Meet Machelle Somerville

I met Machelle  Somerville a few years ago on my first visit to Peacock Alley Needlepoint in Ada, MI.

This week, I asked her a few questions while pulling threads for this canvas!

Machelle has been stitching since she was twelve.  Her grandmother taught her using potato bags.  They turned them inside out and she learned how to do stitches on the bag.  She doesn't remember what the fiber was but this lead her to doing cross stitch and then eventually into needlepoint.

She saw kits available in  stores but was not finding the designs she wanted for her own decorating style.  So she started painting her own canvas to stitch for herself.  About six years ago, she took some of her designs to Peacock Alley and they agreed to put some in the store.  When each one would sell, she would then paint another one.

Eventually she began working in the shop and became the manager.  One day she was placing an order with Fleur de Paris and agreed to send some photos of her work to them.  They liked her designs and they are now the distributors of Machelle's work!

Machelle has a Facebook page where you can see new designs:

https://www.facebook.com/MachelleSomervilleDesignsContemporaryInteriors?fref=ts&ref=br_tf

or the full line at Fleur de Paris under the Ziba collection:

http://www.fleurdeparis.com/products/10Browse.asp?Category=Ziba-Machelle%20Somerville

The local shop is Peacock Alley in Ada, Michigan.    Sandy has a Facebook page:  https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100005246178299&fref=ts&ref=br_tf

and a website:

http://www.peacockalleyneedlepoint.com/page/page/8624006.htm

The shop not only carries a large selection of canvas by many designers, fibers, books, magnets and fun gadgets but a very large selection of canvases by Machelle Somerville!

and now, I will go and put this design on  some stretcher bars!