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ISSUE 199, AUG 16 2019
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INSPIRATIONS. ALL Stitched Up!
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Hi There,
In last week’s All Stitched Up! #198 we unpacked ‘Elizabeth’s Musings’ from Needlepoint Now Magazine where she shared her frustration about how rare shopping for all things needle and thread in a fully stocked, local shop has become for many of us. She spoke of how we often finding ourselves shopping in bulk when we have the good fortune of stumbling across an enticing store further afield from where we live.

The challenge of this is making sure we know what we need when we happen upon such an opportunity!

Elizabeth makes sure that when she’s travelling, she travels with a list in hand of the supplies she needs, whereas her friend meticulously keeps a spreadsheet with all her projects on it along with the threads she has as well as those that are needed for each.
Now don’t get us wrong, we love a spontaneous shopping opportunity as much as anyone, but Elizabeth’s musing got us thinking about all those times we’ve come home with our goods in hand only to find we already have them sitting in our somewhat disorganised stash!
Earlier this year we introduced the method of ‘Kondo-ing’ which is a method of organising whereby we clear the clutter from our homes by keeping only those things that spark joy. Many of us at Inspirations HQ have managed to whittle down our needle and thread stashes since unpacking Marie Kondo’s method of organization, but one thing we’re yet to do is catalogue what we have and/or what we need for either the UFO’s we uncovered in the process or for those projects we’re yet to embark upon. And if we’re honest, one of the reasons we’re yet to, is that we haven’t stumbled upon the ‘just right’ way to do so!

Is it a simple list? A thorough spreadsheet? Maybe a catalogue of photos?

We’re hoping you might be able to point us in the direction of where to begin the process of cataloguing our stash, so if you’ve found the ‘just right’ way to keep track of what you have and what you need when it comes to all things needle and thread, we’d love to hear from you! Email us at news@inspirationssstudios.com
 
Have Your Say
Often the conversations we share in ‘Have Your Say’ have been sparked by something that’s appeared in ‘All Stitched Up!’, but this week’s conversation was inspired when the latest issue of Inspirations Magazine - issue #103 – found its way to Brigid’s doorstep…
Brigid McCrea
‘My Inspirations Magazine came in the mail today all the way from Australia to little old Alabama. I peel back the plastic and stare in wonder at the beautiful front cover. I haven’t even stepped away from the mailbox yet! What must my neighbors think? What has her so captivated at the mailbox?!’
‘I’m so excited as I walk back to the house that I can’t even tuck it under my arm. I just want to flip through the pages now! When I do finally make it into the house I plunk right down on the couch and get ready for an adventure. All other plans are on hold because I have my magazine, and nobody is allowed to bother me right now.

My fingers dance across the front cover. Not only is this magazine a visual beauty, but it’s textural too. They do such a nice job when they put this magazine together. My fingers move from the matte texture over some beautiful pink flowers to the shiny words of ‘Artful’ on the front cover. The title of the magazine is slick and shiny, hinting at the treasures that lie within.’
‘The light from the window dances off the front cover and I just take a few moments to drink it all in before I open it.
What new techniques to surprise and delight me lie within? Will my next project lie within these pages? Will yet another kit tempt me? I secretly hope it will!
Let my quarterly adventure begin! I crack open the magazine...’

Brigid, we can’t thank you enough for taking the time to share the ritual you embarked upon when the latest issue of Inspirations found its way into your mailbox. Your words were eloquent and left us blushing! Our team pours a significant amount of effort into each issue and it makes it all the more worthwhile when we know they’re so well received and appreciated.

