Margaret Land loved fabric and embellishment since she was a child creating clothes for her dolls. She began embroidering at age 10 and fell in love with the craft. She loves the textures it creates, the blending of colors into a design, and the ease of it. If she makes a mistake, she just pulls the stitches out and redo - no chemicals, no stains, no mess!

Recently, she has begun incorporating vintage materials into her work. Margaret uses old handkerchiefs, baby clothes, lingerie, laces, and linens. She loves the connection to the past and making something new and unexpected from it.

Margaret has no formal embroidery training, but she has studied art and design and has embroidered for 50 years. She works primarily in the heirloom sewing markets, embellishing children's clothing. Her work has appeared on the cover of Sew Beautiful Magazine, most recently on the December 2011 cover, and she is a frequent contributor. She created the "embroiderie" embroidery patterns, and published Embellish with Embroidery (Sally Milner Publishing) in 2002. Her recent work has been pillows and framed pieces incorporating the vintage materials she loves. They are seen and sold at The Gallery on the Boulevard in Tuscaloosa, AL.

Margaret has been teaching embroidery classes for 25 years, and she loves sharing the art form with others. She learned how to explain stitches and make them accessible to even the most untrained hands. She believes in de-mystifying embroidery and taking it out of the fussy-old-lady closet. It's a beautiful craft, and you can do marvelous new things with it. If you love fabrics and fibers and have a decent amount of patience, Margaret can teach you to embroider.