From a childhood “miracle” to national recognition: Cut Knife artist stitches mermories into art

Recently, the veteran Saskatchewan embroidery artist returned home from the Embroidery Association of Canada’s national seminar in Richmond, B.C., carrying two more awards to add to a collection that spans more than a decade. But for Pedersen, the recognition is only part of the story.

Every stitch, she said, carries something more.

“Each picture is either a memory or emotion or some part of my life,” she said.

Cut Knife embroidery artist Marcella Pedersen has earned more than a dozen awards through the Embroidery Association of Canada over the past 15 years. (Image Credit: Kenneth Cheung/battlefordsNOW)

Pedersen placed third in the seminar’s themed competition with Serenity Blessings, a delicate thread-painting scene featuring a swan gliding across still water beneath soft reflections and greenery. The piece had quietly sat unfinished since 2016 before she finally returned to it this past winter.

At first, she had not even planned to enter it.

The seminar’s 2026 theme was Pacific Dreams, and Pedersen initially struggled to connect the work to the category. Then the meaning arrived unexpectedly.

“Well, Saskatchewan people all dream about retiring to B.C.,” she said. “So why don’t I just – I am dreaming of retiring at a peaceful place in B.C.”

The piece, she explained, evolved much like a painting.

“You paint your backdrop first,” she said. From there came layers of long threadwork, stitched reflections, clouds mirrored in water and carefully textured trees. Even the swan itself was built dimension by dimension using felt beneath layers of thread to create depth and shape.

“It’s just what your mind sees,” she said.

That patient process has defined much of Pedersen’s life.

She made her first stitching sampler at age 10, then embroidered tea towels for her hope chest at 13. By the late 1970s, she had joined the Cut Knife Nimble Thimbles to learn hardanger embroidery, beginning what would become a lifelong pursuit of mastering traditional techniques.

“I wanted to learn 30 different kinds of embroidery before these elderly women passed away or quit,” she said.

A stitching sampler created by Marcella Pedersen at age 10 marked the beginning of the Cut Knife artist’s lifelong embroidery journey. (Image Credit: Marcella Pedersen)

Loon Dance Blessings, created by Cut Knife embroidery artist Marcella Pedersen in 2012. (Image Credit: Marcella Pedersen)

Since joining the Embroidery Association of Canada in the early 2000s, Pedersen has collected 14 national awards.

Some projects can take dozens of hours. One poinsettia piece required two hours for each individual petal.

“So right there you’ve got 36 hours,” she said.

The materials themselves can also be costly. Specialty gold threads may run as high as $150, while professional framing can add several hundred dollars more.

Marcella’s Stumpwork Crocus by Cut Knife artist Marcella Pedersen showcases the three-dimensional embroidery technique known as stumpwork. (Image Credit: Marcella Pedersen)

But beyond the time and expense, Pedersen believes hand embroidery carries something machines cannot reproduce.

“There’s something about the hand doing it and the brain doing it,” she said.

Over the years, many of her works have become deeply tied to moments in history and family memory.

During the COVID-19 lockdowns, she stitched a piece inspired by the pandemic itself, filling it with symbols and messages gathered from friends and strangers online.

“I got 51 answers from 30 people, and I put them all on the piece,” she said. “So it now becomes a narrative historical piece of work in that sense.”

COVID-19 Doily – Memoirs of 2020, created by Cut Knife embroidery artist Marcella Pedersen during the pandemic lockdowns, incorporates words and symbols submitted by members of the public. (Image Credit: Marcella Pedersen)

It was also once meant for former prime minister Justin Trudeau. She attempted to send the piece to Trudeau through a friend and an Ontario MP, hoping it would eventually reach the prime minister himself. But somewhere along the way, she lost track of it.

Another award-winning work featured the historic Marco Polo ship, built by her husband’s ancestor in the 1850s. One humorous entry – depicting a car plunging off a cliff beneath the words “recalculating, recalculating, recalculating” – unexpectedly earned her first-place recognition.

Despite the national recognition, Pedersen still sees herself as part of a much larger community of rural artists whose work often remains unseen.

“There are many stitchers out there that are much nicer, better stitchers than I am, but they’re not entering their product,” she said.

(Image Credit: Marcella Pedersen)

A humorous embroidery piece by Cut Knife artist Marcella Pedersen depicts a car plunging off a cliff beneath the words “recalculating, recalculating, recalculating.” The work earned first-place recognition at a national embroidery seminar in 2019.

For her, representing a small Saskatchewan town on a national stage has become another source of pride.

“It’s definitely putting Cut Knife on the map,” she said. “I think it also gives the importance that small communities are just as important as large urban centres.”

Even now, after decades of stitching, Pedersen still talks about embroidery the same way she did as a child watching her great-aunt’s lace work unfold like magic in motion.

“It’s a gift,” she said.

“What I’ve noticed over the years, if a man creates it, it’s art. If a woman creates it, it’s craft.”

“You know, centuries old, women haven’t been recognized for their beautiful embroideries. You look at the church garments made in the Vatican and the King and Queen of England and all their gold and stuff, women are not credited for doing that.”

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Kenneth.Cheung@pattisonmedia.com

by Kenneth Cheung

From a childhood “miracle” to national recognition: Cut Knife artist stitches mermories into art

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