Each month we spotlight a teen at CPL.
This month features Maria and Summaiya, who both began visiting Albany Park Branch's YOUmedia last summer. During their time in YOUmedia, they learned various embroidery stitches such as back stitch, satin stitch and the woven wheel. Their interest in the craft grew so much that even began creating their own patterns!
Maria says she loves YOUmedia because, “it’s free and available to us [teens].” She enjoys embroidering and playing video games with the mentor librarians. Maria wants people to be inspired and know that even if embroidery “seems difficult, it is not really that hard.”
Maria decided to try her hand at portrait embroidery and created this stitched portrait of Shawn Mendes. Notice the embroiderer’s signature and the strategically placed “M” in his hair. Maria used a variety of techniques for outlining such as back stitch. Satin and chain stitch were utilized for filler stitches. She shows her wonderful sense of color in this piece and all her subsequent creations.
Summaiya says she enjoyed coming to YOUmedia this past summer because it was “very peaceful and the people were very friendly.” When discussing embroidering, she described it as a meditative experience, “your concentration is 100 percent on embroidery so you’re not thinking about anything else.” She likes it as an art form and a hobby because it's a "way to wipe out distractions and focus.”
Summaiya shows her very delicate stitching off in this pattern by Jessica Anderson from Cutesy Crafts. This piece displays her excellent attention to detail and her love of floral stitches. She demonstrates beautiful craftsmanship in this hoop art and puts a modern twist on an old embroidery tradition of stitching wise and empowering sayings with floral borders.
Thanks for sharing your work with us, Summaiya and Maria! Keep stitching!
