Inspirations

Referred to by readers as 'the World's most beautiful embroidery magazine', Inspirations is where you find the best classic hand embroidery by leading embroiderers throughout the world. Complemented with superbly styled photography and captivating stories, each issue brings a diverse collection of timeless projects from home wares and bags to gifts and accessories. A wide variety of embroidery techniques is presented with detailed and easy to follow instructions, step-by-step tutorials and full size patterns, making each issue a valuable resource for people new to embroidery and seasoned needleworkers alike.

30 YEARS Happy Birthday Inspirations • It's hard to believe that the magazine is celebrating 30 years of continuous publication, as one of my clearest memories is of the very first full-scale issue arriving at the office from the printers in September 1993.

THIRTY YEARS OF INSPIRATION • Looking back over thirty years of Inspirations evokes lots of nostalgia and happy memories. It also reveals a few interesting embroidery trends that have surged and waned over the past three decades.

INSIGHT FROM A FEW REGULAR CONTRIBUTORS:

BETWEEN THE COVERS

Busy Bees • Hungry honeybees gather around pollen grains and gerbera flowers on these delightful needlework accessories, a reminder of the important role these insects play in the food cycle.

Echinacea • The vibrant coneflower, Echinacea purpurea, is the subject of this spectacular study, combining surface embroidery for the background flowers with a large foreground bloom stitched with stumpwork techniques.

Nature's Realm • Botanical studies are designed to portray flowers in their true form, to give insight into the incredible intricacies of nature and capture the transient beauty of the subject matter.

Bertie • Beetles come in all shapes, sizes and hues and are truly the jewels of the insect world. Wearing a shimmering elytra that can be any colour of the rainbow and glossy, matte or strikingly iridescent, these fascinating creatures can be found in the most unexpected places.

Bella Dama • Commonly known as pincushion flowers, scabiosa are members of the honeysuckle family and the beautiful lavender to blue flowers feature an outer ring of frilly petals surrounding a centre cushion of florets and stamens.

Cinnamon & Sugar • They say that good things come in small packages and this tiny cushion, decorated with intricate needlelace and sparkling beads certainly proves that to be true.

Grapevine & Ladybird • Inspired by a traditional Japanese mon or family emblem, this delightful study of a grapevine and tiny ladybird utilises surface embroidery, stumpwork and goldwork techniques.

Favourite Things • What could be more fun to stitch than a few of your favourite things? Betsy is sharing some of hers in this enchanting sampler that includes glossy red strawberries with a stumpwork flower, golden acorns, gentle whitework, a variety of flowers plus a sweet white rabbit and colourful Bargello band.

Inspirations

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