We hope your adventure inside the pages of the magazine was everything you hoped it would be and more, and we look forward to seeing what Inspirations issue #103 inspired you to create with your needles and threads!
Featured Project
Prism by Natalie Dupuis
We’ve all admired the beauty of a rainbow after a heavy rain shower or stopped to smile at the colours reflected on a wall when the sun hits a glass window just so.
The refraction of light into the seven colours of the rainbow is remarkable to behold yet also something we often take for granted.
When light travels from one medium to another, it bends or refracts. Thus, when light from the atmosphere hits a water drop, it changes direction. Pure light is made up of all of the colours or wavelengths of light which, when mixed together, are visible as white. When it hits a prism, a water droplet or some other medium, each colour is bent at a slightly different angle which is why they appear separated. In fact, the colours we see are very much dependent on our own position in relation to where the refraction is occurring.
Now we know you weren’t planning on sitting down to read your favourite needlework newsletter and get a lesson in physics along the way! But understanding the natural world can inspire a sense of pure awe which then informs our work. The truth is, as needle artists, the colours refracted from white light make up the palette we work with every day, so knowing their origin is a wonderful thing.
With a deeper understanding of the formation of the rainbow, you can look at Natalie Dupuis’ Prism from Inspirations issue #103 with new eyes. Her breathtaking combination of metal thread and rich silk, stitched using a fascinating variation of the Or Nué technique, is one of the most perfect representations of the majesty of nature you could encounter.
In this tiny brooch, Natalie has described how pure white light might hit the decadent crystal in the centre and scatter outwards in an exquisite rainbow of colours, fading to its purest white form at the edge.
This project requires both precision and creativity. Although placing the colour in accordance to the colour wheel is vitally important to achieve the stunning effect, the shading achieved through the individual stitches is up to you.
If you are new to metal thread embroidery, you may find the behaviour of the threads a little unusual. In particular, when manipulating the silver passing thread it is best to take it slowly. Drawing concentric circles on your ground fabric helps to ensure it lies perfectly. When it comes time to use the coloured silks, you will need to work with multiple needles. This saves unthreading and rethreading the needle each time which would be both frustrating and would cause the silk to deteriorate faster.
It is easy to imagine that each stitch of this magical project is a tiny droplet of water refracting pure white light at just the right angle to display a flash of brilliant colour. With your needle, you can emulate nature in its purest form.
The colours of Prism will bring joy to even the most traditional of white-on-white embroiderers as they blend together in such perfect harmony. Who are we to argue with nature?!
Make Your Own Prism
Step 1 – Purchase Project Instructions

Prism by Natalie Dupuis is a sparkling brooch with a burst of coloured silks worked in Italian shading over silver passing thread.
 
PRINTED MAGAZINE
Inspirations Issue 103
 
 
DIGITAL PATTERN
Prism
 
 
PRINTED PATTERN
Prism
 
Step 2 – Purchase Ready-To-Stitch Kit

The Inspirations Ready-To-Stitch kit for Prism includes everything you need to re-create this glorious brooch: Fabrics (unprinted), kid leather, wadding, brooch finding, embroidery threads, crystal and needles.

Special Note: Instructions are not included in our kits. Please refer to the magazine for detailed information on how to create the project.
 
READY-TO-STITCH KIT
Prism
 
 
Looking for More Rainbows?
Ribbons and Rainbows
Ribbons and Rainbows by Jennifer Clouston from Inspirations issue #94 is a crazy patch evening purse worked on a rainbow of silk fabrics.
 
DIGITAL PATTERN
Ribbons and Rainbows
 
Rainbow Dreams
Ribbons and Rainbows by Susan O’Connor from Inspirations issue #53 is a fantastic rainbow-coloured felted handbag.
 
PRINTED MAGAZINE
Inspirations Issue 53
 
Needlework News
New Book – Embroidered Country Gardens
Lorna Bateman has been part of the Inspirations family ever since we first featured one of her iconic designs in the magazine back in issue #78.

Now her remarkable talent for re-creating beautiful country gardens using needle and thread has culminated in the ultimate celebration of Lorna’s work with the release of her first ever book titled ‘Embroidered Country Gardens’.
Create beautiful hand-stitched floral designs inspired by nature and learn how to embroider all the elements of a typical English country garden.
Suitable for beginners as well as accomplished embroiderers, join Lorna for a walk through a stitched garden as she shows step-by-step how to embroider exquisite floral motifs across 12 stunning projects.

Embroidered Country Gardens is now available to purchase from our website.
 
PRINTED BOOK
Embroidered Country Gardens
 
New Lorna Bateman Digital Patterns
To celebrate the launch of Lorna’s first book, this week we’re releasing some of her projects from Inspirations Magazine as digital patterns for the first time.

Les Jardins
Les Jardins by Lorna Bateman from Inspirations issue #78 is a glorious floral wreath in silk ribbon.
 
DIGITAL PATTERN
Les Jardins
 
Good Scents
Good Scents by Lorna Bateman from Inspirations issue #81 is two easy to stitch and delightfully scented lavender sachets.
 
DIGITAL PATTERN
Good Scents
 
Lorna Bateman Ready-To-Stitch Kit
To complete our week of celebrating all things Lorna Bateman, we also have a small quantity of Ready-To-Stitch kits available of the project ‘My Cottage Garden’ from Inspirations issue #95.
This charming garden scene featuring a potpourri of English florals is worked with a combination of silk ribbon, perlé and stranded cotton threads. Re-create the scene exactly as it appears in the original or make it your own by switching up the colours and adding or subtracting flowers.

Just a reminder that the instructions are not included in the kit, so if you don’t have a copy of Inspirations issue #95, a digital pattern for this project is available to purchase separately.
 
