In my November article from the always invaluable Printwear Magazine, I tackled one of the most well-known forms of embroidery in the world- Monogramming. Rather than dance around the always popular, but seldom enlightening topic of which letter goes where in these typographical triads, I instead covered customer interactions in general around monogramming, forging on from there to define some common pitfalls and ending on a tight list of suggestions to make your monogramming more creative.  If you are in the business of gift embroidery, I really think you’ll get something out of this article that you can act on immediately.

I can’t fail to mention that I had a very important collaborator on this piece by the name of Cathy Sunderman, but who may be better known to embroidery-loving denizens of social media under the name of her business, Stitchfork Designs. Almost all of the stunning images in this article are gleaned from Cathy’s incredible collection of work. If you don’t follow her on Twitter, you really ought to. Cathy combines her wonderful fashion sense with whimsical quips and beautiful photographs of her work to create something completely fresh.

I was honored to have Cathy transform one of my own Viking-age inspired stock designs, the Urnes-Style Interlaced Beast, into a monogram for the article and for one of her own posts.

So, if you want to learn more tricks of the trade from myself and from the wonderful stitchwork of Stitchfork’s own Cathy, please check out ‘Get Creative’ and follow up with Stitchfork Designs.