You may have heard us say before that the team at Inspirations HQ may be small, but it is mighty.

One of the joys of working in a small team is that we know each other. We know each other’s strengths and weaknesses and we get to share in each other’s successes and disappointments, over time becoming a collective family.

The same can be said of the Inspirations community… well almost anyway! The Inspirations community is definitely not small, but we love that so many of you have become part of our collective family.

Over recent weeks we’ve been working through the process of migrating to a new subscription system for Inspirations magazine that turned out to be a far more complicated task than we’d originally anticipated! Although much of the migration happened with the wave of an IT ‘wand’, we’ve spent countless hours poring over individual subscription records to ensure the data we’re transferring is accurate.

And do you know what?

We began to relay to each other the stories behind the individual records. Stories of phone calls received and made, emails penned back and forth, faces we’d been able to put to names at Beating Around the Bush and regular contributors to the very newsletter you’re now reading.

All of a sudden, what had originally felt like nothing more than data management became somewhat of a family reunion, making us appreciate all the more the privilege and joy it is to do what we do. Not only do we get to indulge our love of needle and thread with countless thousands, but along the way we have the privilege of doing life alongside many of you.

So, whether you’ve been reading Inspirations magazine since issue #1 or just joined us for issue #112, if this is the first, or the 311th issue of All Stitched Up! you’re reading, we really do hope you feel like part of the Inspirations family.

As we head into the final weeks of 2021, we know that this is an incredibly busy time of year for everyone. So, we just wanted to tell you all how grateful we are that you’re still reading and enjoying the newsletter and that you’re taking the time out of your busy schedules to send us your thoughts.

Firstly, you may remember that Caitlin Doyle wrote to us about her migraines and the difficulty she now has with stitching due to their severity. We just wanted to tell you that we had a few wonderfully thoughtful responses from the community, but they were very personal, so we have passed them on to Caitlin herself. We hope that some of them can offer her both assistance and reassurance.

Mary Wyn Thompson shared a story with us about her 21-year-old grandson. Recently he phoned Mary and asked if she would show him how to cross stitch. He had bought a beginner’s kit and wanted to give it a try. It seems, with Mary’s guidance, he took to it straight away and the following week came with another little cross stitch project to work on. Mary was thrilled. She says she doesn’t know how long it will last, but he had always been interested in her stitching when he was a little boy, so it seems he’s finally decided to try it himself.

Maureen shared a little bit of her own stitching journey with us. She said that when she was 4-years old, her grandmother had given her hooped handkerchiefs and threaded needles to keep her busy. She’s now in her 80s and she’s still stitching. She also loves knitting, crocheting, sewing, weaving and quilting.

We’re so glad that stitching can bring so much joy to young and old alike.

After reading about the Pomodoro Technique, Jenni Langford told us that she went back to college well over 20 years after leaving school and she used this technique to get through her studies. She would use the 5-minute break to do a little bit of housework or to make a snack. Her advice is to not just focus on what you are doing for the 25 minutes, but also to be mindful and focus during the 5-minute break, ensuring you won’t be distracted by it when you sit down to do another ‘Pom’. She now uses the technique for crafts and highly recommends it.

Susanne Scheurwater has been considering productivity. She claims that she definitely puts the ‘PRO’ into ‘PROcrastination’ so this segment resonated with her strongly. However, she wanted to highlight the Stephen Covey quote that was shared in the newsletter, as she thought it was highly relevant:

Finally, another little saying from Bridget O’Brien. Knowing that whoever you are and however experienced you are with your stitching, everyone will have to unpick some time, the mantra she lives by is:

We think that is the perfect place to leave it this week. Good luck with your plans, celebrations and stitching over the coming busy weeks and months but if you get a moment, please write in as we love to hear your thoughts and ideas.

One of the most beautiful spring scenes you can imagine is a green field, bathed in sunlight, and covered in a carpet of multi-coloured wildflowers.

Although most keen gardeners enjoy growing flowers in the confines of their gardens, wildflowers are something special. They’re often delicate, with intricately constructed petals and brilliant colours, but when they’re viewed en masse, they produce colour like nothing else.

Every country, and indeed every region has its own unique set of wildflowers. Some are known the world over, such as the Edelweiss, a wildflower native to the mountainous parts of Central Europe and the common poppy, once considered a weed, which would appear in cornfields and on other tracts of ploughed land.

In her latest design, Invermay Wildflowers, from Inspirations issue #112, Alison Cole has selected three stunning wildflowers native to her local area in Victoria, Australia.

The violet coloured Hardenbergia is also known as the Purple Coral Pea or False Sarsaparilla. Dillwynia is a delicate bloom in vivid reds and golds that blooms on a small shrub. The delightfully named Goodenia is a perennial herb with butter yellow flowers and rich green leaves.

Alison has selected these unusual flowers not merely for their wonderful colour, but also because of the interesting shape of the blooms. By fashioning them in stumpwork, the stitcher gets the added pleasure of carefully constructing the shape and texture of each flower, adding in the tiny details to ensure they look realistic.

