“EMBROIDERY INSPIRED BY APPALACHIA AND HAPPY THOUGHTS.” That’s how fiber artist Mary Roy describes her work on her Etsy page, MaryeStitches. Roy first tried hand embroidery in 2019 as a creative outlet to cope with the symptoms of her obsessive-compulsive disorder and the stress of her corporate job. She’s been learning and stitching ever since.
While she has always been creative, Roy says it took time to find the right medium to express herself. She thought she might be comfortable with textiles since she was used to watching her mother, a seamstress and costume designer, work her magic. “We always had needles and thread around the house, and she was always creating,” Roy says. “Sewing never felt right, though.”
But embroidery did. In 2020, she established her business, Appalachian Moon, which she rebranded earlier this year to Mary Stitches. Roy has been voted a 2021 “Best New Artist” runner-up by readers of WV Living magazine, an Emerging Artist Fellow by Tamarack Foundation for the Arts, and an Artist-in-Residence at Great Smoky Mountains National Park.
Read more:
https://wvliving.com/embroidered-beauty/