A Dapto woman has taken out first place at the Royal Easter Show for her colourful cross-stitch artwork inspired by her beloved rescue dog, Stella.
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Amy Joyce won the Aida cloth section at this year's show, an achievement which came just two years after she picked up the needle and thread again.
"I was beyond excited. I didn't expect it to happen," Mrs Joyce said.
The 29-year-old first learnt cross-stitching from her mother at the age of nine and did one pig motif, but as children tended to do, she said, she moved on quickly.
She did a few others here and there over the years but then two years ago, while pregnant with son Henry, decided to make a few things for the baby's nursery.
These were just "tiny things", Mrs Joyce said, but they inspired her to tackle a bigger project.
That was when she came across a pattern of a dog from Ukrainian designer Awesome Pattern Studio, which caught her eye because it looked just like her dog Stella, an adopted Rottweiler-German Shepherd cross.
"She's just the biggest boofhead, and it looks just like her," Mrs Joyce said.
She told husband Joe she wanted to do it properly, and decided to enter her finished artwork in the Royal Easter Show.
But Mrs Joyce did not expect her work to even hang, let alone take out the top prize.
"I wasn't even going to look at [the results]," she said.
Her mosaic work, which uses a rainbow of colours to illustrate the face of a dog, took her about three months to finish as she worked on it between her full-time job and looking after Henry.
Cross-stitch was more than a fun hobby; Mrs Joyce said the art helped with her anxiety.
"It just kind of stops the noise, because you have to concentrate," she said.
"It keeps my hands busy... and it gets the adrenaline out."
It also made her happy, she said, to see the works come to life.
Mrs Joyce sometimes copped some flack for her hobby as people pointed out she was "not a 90-year-old woman", but she said there were a lot of cool patterns out there.
Her impressive win has spurred her on to try her hand at even bigger designs: she is currently working on a 40,000 stitch of the Titanic.
"That's going to be the biggest one to date," Mrs Joyce said.
She hopes to enter this in next year's Royal Easter Show or the Albion Park Show, if she can complete it in time.
Mrs Joyce said she also wanted to give another form of embroidery, called blackwork, a shot.
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Natalie Croxon
Reporter at the Illawarra Mercury, mostly covering social affairs. Previously of the Bendigo Advertiser, Northern Daily Leader and Quirindi Advocate. Our Watch award winner.
Reporter at the Illawarra Mercury, mostly covering social affairs. Previously of the Bendigo Advertiser, Northern Daily Leader and Quirindi Advocate. Our Watch award winner.
