Of late, some of the opening paragraphs of All Stitched Up! have unpacked a little of the busyness that has enveloped Inspirations HQ in the last few weeks and months.

With the recent close of the Financial Year in Australia, it’s been the Admin and Finance Departments who’ve had more than just a few items on their To Do Lists. Think finalising payroll, superannuation, tax reports, financial reports… the list goes on!

Whilst all these items are an important part of running any business and have definitive due dates that need to be adhered to, they can quickly become all-encompassing and the work life balance that existed just a few weeks earlier no longer seems to be present.

It made us think of the ‘Big Rocks, Pebbles and Sand’ analogy Stephen Covey writes about in his book ‘First Things First’. If you’re not familiar with it, the analogy refers to our life - including our time, energy, budget and resources - as an empty jar that is filled with big rocks, pebbles and sand.

The big rocks represent things like our bucket list items, our dreams, activities that fulfill us, quality time with those we love, our faith and spirituality. The pebbles are made up of things we love or need to do but aren’t crucial to our happiness, success, or fulfillment such as completing a house project or watching TV. Whilst the sand is our mundane day to day tasks. Think emails, laundry, grocery shopping… again, the list goes on!

The trouble is, as illustrated in the image above, many of us fill our jars with LOTS of sand and pebbles only to find we have little to no room left for the big rocks. But, as Stephen suggests, there is a better way to fill our jars.

He suggests we say yes to the big rocks first, add our pebbles and then finally our sand. This way we ensure we’ve prioritised what’s most important to us. It’s not about getting more things done, instead it’s about getting our most important things done.

For us, one of our big rocks is our time with needle and thread and whilst the amount of time we’re able to pursue our passion with waxes and wanes depending on the season, there are times like the end of a Financial Year that’s it’s possible to forget it sits in our jar at all! As was the case for us recently.

Recalling the ‘jar’ though made us realise there’s a genius in the order to how we prioritise our time and that no matter how much sand is in our jar at any one time, we need to keep the big rocks front of mind as they’re what provide the balance and ultimately bring joy to our lives.

One thing that gives us enormous pleasure here at Inspirations HQ is when we discover how our community take ideas from us and turn them into something incredible. A short while ago, we received an email from Kilmeny Jones, from the Embroiderers’ Guild of Victoria in British Columbia, Canada, who told us about a challenge that she developed for her Guild after she had seen our book, The Design Collective | Pincushions.

In conversation with a friend, Kilmeny discussed how she enjoyed our concept of asking designers to create a pincushion, without giving them any other specifications. Knowing that there were a lot of very talented stitchers within her Guild, many of whom were wonderful designers, Kilmeny pitched the idea of a pincushion challenge to the Guild Executive. The idea was embraced, and the challenge was born!

Kilmeny borrowed our brief to the designers and put it in their own words:

The plan was to bring the entries together at a meeting and have attendees vote on them. There was to be a prize for the overall winner, as well as one for the most votes for an original design and the most votes for a design worked from a pattern. All of the creations would then be displayed at their annual Spring Festival.

The response from Kilmeny’s Guild was overwhelming. They received 38 pincushions! Some members stitched multiple items, but everyone enjoyed the process and loved coming up with ideas.

The overall winner was a stunning little surface embroidery house stitched by Sharon MacDonald. It had lots of French knots because, Sharon said, she just loves stitching French knots! She even created custom pins to go into the pincushion house as an added touch.

The winning original design was a flapper style pincushion doll created by Lois Waters. The winning pattern-based design was a quaker-style mouse design, with a Quaker-style cat on a bag in which the pincushion lives. It was stitched by Karen Carter from the pattern ‘Quaker Cat and Mouse’ by The Workbasket.

What a wonderful collection and a fabulous way to bring the Guild together and see what they could create. It wasn’t about the competition – it was about the fun of coming up with an idea and then working it to completion. And then the added enjoyment of seeing what everyone else had done.

In a similar vein, we were contacted by Nicole Detering who told us about another Guild and another challenge that produced some breathtaking work. The Embroiderers’ Guild of Queensland here in Australia had their recent Biennial Exhibition, entitled ‘The 1920s in the 2020s’. A challenge to members was set for the exhibition that aimed to evoke the spirit of the 1920s, but also to celebrate the use of the raised stem stitch.

