The Handstitched Home

The Handstitched Home is a book by Caroline Zoob with photography by Caroline Arber, which was published by Jacqui Small in 2013.

When I started embroidering, it was often with a view to making something that could be used in the home. At that time (2012) I was still using appliqué as a major component of my designs. These days I either paint the fabric or use filling stitches. I loved the painterly quality of the faded antique fabrics, and now create these areas with variegated threads or shading, as well as paint.

It feels such a long time ago and, leafing through the book recently, I thought how differently I would approach certain projects now. That thought sparked the idea of a range of embroidery kits for things to make for the home. After all, there is a limit to the number of framed embroideries one can have hanging on the wall – or is there?

Something they don’t tell you about putting a book together: from signing the contract to the email with the date for the first shoot is a very short space of time. So some of the projects you see here were put together in an enormous rush with more than a few ‘through the night’ stitching sessions. Some of the locations were familiar to me and I created projects for them, such as the curtain for the glazed kitchen door at the gorgeous ‘cozy’ home of Chris Myers of Cozy Club fame.  and some shoots in locations which we did not get to visit before the shoot. I loved creating the embroidered panels for her dresser and glazed kitchen door. Another favourite was the fabulous beach house belonging to Atlanta Bartlett at Camber Sands in Sussex, as well as the photographer Caroline Arber’s beautiful home in London.