When Washington based artist and teacher Karen Harmon sits down to stitch, she carries with her more than fabric and thread. She carries a lineage. Raised in a family of quilters stretching back generations, Karen grew up surrounded by hands that made, mended and created beauty from cloth. Her grandmothers stitched. Her mother stitched. Her sister stitched. Creativity will always be part of life.
But despite this strong foundation, Karen’s creative journey took its own time to develop. As an art teacher, she was confident in the classroom. However, in her personal work, she felt uncertain about her place, especially within the fibre arts world. She knew she loved creating, sewing, and painting, but she found it hard to see herself as a genuine artist.
Before joining Fleur Woods’ Joyful Embroidery course, Karen found herself at a crossroads. She loved fibre, but she wasn’t sure where she belonged or if her work was regarded as art by others. When people discovered she taught art, they wanted to see paintings or drawings. They expected canvas, not cloth.
That pressure quietly eroded her confidence. Karen hesitated to share her work, worried it might be dismissed as craft rather than art or misunderstood altogether. She also felt restricted by unseen rules about what an artist should do, produce, or look like. As someone who loved handwork, she wasn’t sure she truly belonged.
At the same time, Karen often felt creatively scattered. She experimented with many mediums, partly for teaching and partly out of curiosity, but she yearned for something that felt like home.
Karen initially discovered Take Two through its online courses, starting with a mixed media project that looked into family memories via stitched books. She enjoyed the process, but it wasn’t until Fleur Woods’ Joyful Embroidery course that everything truly made sense.
From the moment Karen saw Fleur’s contemporary use of colour, texture, and fibre, she felt a spark of recognition. It was stitching, but it was expressive, layered, organic, and alive. It reflected everything Karen found beautiful but hadn’t yet allowed herself to pursue.
More than the techniques, Karen was drawn to Fleur’s warmth, openness and joy. She felt she would not only learn, but also grow.
One of the most transformative parts of the course for Karen was the private online community. Initially hesitant to return to social media, she created a small Facebook account solely for the class. What she discovered there changed everything.
Instead of judgment, she found encouragement. Instead of competition, she found connection. Artists from all over the world supported each other, shared progress openly, and celebrated each other’s experiments.
Fleur’s kindness set the tone, and everyone seemed to follow her lead. For the first time, Karen felt safe enough to show work in progress, even when she wasn’t certain where it was heading. The support she got helped her overcome the fear that fibre art might not be “real art”.
She started to see the skill, intention, and expression in her own work through new eyes. She slowly began to embrace the title of artist without apology.
Throughout the course, Karen explored colour, composition and her own instincts through flat lays, layered fabrics and hand-stitched details. What surprised her most was how deeply she connected with the slowness of the work. Stitching brought to mind her grandmother, quiet afternoons quilting, and the meditative rhythm of needle and thread.
Fleur’s reminder to follow what brings joy turned into a revelation. Karen realised that hand stitching was something she could do for hours without noticing time pass. It wasn’t just a technique, but her creative haven.
She also embraced the freedom to work on multiple projects at once, something she had previously felt she shouldn’t do. Letting go of the rule to finish one thing before starting another unlocked a new wave of creativity. Some of her favourite pieces emerged from spontaneous experiments.
Since completing the course, Karen has stitched almost nonstop. She has created textured pieces inspired by her garden, her travels, and family moments. She has explored Fleur’s slow stitch kits, built colour palettes from flat lays, and added tactile layers to contemporary embroidered works.
She has also started sharing her art more openly, a vulnerable yet empowering step. While she continues teaching middle school art and loves it, she now makes space for her own practice with purpose. She trusts her instincts more. She recognises fibre art as a valid, expressive, and deeply personal form. And she finally feels proud to call herself an artist.
Although the course has finished, Karen still checks in with her classmates online. Their creativity keeps inspiring her, and she values the unexpected friendships made along the way.
Seeing the incredible diversity in how students interpreted the same lessons reaffirmed something important: there is no one definition of what an artist should be, only many valid ways of showing up and creating.
Hosted by tutor and artist Fleur Woods, Joyful Embroidery welcomes students from all over the world. Participants include both new and experienced artists who are able to stitch and learn at their own pace while they experiment, expand their skills and join the contemporary stitch revolution!
This course is an experience that supports genuine creativity, empowering students to create mixed media embroideries and textile collages with texture, layers, and embellishments with confidence. And with lifetime access to course materials and videos the creative possibilities are endless.