Stitchable Cards

Above: My mood-board, showing a couple of my original cross stitch patterns, which were the inspiration for my new designs. Other images: top left and background image on right: Nature Uninterrupted Photogtaphy. Bottom right image: Annie Spratt. Lefthand side background image: Essentially Nomadic. A while ago I designed a set of cross stitch greetings cards and a couple of gift tags that featured little flowers in a variety of compositions. These patterns proved to be very popular and were some of my favourite designs - so much so that I wanted to create a new set of designs with this...

In this blog post I thought I’d write a bit more than usual about where I got my inspiration from and what kind of imagery I looked at before coming up with these new designs.  When thinking about putting together these new designs I realised that I rarely used the purple thread colours in the ‘stitchables’ range, so I chose to use this range of colours in these designs. Dark purple tulips are the theme for these designs. I have always loved their look, and they always come to mind when thinking of what makes a beautiful flower. Tulips represent...

Above designs and sketches by Susan Bates, apart from top left wintery landscape artwork by Lucy Grossmith and top centre, fox artwork by Mikki Butterley. Having previously created a couple of sets of stitchables Christmas designs in traditional bright reds and greens I wanted to move away from this colour palette and go with something much softer. So for the ‘all is calm’ designs I’ve incorporated icy blues, powder blues, minty greens and of course white for the snow. There are a few shades of brown in here too, and some rich reds and oranges, to add depth, detail  and...

For this set of winter designs I used a palette of bright reds and greens which are traditionally associated with Christmas and the festive season. To expand the colour range I added shades of turquoise and gold and of course a snowy white. Around Christmas time my mum often buys a poinsettia plant and I love their bright red colour.  They look lovely in a pot on the window sill and they brighten up any grey wintery day. Strangely the yellow centres of the poinsettias are its flowers and what we think of as the flowers; (the red ‘petals’) are...

For my latest set of cross-stitch designs for Stitchable Cards I wanted to go for motifs that just shout out summertime, so I based them on sunflowers, as these beautiful, bold, bright yellow flowers do just that. To begin, I put together a mood-board featuring some of my artwork, photos and previous cross-stitch sunflower designs, to set the tone of what I was after; this helps me to focus and pull together ideas. Below:  My sunflower designs and illustrations from the past. I wanted this set of designs to have a vibrant range of colours made up of sunshine yellows...

Above: my moodboard for my ‘Ahoy matey’ designs – some nautical themed designs and ideas. My latest set of designs celebrates Father’s Day, with the main themes being nautical and “the great outdoors”. The set includes a camp site set in a mountainous landscape, a lighthouse under a starry sky, a jaunty pirate - and for those who prefer to stay in and snack and watch a film with a cheeky box of popcorn. However, the designs aren’t necessarily gender-specific, so you could stitch them for someone for a birthday card or a thank you card – they don’t have...