Modern and Traditional Embroidery Dress

Something slightly different this week; there's a new craft magazine in town (in the UK at least, not sure if it's elsewhere yet), called Crafty and I particularly love issue 2 because it has a fantastic embroidery on the front cover by none other than Cherry and Cinnamon, aka Bridgeen Gillespie, who you may remember did the fantastic Kitsch Witch pattern for Feeling Stitchy last October.

The Roy Lichtenstein inspired embroidery is constructed out of felt and there are detailed instructions inside the magazine on how to create your own. I particularly like the two thought bubbles, in their own individual smaller hoops (not shown on the front cover) which go with it.

Crafty Magazine has a refreshingly different take on the craft resurgence, it has a more urban feel than other craft magazines, the projects look fairly cheap to do but at the same time are the sort of thing you'd want in your home or to wear and there's a nice emphasis on upcycling. Embroidery has featured in two out of two issues so far (also in this issue there's a piece on embroidering vintage postcards) and there's even a monthly column from Mr. X Stitch. Definitely worth a check out at your local newsagents or on your iPad (there's an app).

The lovely Emily Peacock - photo by Carina

We then later went to see another talk by Emily on how to do a selection of canvas stitches.

We then got to explore the rest of the show and we both came away with mixed feelings about it. It was fantastic seeing Emily Peacock and we also got to see Mr. X Stitch's brilliant display of contemporary embroidery, where we got to stay and stitch a while (and eat chocolate biscuits).

Mr. X Stitch and some of the wonderful work on display - photo by Carina

The opportunity to get to stitch with both Emily Peacock and Mr. X Stitch was fantastic, there's a really nice communal feel to being able to sit down, have a stitch and have a natter. There were also opportunities to stitch at tables run by The Cross Stitcher magazine. However the rest of the show was a little disappointing, the embroidery tended to be on the more traditional side, so we may not have really been the people the show was intended for. The show was certainly busy and there were lots of other people who seemed to love the stalls on offer. I can't really comment on the knitting and paper-crafting floors (although we did go and have a look) but it would have been nice to have had a bit more space in the stitching demo area like the knitters and the paper-crafters had in their demo areas.

In summary, if you are a hard core contemporary stitcher, The Stitch and Craft Show, which is an annual event may not be for you, however the organisers have provided some examples of contemporary stitching (for example Mr. X Stitch) and I am forever the optimist and only hope that as time progresses, contemporary stitching will feature more and more in the show, so you'll probably see me there visiting next year!

1. Spring Birds - new pattern by Carina at Polka & Bloom,

2. Tales from the Forest by Nicole at Follow the White Bunny,

3. mr. fantastic stitched by Claudia Marchan from Sublime Stitching's Ryan Berkley patterns

Feeling Stitchy guest blogger Jenny Hart from Sublime Stitching has released loads of new patterns over the last few months, it has been particularly great to see some .pdfs for sale of designs that were previously only available on Sublime Stitching's tote bags. Jenny has also released another pattern sheet from her artist collaboration series, transferring Ryan Berkley's gorgeous animal heads to stitch. I love Claudia Marchan's stitching of this pattern, which appeared in the Flickr embroidery pool recently.

And just squeezing in one more pattern from a Feeling Stitchy blogger, Beefranck (Bridget) in collaboration with Mr X Stitch and Julie Jackson from Subversive Cross Stitch released an alternative Royal Wedding sampler at the end of last year for the Independent, admire its gorgeousness here and download for free if you fancy stitching your own memento.