The Exemplary 2025
1st Place, Non-Professional Non-Original without Instruction

I enjoy stitching snarky sayings, especially those which you need to re-read to “get it.” When I saw the cupcakes, they looked quite unappetizing, as hot pink, bright teal, and dark brown lumps – but my brain knew immediately that they needed to be more like those gorgeous expensive cupcakes pictured in magazines and available at specialty bakeries to make the viewer want to eat them with their eyes.

I wanted to make something that looked edible and interesting. The longer I studied the canvas, the more I wanted the cupcakes to be truly 3-dimensional, and very realistic. There were many drawings and samples made in the process of layering up wool felt for the frosting. For the cupcake embellishment, I made wool blueberries and cherries, used beads and spangles as sprinkles, and made a slice of lime in stumpwork techniques. When it came to the fluted paper baking cups, it was obvious that just dimensional stitching would not work with the larger/thicker tops, so I experimented extensively with silicone cups eventually finding a way to keep a bit of a flat bottom for each one. While they are sturdy, a thread pulled tightly will slice right through the silicone, so extreme care was necessary to add them to the canvas.

Materials: Perle cotton, silk, floss, wool felt, beads