Tweezers are probably an essential tool to have on hand for anyone creating their own Invermay Wildflowers. Even stitchers with the tiniest fingers may find it difficult to accurately place the elements when putting this project together. A pair of fine pointed tweezers will make the process much easier.

This beautiful piece provides a wonderful taste of the brilliance that nature has to offer. And it will encourage anyone who sees it to take a bit of time to appreciate the wonderful floral show that appears in national parks, fields, roads and verges and that, we would argue, could easily compare with any beautifully cultivated garden.

Step 1 – Purchase Project Instructions

Invermay Wildflowers by Alison Cole is a superb stumpwork study of Australian wildflowers in rich shades of purple and yellow.

Step 2 – Purchase Ready-To-Stitch Kit

The Inspirations Ready-To-Stitch kit for Invermay Wildflowers includes everything* you need to re-create this stunning scene: Fabrics (unprinted), embroidery threads, wire and needles.

*Please Note: To cater for flexibility of purchase, instructions are not included with our kits. For step-by-step directions on how to create this project, please refer to the magazine/digital pattern.

Aetna's Bouquet by Helen M. Stevens from Inspirations issue #109 is a stunning silk embroidery celebrating wildflowers from the fenlands of England.

Wild Flowers by Cathy Veide from Inspirations issue #18 is a painted terracotta pot overflowing with brightly coloured nasturtiums.

We love producing books in collaboration with our favourite designers, and for any of you who simply adore the work of Jo Butcher, we’ve got a fantastic surprise coming up!

We can’t tell you much about it at the moment because that would be giving our secret away, but we can absolutely guarantee you are going to love this collection of Jo Butcher’s gorgeous designs.

You can pre-order this magnificent new book now, with more to be revealed about the treasures awaiting inside over the coming weeks.

Beautifully tooled and superbly crafted, each Embroidered Panel Display Box is perfect for mounting a very special piece of embroidery to take pride of place on a dressing table, nightstand or anywhere in the home.

Finished in subtle oak-coloured timber and with plenty of handy internal compartments, the box features a wooden lattice insert under the glass lid that is easily replaced with your needlework. Alternatively, you can leave the lattice in place and use the box as is.

We recently received a request from one of our readers for a very early project first released way back in issue #20 of Inspirations magazine.

Pins & Needles by Donna Stevens is the perfect pattern for this time of year. It is a sweet little needlebook with a simple rose pattern on the front that is ideal as a beginner’s project or, better still, can be made in a short space of time as an ideal last-minute gift.

Pins & Needles introduces the stitcher to wool embroidery with a range of simple stitches that are used to make up the design. The instructions also include guidance on how to construct the needlebook with its lovely floral lining and pages of cream felt to hold loose needles, as well as handy pockets to provide a home for needle packets.

Now available as a digital pattern, you can purchase, download and start stitching straight away!

There’s a reason Santa Claus has to check his list twice... it’s quite easy to forget someone or miscount how many gifts you were meant to purchase.

For anyone who has come up short with a gift for a fellow stitcher this Christmas, we may have something to save you just in the Saint Nick of time – postal services depending of course!

The Sew Many Stitches gift pack includes:

1 x Button Bouquets Ready-To-Stitch Kit
1 x Button Bouquets Printed Pattern
1 x Summer Blooms Ready-To-Stitch Kit
1 x Inspirations magazine issue #110
1 x Inspirations Needleguide Card – Flowers of Panicale
1 x Nurge Hoop – Size 3
1 x Nurge Hoop – Size 4
1 x Au Ver à Soie Discovery Pack – Spring
1 x Bohin Needlebook (Design Varies)

The value of this amazing pack is over AU$375, but you can purchase it today for the special price of AU$215.

Like all of our gift packs, this one is superb value, filled with tons of stitchy goodness and guaranteed to bring delight on Christmas Day, Boxing Day, New Year’s Day or any day of the year really.

Along with all our remaining gift packs, Sew Many Stitches is available to order online right now, ready for immediate despatch.

There are many different ways of creating three-dimensional embroidery, but Meredith Woolnough has mastered a technique using water soluble fabric. The result is a series of stunning, ethereal artworks that seem to defy gravity.

The stitching is achieved using free motion sewing on her machine. She sews her designs on a water-soluble base, using a brilliant range of coloured threads. When complete, well, that’s when the magic happens. By dipping the finished piece in water, the base dissolves away leaving just the stitching behind. She then mounts her pieces with pins in a manner redolent of Victorian butterfly collectors.

Meredith calls her technique ‘sculptural embroidery’ and offers online courses so you too can try it out. The results she achieves are amazing using this innovative method.

If you’d like to see more of Meredith’s work, you can watch a video HERE, follow her on Instagram @meredithwoolnough or check out her website HERE.

From wares to kits and all kinds of tricks, if it has recently come back in stock, you’ll discover it below.

