Eleanor Grace

Wonderful Toulouse Lautrec exhibition at Victoria Art Gallery in Bath. Lots of works also by Mucha and my favourite, Steinlen.

He, like me, is a serious cat lover! So many beautiful works, wonderful inspiration for my art...

Looking forward to this weekend's slow stitch group at Creative Minds in Trowbridge.

Come and join us for a morning of relaxing, a lot of chat and embroidery fun!

10am - 1pm at Creative Minds, Mill Street, Trowbridge. Message me for more details.

Ella has absolutely no interest in helping me with my stitching, but she's exhausted herself as head gardener this morning, directing my activities outside.

Now she's snuggled up to my trowel, very smug and pleased with her (lack of) effort! 🐾🐈‍⬛️

She's also showing off her white whisker! Happy Bank Holiday weekend, everyone!

May the Fourth be with you! Happy Star Wars Day

I made this crochet Death Star from a pattern by Pops de Milk a few years ago 😂

Yes, I've always been a Star Wars fan, not just because of Han Solo, but they had a strong female character who was daring and didn't just wait around to be saved!

Happy May the Fourth, fellow geeks!

New video on my YouTube - how to do a Woven Wheel 😊

Did you know this stitch goes back to Elizabethan times? Originally these were made in silver and gilt thread, which was extremely expensive...

I can just imagine those intricate bodies and dresses festooned with these stitches. Here, I've added some French knots which makes them look like a bird's nest I think! 💙

Please do like, comment and subscribe if you enjoy the video. This means that I can then make more free content for you 🩷

Find the video here... https://youtu.be/MrBa2c04zqo

Enjoy! 😊

Join our friendly little slow stitching group on Saturday 27 April at Creative Minds, Mill Street from 9am - 12pm.

Bring along any hand stitching / embroidery that you are working on and enjoy a relaxing morning together 😊

To book please go to www.ticketsource.co.uk/eleanor-grace or message me for more information. 🙏

Time for the last slow stitching workshops for a while...

These intermediate sessions are to make a beautiful heart decoration. In this session we will recap some of the beginner stitches, as well as adding in some fancy new intermediate stitches! ❤️

Available dates are Saturday 11 May and Saturday 22 June, both dates are from 10am - 1pm at The Court Street Gallery in Trowbridge.

Join us for a calming, meditative stitching session, which will leave you relaxed and energised.

Wow, March was busy! Doing means a lot more posting than normal, so many photos to pick from!

Welcome April, Ella and I definitely feel spring like now, even if the weather doesn't agree with us! 🐈‍⬛️🌱🌸🌼

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Happy Easter 🐰🐣 from my house to yours 🩷

Exciting news! I have two new dates for the diary for in-person workshops at The Court Street Gallery in Trowbridge 😃

Join us to make a Slow-Stitched Heart as a beautiful keepsake for yourself or someone you love 🩷

This session will utilise a mixture of beginner and advanced stitches, such as feather, seed, woven wheel, bullion and herringbone.

For those who have attended my workshops before, there will also be a couple of new stitches to learn 🪡🧵and you can 10% off by messaging me for a code ❤️

A wonderful morning of meditative and calming stitching awaits you!

Book now via www.ticketsource.co.uk/eleanor-grace

For those of you who are not able to visit, later in the year this will also be available as a virtual workshop via my YouTube Channel so subscribe now to ensure you don't miss out!🥳

If you're in or near Trowbridge, pop down today to see at their new ground floor venue on Mill Street... open 10 - 2 today with prizes and arts and crafts to try for free 🎈

They would really welcome your support 🙏

It looks absolutely fantastic and well done to Sophie, Steve and the team for getting this together!

I'm so excited to be running our next Saturday Slow Stitch Group session there next Saturday 10 - 1, let me know if you want me to save you a space! 🩷

The final day of is here, and the prompt is 'Vision'.

Ultimately, I have a long-term (10 year) plan for the next stage of my life and my business, which may be subject to change, but with an ultimate goal in mind.

I am still working almost full-time in my 'other' job and building my business up. In the last few months, my business plans have shifted due to what I see as a bit of a gap in a niche market.

I don't want to spoil all of the surprises to come, but I am working towards teaching more and entering into new, related ventures! Eventually, there will be less focus on making, although that will always be an element of what I do, as it's vital for my health and wellbeing.

My other wish is to live by the sea again, I miss it so much, and this beach is very near where I would live to end up!

Catching up on the penultimate day of is here... and it is 'Packaged'...

My packaging is something that I'm working on, so sadly, I don't have any decent, or recent, pictures!

