
STITCH ISSUE 130: APRIL/MAY 2021

Look forward to brighter days with the latest issue and spoil yourself with a great big helping of colourful and uplifting projects. There’s a stunning display of silk-shaded cherry blossoms to stitch once and enjoy all year. Or you could develop your needlelace skills with our outstanding masterclass. You can choose between classic and contemporary crewelwork designs, or just stitch them all! Then enjoy a radiant range of rainbows – each with a different thread option to try. Award-winning portrait artists share the secrets behind their success. And we explore the endless possibilities when you limit yourself to just one stitch.
Give yourself a treat!
Kat McDonnell
Stitch Editor
Projects

BRANCHING OUT
Fresh blue skies and delicate pink cherry blossoms captured in watercolour, silk shading and stumpwork. Achieve stunning results for yourself with Ana Mallah’s sublime project. It’s fully detailed and beautifully explained.

PEEK-A-BOO!
Jo Avery combines her signature vibrant palette and her favourite stitches to unveil a brand-new design that gives traditional crewelwork a fresh, modern twist.

LIGHT AT THE END
Stitch all the colours of the rainbow courtesy of Ilke Cochrane. Loads of fun to be had with a brilliant assortment of threads, stitches and sizes. Make a bunch and spread the word!

MAKING WAVES
Learn from the best! Kay and Michael Dennis generously share their experience with a wonderful needlelace tutorial featuring Derek the dolphin. You couldn’t be in safer hands as you get to grips with the techniques involved.

SPRING IS SPRUNG
Cheer yourself up with a pair of charming crewelwork projects: a hedgehog, primrose and ladybirds feature on a pincushion and matching scissor keep.

KNOW YOUR ONIONS
Raid your cupboards for this study in stitch: Jill Kipnis invites you to take a closer look at an ordinary vegetable. No tears or chopping involved!
Inspiration
ABOUT FACE
Read what happened when Fiona Gill switched things up – swapping her usual medium of wet-felting for a hand embroidered portrait.

GETTING TO KNOW YOU
Using hand stitches expressively starts with taking time to understand their individual characteristics. Jan Dowson makes the necessary introductions.

STRAIGHT FACED
RSN Tutor Martha Blackburn captures moments in time, creating stark and striking award-winning portraits from little more than single stitched lines.

ONE STITCH WONDER
Maria Livesey’s online group played a game of lucky dip with Mary Thomas’s Dictionary of Embroidery Stitches. Discover how they found freedom in limiting themselves to just one stitch.
