Detectives often ask me where the mysteries come from. The honest answer is that every case starts long before the first clue lands in anyone’s inbox, at a desk covered in thread snips, suspect lists and at least one cold cup of tea. So here is a proper look behind the scenes at how an embroidery mystery gets made.
It starts with the crime
Before a single stitch is planned, there is a story. A victim, a setting, a handful of suspects who all have something to hide, and a trail of physical evidence that could give them away. I plot the whole case first, because the designs are not decoration, they are the clues. Each week’s design has to earn its place in the investigation: an object from the scene, a detail a suspect would rather you had not noticed, a thread (sorry) that pulls the story along.
Every design is digitised by hand
Once the story is locked in, the designs are digitised by hand, stitch by stitch. This is the part I have been doing for years for embroiderers all around the world through my digitising business, Veronica and Me, so the mysteries get the same treatment as any design that leaves my studio: planned stitch paths, sensible density, and no shortcuts. Anyone can make a design look good on a screen. What matters is how it stitches on fabric.
Then the machines interrogate it
Every design gets stitched out on real machines in my studio before it goes anywhere near a case. Machines are my day job too, through EmbroideryMachines.co.nz, so the testing bench is never far away. Every mystery design fits a 4 x 4 inch hoop on purpose, so the smallest machine at the table can play detective alongside the biggest, and the files come in PES, DST, EXP, XXX and JEF, with other formats available on request.
The clues go into envelopes (well, emails)
Finally the case is loaded into the delivery system. When you open a case, the clues arrive by email week by week: the story instalment, the design files, and a riddle to chew on while the machine runs. Four weeks of evidence, then you name your culprit, file your verdict, and the reveal arrives with your solver’s patch. If you have ever wondered what those riddles look like, the Riddle Files are open on the blog.
Then someone like you opens the case
And that is the whole operation: one part crime writing, one part hand digitising, one part machine wrangling. If you would like to see the finished product from the detective’s side, the current mysteries are open on the Case Board, and Start Here walks you through exactly how a case works. Complete beginners are very welcome. The magnifying glass is optional, but encouraged.