We are all about flowers today! The floral theme of this newsletter means that it is fitting for us to highlight Hazel Blomkamp’s magnificent pincushion that features in our book The Design Collective | Pincushions.

If anyone said that you could create a pincushion using beadwork, you might think they were a bit mad. However, the incredibly talented Hazel has achieved just that.

This lovely project is designed so that the intricate beadwork sits around the outer edge of the circular shape leaving a clear space in the centre for pins and needles to rest without damaging the main part of the design.

Hazel is well known for her exquisite beadwork and, in particular, her cleverly constructed flowers. If you are yet to try making one of Hazel’s beaded flowers, you are in for a treat. Her clear instructions show you precisely the steps to take to thread each bead that, when followed closely, will ensure that by the time you’ve put the final bead on to the needle you’ll realise you have an absolutely perfect petal! It is almost like magic.

Once you’ve mastered one petal, you’ll find all of the others a breeze. In this way, you’ll soon create the bright, beaded Sweet Williams, as well as the accompanying leaves and miniature blooms that adorn this project.

Hazel always thinks carefully about the practicality of her projects. When it came to pincushions, she found herself getting frustrated that pins and needles would disappear into the stuffing, so she thought hard about how she could create something that solved that problem.

By using a simple jar lid to create the hard base, she fixed the issue immediately.

If you don’t succeed first try at creating a beaded petal, unthread the beads and go back carefully to the instructions. In Hazel’s diagram, she numbers each bead so, like a dot-to-dot, you just need to follow the numbers in sequence and you will eventually get it right.

Sweet William is both beautiful and practical – a pincushion like no other. It is a project that you’ll find you use constantly and every time you take out a pin from the centre, you can experience that little thrill of satisfaction that you mastered Hazel’s fabulous and unique beading technique.

Step 1 – Purchase Project Instructions

Sweet William by Hazel Blomkamp from the book The Design Collective | Pincushions is a low-profile pincushion with sparkling, three-dimensional beaded flowers and leaves surrounding a lattice design.

Step 2 – Purchase Ready-To-Stitch Kit

The Inspirations Ready-To-Stitch kit for Sweet William includes everything* you need to re-create this gorgeous pincushion: Fabric (unprinted), sponge, plastic lid, template plastic, beading threads, embroidery threads, beads and needles.

*Please Note: To cater for flexibility of purchase, instructions are not included with our kits. For step-by-step directions on how to create this project, please refer to the book.

Dragonfly by Hazel Blomkamp from Inspirations issue #110 is a winged beauty depicted in needlelace and beading.

Triple Treat by Hazel Blomkamp from Inspirations issue #101 is three sparkling brooches created with three-dimensional beaded flowers and leaves.

Continuing on with our floral theme for this week’s newsletter, we have put together a collection of even more floral delights for you, stitched by our very own needlework community. Flowers are traditionally a popular theme for embroiderers, and it appears that the passion for them will never diminish.

‘I am totally isolated in my area in northern France, with no clubs or embroidery classes nearby. I met Laurence Lieblich through social media. With her creations posted online and the detailed instructions accompanied by photos, she always encourages you to embroider and to constantly improve. I'm very grateful for that.’

Thank you for sending in this most spectacular piece Claude. It’s wonderful that you have been able to make connections even when you live in an isolated location. Your beautiful stitching demonstrates just how encouraging Laurence Lieblich is and how talented you are!

And what amazing results you achieve because you do push your boundaries, Jennifer. Your Passiflora is indeed a wonderfully complex and intricate piece and your approach is an inspiration to us all.

‘Both projects were interesting and a lot of fun to stitch. All the wools are wonderful threads; they don't shred and aren't fuzzy. Additionally, Heathway and Gumnut Daisies are washable. I loved playing with the threads and the colours.’

These are both really interesting and beautiful projects, Margaret. It is so lovely to see the Art Nouveau influence, and your colour selection is fabulous.

Do you love stitching flowers? Or do you prefer other subjects? Do you get inspired by the colours of the petals and the shape of the blooms? Or do you love monochromatic projects with geometric shapes? Whatever it is you like to stitch, we would like to see it. Send us a picture of your work with a bit of information about the project and your stitching journey to news@inspirationsstudios.com

Become part of the Inspirations family by subscribing to the magazine... we'd love to have you join us!

Buon Natale by Di Kirchner is a beautiful reticella tree ornament worked in white and silver with a cord loop and beaded tassel.

The Peace Dove by Carolyn Pearce from Inspirations issue #52 is an exquisite Christmas ornament richly embellished with intricate stitches in shades of cream and gold.

On the Second Day by Susan O'Connor from Inspirations issue #88 is a delightful threadpainted ornament to celebrate the Christmas season.

Spirit of Peace by Carolyn Pearce from Inspirations issue #56 is a superb Christmas tree ornament embellished with beads and intricate stitches in shades of cream, violet and gold.

Peace Dove by Cynthia Jackson from Inspirations issue #108 is a sparkling ornament worked using silk, silver metal threads and crystals.

~ Unknown ~

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.