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Meet the Seattle Embroidery Artist Who Has 65,000 Instagram Followers

A Seattle artist is taking needlepoint into the 21st century

By Chelsea Lin September 26, 2018

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This article originally appeared in the October 2018 issue of Seattle magazine.

This article appears in print in the October 2018 issue. Click here to subscribe.

First, it was knitting. Then came cross-stitch. Now, the latest handicraft to come back in style is embroidery. But where Grandma monogrammed pillowcases, Greenwood resident and self-taught fiber artist Lauren Holton is seducing her 65,000 Instagram followers with the vibrant images in her designs—some abstract, some inspired by nature—in contemporary color palettes.

“What I love about embroidery is that it’s connecting you to all these generations of women who have been doing this,” Holton says.

You can watch Holton’s tutorials online or purchase patterns through her Etsy shop, and she’s also teamed up with local entrepreneur Amy Vallejo to offer beginners’ classes through Vallejo’s Social Creative Workshops (next class, October 28; $95).

That business presents public and private workshops at locations around town designed to bring women together over creative outlets such as pie baking and cooking, hand lettering and embroidery.

Grandma would be proud.

View this post on Instagram

I thought it was time for a new business profile pic (before my rapidly expanding mid-section becomes any more noticeable )! Thanks to all of you wonderful people who share this journey with me, and for supporting me as I figure out how to grow with this business! I feel incredibly lucky to be able to work from home at a job I love, contribute to my family’s income, and be with my sweet son! #livinthedream #workfromhomemom #embroidery . . . . . #contemporaryembroidery #modernembroidery #embroideryartist #hoopart #embroiderypattern #bossbabe #bosslady #getcrafty #seattleartist #pnwonderland #diyhomedecor #apartmenttherapy #etsy #diycrafts #dscolor #homesweethome #artistsoninstagram #meetthemaker #makersmovement #doitfortheprocess

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