I use eco-friendly white tissue paper and dusky pink raffia. As well as a lovely little thank you note.

What I can share with you is my bits and bobs packaging...

Over the years, I've saved many useful containers, from subscription boxes to L'Occitane packaging, to keep my odds and ends tidily put away. I wrote the contents on the front and so I can find them easily when I want them!

These Birchbox boxes were the best, as they had slide out drawers and always looks pretty as well, up on my shelves.

I can't believe March is over already!

Day 27 of is 'Moment of Calm'

The process of creating for me is my moment of calm in the day, whether it is designing, or even better, creating...

These bullion and woven wheel roses and fishbone stitch leaves are such glorious fun to make, I can work mindfully and sometimes almost mindlessly, where time can pass without noticing.

That is my moment of calm in a very busy world 🙏

Day 26 of is 'Call to Action'...

Recently, I've opened a YouTube channel, where you can learn some of the basics of slow stitching, including the stitches, composition, recommended fabrics and threads.

I will be providing some virtual workshops soon for beginners and intermediate stitchers. These are priced very reasonably and are there for you to keep, play, pause and work alongside me as if we were in a workshop.

For full details and even more free content, please join my Facebook group, Slow Stitching by hand with Eleanor Grace. 😊

Look forward to seeing you there!

Catching up again on and Day 25 is 'Product Story'.

This lace journal is my 'big ticket' item and took around 15 hours to make. It was initially a test journal as I had made lots of smaller items and examples for my workshops.

Before I started teaching, I thought that it would be a good idea to make a 'wow' product and this was the result!

Using only a natural palette and lace was a challenge, but adding texture elevated it. As with all of my creations, wherever possible I reuse, recycle and repurpose vintage materials.

When time allows, I will make some more journals, they are very labour intensive, but so enjoyable to work on a larger scale. When the piece is blank at first, I feel like a painter with a blank canvas, and that sometimes is joyous and sometimes overwhelming!

But I always get there in the end ❤️

Day 22 of and I've caught up!

Today's theme is 'Positive' and, I definitely feel that with my business.

As mentioned previously, I've gone through a massive evolution in my business, and today was the culmination of that!

Just like this Easter Egg, which I'm currently working on just for fun, I feel that I'm starting to bloom and move on into a new season.

Today, I sold off most of my old materials at a destash sale, which went really well. I met lots of other lovely crafters and artists and had some fabulous conversations with buyers about what they were going to do with the materials.

I did wonder if I would feel any kind of loss or sadness at having so clearly closed one door, but I didn't, I just felt hugely positive.

And yes, of course, I did replenish my stocks with some pieces from other stalls 😀

Catching up still on and Day 21 is 'Details'.

My work is all about the details... From sourcing the best vintage materials to incorporating small details and touches so no two pieces are exactly the same.

With this journal cover, the lace had to be unpicked and hand stitched on with invisible stitches. The pink fabric was covered with a layer of fine tulle to enhance its natural beauty and then finished with a hand pieced and sewn Kanzashi flower, made from seven separate tiny pieces of shot silk.

I also pay attention to detail in my packaging and wrote a little handwritten thank you note to show my gratitude. 🩷

Catching up on after not feeling so great last week.

Day 20 is 'A Day in the Life'...

For me, that looks like Ella, not only is she the most important thing in my life, but she knows it! She's an old cat now, so yowling and getting her own way are mandatory.

When I'm not working in the 'other job' I tend to spend my days seeking inspiration, as in this beautiful fig from the book Embroidered Flora and Fauna which I finally got hold of this week.

Morning tends to be the brain work, sorting, postage and packaging. This handbag is off to a new home in the US...

Afternoon and evening if necessary is spent designing and playing, such as with this Easter egg. Or making up pieces for an event or upcoming YouTube tutorial video.

Interspersed throughout the day, also includes tending to my Facebook group, as well as any chance I can to get into the garden for a while! 🌱🏵

Day 19 of is 'Gifting Ideas'...

I'm in the midst of a change of focus for my business and moving more towards slow stitching kits, patterns and workshops.

I do provide gift vouchers for all of these and they are something I am looking to extend in the future. Of course a kit is a wonderful gift for any crafter, as I well know!

This is one of my Christmas decorations from last year, which is one of the ideas I'm hoping to expand on 😊

Catching up on day 18 - process.

For me, idea generation often comes from a piece of fabric, lace, button, bead or trimming. I am an ideas person, pure and simple. When I'm in the zone, I can come up with dozens of ideas!

Usually, this comes in a bit of a rush and then a scrabble around on my stash to put together a 'mood box'... it's a bit like a mood board, but slight less boardy!

