Catkin Embroidery Design was started back in 2000 by Shan Harris. Living and working from home in the suburbs of Bristol, Shan describes herself as 56 years young, pleasingly plump and obsessive about embroidery. She shares her house with 3 cats.

Shan has been interested in embroidery and crafts since a child. She can remember tackling a tapestry project at a young age. She, however, had a resistance to cross stitch until one Christmas when her cousin, who is herself a skilled needlewoman, asked for her help with the cards she was stitching. Shan remembers outlining goose after goose as part of the twelve days of Christmas series and eventually got bored and asked to be shown how to do the cross stitch part! An addiction was born.

After suffering from ME Shan found she couldn't work for sometime but it gave her the opportunity to stitch and she found producing something made her feel useful again. It was around this time that stitching became an obsession.

Eventually two colleagues persuaded her to try designing blackwork and after months of work Dancing the Charleston appeared. Shan's method at the beginning was unusual. The first step was drawing the design; straight onto the fabric! The stitching was then undertaken, with much unpicking and reworking until she had what she wanted. Transferring the stitched work onto the computer was the final step. As time went by Shan learnt to draw the design onto paper, chart it onto the computer and then begin stitching! She uses Easy Cross from Fulford Software as the design package of her choice.

Shan often tells of all-nighters spent tackling a particular face or tree.

If you would like a free brochure of our designs, please contact us at the address below:

Address:

catkinembroidery@hotmail.co.uk

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