READY-TO-STITCH KIT
My Cottage Garden
 
 
DIGITAL PATTERN
My Cottage Garden
 
 
Featured Project
Grapes & Cherries by Julie Kniedl
One of the pleasures of eating from a bunch of grapes or cluster of cherries is that, after plucking one, there’s more to go back for.
They give you that delightful sense of bounty.
For centuries needle artisans have been beautifully rendering grapes and cherries in all forms of needlework, from textured crewel embroidery to lustrous threadpainting where dimension is cleverly created with light and dark shades.
They are also a perfect subject for three-dimensional embroidery, and you will find a fabulous bunch of white grapes and cluster of red cherries by Julie Kniedl in the book Botanica.
If you’ve been following our journey through this book, you will be familiar with the handful of techniques used by Julie to meet the challenges of realistically depicting a flower, fruit and leaves.

One of our favourite aspects of Julie’s work is the fact she not only creates the fruits and flowers themselves, but also includes the stems and leaves they’ve been growing on into her design, thereby heightening the realism and giving the impression the piece has just been freshly cut.
When you hold the piece in your hand and view from any angle, it’s incredible just how real it looks.
The attention given to working each detail means that, even if held upside down, the piece remains delightfully naturalistic, from stem to tip.
The bunch of grapes is made up of seven fruits, two tendrils, a leaf and stem. What’s beneath the thread? Wires, stuffed felt shapes and cotton fabric. The leaf is a large, wired slip, filled with long and short stitch using lightly variegated, fine wool thread.
The veins are added over the surface with stem stitch and the stem wires are wrapped with thread. The stitching for the grapes is worked over stuffed felt shapes made in three sizes for natural variation in the bunch.
We’ve included a step-by-step guide showing the process of making the filled felt foundation. Wrapped wire, secured in one end of each grape, forms the fine stems of the fruits, which are bound in place when the main stem wire is wrapped, along with the tendrils and leaf.
The tendrils are also wrapped wires, with the finishing touch being shaping these around a fine stick, such as a knitting needle or satay stick. Each element can be gently adjusted to a pleasing arrangement, thanks to the wire stems, and the fruits will hold their shape thanks to the stuffed felt foundations.
The cherry leaf and fruits are made in a similar manner using different thread colours and leaf shape. When it comes to the branch for the cherry cluster, however, we see an exciting development in Julie’s method of connecting embroidery with nature: the use of a real branch.
Any small branch you find should work, and a piece from garden pruning is ideal, particularly if given time to dry out. Cut a section to size – Julie’s cherry branch is 3.5cm (1 3/8”) long – and wash to remove any dirt or loose bark.
When dry, seal with a gloss sealer, following the manufacturer’s instructions. A 3mm (1/8”) hole needs to be drilled straight through the branch for inserting the cherry stems. Each wire stem passes through the hole, with a cherry secured at each end, and brown thread wrapping imitates the natural join between cherry stems and branch.
Through incorporating real branches into her pieces, Julie took her three-dimensional botanical embroidery to another, breathtaking level. We hope you are as excited to try this as we were when we first saw Julie’s stunning original. It really is a fantastic way of melding stitched art with nature.
Make Your Own Grapes & Cherries
Step 1 – Purchase Project Instructions
 
PRINTED BOOK
Botanica | The three-dimensional embroidery of Julie Kniedl
 
Step 2 – Purchase Ready-To-Stitch Kit
A bunch of fresh, green grapes, complete with a grape leaf by Julie Kniedl from Botanica.

The Inspirations Ready-To-Stitch kit for Grapes includes everything you need to re-create these luscious grapes: Fabric (unprinted), wool felt, wires, embroidery threads and needles.
 
READY-TO-STITCH KIT
Grapes
 
Four luscious red cherries with a bright green leaf by Julie Kniedl from Botanica.

The Inspirations Ready-To-Stitch kit for Cherries includes everything you need to re-create these plump cherries: Fabric (unprinted), wool felt, wires, embroidery threads and needles.
 
READY-TO-STITCH KIT
Cherries
 
Please Note: Instructions are not included in our kits. Refer to the book ‘Botanica’ for detailed information on how to create the projects.
 
Looking for More Grapes & Cherries?
Vintage
Vintage by Judy Stephenson from Inspirations issue #41 is an exquisite bag showcasing traditional Casalguidi embroidery.
 
PRINTED MAGAZINE
Inspirations Issue 41
 
Cherry Ripe
Cherry Ripe by Nikki Delport-Wepener from Inspirations issue #81 is a magnificent botanical study of ripe cherries created with dimensional stitches and ribbons.
 
