Sentimental Stitching — hand-stitched pet portraits, Memphis

~ First ~

We're sorry for your loss.

There is nothing on a website that helps with that part. What we can do is make something that looks like them — drawn from your photograph, in one unbroken line, stitched by hand — so it is on your wall and not only in your memory.

Take your time. We are not going anywhere.

A place to do more than mourn.

~ The work ~

Drawn in one line

A cat formed entirely from stitched vines and flowers, the animal shown in negative space.

Sometimes the animal is the space

This cat has no outline. She is the shape left behind by the stems — every leaf and bud placed so the space between them becomes an animal sitting down.

It is the slowest thing she makes, and the one people stand in front of longest.

Hand-stitched line portrait of a beagle, the thread changing from dark to pale where it crosses a painted field.

One line, two threads

Each portrait is a single continuous contour. Where the line crosses a painted field, the thread changes with it — dark floss on the bare canvas, pale floss on the color.

Watch his ear. The line does not stop at the edge. The color does.

Hand-stitched line portrait of a shepherd on a white and tan two-tone canvas.

Drawn from your photograph

Ears, the set of the eyes, the particular way they held their head — that is what the line is chasing. Not a breed. Yours.

Hand-stitched line portrait of a cat in pale floss on a deep painted ground.

Or the whole canvas carries a color

A single painted ground behind the whole piece, with the line stitched pale across it. It reads from the other side of a room.

~ Sizes & prices ~

Every size includes their name

One animal, drawn as a single continuous line, hand-stitched on stretched canvas, with their name or a short phrase. Ships ready to hang.

Every piece is drawn from your photograph, traced onto the canvas by hand, and stitched stitch by stitch — a single continuous line, start to finish, in one pair of hands. Half down when you approve the drawing, the rest when it ships.

~ Make it theirs ~

What else goes in the picture

The name is already included. Everything below is more drawing and more stitching, so each one adds time.

Their name, or a phrase“Go Bed!” · a date · whatever you called themincluded
Their toy, collar, or ballThe thing they carried everywhere+$35
Two-tone fieldA painted color across part of the canvas — the thread changes where it crosses+$25
Full painted groundColour behind the whole piece, like Denver+$40
Stitched backgroundVines, flowers, a scene behind them — the slowest work she does+$60
A second animal, same canvasTwo who lived together stay together+$50
Deep-profile canvasA thicker edge, no frame needed+$30
Wood floating frameFinished and ready for the wall+$40

~ Just them ~

$149

11 × 14 canvas
One animal, one line
Their name

~ One add-on ~

$174 – $209

Everything above
Plus a two-tone field, their toy, or a painted ground

~ Two add-ons ~

$209 – $269

Everything above
Plus a second choice — a toy and a field, or a background

Not sure what you want? Say what you remember about them and we will tell you what it would take.

~ It does not have to be an animal ~

Any image, stitched the same way

Any image provided is drawn out and still stitched with love. Same hands, same single line, same canvas. If you can send a picture of it, Gina can draw it and stitch it.

Everything in Add-ons works here too — a name or a phrase is still included, and you can add a second subject, a two-tone field, a painted ground, or a stitched background behind it.

Prices follow the same size list above. Scenery, a sky, or a lot of fine detail is more drawing and more stitching, so those are quoted once we see the image — send it over and we will tell you what it would take before anything starts.

~ How it works ~

You see it before it's stitched

Send a photo

A phone picture is fine. Straight on, good light, eyes and ears clear.
Approve the line

We draw your animal as one continuous contour and send it back. Nothing is stitched until you tell us it looks like them. Half down here.
Gina stitches it

By hand, on stretched canvas, in cotton floss. Ships ready to hang.

~ Who makes them ~

Hi, I'm Gina.

I bake, I paint, and I stitch. Sentimental Stitching started with one dog who was ours, and it turned into the thing I look forward to sitting down with.

Every piece is drawn and stitched by hand, here in Memphis. No two lines come out the same, because no two animals do.

~ Start a portrait ~

Send the photo and their name

Email everything in one message and we will come back to you with the line. Here is what helps:

A photo of them. Straight on if you have it. Eyes and ears clear.
Their name — or the phrase you want stitched.
Anything they carried. A toy, a ball, a collar.
A size, if you know it. If not, say where it is going to hang.
Colour — bare canvas, a two-tone field, or a full painted ground.
Your name and a good email so we can send the drawing back.

Not an animal? Same message, same address — send the image and tell us what you want with it. See Custom.

~ Is this a gift? ~

Say so in the same email and we will handle it properly:

Ship it to them, not you. Give us their name and address.
A note to go in the box. Tell us what to write and we will write it.
Keep the price out. No invoice or pricing goes in a gift package.
Tell us the date it needs to arrive by, and we will say honestly whether there is time.

Send a photo

Nothing is charged until you have seen the drawing and said yes.

~ Where this came from ~

The first one was ours

A photograph of Denver, a grey and white pit bull, lying with his chin flat on the carpet.

The same dog rendered as a single stitched line on canvas, with the phrase Go Bed stitched beside him.

Denver came out of a shelter already three or four years old, already hit by a car, already scheduled to be put to sleep. We got another eight years instead.

Denver lying in his dog bed beside a rope bone toy.

He only came in the room when there was company. He would be outside forty-five minutes and come in smelling like a dog, sit down in the middle of everybody, and start licking himself loud enough to clear the room.

Go Bed! is what we told him every night — and it is wrong on purpose. Somebody pointed out that we never once said go to bed. So that is what Gina stitched, because that is what we actually said.

He never went the first time.

She stitched this after we lost him. It is the reason there are others.

Your animal has a phrase like that too. You probably haven't thought of it as one yet.

Born from a loss of our own.
Made so you keep something of yours.