces is insignificant or looks like it should be thrown away, my Mom always makes something out of them. I really appreciate that about her!

Since what I stitched really didn’t amount to much, Mom had the great idea to turn it into a doll quilt. It is 12″ x 15″, made from Mom’s pile of fabric scraps. Here it is! Robin Hood seems pleased!

I don’t like using batting for my doll quilts because it makes them stiff (such a small size!) Instead, I use the edge stitch foot to stitch down all of the pieces. The prevents the blanket from having a “hollow” feel.

This was such a fun and quick project. I plan to make a few more just like it to donate to charity.

I want to thank you for letting me share what it’s like to stitch as a kid! And of course, a huge thank you to Aurifil for always supporting and encouraging me in my stitching journey. Lastly, I can’t leave Mom out because she is the one who has made stitching fun for me! I hope you have a great day, and I look forward to being back!

Thank you Gwen (and Wendy!) — we love this little project! 

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THREAD COLLECTION DETAILS
Woodland Spool-en-dids
10 Small Spools, 100% Cotton 12wt
2115, 1104, 2882, 2345, 4241
3910, 2021, 1133, 2145, 5018

To view this info on our website, click here. For purchasing, please contact your local Aurifil Dealer.

GWEN SHEPPARD

Gwen is the daughter of Aurifil Designer Wendy Sheppard of Ivory Spring. She started stitching with her mom 5 years ago and is already an incredibly skilled cross-stitcher. She stitched a magnificent sampler using threads from her AuriKids collection, a piece that we were honored to showcase in our booth Fall International Quilt Market in 2017. Gwen is just getting started on her creative journey and is turning her attention to quilting.

ABOUT WENDY
Website — Instagram
Originally from Southeast Asia, Wendy came to the US for her tertiary education.  After her degrees in Chemical Engineering, she worked in research in a wind tunnel for a spell.  Nowadays, she is a stay/work-at-home Mom to a 7 year old.  Wendy’s designs have been featured in major quilting publications, both home and abroad.  She is also an author for Landauer Publishing, as well as an online quilting instructor.  She is passionate about encouraging quilters to enjoy their quilting journey.  During her free time, she loves to read history, and indulges in hand needlework.