The reason for this specific stitch is that the EGQ has adopted that stitch as part of the Royal School of Needlework’s initiative, the RSN Stitch Bank. The aim of this initiative is to preserve all stitches so that students, teachers, historians and researchers alike can use the resource in their work.

19 entries were received, all of exceptional quality. Three prizes were awarded, but all entries were worthy of merit.

Joanne Jayne was the overall winner with her gorgeous piece based on May Gibbs’s iconic Gumnut Babies. The Acquisition Award, granted to one piece that will then be included in the Guild’s own collection, was given to Jill Gillespie and her Casalguidi Work Bag. Finally, the People’s Choice Award was given to Paula Pugh, although because of the quality of the entries, this was a hard-fought prize!

Challenges or competitions are a fantastic way for stitchers to direct their ideas and come up with exceptional work. We’ve always enjoyed the San Francisco School of Needlework’s Stitch at Home Challenge but we’d love to learn about any others.

Have any of your Guilds or stitch groups set challenges or created competitions for your members? Do you know of any other challenges or competitions, or have you entered them yourself? Whether you win a prize or not, challenges are another way that we can share our ideas and passion with people who love needlework just as much as we do.

Interested in stitching your own pincushion? Check out our book The Design Collective | Pincushions for inspiration and browse our range of Ready-to-Stitch kits for the projects featured HERE.

Stitchers are all wonderfully kind and generous people who constantly give their time, knowledge and resources to others as they share their passion for needlework. Giving gifts is something that comes second nature to most stitchers. They love giving to others and every now and then, they indulge and give a special gift to themselves.

Knowing this, we have just created three new gorgeous gift packs to make it easy to find that special something for that special someone, or simply to treat yourself. All of our gift packs have a ton of goodies at an extra special price and are beautifully packaged, all ready to wrap, or unwrap, whichever you choose!

Gorgeous Grapes Gift Pack
1 x kit for the project ‘Grapes’ by Julie Kniedl
1 x copy of the book ‘Botanica’ with instructions for ‘Grapes’ as well as all of Julie Kniedl’s other three-dimensional embroidery projects
1 x 10cm (4”) hoop to stitch the project

The Gorgeous Grapes Gift Pack contains everything you need to do this gorgeous project. The value is AU$146.00 but you can purchase it for just AU$80.00

Goldrush Gift Pack
1 x kit for Castle Keep by Victoria Laine
1 x copy of Inspirations #108 with instructions for ‘Castle Keep’
1 x mellor to lay your stitches perfectly
1 x 16cm (6”) hoop to stitch the project
1 x copy of the book ‘A-Z of Goldwork’ with instructions for a range of goldwork stitches.

A gift pack especially for the lover of goldwork, or for someone who is new to the technique and just can’t wait to give it a try. The Goldrush Gift Pack is valued at AU$231.30 but you can purchase it for AU$175.00.

Incredi-Bauble Gift Pack
1 x kit for Bright Baubles by Natalie Dupuis
1 x copy of Inspirations #108 with instructions for Bright Baubles
1 x mellor to lay your stitches perfectly
1 x pair of komas to hold your gold thread while you stitch
1 x pink Hummingbird Needle Threader to make threading your needle a breeze
1 x copy of the book ‘A-Z of Goldwork’ with instructions for a range of goldwork stitches.

Ready for Christmas, the Incredi-Bauble Gift Pack is perfect all year around so that you can get your stitching done in time for the big day. Valued at AU$214.25, it is available for just AU$115.00.

All of these new gift packs, as well as our range of other Gift Packs are available for purchase on our website.

We have talked a lot recently about different ways to transfer embroidery designs on to fabric. While we were researching those articles, we came across the Sublime Iron-On Transfer Pens. We were so impressed we knew we had to stock them for our readers. These pens are something of a game-changer when it comes to getting your needlework design on to fabric.

The Sublime Stitching Iron-On Transfer Pen is so simple to use. You simply trace your design with your pen on to tracing paper. The tip is super fine allowing you to create a perfectly accurate reproduction.

You then place the tracing paper face down onto your fabric and iron. You can transfer the lines multiple times and because they are permanent, you won’t have to worry about them fading or disappearing before you’ve had the chance to stitch over them.

