A Special Project Becomes a Course
In 2005, I was contacted by Carla A. Cantonica, publisher of A Needle Pulling Thread, a new magazine promoting Canadian needlework. Carla asked if I would design and create something for the spring 2006, Volume 1, Issue 2, of her magazine. Apparently, she saw one of my fantasy fish pins and sought me out.
I agreed to do something for the magazine, and the result was my Garden Sewing Box. This piece started as a sketch showing various parts of my own garden and evolved into the piece you see above.
Since its publication, this piece has won a couple of awards:
- Award for Excellence in Craft for Technical Mastery from the Craft Council of Newfoundland and Labrador, 2006
- A National Award for Original Design from the Embroiderers’ Association of Canada, 2007
Last year, I was approached by Virtual Threads, an online chapter of the Embroiderers’ Association of Canada, to teach a course on making this piece. The four-part course was taught during February and March 2021. Students had two weeks to work on each part.
The original piece was completed in 2005, so to write a comprehensive set of directions with photos, two additional boxes were created. The four sides of Garden Sewing Box 2 can be seen HERE and the third one is HERE.


Lots of the techniques I use in my art pieces are included in the course.
I am considering making the course available online. I’ll let you know!
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