Innholdsfortegnelse for July 2016 i Cross Stitch Collection

Anchor, £2.94 Stitched on crisp white 14 count aida, this vintage-inspired anchor uses an impressive 11 shades of blue, so make sure you’re wide awake when you’re stitching! Designed by Alice Alan at Hall Stitch, we think it would be an ideal project to stitch up and frame for a marine-themed bathroom, or as a gift for anyone who loves the sea. The chart is available as an instant PDF download from www.HallStitch.etsy.com. Compass Rose, £3.40 This elegant design evokes sailors navigating via the stars, hoping to discover new worlds. It’s designed by Liz at Cozyblue Handmade and uses only full cross stitches, so will be simple to complete in time for your next voyage. Liz says the compass is also a symbol of good luck, which makes it a…

Meet the designer... Maria Diaz “I loved Breakfast at Tiffany’s – who wouldn’t want a big diamond and a dashingly young George Peppard? But it’s the air of serenity that I have always admired about Audrey Hepburn, a wonderful comedy actress and 20th-century style icon to boot. So this is my tribute. It is difficult to capture her features but we have the iconic Breakfast at Tiffany’s black dress with the long satin gloves and I have added just a hint of the New York skyline in the background another nod to the movie. I know it can be a touch monotonous stitching in monochrome so to bling up the final design a little I have added just a touch of metallic thread – apologies, but it is well worth…

Welcome baby   You will need… 14 count, aida ivory, ref: 3706/264, 25.5x25.5 (10x10in) Stranded cotton as listed in the key Size 24 tapestry needle Frame with a 14.5x14.5cm (5¾x5¾in) aperture For stockist details see page 58 Stitching the design FOLD the fabric both ways to find the centre and start stitching at this point. Adding the detail COMPLETE all the cross stitch in two strands of stranded cotton, before adding the backstitch in one strand. Tip… Happy first birthday! Stitch the dog on wheels for a lovely first birthday card for a baby just taking their first steps with a walker…

Going coastal At this time of year our minds turn to the beach and all the pleasures it has to offer. Anette Eriksson’s latest collection, Coastal Range, is only fuelling our distraction! Featuring typographical designs inspired by shorelines, harbours, and fish and chips, it includes something for every stitching appetite. We love the anchor chart, which is ideal for transforming into a cushion, beach bag or picture. To give the artwork an extra special look, a guide to achieving a simple ‘dip dye’ or ombre look accompanies each chart. “When creating new ranges, I get inspired by the latest home interior trends, and ombre is a very strong look for the moment, both in fashion and interior,” says Anette. “These patterns include a special tutorial on how you can create…

Star letter The winner of our star letter will receive a Time to Drink Champagne kit from Elite Designs. This poster-style design is just right for someone celebrating a big birthday or anniversary. Each kit contains white aida, pre-sorted DMC stranded cotton, chart and instructions, and has a finished size of 23x30cm. The kit is available from www.elite-designs.   co.uk, priced at £19.50 including free p&p. Well done to our star letter writer Vicky Hobbs, who will be receiving her kit in the post very soon. Wedding celebration I have just finished this in just over two weeks. I bought the magazine because of this project as the ring exactly matches my engagement ring and I wanted to do it for my husband. I added personalisation and changed…

Meet the designer... Lesley Teare This design is quite a novel present to give the bride and groom on their special day. If you haven’t stitched on perforated paper before then do have a go, as the design is charted with just whole cross stitches and traditional backstitches making it easy to follow. Small seed beads are added to give that touch of glamour to make a very special card or gorgeous framed picture! If you know the colour scheme that's been chosen, then why not adapt the colours of the flowers to match or just change the background to an appropriate shade? Whichever way you stitch this design – it will be great! You'll love stitching the beads and flowers on the bride's dress Our gorgeous bride is checking…

