My name is Amanda Burnim and I live in the beautiful Riverland in South Australia. For as long as I can remember my mum (Denise) was doing some form of craft. From sewing clothes, to cross stitching designs on our school jumpers, smocking dresses to eventually quilting and embroidery. I’ve always been creative but never quite found my mark until I started embroidering. Mum took me under her wing and I met and fell in love with her stitching group and found myself with 5 new adoptive mums.

I started making my own design just to make mum a birthday present, and from there I slowly made more pieces of my own.

Luckily for me, mum is my biggest cheerleader and at the Inspire, Stitch, Dream! retreat hosted by Patchwork By Sea, mum couldn’t help but show my work to everyone who would look, and one of those people just so happened to be the wonderful Libby Richardson. Libby took me under her wing and between her and my mum’s encouragement I have embarked on this journey to start creating pieces for everyone to share.

My main stitching philosophy is – do what makes you happy. If you prefer back stitch to stem stitch then stitch it that way, if you prefer pastels to bright, then use pastels. Make your work your own and what represents or appeals to you. Mainly, enjoy what you’re doing and the journey each pattern takes you on.

I hope we meet one day to chat over a shared love of stitching.