I remember my mother, concentrated and surrounded by yarn, pearls, and patterns at her desk, sometimes before breakfast, driven by a new idea.

I remember folding the first print charts in our living room. She took me with her to textile dealers and weaving mills to pick the material for her first designs and introduced me into the world of these materials. And in 1997 she finally officially became “Châtelaine”. How she paints beautiful porcelain, makes a commemorative embroidery picture for my first hamster and sews blankets for the whole family. One of my earliest memories is how she builds the most wonderful dollhouse from an old cardboard box and some wallpaper leftovers. My mother was an artist through and through. Martina died suddenly and unexpectedly in 2017. You could as well say: All things around me influence my ideas and designs. Over the years I invented the “Mandala Gardens” which are my “trademark” and began to publish designs and projects online in classes and “Mysteries”.Ĭhatelaine Designs has become not only a very important part of my life and dreams but as well popular among stitchers and embroiderers – and each year I try to invent new, challenging and entertaining designs for your stitching pleasure! My designs are inspired and influenced by gardens of the world (and my own little one, which lives in a certain chaos) as well as art and architecture of all kinds of places and times. My goal as a designer is to incorporate many interesting and challenging materials as well as stitches “beyond” cross stitch to make the finished embroidery worth the time and money which is involved with them. From these first designs, I self-published and worked additionally freelance for some German craft magazines and stitching companies for a few years.Īfter finding what was available in USA in materials compared to Germany – I thought I was in “designer’s heaven” and my imagination ran wild with variegated threads, silks, metallics, beads and all the pretty Stash Stuff available for embroidery! I tried my fingers and needles at many different techniques – one particular love of mine is Silk Ribbon Embroidery. I took up stitching again then, but I changed ready bought patterns so they accomodated my own taste of color and shape and soon friends and family proposed that I make my own :)) The first designs were made with crayons on math graph paper and from there I went on. Educated in crafts and needlework in school as well as at home, it was very natural to me that I took up embroidery and stitching during schooltime, university, and later after being at home with my (then) little baby in 1989.

Already as a child I had a deep love for colors and textures, and textile arts as well as painting were an important part of my life since then.

Cross stitch designer group