Issue
108 A garland of fragrant sweet peas in Cross stitch
and a special sampler for the Golden Jubilee. Add
a Scandinavian touch with a Hardanger gift set and
stitch a rare glimpse of the endangered snow leopard.
There's Multicolour magic with a pattern in Caron
shades and pathways through colour in the Masterclass.
Feature Designs
Fragrant
Beauties
The sweet pea arrived in Essex in 1699 and since
then has become one of our favourite plants,
loved by gardeners up and down the country.
Their beautiful fragrance and prolific flowers
give a garden an instant country cottage feel,
but now you admire colourful sweet peas all
the year through with this magnificent design.
Stitch a roundel of single flower heads or a
larger version featuring trios of sweet peas
for a charming addition to any room.
Snow
Leopard
High in the mountains of central Asia, the home
of the snow leopard is to be found.
This big cat is shrouded in mystery, appearing
at dusk and dawn, and easily disappearing into
the background with its camouflaged coat. These
graceful animals are also extremely rare, adding
to their mystique, as there may only be 5000
of them in the wild. This delightful portrait
is a rare glimpse of the magnificent snow leopard
on a rocky outcrop.
Jubilee
Celebration
Celebrate the Golden Jubilee with this magnificent
commemorative sampler. It features a detailed
and three dimensional Buckingham Palace with
the Royal Standard crowning the design. The
paired diadems represent those for, from top
to bottom, Scotland, Ireland, Wales and the
United Kingdom. The upper and lower borders
are decorated with floral emblems for the four
nations. The scenes on the left and right are
two of the most famous royal residences, Balmoral
on the right and Windsor on the left. Together,
these motifs combine to form this wonderful
souvenir of royal celebration.
Pure
and Simple
Hardanger is perfect for today's interiors; with its
clean lines and stitched in pure white it complements
all colour schemes. Use this versatile design to decorate
your home or create a superb gift set as we have done.
The small panel is the ideal shape for a lavish card
which can accompany the luxurious towel embellished
with a Hardanger border.
Mutlicolour
Magic
Create a colourful cushion in soft shades for your sofa
with this geometric design. Relaxing and easy to stitch,
there are just two shades of threads to use. The multicoloured
Caron yarn does all the work for you as the pattern
builds up effortlessly with each segment. After a while,
there is no need to refer to the chart for every stitch,
just follow the position of previous stitches. The range
of colours in the design give it an ethnic feel and
a matching pair would look wonderful in a colonial style
conservatory on wicker furniture.
Pathways
through Colour
There are many ways to devise colour schemes
for embroideries, but it is fun sometimes to
jump into the deep end and simply take three
colours that come to hand and make them form
a colour scheme. For better or worse, they will
do so. With this in mind, I deliberately chose
sets of colours each time which, as a trio,
would not normally be chosen to go together.
They might clash, be too brash or just be really
rather nasty!
