About


I’m Kelly, the designer and embroiderer behind Kelly Fletcher Needlework Design. I create hand embroidery patterns from my home studio (a corner of the living room) in Johannesburg, where I live with my husband, fabric and thread.

I learnt to work a needle at a tender age, as my mother, grandmother and great-grandmother were always knitting, crocheting, stitching and sewing. (The old photo is one of my sister and I with the previous three generations of stitchers.) And I found out not too long ago that my paternal grandmother also did embroidery, although she died long before I was born. So it feels almost inevitable that I’d end up with the same passion for needlework.

In addition to running my online pattern shops, I've contributed a number of projects to magazines - such as Inspirations in Australia, Ideas in South Africa and British Patchwork & Quilting in the UK - and created a standalone hand embroidery supplement for Ideas magazine. I've contributed a chapter of embroidered motifs to the book Stitch! The Complete Guide to Handsewing & Embellishing and designed a kit called Sew Cute Embroidery Kit to be sold at Barnes & Noble in the US. I work on editorial projects on an ongoing basis, so there's always something in the pipeline.

To see more of my designs and projects, visit www.kellyfletcher.co.za.