Today we meet Ilke Cochrane, a Dutch ex-pat living in the UK witha delightfully quirky sense of humour! Ilke has a great story, particularly around the name of her business brand... Mabel Figworthy's Fancies.

As well as designing 'what she fancies' for kits and charts, Ilke runs workshops and is very eager for anyone to 'have a go' at embroidery. She shares a great story about her neighbour, and also shares wise advice about treating ourselves kindly and admiring what we have created without comparing to others.

Susan Weeks chats with Ilke about:

• Stitch-A-Longs (SAL)
• Working on the RSN Certificate of Technical Hand Embroidery
• The self-imposed pressure of 'falling behind' when joining a SAL and then giving up
• Creating uniqueness with colours, styles and threads
• "not hampered by any knowledge"
• Discovering The Cross Stitch Forum
• Who is Mabel Figworthy?
• The unpredictability of whether a design will sell, or not!
• It's OK to NOT want 'world domination' in your niche
• Be happy where you are
• What is Hardanger embroidery
• Use short affordable workshops to try out a new technique
• Dealing with Imposter Syndrome
• The story of the gold thread...
• It might work, so 'have a go'
• From a painted pebble to an enthusiastic embroiderer
• Introducing Hengist The Medieval Unicorn
• Get Blogging!

For this episode... View Show Notes, Links & Examples of Ilke's work at http://www.stitcherystories.com/ilkecochrane

Like: https://www.facebook.com/mabelsfancies

View: http://mabelfigworthy.co.uk/

Shop: http://mabelfigworthy.co.uk/

Read: http://mabelfigworthy.co.uk/fof/

Related Stitchery Stories episodes you might like: https://www.stitcherystories.com/tracyafranklin/ https://www.stitcherystories.com/liannevanleyen/

Other people, places & things we mentioned:

The Knitting & Stitching Show https://www.theknittingandstitchingshow.com/