Maddie Jones is a cross stitch artist who mixes old-school embroidery with fresh, creative flair. She shares how a childhood hobby stuck, why designing her own patterns changed everything, and how antique frames often spark her next big idea.
How did you first discover fiber arts and embroidery as your creative outlet?
My grandmother taught me when I was 13 and it just always stuck!
Cross stitching is very disciplined & you know what the piece will look like before it’s finished. I personally love that predictability & simplicity. It’s actually like a ‘paint by numbers’!
Did you always see yourself as an artist, or was there a turning point?
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I definitely struggled with this, until I started making my own patterns. That’s when it changed for me and I really felt like I was ‘creating’ something more than just following someone else’s pattern.
What’s the story behind the name The Cruel Goblin?
Haha, great question! So there is an amazing embroidery store in Sydney called “The Crewel Gobelin” (Crewel is a type of embroidery, and Gobelin is the name of a French family that did clothmaking & made dyes for threads). I always thought it sounded like “The Cruel Goblin”, and I suppose I identify with Goblins so it seemed like a good name!
What was the first piece you ever made that made you feel, “This is me”?
I think the first piece I ever made! My flash sheet of skulls. I love tattoo art and I blended the two art forms together and that totally changed Cross Stitching for me and unlocked so much more creativity in myself.
How has your work evolved over time?
So it started very tattoo-inspired, and that’s dropped away a lot. I LOVE traditional embroidery motifs- think flowers and religious imagery. I think they’re so stunning and beautiful.
Where do you find inspiration for your pieces—emotionally, visually, or conceptually?
Funnily enough these days I source old antique frames and they’re usually my inspiration! I will see the shape or the form of the frame and then work backwards to think what would work for it. It’s so inspiring for me and ideas usually strike like lighting when I find a frame I love.
Do you plan each design in detail beforehand, or do you work more intuitively?
You HAVE to plan ahead with cross stitching! It’s like pixel art, so you have to have it all planned out beforehand (I use a software called Stitchfiddle).
Your work has such a distinct aesthetic—can you walk us through how an idea turns into a finished piece?
Thank you, so I use a lot of reference art – I will have an idea of what I want to do and then I will browse a lot of art and then adapt that to my ideas.
I usually start with a drawing, then I will import that to my software, and then I have to play around a lot with adapting it into the “pixel” form of cross stitching. I also have to think ahead and calculate the sizing (as I usually have a frame in mind and want it to fit perfectly!) for the threads & fabric I want to use, so it involves a bit of math, but once you understand it, it’s easy.
I would also say shading of a picture is a really hard thing to do with cross stitching, so figuring that out has been a job! Haha.
What’s the weirdest or funniest thing someone has said about your art?
Hmm…I will randomly hear from friends that they were talking to someone they know and that person knew my art, and that always makes me SO happy. You can never underestimate the reach of your art, and that’s always special!
What’s your favorite thing you’ve made lately—and why do you love it?
Quite often the most recent piece will be my favourite haha but I did make a piece of these swans & roses (super traditional old style of cross stitching) for this AMAZING antique frame I have. That’s a top favourite for sure.
Is there a piece you finished and thought, “Nope, never again”?
Anything with a lot of solid black or white. I love using colours and doing the same colour in huge block amounts is boring. I did another piece (not my design, a Thea Gouvenur piece) that took me probably 1000 hours over two years and I would even do that again, because it is so beautiful and used so many colours!
What do you do when you’re just not feeling it creatively?
I follow lots of accounts that inspire me is good and helps me stay motivated!
For me, I stitch at night as a way to unwind and if I don’t do that, I will probably just scroll social media, and I do NOT want to do that, so I embroider! And making sure I am really excited to be working on the piece I am working on or have upcoming! I
have a huge flower I put together recently and I am SO excited to stitch it that I am trying to finish my current piece as fast as I can so that’s good motivation too.
How do storytelling, humor, or darker themes play into your creative choices? Honestly?
Not really! With my art, (and with my tattoos too actually!) I just stitch what I think looks cool. I don’t read into it too much, if I see something and go “I wanna stitch THAT!” that’s pretty much it haha.
If we peeked into your workspace right now, what would we see? Be honest!
My studio is also my office so you will see a lot of suits (I’m currently really obsessed with suits). And lots of unframed pieces lying around haha. My walls are covered in my art too, which might be weird…? But I love it.
What’s one unconventional tool or supply you always keep nearby?
My cats! I set up in bed and am constantly surrounded by my 3 cats, which is my happy place. The young girl cat is obsessed with the threads though, even though she knows they are the “forbidden toys”!
What’s your favorite part of the creative process—dreaming it up or doing the work?
Ooo, I honestly love all of it. Cross stitching is doing the same thing, over and over and over, 1000000 times. So you have to love the process!
I genuinely enjoy it and it relaxes me. Dreaming up new ideas is definitely the hardest part and when I don’t have a big, shiny new idea in the making I do get lazy or unmotivated with stitching. So that is the key part!
What have you learned about yourself through making art that surprised you?
That I am an artist probably! I was a skier for so long, and I could never draw or paint or do what traditional art looked like, and while I always stitched, it was other people’s designs.
When I started making my own I really felt a sense of satisfaction and happiness around being able to dream something up and then bring it into existence!
Where can people see your work? @thecruelgoblin on insta!
Interview posted August 2025
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