I fill a box or container with fabric and trimmings that I think go together well with my original inspiration piece and then whoosh, it begins to take shape in my mind.

For this piece, I started off with the fabric bottom right, which had a ditsy design in soft greens, pinks and blue. I didn't want the blue in this piece, so I covered with like for like colours, except the blue which I covered with a dark salmon pink. 🩷

Day 15 is 'Challenge' and for me, the biggest challenge is always time!

Working just short of full-time and running a business, making time for rest and recuperation as well as friends and family can be hard!

I sometimes feel myself pulled many ways, but on the other hand, I love what I do and I thrive on being kept busy... but I do also need to rest to stay healthy...

What a quandary! Over time, I am getting better at finding that which is worth investing time in, and letting go of that which is not. 😊

Day 14 of is 'Collection'.

As I've moved more into embroidery and slow stitching, there are a few products that I've left behind, and a few that I have brought with me.

One of these is my Kanzashi flower hair pins. These are made of 7 tiny snippets of organza ribbon, carefully constricted into a flower shape.

Incredibly fiddly and yet, when they come together, like snowflakes, although each is similar, not two are the same!

I also am starting to use Kanzashi flowers on other products such as my journals, which can be used as wedding journals, planners or guest books 🤍

Day 13 of is 'Signature Style'

I've been crafting since I was small, mostly with my Mum, Nan, and now with my lovely workshop students as well.

Even though slow stitching has the process, rather than the outcome, at the heart of it, my style remains unchanged...

Neat, intricate and tiny! I do gasp with wonder at the bold, sweeping pieces that Mum makes.

But it's not my style. Mine is precise and small and although I let go a lot more and try to step out of my comfort zone,, I think my work is always going to be like this!

Day 12 of is 'Focus and Priorities'...

Last year was a very difficult one for many reasons, but with such a life-changing year, it was time to reevaluate what I was doing in many areas of life.

One of those was in my business, my former 'plan' was no longer energising me. I decided to regroup and focus on what I really wanted to do...

The idea of workshops was rather a novel one, as I had never taught formally before...

But it has led me down a completely different path, one that I could not have foreseen, and one that did not realise would be so life-affirming!

Now I have a lovely group of people who I teach, both in person, and soon to come virtually, as well as having a YouTube channel and a very busy FB group of 2,000 members and counting!

And I couldn't be more fulfilled now!

-stitching

and today is Day 11 'Today I'm Making'.

I've been working in a series of embroidered hearts, using techniques that I teach in my slow stitching classes, just a bit sped up!

I'm also making plans to provide virtual workshops. patterns, inspiration packs and possibly kits in the future...

Lots to do and so little time!

What an absolutely wonderful Mother's Day Mum and I celebrated today with afternoon tea at Parade House in Trowbridge.

Everything was just so on point, beautifully and tastefully done, with incredibly generous portions, which made our eyes pop and our bellies ache!

To top it off, we had a wonderful performance by the Jane Austen Dancers of Bath.

Totally recommend this, such a lovely classy venue. A wonderful addition to the town and part of the regeneration of our County Town. I can't wait for another opportunity, and next time, I will get up and dance! 💃

I went to the Vintage Jumble Sale in Rangeworthy today. What a lovely sale it was!

Bought lots of beautiful vintage fabrics, and it was lovely to see the lovely and

I bought lots of lovely bits and bobs, which I will share with Mum and post more of tomorrow 🩷

Bit late on for yesterday...

Day 8 is 'brand'. I went through many ideas initially when I named my business... what I was looking for was a name that demonstrated style, elegance and quality.

In the end, it came back to two of my cats, one no longer with us and one still very much here! Both classy and elegant ladies, Eleanor (Ella) and Grace (Gracie).

So Eleanor Grace was born! My brand values are quite simple...

♡ Sharing knowledge and skills through learning and teaching
♡ Creatjng heirloom pieces, built to last, using age-old techniques
♡ Using reclaimed, recycled and vintage materials wherever possible.
♡ Taking inspiration from nature and the natural world

Happy International Women's Day...

“I’m a remarkable woman, always was, though none of you seemed to think so". I love this quote by May Morris, William Morris's youngest and very talented daughter.

She was a talented artisan in many and varied fields, an expert embroiderer and Head of Embroidery at Morris & Co. She also started the Women's Guild of Arts in 1907.

In fact, women were not admitted to the male dominated Art Worker's Guild until 1972!

Only recently has her contribution to the Arts and Crafts movement been recognised.

Women who push forward, fight inequality and stand up for what they believe are often negatively portrayed. I'm with May Morris, let's not let ourselves be underestimated, nor underestimate other women.