DIGITAL PATTERN
Cherry Ripe
 
What Are You Stitching?
An X Factor can be described as a noteworthy quality. Sometimes it’s hard to put your finger on exactly what noteworthy quality draws you in, but there’s just something that immediately captures your attention and interest. This week we’re sharing projects from our What Are You Stitching? files that have such a quality about them, the ones that captured our attention from the moment they arrived in our Inbox!
Sue
‘I would like to share a goldwork sampler that I stitched last year. I have stitched for most of my life and until about ten years ago I worked mainly on counted thread techniques.
Then I visited an exhibition by a nearby embroidery group and was immediately drawn in by the diversity of work on display.
In the following years I have learned many styles, from crewelwork, calico gardens, fine whitework, stumpwork and crazy quilting to name just a few. My favourite though has to be goldwork! I have attended a number of classes and learned different aspects of the technique. When I came across a printed panel (designed by Louise Lockhart also known as The Printed Peanut and sold by Shop Beyond Measure), I just knew I had to turn it into a goldwork sampler!

The panel is printed on a cotton fabric and the design area measures approximately 39cm x 26cm. I chose the mustard and black version to go with my plan for covering it with goldwork. The purchased panel started out like this:’
‘And after several months of work I ended up with this!’
‘I tried to include all of the techniques that I have learned. The last thing I stitched was the small gold scissors, I was fortunate enough to be able to spend some time with Nicola Jarvis who patiently taught me how to pad the handles and then select appropriate metals to use for the cut work over the padding.

I worked a sample under Nicola’s guidance until I found the right sized purl and rough check, and mastered keeping the angles around the circles, before attempting the final part of my sampler.’
‘This was the first time I worked anything that was not from a kit, and I am really pleased with the results. I loved studying each motif and working out how I would interpret it in goldwork.’

Sue, we love that you’ve taken a ‘simple’ printed panel and embellished it with such ornate threads and techniques! The contrast between the two has created a piece rich with dimension that is simply spectacular.
Susan Cuss
‘When Spring finally arrived in Ontario, Canada the timing was just perfect, as I'd been stitching the project Spring Blossom which was designed by Carol Arsenault and is finally finished!
It's the first stumpwork kit I’ve completed and I'm very pleased with the outcome.
There are a few things I might change if I was to do this again in future, and there are a few very small changes I made to the design. It's about 5" (12cm) square and it took so much longer than I thought it would to complete!’
Susan, it was the elegant simplicity of Spring Blossom that instantly drew us into your piece. Your stitching is meticulous and the dimension from the stumpwork elements absolutely brings your blossom to life!
Susannah Whitney
‘I’m fascinated by stumpwork, particularly stumpwork figures. While traditional stumpwork figures have been very posed and formal, I wanted to design something playful and fun.’
‘Dancing Girl is inspired by my daughter, from her favourite striped top, to her blonde hair – which was created from locally sourced alpaca fleece – to her love of splashing in water. I was very proud when she won 3rd place in stumpwork at a recent Royal Adelaide Show.’
Susannah, your piece immediately stood out to us when we first saw it at a local Embroiderers’ Guild Exhibition - the colour, dimension and sense of whimsy is what drew us in, and we love that it was inspired by your daughter!

Whilst it might be hard to pinpoint, it’s always easy to spot! If you’ve stitched something that has a certain X Factor about it, we’d love to see it! Email photos of what you stitched along with a few about your stitching journey to news@inspirationsstudios.com
 
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Perfect Love
 
 
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Blue Ribbon by Carolyn Pearce from Inspirations issue #100 is a gorgeous blanket adorned with enchanting blossoms and an elegant bow.
 
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The Work Basket
The Work Basket by Carolyn Pearce from Inspirations issue #21 takes a humble cane basket and transforms it into a work of art, designed to store your own works of art in progress.
 
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Spellbound
Spellbound by Carolyn Pearce from Inspirations issue #19 is a delightful lavender bag with dusky mauve ribbon roses entwined into an elegant heart, tied with a wide satin ribbon decorated with tiny rosebuds.
 
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This Week on Social
 
By Iraida Sybareva
 
Autumn Gold by Phillipa Turnbull
 
Quote
‘Organising always seems impossible until it’s done.’
~ theorganisedhome.co.uk ~
What's On
Stay informed of upcoming needlework events taking place all around the world in our new What’s On page on the Inspirations Studios Website HERE.
If you’re holding an event or would like to suggest one to be added, we’d love to hear about it. Email us the details at news@inspirationsstudios.com
INSPIRATIONS
© 2019 Inspirations Studios

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