We have the Sublime Stitching Iron-On Transfer Pens available in either blue or green ink, which will show out perfectly on any light-coloured fabric. At last, an ideal solution to the thorny question of how to accurately transfer your embroidery designs is here. You’ll wonder how you ever managed without them.

You can have the finest embroidery tools and the most wonderful kits, but to really make your embroidery experience a breeze, you also need to have good light. We often have our stitching nook or chair set up at home, with excellent daylight and powerful lamps for evening. Wouldn’t it be great if we could pack up our nook and take it with us when we travelled to our stitch group or Guild?

The Triumph Rechargeable LED Magnifying Lamp is the perfect solution. It is super light and portable and shines a powerful white LED light that allows you to stitch comfortably no matter where you are or what time of day it is. It has a powerful 3 x magnifier so that you can see even the smallest of stitches, and it conveniently charges with a universal USB cable so your light will function no matter where you are in the world.

Why not brighten your day, and night, with a Triumph Rechargeable LED Magnifying Lamp? It is like your stitching nook in a bag. Now, if we could just find a way to bring that comfortable chair along too…

Is there anything in the world that we enjoy more than needlework? Of course not! Although there is one thing that comes very close, and that is buying lots of lovely needlework-related things for ourselves.

Knowing that this is a passion of ours, we can probably guess that you all share our passion too, which is why we are constantly adding new wares to our online shop.

We’re always adding new items to our online store, so it is worth checking back regularly to see all of the delectable things we’ve found. There are pages of goodies, so you can easily spend a number of happy hours browsing.

If you are looking for something specific, you can search by using the drop-down menu under ‘Project Type’ that will allow you to find beads, ribbons, threads and all manner of other things.

Or, if you’d like to see what has just been added, you can filter by ‘Latest’ to see all of the exciting things we’ve added to the shop as soon as they appear.

Any time is a good time to spoil yourself with your second favourite passion and as we are constantly adding new wares every week, the spoiling never ends.

That time of year is here again! It is time for us to get our needles out, come together and celebrate World Embroidery Day on the 30th July 2022!

We think that this celebration should be as important in the calendar as Christmas or Mother’s Day, so we’ve chosen our special World Embroidery Day projects, we’ve contacted our stitching friends, we’re icing the cupcakes and blowing up the balloons and we’re ready to celebrate!

There are all kinds of events being run around the world to mark this important day. The San Francisco School of Needlework always does something special, and this year is no different. They’re running an online class taught by Ukrainian Embroidery artist, Hanna Rohatynska that is available to everyone.

The Royal School of Needlework is launching a new annual event on World Embroidery Day to raise money for their Stitch Bank initiative.

Sip and Stitch encourages you to gather with friends and share your love of stitch by signing up as a host and inspiring guests to contribute to the RSN’s mission of creating the world’s largest directory of stitches. They have even produced some ideas and a range of themes, including stitch templates, to help you host the perfect event all whilst raising money for their Stitch Bank.

It doesn’t matter if you choose to get involved in one of these events, or you prefer to come up with your own way of celebrating with a group of friends or just on your own with your needle and thread.

We’d love to see pictures and hear your stories of how you celebrate the day. Throw the streamers then thread your needles for the embroiderer’s favourite day of the year.

We would like to introduce you to a wonderful new designer who is appearing in Inspirations magazine for the very first time. Fumie Suzuki is an embroidery artist from Japan who simply wowed us when she submitted her first project.

Sweet Stitches, which appears on the cover of Inspirations issue #115, is a Hedebo bag like no other. The design and the stitching are absolutely exquisite and we know that Fumie is a designer who our community will adore.

Hedebo is a type of cutwork embroidery that originated in Denmark in the 1700s. There has been a great deal of variation in Hedebo embroidery over the centuries, with changes in the type of stitches being commonly employed over both time and geographical location.

The Hedebo technique, which is familiar with needleworkers today, and Fumie has used in Sweet Stitches, was known as Udklipshedebo and was developed in the mid-19th Century.

It is characterised by its use of both cut threads and needle lace, and employs motifs such as curves, wheels and foliage. The edges of the cut areas are embroidered with blanket stitches and the interiors are worked with needlelace to give the lacy effect.

