The essential hands-on magazine for creative stitchers, STITCH with the Embroiderers’ Guild brings you traditional embroidery techniques and also a wealth of creative contemporary ideas.
Through how-to-do-it projects and articles from many of the world's leading embroidery tutors and designers, get STITCH-ing and discover contemporary free-machine embroidery and explore traditional techniques like canvaswork, goldwork, crewelwork, stumpwork, blackwork and Hardanger.
Our mixed-media projects combine stitching with all sorts of materials and techniques – the list is endless and the only restriction is your imagination.
Our mission is to take you on an exciting, creative, textile journey…
• Suitable for beginners and experienced embroiderers
• How-to-do-it projects with clear instructions
• Explore traditional techniques and stitches
• Give your work the ‘WOW’ factor using innovative products
Stitch can be sent anywhere in the world so treat yourself, friends or family to the perfect gift that lasts all year. Inspiration delivered to your door!
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Subscribe to Stitch and you could win a Janome FM725 Embellisher
The FM725 will bring out the artist in you, select from your palette of fabrics and threads and blend together to create unique textures and surfaces. It’s easy, by simply moving the fabrics freely under the needles you can quickly and easily create beautiful surface embellishments… watch your own design develop… anyone can do it!
The Janome FM725 helps to create fabrics which can then be sewn into a finished garment, furnishing or be simply used as a work of art. It has five barbed needles which mesh the fibres to secure two or more pieces of fabric together. Every design is unique… it’s great to experiment with colours, fabrics, yarns and a whole host of other creative materials… a fantastic use of all those scraps of fabric and threads that normally get thrown away! A built in needle guard is provided for safety and there is easy access to the lint collection area under the needle plate. It even has a free-arm facility.
Visit Janome's website for the full specification of this fantastic machine and the accessories available at http://janome.co.uk/janome_products/model-fm725/.
The Summer may be over but with the autumn comes the beginning of "Show Season" and I for one am looking forward to the hustle and bustle of a few stitching shows in the next few months. The huge Knitting & Stitching Show at London's Alexandra Palace from 5th - 9th October will be my first as Editor of Stitch and I will be there busy hunting down brilliant new projects, contributors and textile art to feature in upcoming issues of the magazine. If you see me do come and say hello - I'll be the one trying to juggle notepads, business cards, copies of Stitch and, no doubt, a cup of tea and a slice of cake!
There's nothing like being surrounded by passionate stitchers to inspire you. We have a magazine-full in this issue. Textile artists Gilda Baron is remembered on page 32 as our "Stitching Icon" and her passion for colour and texture leaps off the page. You can find out how to stitch like Gilda with a beautiful project from her bestselling book "The Art of Embroidered Flowers" on page 36.
Another passionate artist, Anne Kelly, talks about her inspirations on page 24. It's always fascinating to see where textile artists find that first seed of an idea and for Anne that first seed - rather fittingly - most often comes from nature. Our "From Sketch to Stitch" in this issue is also inspred by nature and landscape. Sue Nicholls' wonderful monochrome Snow in a Dark Night is a masterclass in beauty through simplicity and is the perfect piece to read aboutn as the nights draw in and the chill descends.
Of course there are plenty of opportunities in this issue to exercise your own passion for stitching. In the run-up to Christmas we have some great gift projects that would be perfect stocking fillers. Nancy Nicholson's lovely Folk Doll on page 14 is just the right size for little hands and with its array of embroidery stitches, may well inspire those little hands to take up embroidery in the future. Clare Clensy's Crewelwork leaf box on page 50 and Cthy Eliot's sweet Lavender Bag on page 28 would also make extemely elegant presents. You only have a few weeks left until the big day so get stitching!
I'll leave the last word on passionate stitching to you, the Stitch readers. Last issue we launched our new Readers' Gallery on the back page and for this issue we asked for works inspired by Autumn Colours. Well, we were inundated! Thank you so much to everyone who sent in photos of teir pieces. They were all inspiring and it was an extremely tough job whittling them dow to fit on our gallery page. Next month's theme is "Winter Sparkle". We can't wait to see what you come up with. For more details see page 66.
I hope this issue of Stitch inspires you to explore or develop your passion for stitching. Next stop Christmas! Where has this year gone?
