Prints Galore

 

Kathy Dawson is a Canadian designer who designs under the name A Kats Eye View. She and her husband Jim, reside in beautiful St. Albert, Alberta. She has three grown daughters and works daily in their retail framing and needlework business.

 

Kathy has been designing one thing or another for the better part of her life. “I have always been interested in art, crafts, sewing and needlework,” says Kathy. “My Mother taught me to hand sew at an early age and I have been doing cross stitch since the age of

fifteen when a neighbour introduced me to Ukrainian cross stitch pillows. It wasn’t long before I was hooked on stitching.”  

 

She gathered up all her mothers’ bits of wool and floss and set about creating her own version of the pretty pillows. There weren’t any craftshops in the small town of Peace River where she grew up so she made do with what was available.  She added, “my neighbour encouraged me despite the fact that my designs were not in the traditional Ukrainian colours of black and red but rather pinks, blues, greens and purples.  Much to my surprise, the pillows sold well at the local Church bazaar.”

 

Kathy studied art for a year at the Alberta College of Art but says she quickly realized that she didn’t have the discipline required to be a commercial artist and that she would probably starve as a fine artist.

 

Kathy has been in retail for the past thirteen years and has seen the work of many wonderful designers. She said, “I displayed several of my designs in our store to show examples of stitching and customers started to ask for the patterns.” Three years ago she decided to kit some of her patterns to take to a needlework show in Calgary.  The patterns sold out the first day and they have been selling well for her ever since.   

 

 

“I come by my enjoyment of needlework honestly”, says Kathy.”  I am the proud owner of a beautiful needlework done by my paternal, Irish Grandmother in approximately 1868, and a silk baptismal gown that was hand stitched by my maternal Grandmother in 1908. My mother was an accomplished seamstress and needleworker as were her four sisters and several of her brothers, who put their skills to work repairing harness, saddles,

gloves and chaps on their farm property west of Peace River, Alberta. My Aunt Jean is an accomplished weaver and amazingly still sews at ninety years of age. I only hope I can be so lucky.”

 

“I try to work on designing every day but running a business as well, tends to cramp my style on occasion.  I definitely need to work on getting other people to help with the stitching as I am far from a fast stitcher.  I hope to keep designing for many years to come and would encourage anyone else interested in design to give it a try. We need new and exciting patterns to stitch.”

 

Kathy likes to design patterns that are small and pretty and loves to use jewel and pastel tones as well as specialty threads and beads. She was thrilled when A Needle Pulling Thread magazine and Wonderful Network asked her to design a pattern using their beautiful Wonderfil rayon threads. Kathy added, “I especially enjoyed using the variegated threads. The colours used in this piece are a bit of a diversion for me but I am very pleased with the end result. I hope your readers enjoy stitching my Autumn Sampler.”

 

 

 

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