Sweet Stitches is a stunning pouch that would make a perfect wedding accessory among other occasions befitting such a delicate piece. The body of the pouch includes an intricate Hedebo pattern with a wonderful array of needlelace techniques and gleaming satin stitch leaves and drops.

It is then completed with an incredible edge of thread rings that really sets this project apart.

This is a wooden tool that has rounded sections on one end in different sizes. To achieve perfectly matched circles, you create your thread rings using the appropriate section on the tool.

This way you know that not only will the ring be round, but each one will match the next to perfection, creating the necessary harmony and symmetry that makes this project so unique.

Fumie does say that if you haven’t got a couronne stick, you can make the circles using appropriately sized knitting needles, pencils, skewers or dowels. Just be sure to keep all of your tools together for the duration of the project so that you know that each circle will match the rest in terms of size and shape.

While Sweet Stitches is an intricate piece, you can be assured that the instructions provided will make stitching this project a pleasure. It won’t take you long to find the rhythm in the Hedebo stitch and feel the joy that arises as each lacy section starts to form.

Whether you stitch this project for a happy bride-to-be so she can carry it on her big day, or you stitch it for the sheer pleasure of creating a project using a traditional and historic technique, Sweet Stitches is guaranteed to be a fabulous experience from the first stitch to the last.

Step 1 – Purchase Project Instructions

Sweet Stitches by Fumie Suzuki is a dainty drawstring pouch featuring exquisite Hedebo embroidery.

Step 2 – Purchase Ready-To-Stitch Kit

The Inspirations Ready-To-Stitch kit for Sweet Stitches includes everything* you need to re-create this charming Hedebo pouch: Fabrics (unprinted), ribbon, sewing thread, embroidery threads and needles.

Tulip by Christine P. Bishop from Inspirations issue #90 is a divine needlelace design on a beautiful Hedebo sachet.

Simplicity by Christine P. Bishop from Inspirations issue #88 is a linen table mat in elegant Hedebo embroidery.

Tulipan by Christine P. Bishop from A Passion for Needlework 3 | Blakiston Creamery is a superb table mat worked using Hedebo cutwork and needlelace techniques.

Hardanger is a type of counted embroidery that requires careful cutting and needleweaving to produce the lovely geometric designs. It hails from Hardanger in Norway and traditionally was worked in white thread on white linen.

Hardanger is a technique that is now practiced and loved around the world and is used in all kinds of projects with various colours and stitches being included. This has made Hardanger a wonderfully rich and varied technique, as these examples will attest.

This is a lovely piece, Sonia. You have used so many different techniques to create the magnificent whole. Congratulations on a beautiful design.

This is a lovely little finish, Elizabeth. Sometimes it is good to do small projects between the larger ones to keep things fresh. Thank you for sharing!

‘When COVID hit the world, we didn’t want to stop. At first we were allowed to have garden workshops of up to six participants, but when the winter came, we had to go onto Zoom. We added a once a month ‘Show and Tell’ session then ‘Slow Stitch’ sessions to our regular meet-up. Every week we were meeting on Zoom to share ideas and see our progress. This project came out of a Hardanger session we did.’

We’re so glad that your group embraced technology to allow you to keep doing what you love, Lorraine. It must have been great comfort through challenging times.

You must be very glad you picked it up and finished it though, Mavis, because it is truly a work of art!

Do you love doing Hardanger? Do you enjoy working it the traditional way, using white on white or do you like experimenting with colour and stitches? Or perhaps there is another technique that you enjoy?

Whatever it is you love to stitch, we’d 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

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A bright and bold collection of DMC threads to bring some colour into your stitching and get your creativity flowing.

The Inspirations Index, complete with issues 1 through to 115, now available in full, glorious digital format!

Chō Mon by Jane Nicholas is a perfect trio of stylised, goldwork butterflies forming a circular shape on a pillow design.

Beetlemania by Jane Nicholas from Inspirations issue #88 is a stunning goldwork diving beetle.

The Dragonfly by Jane Nicholas from Inspirations issue #41 is an elegant, jewel toned dragonfly on a gold background.

~ Stephen Covey ~

Stay informed of upcoming needlework events taking place all around the world in our What’s On page on the Inspirations Studios Website HERE.