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.

FROM THE EDITOR

ERRATA

CRIMINAL QUILTS • Woodwork, historical dresses, and old buildings seem an odd combination, but for textile artist RUTH SINGER, these were the childhood experiences that led her on the creative path she follows today.

IN TRANSLATION • Adornment, jewellery, objects, and textiles are tools of storytelling used by displaced Hmong people to rediscover their history and culture. Artist GER XIONG’S studies in metals and jewellery set him on a path to explore his own place in this history and culture and in the process, he found the threads that allowed him to embroider his own story.

SNAPSHOT • Although DIANE MEYER is a professionally trained photographer, she moved towards a craft-based process when digital imaging started to feel disconnected and too perfect. The idea of the photograph as a unique object and something connected to the physical world appealed to her.

BETWEEN THE COVERS

STURT'S DESERT PEA • One of Australia's most spectacular and unique native species, the vibrant, scarlet desert pea (SWAINSONA FORMOSA), with its glossy black centre and soft grey-green leaves often grows in the brick-red soil of the vast outback, creating a spectacular carpet of vivid colour that can last many months.

SECRET GARDEN • Bring your garden inside and create your own special place with these magical cushions, featuring bold red geraniums and sunny orange and yellow nasturtiums.

ELIZABETHAN BUTTERFLY • Popular designs used in Elizabethan embroidery were often inspired by images found in needlework pattern books, herbals, and natural history texts, reflecting the Elizabethan love of nature and opulent decoration.

Buttercup & THICK-LEGGED Flower Beetle • The centre of the bright yellow, meadow buttercup is full of pollen and a valuable food source for the thick-legged flower beetle, which spends its spring days drifting from flower to flower.

GRAND TOUR • Come on a European embroidery tour by working this delightful withdrawn and pulled thread, rectangular mat.

GOLDEN LILIES • The sculptural form of the arum lily (ZANTEDESCHIA AETHIOPICA) lends itself perfectly to the age-old techniques of goldwork.

BURST OF COLOUR • A rainbow of colours on fluttering wings and gleaming petals dances across the surface of this beautiful, rectangular cushion.

ELYSIUM • The delicate beauty of whitework is captured perfectly in this sweet embroidery design, stitched onto a handy tote bag and replicated on a chic cushion.

Inspirations

SHOW, DON'T TELL • A picture tells a thousand words is a well-known saying on par with the other saying writers often hear – show, don’t tell. Both sayings refer to the idea that what we see, whether it is with our mind’s eye, or with our physical eyes, reveals more than what we read or hear.