Modern and Traditional Embroidery Dress

This Silent Night pattern by Daisy Eyes Handmade has so many beautiful touches. I love the variety of colors and stitches, and the wonderful vintage look.

Nothing says Christmas like this sweet UFO themed Christmas pattern in the Hallodribums Etsy shop! I love the simple, sketchy lines, and the sweetness of this little pattern. For you less traditional Christmas fans out there.

I adore this sweet Cozy Sweater pattern in NaNee Hand Embroidery's shop. It looks just perfect stitched on natural linen, doesn't it? And the nice traditional Christmas reds and greens are wonderful.

Here in London the nights are drawing in as a winter chill spreads through the city. It may no longer be sunbathing weather (although I'm not sure if we really even have that in our summer!) but it is perfect weather for stitching! Liz Payne's gloriously colourful embroidery has brightened our day and I hope you find it inspiring too.


Bold and bright patterns of colour and shape are integral to Liz Payne's work. Her work is densely textured with hand embroidery, beading and fringing, which all form additional pattern within her designs.


Commonly, Liz will start out by painting fabric and canvas which are next adorned with embroidery. Known widely for her art pieces, Liz also embellishes shoes and designs her own range of bespoke jewelry.



Liz talks about her work: 'I’m not shy of using colour in my work (sometimes every colour!). Using stitch I’m able to introduce a textural dimension to my work, drawing the viewers eye into and across the intricacy of the details.'

Take a look at her Etsy shop 'Flirting with Yellow' to see more of her work.

Halloween Sampler by Amy Byrne a.k.a. Random Acts of Amy

Hello, Stitchers! Our regular Friday Instagram Finds author, Amy from Random Acts of Amy, is offering a free Halloween Sampler pattern over on her blog. This is her very first pattern and it is wonderfully detailed - with a full guide to colors, stitches, and number of strands to use. She'd love to see you stitch it up! Follow the link above to get the pattern.

Olá! This week I'll be brief... Only to show you two more images of fiancé kerchiefs inspirations...

The first one is a framed fiancé kerchief. It is monochromatic what is not so usual... The same embroiderer from last week.  It is very common that these kerchiefs have some embroidered messages. A long time ago they were embroidered by girls that often did not know how to read or write...  But they were in love and still they wanted their beloved to know that... So it is very usual, and now a tradition, these kerchiefs being full of misspelled words (in Portuguese: erros ortográficos)... Sweetly naif... That's what happens with this kerchief... Nowadays being able to write with this naif mistakes is almost an art and this one is a very sweet example.

Embroidered by Maria Alice

In correct Portuguese it should be: Há-de a nossa amizade acabar quando esta pomba voar. Instead we read: Hade a nossa amizade acabar cando esta pomba boar...
In a very, very free translation and adaptation... "Will our friendship end when this dove fly" With some misspelled words... "Wil our friendship end wen this dove flie"... I confess I don't know the most "popular" English misspellings... I believe all languages have them :)

Work in Progress...

This other photo shows the work I have in hands... I've finished the patterns inspired by Portuguese Fiancé Kerchiefs that I was working on and they will be available soon... I'm happy with them. I had the help from a very talented friend!!! I used the motifs to decorate a child blouse. As soon as it is ready I'll show it again. I'll keep my promise!!

Olá! When I started my project agulha não pica (needle does not prick), I decided that my embroidery patterns would be inspired by Portuguese culture, that they should have a "Portuguese soul". Soon I discovered that although the inspiration from Portuguese Regional embroideries would be endless it could be very challenging to bring some motifs from arts & crafts other than embroidery. One of those arts deep rooted in Portuguese tradition and culture is pottery, that you'll find from the North to the South of our country.

I bought this (and many other) pottery plate 20 years ago in Redondo, a beautiful small town in Alentejo, in the South of Portugal, renowned for its clay products and wine. It was made by an artisan, Adriano Martelo, that claimed to use ancestral techniques.

The richness of the work of the artisans from Redondo comes from the use of traditional patterns like floral motifs, portraits of the daily life from rural Alentejo region and reproductions of antique plates from the 17th century. Flower baskets, small cottages, birds, cork oak trees and shepherds deserve special attention.

pottery plate, my photo

I love this plate and decided to transform it into an embroidery pattern. I asked the help of a friend with better drawing skills and I was delighted with the final result of this pattern inspired by rural pottery.

Are you ready for July's Stitchalong? Love gnomes? Then this one's for you! And even if you don't like gnomes so much, maybe this guy will persuade you! We have a pattern from the über-talented and inspiring MimiLove!

Tom Gnome - isn't he awesome? And now you can stitch your very own version! Isn't that also very awesome?!

You can see the original in the photos and do get inspired by that, but take it and run with it: make the gnome your own! :-)

Thank you ever so much to Ms. MimiLove for letting us use this pattern (it's for personal use etc and so on). Oh and do check out the MimiLove blog for more stitchy inspiration!

Click on the drawing below to download the pattern - it's a pdf file with no less than 3 sizes of the gnome. Don't forget to tag your Flickr photos with "JulyStitchalong" so we can find it in the Flickr pool. You can also download the pattern by clicking this link, but it's more fun to click on an image. Or maybe that's just me. ;-)

Alrighty - stitch up a storm of gnomes! :-)

Me too! But sometimes I forget how much fun it is to read. I probably should stitch this pattern and hang it on the wall as a gentle reminder to spend less time with my computer and  more time reading! Pattern is from a rather wonderful and just released pattern set called 'Booksmart' by Corinne of  Septemberhouse.