Welcome back to this, our very first issue of All Stitched Up! for 2024. This newsletter is our way of sharing our passion for all things needle and thread with you, the Inspirations Community, and we can’t wait to be a part of your weekly ritual of where and how you read it.

New year, new newsletter . . . well almost anyway! After gathering your thoughts in our recent survey, you might notice we’ve made a few small tweaks in light of your responses, and we hope you’ll find All Stitched Up! easier to read and fresher than ever before.

This week, ‘Needlework News’ points you in the direction of a tool or two that will help you store your stash. We hear the faint call of the future beckoning you to pick up needle and thread today to ensure you don’t miss an important occasion that is worthy of celebrating with needle and thread.

‘Our Community’ shares the work of your needles and thread in one of most popular segments, What Are You Stitching, back for 2024.

As most of the subscriber copies of Inspirations issue #121 have just left our Mailing Houses the world over, we’re sharing ‘Bertie’, our last project from issue #120 in our ‘Feature Project’. With hundreds of Berties already being stitched, if you’re quick, you might just be able to grab one of the last few remaining kits and join in on the fun of creating your very own!

Is there a better time to re-organise your stash than at the outset of a New Year?!

We think not, so we’ve gathered some practical tools to add to your stitching tool kit that will help you do just that. Inexpensive and easy to use, they’ll have your thread stash stored in no time at all.

Available in both card and longer lasting durable plastic, Floss Cards will see your thread stash more organised and less tangled than ever before.

Once wound, there’s no simpler way to store your floss cards than in a handy Thread Card Organiser Box. And whether you choose to store them alphabetically, numerically or by the colours of the rainbow, we have you covered!

If, however, you prefer to store your threads project by project, we have the perfect solution – packs of 12 hard-wearing plastic floss cards, bound together on a metal ring that will keep your threads organised and on the go.

Can you hear that?! That’s the faint sound of Christmas 2024 calling your needle and thread!

Although there are some of us in the Inspirations Community who are yet to ‘undeck’ the halls from Christmas past, with Christmas future just 341 days away, now is the perfect time to plan how you’ll mark the day with needle and thread.

With many of the kits from The Design Collective | Christmas selling out upon the book’s release, our kit department has worked tirelessly to ensure they’re now all back in stock, well almost anyway!

With 11 of the 12 projects currently available as Ready-to-Stitch kits, now is the perfect time to decide which one, two, three or maybe even more projects will make it onto your Stitching To Do List for 2024.

The ever-popular O, Tannenbaum from Inspirations issue #108 has become what we’ve termed an ‘evergreen’ kit. That is, a project whose Ready-to-Stitch kit we try to ensure is always available.

Although often difficult to keep up with demand, once again our kit department has outdone themselves! While there was many a needle and thread completing the project the world over at the end of last year, there are still kits available so you can put your own needle and thread to Trish Burr’s timeless design.

Lastly, if you cast your mind all the way back to Inspirations issue #92, you might remember ‘Santa’s Helpers’ from Jenny McWhinney – a set of six ornaments that guaranteed to bring a little extra festive cheer to your Christmas.

Jenny herself (and perhaps with a little help from husband Ron!) have put together kits for two of the ornaments, and we think ‘Bauble’ and ‘Jolly’ might just be what your tree is looking for!

Make sure you don’t let the call go of Christmas future go unanswered, we’d hate there to be any stitching regret when the day arrives!

The Ballarat Branch of The Embroiderers’ Guild, Victoria, Australia is thrilled to announce they will be holding their 40th Anniversary Exhibition in March, 2024.

Needlework royalty Alison Cole has been hard at work behind the scenes as a member of the exhibition sub-committee making it all happen, and she recently shared with us a little about what you can expect:

For anyone living in Victoria or fortunate enough to be passing through while the exhibition is on (you might even want to plan a special trip!) here are the details:

9th to 11th March 2024
St Patrick’s Hall, Corner of Dawson Street South and Sturt Street, Ballarat,
Opening 10 am daily
For more event details click HERE

The guild looks forward to welcoming you!

This past week there was a gathering to celebrate the passing of one of our generation’s great needlework artisans, Margaret Light.

It has been our honour to publish Margaret’s work over the past 20+ years starting way back in Inspirations magazine issue 28, through to the soon to be released issue #121, which fittingly features one of Margaret’s magnificent projects on the front cover.

