I loved designing and embroidering the Anatomical Insects, as did a lot of you. And to be honest, I just wanted to do more of them. I’d embroidered all the insects I could visualise in stitches though, so started thinking about other creatures that would work well in my style of embroidery.
I like ceramics (I have a Pinterest board devoted to the art form) and when I came across a mug with a little lobster etched into it, I knew I had my first creature: Anatomical Lobster.
My grandparents had bats nesting in the eaves of their farmhouse and, as kids, we’d head outside at dusk armed with wooden tennis racquets to “get the bats” – a wholly unsuccessful but highly fun half-hour of swooping and whooping for a bunch of young siblings and cousins. And so Anatomical Bat made its way into the range.
Both of these were mostly single-colour creatures and so the next one had to be more colourful. I’d had the vague thought that a frog might deliver on colour and when I came across photos of the red-eyed tree frog, I could instantly see him in stitches and so Anatomical Frog was quickly added to the range.
I’d had some photos of turtles tucked away in my ideas folder for a while, because the shell offered interesting stitch opportunities. What I wasn’t expecting was the rest of the turtle to be so well suited to embroidery. Anatomical Turtle uses varied and interesting stitches while still looking lifelike and staying true to the spirit of the Anatomical ranges.
The designs are available as individual PDF patterns:
And as a single pattern containing all four creatures at a bundled price:
The links above take you to my Etsy shop, but they’re also available on Craftsy.