Dear Reader, Have we ever met before?
In case you have already visited my webpage before or we have already met personally, you may find some new information about me in the summary below.
In case you don’t know me and you are also interested in whose webpage you are visiting now, I would like to introduce myself shortly and tell about my needleworks and a bit about my private life as well.
Just like an average person, I have got several faces, which are sometimes very different from each other. During the last decades I have changed a lot. I have tried lots of things which are related to needlework, and of course I have also faced the running everyday life. You can find the results of my first attempts in pictures, videos or blog writings on my page. I must admit that sometimes I do tell stories about my private life as well in my blog. However, the main purpose of Eszterkezimunka.hu (means Eszter’s needleworks) is to introduce my textile arts, creative hobbies to the public.
I have been working with different types of needlework since primary school, only the techniques changed several times.
I met with the knitting needle first. This love continued up till my college years. Sometimes it comes back nowadays as well but only for smaller projects. Several hand-knitted pullovers were made between Budapest and Miskolc on the train during my 3-year college period.
At the same time – during my college years – I also met with gobelin embroidery and I stitched several pictures. You can find them in one of the needlework galleries. Unfortunately the gobelins were substituted by cross stitches after a short period of time.
When we moved to Szigetszentmiklós, I came across with cross stitching during one of my gobelin purchasing routes. I bought my first kit and made my first small picture.
Unfortunately I can’t share this picture since I have given it away as a present. After this I spent several weeks in the UK, where you can find huge amount of cross stitch stuff, magazines and kits in the local stores. Needless to explain the connection between the time spent there and my life-long-attraction to cross stitching. After this summer spent in England I arrived home with a lot of magazines and full of enthusiasm. I am lucky that our small town is one of those which has a well equipped local embroidery shop, where you can find almost everything for almost all types of needleworks.
After cross stitching some small pictures and little household objects, I started to stitch bigger pictures also. After a while I ran into three dimensional works so I had small cross stitched houses, Christmas tree ornaments and jewelry boxes, too. Please look around on my webpage checking the cross stitch categories to see my works.
It seems that there is an eternal relationship between cross stitches and me. There were periods sometimes, when I did not have enough time for stitching but I always try to find some spare time in my everyday life.
I had been longing to learn patchwork for a long time. I was wondering how others created beautiful things from small pieces of textiles, but I did not have the enough courage to start this technicque. After my older daughter, Panna was born, it was a pleasure to have a free morning in a month spent with the local patchwork group, learning the basic techniques of the quilts. I saw how happy my family was to receive hand-made gifts.
As I started to apply new techniques and practiced my knowledge in this field, my patchworks became nicer and better at the same time.
Besides my cross-stitched pictures my patchworks have also been introduced to the public on several exhibitions. I am very proud of the fact that several of my needleworks have been on display in international exhibitions, too.
I met the ribbon embroidery in Birmingham, at one of the biggest patchwork exhibitions. I was bewitched by this unique embroidery as the plain ribbons came to life, showing flowers and other natural creatures using only few stitches. About this technique I have written a lot on one of my other webpages (www.szalaghimes.hu). Please look at this page also, where you can meet with the basic stitches and sample embroidery shames as well.
Beside the above mentioned textile-based needleworks I look out to other creative activities as well. I have also tried the napkin-technique, glass painting and the currently popular coloring as well. I am so lucky since all my hobbies are tolerated by my family and it seems there is someone who is going to follow this way.
You can also find a link, called exhibitions on this webpage. Except one or two albums, these are related to exhibitions where my needleworks have already been displayed. I am really proud of the fact that my works have been exhibited at several places and I was able to share them in inspiring circumstances.
This webpage started in 2007, that is 10 years ago. A bit later I started to share posts on my blog also – involving the readers into my everyday life. After 2011 there was a longer break in my posts and fresh needlework publications. The reason behind this is the fact that I was supplying needlework kits and materials via our own webshop (Foltvarázs Kézimunka Webáruház). This webshop was built up as a family business together with my husband and the operation required a lots of energy from us. During this time the needlework took a back seat in my life. On top of this, my lovely second daughter was born in 2011, and my professional career also started to improve and it became more challenging at the same time. So I was not bored at all.
It is impossible to make up for these years but I wouldn’t say that it was a bad period of my life. It’s just that my needlework activity and blog have received a bit less attention.
Our webshop (Foltvarázs) was sold to its new owners at the beginning of 2016, so the needlework became a hobby and not a work again since then. It is time to redesign and reorganise the relating webpage in 2017. You can see the result of this reorganisation currently.
I have to mention that this webpage couldn’t be published without the support of my family and friends. Their encouragement gave me the impetus in the first years. My husband’s continuous help is essential in technical support and he is also a big help during the final stitches in the making of the patchwork blankets. I have to say a big thanks to him for all of his help and patience. My older daughter, Panna, seems to be a follower in needlework and creative techniques. You can find her work also here under the “foreign feathers” category. I am very proud of her. My younger daughter, Kati, seems to be better at gymnastics than sitting in the same place for an extended period, but she also makes beautiful things sometimes. It is the future’s secret in what she is going to be involved. I am really interested in witnessing her talent also.
Dear reader!
This is my needlework story in a (bigger) nutshell. Please scroll through my page, read my blog and please share your comments any time. In case you wish to try these techniques you can find some supporting articles and samples under the “How to do it!” link.
Have fun!
Eszter Mezőné Implom
2017
