Interference Patterns

This is an embroidery project that documents the interruptions of motherhood. I was getting frustrated with trying to find space and time to focus on making things alongside becoming a mother. So I decided to start a project that is about those interruptions. The rules are simple: I start embroidering a square in a geometric blackwork pattern, building up from simple dashes to a more complex web of stitches. As soon as my baby interrupts me, I have to stop working on the square. The next time I have a chance to embroider, I have to start filling a new square from scratch. Over time the grid should fill, as a visual record of two ‘waves’ colliding, me and my daughter. Her interference will generate the pattern, turning the interruptions of motherhood into something productive.

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'Interference Pattern I' was completed in March 2024.

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'Interference Pattern II' was embroidered on a muslin nappy square using the readymade grid pattern of the fabric. The final square was embroidered on my daughter's first birthday.

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After welcoming my son in March 2026, I have commenced 'Interference Pattern III'. This time, I am also marking days when I don't manage to do any embroidery with a single cross stitch in an otherwise empty square, and I intend to complete the entire artwork over the course of my son's first year. The embroidery will therefore be a more visually honest record of time spent parenting as a creative act in itself, filling up the entire muslin square in a collaborative pattern.