Collection 260 Stitch the Queen in front of Windsor Castle with our free giant fold-out chart Make an Easter sampler to decorate your home Learn new stitches with our band sampler needle roll from Jane Greenoff Stitch into spring with two country bike ride pictures Make gingham hanging hearts to give at Easter Learn blackwork with our elegant geisha design Collection 261 Stitch our wedding hands keepsake by Maria Diaz Exclusive giant chart fun fair carousel design Create the cutest mouse case for your scissors Make a glorious floral butterfly knitting bag Sail away with our pair of seascape pictures Stitch a forget-me-not alphabet sampler Cards for new homes, dog lovers and wine drinkers Collection 262 Celebrate the Queen’s 90th birthday with a regal Corgi in a crown cushion Stitch…

Tell us about yourself I’m 41 years old and live on the coast of New Zealand’s North Island. I’m married with a young daughter. I work alongside people with disabilities, assisting them to participate in the community. I also help my husband with his joinery business. When did you fall in love with cross stitch? When I started my first job, a friend was stitching during her lunch break and showed me how to cross stitch. From then on I was hooked! It soon became a good way to relax in the evenings. Through the internet I met wonderful people all around the world, some of whom I’m still friends with today. What sort of things do you most like to stitch? Over the years I’ve stitched large designs by…

Meet the designer... Peter Underhill “My Heritage Street series grew out of my love of old fashioned shops. I designed them in a way that, I hope, means people will be able to identify them from their own childhoods, or from vintage scenes of high streets. They’re packed with personality, and are a bit of a reaction, I suppose, against the chainstores and supermarkets most of us are much more familiar with now. I research the shop fronts I have in mind, looking for fine points like how the stock is displayed and so on. I then produce lots of sketches until I have something that works and we then turn it into a chart. I hope people get a great sense of achievement from stitching my craft shop.” This…

“Our members embraced the theme wholeheartedly” Nature and stitching seem to be a match made in heaven. Search any cross stitch site and you’re likely to find an abundance of charts inspired by flowers and gardens. Given the threads available today and the variety of stitches at our fingertips, it’s hardly surprising. Many techniques seem almost to have been designed with flowers and other growing things in mind! Alex Messenger and Amanda Smith at the Embroiderers’ Guild agree unequivocally, which is why when they learnt that the Capability Brown Festival 2016 was celebrating 300 years since the great landscape gardener’s birth, they knew they wanted to get involved. “We wanted to find a project that could involve as many of our 8100 members across the country at the same time,”…

We love stitching tools to keep near us when we are stitching – sometimes having a finished piece of work to hand can help keep us going when a project is in the doldrums! Our delightful little scissor keep is just the thing to keep your trusty scissors to hand while you're stitching. You can even park your needle and a few pins in it. A Watbo is made from three squares joined and made up as shown. Jane named this shape after the Watbo temple near the night market in Vietnam where she bought a shaped woven key ring, which inspired this scissor fob. Wildflower Watbo Make your scissor keeper You will need... 25 count Dublin linen white, ref: 3604/100, 7.5x23cm (3x9in) Stranded cotton as listed in the…

Stockists Seen something that’s inspired you? Here’s where you can buy it… ANN’S ORCHARD www.annsorchard.co.uk 01342 311545 For contemporary and traditional bead and needlework kits, plus frames to display them in BARNYARNS  www.barnyarns.co.uk 0176 569 0069 For Anchor, DMC and Madeira threads and all kinds of haberdashery supplies COTTON PATCH www.cottonpatch.co.uk 0121 702 2840 For fabrics, books, wadding, notions, and accessories and haberdashery CRAFT LAMPS www.craftlamps.co.uk 01373 454448 Stocking a fantastic array of craft lamps including desk, floor and magnifying lamps, including DaylightTM lamps CROSS STITCH GUILD www.thecrossstitchguild. com 01285 713678 Online shop selling books, kits, supplies, tools and chart design software. DKH CREATIONS www.dkhcreations.co.uk For cross stitch kits, threads, aida and essential accessories DP SOFTWARE www.dpsoftware.com 01454 612598 Software for creating charts for cross stitch and tapestry…