Kate Chappell, Editor
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Little Foik by Nancy Nicholson Nancy Nicholson's colourful stitching has won her a loyal following all over the world. This little folk doll is taken from her beautiful new book Modern Folk Embroidery. Nancy Nicholson is a leading embroidery designer well known for her folk art inspired patterns and motifs. Nancy sells her designs and kits online and has a fast-growing, loyal following of international fans. She has an impressive arts and crafts pedigree and is following in the footsteps of her mother, Joan Nicholson, an accomplished embroidery designer and author. You can find out more by visiting www.nancynicholson.co.uk. We'll be featuring Nancy and her work more fully in an upcoming issue of Stitch. Watch this space! |
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Flowers by the Fence by Gilda Baron Taken from Gilda Baron's bestselling The Art of Embroidered Flowers, this beautiful project, as a wonderful mixed media design, is the perfect introduction to stitching the Gilda way! We have five copies of Gilda's book The Art of Embroidered Flowers to give away - for your chance to win one see the magazine for details on page 39. |
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Heaven Scent by Cathy Eliot Cathy Eliot's pretty little lavender pillow is the perfect excuse to get back to the basics. Cathy is an accomplished embroiderer, illustrator and musician living in London. She hosts embroidery workshops and one to one tutorials plus embroidery parties! For more information on Cathy and her work visit www.cathyeliot.com |
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Small but Beautiful by Clare Clensy Clare Clensy's miniature crewelwork design would make a very pretty addition to any embroidered gift. Here she uses it to decorate a lovely little satin box. Clare is a professional embroiderers and author of A Beginner's Guide to Silk Shading. She graduated from the Royal School of Needlework in 2000 after studying on the prestigious three-year apprenticeship in traditional hand embroidery. Clare teaches workshops, designs embroidery kits and works on private embroidery commissions. To find out more about her and her beautiful hand embroidery work visit www.vine-embroidery.co.uk |
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All Tied Up by Pauline Spence The traditional hussif or "housewife" is a time-tested way of storing all your needlework necessities. Pauline Spence shows us how to make one with a modern twist. What is a "hussif". The hussif (a shortened version of "housewife" was a pocket sewing kit that originated in the middle of the 19th century. Both women and men might carry a hussif in Regency England - most notably solders and sailors, who would often be given their hussif by their mother. The standard pattern for a hussif called for a length of cloth that could be rolled or folded, with pockets sewn on to hold needles, threads, pins, buttons and often a small pair of scissors. Fascinating! |
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The Bard's Blooms by Jane Nicholas In the second and final part of this two-part series, we finish our beautiful Shakespeare sampler with a luscious strawberry and delicate heartsease. The much loved strawberry is a perennial plant that has been consumed by humans since the Stone Age. In Shakespeare's England wild strawberry was gathered from hedgerows and woodlands and was renowned for its luscious taste. The wild pansy Viola Tricolor is the ancestor of modern hybrids. Also known as Heartsease, Love-in-Idleness and Johnny-jump-ups, Viola Tricolor grew wild in the fields and also in gardens, providing material for lovers' potions and medical cures. |
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Drawing from Nature by Anne Kelly Renowned textile artist Anne Kelly has always been inspired by the natural world. She shows us the first steps in turning inspiration into art. Anne's work has been exhibited all over the world. She was recently artist in residence at Sussex Prairie Gardens in West Sussex and exhibited at the International World of Threads Festival and the Prague Patchwork Meeting. She is author of Textile Nature and for more information you can visit her website www.annkellytextiles.com.
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Textile artist Mary McIntosh uses her fabric layering technique to create wonderul textures and designs. She shows us how to create a textured panel that would look just as great in a frame as part of a bigger piece. Mary teaches City & Guilds as part of Creative Stitch Suffolk and offers a variety of workshops and talks to groups. Mary is a member of textile exhibiting group Out of the Fold and Tin Hut Textiles. She is also Chairman of the formed Suffolk West branch of the Embroiderers' Guild. Visit her website www.marymcintosh.co.uk
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Finally, Stitch has joined forces with Madeira UK and ICHF'S Fashion and Embroidery Showto bring you the Stitch/Madeira 2016 Competition - we have £1500 worth of prizes to be won with our competition "Glimpses of the Roaring Twenties". This year we are challenging you to create an embroidered piece of work inspired by the roaring twenties - an exciting decade of change, discovery, jazz music and Art Deco. See pages 12 & 13 for more information on how to enter, the prizes and an entry form. |
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