We know that many of you throughout the global needlework community have been impacted greatly, both afar through her inspiring body of prolific work, and near for those fortunate enough to have attended one of Margaret’s many classes.

We count it a great privilege to have had the opportunity to both know Margaret personally and to have published her work, including capturing her legacy to be forever memorialised in her books A Fine Tradition 1 and A Fine Tradition 2.

Thank you, Margaret, for making the world so much more beautiful one stitch at a time and inspiring a generation of needlework fans to pick up their needles and stitch.

You will forever live on in our hearts, our minds and our needles.

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

‘I had a group of ladies at my house for tea and used my basket napkins. The table looked so pretty.’

Your table setting sounds absolutely idyllic, Marla. A wonderful find from an antique store that you have stitched beautifully. We love that have found a practical use for your stitching joy and no doubt you have the most enviable tea décor around!

We loved your pieces in All Stitched Up! issue #365 and issue #318 and you’ve created yet another gorgeous design, Holly. We love the contrast of using historic techniques to make a modern piece full of colour and interesting textures. We look forward to seeing more of your work in 2024!

‘It’s now finished, so thought you might like to see it. I call it ‘Defiance’. There is over 60 hours of hand work here, plus some calming vibes. Happy new year to you all.’

Susan, thank you for sending an update of your stitching, we spent some time looking over your design and the flow of stitches. It is lovely to see the piece finished, we feel a sense of calm and also the ‘defiance’ coming through your needlework. And finally, a happy new year to everyone indeed! May it be a year full of stitching joy…

Did you get some time with needle and thread during the break? Did you try a new technique? Or perhaps you have started a project for the year ahead?

Whatever you are stitching, we’d love to see it! Email photos of what you’ve created with needle and thread along with a few details about your stitching journey to news@inspirationsstudios.com

For our first feature project in 2024, we’re starting with a farewell to what has been an epic issue of Inspirations magazine.

This week we’re featuring the final project from issue #120, and when you consider the calibre of designs that were somehow all packed into a single magazine issue, we can’t really say we’ve saved the best to last because every single project has been outstanding.

What we can say, though, is we’ve certainly saved one of the most popular projects to last.

Publication: Inspirations Magazine issue #120
Designer: Tania Cohen from Australia
Project Name: Bertie
Project Type: Brooch
Technique: Three-dimensional Embroidery
Threads: Stranded Silk, Pearl Purl, Seed Beads & Paillettes
Dimensions: Finished design 4cm x 3cm (1 ½” x 1 1/8”)

Re-creating beetles using needle and thread has been the pursuit of needlework artisans for centuries.

With their intricate anatomy, often flamboyant and charismatic finishes and a scale perfectly suited to needlework, beetles often feature in stitched art.

In recent times, as techniques such as three-dimensional embroidery have evolved, insects have become standalone needlework creations in their own right.

Who can forget the impact designer Tania Cohen made when her first three-dimensional beetle Balthazar burst onto the scene adorning the front cover of Inspirations issue #116?

When his cousin Bertie arrived at our office, we were over the moon to be able to bring you yet another spectacular Tania Cohen creation.

Just like his cousin, Bertie is also a brooch providing a fabulous way to take your needlework out and about with you.

Tania has created Bertie using back stitch, couching, long and short stitch, satin stitch, split stitch and wrapping.

His spectacular finish has been achieved using sparkling paillettes, gold-patterned kid leather, gold metallic threads and shimmering silk threads.

On the day we photographed Bertie, it just so happened that at our location a praying mantis was nearby. After a while, this curious little fellow ventured over to see what all the fuss was about. We have no idea what he made of Bertie, but he seemed happy enough to let us take his photo!

If you are yet to join the Bertie craze, we still have a few kits left. If you are currently working on Bertie or have recently finished, we’d love to see photos of your creation.

Buttercup & Thick-legged Flower Beetle by Victoria Matthewson from Inspirations issue #118 is a superb silk embroidery study of a beetle and blossom.

Balthazar by Tania Cohen from Inspirations issue #116 is an irresistible goldwork Christmas beetle brooch with superb details.

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

The Egyptian Beetle by Wendy Innes from Inspirations issue #40 is a stunning three dimensional masterpiece.

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

For a list of upcoming needlework events, click HERE.