Social butterfly Megan Zaniewski was attracted to stumpwork because of its wow factor. Apopular Instagram persona, she shares her secrets in her new book.

By Claire Waring

Megan loves monarch butterflies for their bold colours and the incredible migration they undertake each year across North America; 6.4cm x 12.7cm, thread painting and wire-slip stumpwork

There are those of us who could spend a week trying to portray wonders of the natural world and get no closer than an abandoned pile of knotted threads; then there are those of us whose alchemy with needle and thread can create an exotic luna moth, or iris in full bloom, which seem to dance off their backing in a moment caught in time. US-based Megan Zaniewski is very much in the latter category. As a stumpwork artist and thread painter, she uses a variety of three-dimensional embroidery techniques to achieve extraordinary results.

Influenced by her ‘mom’, who usually had an embroidery or needlework project on the go, and her paternal grandma who was a quilter, Megan recalls trying to stitch a stiff canvas herself, with a large needle, for her teacher when she was about eight.‘I remember thinking,“I don’t know how my mom does it.”You have to have patience to work at it because you don’t see your progress immediately,’ says the artist.