A series of charts featuring new ‘Bookshelf’ colours in collaboration with Cottage Garden Threads
Now, this I didn’t expect! The lovely Katie from Cottage Garden Threads contacted me about her upcoming trip to the Nashville Needlework Market (goals!), where CGT are attending for the first time. They wanted to showcase some new products and some new patterns to showcase them. And much to my surprise, Katie suggested extending the Bookshelf (see what I did there?) and creating some new colour combinations in special ‘Stitcher’s Palettes’ – sets of four perfectly coordinated colours.
These ‘Stitcher’s Palettes’ all feature one highly variegated thread (the hero) and three threads on the colours used to create the hero (the sidekicks). As such, they’re perfectly coordinated and designed for you to explore and create.
To show some of the possibilities of these curated palettes, I’ve designed a series of seasonal stitches, each using one of the new ‘Stitcher’s Palettes’. I’ve been wanting to do a seasonal series for some time – something that you can add to or use as the focus of a seasonal display – but also that was quick and easy to stitch. These four patterns all have a stitch count of 77w x 109h and if stitched on 32-count, they’ll all fit into a standard 6 x 8-inch frame (you can just use the one frame and swap them out as the seasons change).
They were so much fun to design and stitch – I can’t tell you what a pleasure it is to see the beautiful Cottage Garden Threads colours flow out from my needle. I’ve tried to design all of these as a way to introduce you to these beautiful threads, and to demonstrate some of their capabilities.
Each of the four charts comes with tips and instructions for how to use the highly variegated threads included, and the design highlights them through the use of repeating borders, text and a few easy embroidery stitches. By the time you’ve stitched them, you’ll be an expert – and ready to use the palettes in your other seasonal stitching.
The four seasonal charts also have a central mandala featuring seasonal motifs – tulips and Easter Eggs for Spring, butterflies and bluebirds for Summer, Autumn leaves and ladybirds for Autumn/Fall (and yes, the chart contains wording for both), and mittens and snowflakes for Winter. These would make lovely little pillows on their own, or made up into a card for someone special.
I do hope you enjoy stitching these designs and exploring the new, beautiful colours in the ‘Bookshelf’ Edit with Cottage Garden Threads. It is such an honour to be working with them.
The charts and ‘Stitcher’s Palettes’ are available to order now from your local or online needlework stores and they’ll be in my Etsy store (in hard-copy and PDF) in about a month – along with the beautiful new colours.
And keep an eye out on my Instagram (@mojostitches) – I’m just about to start a re-stitch of another Nashville release – ‘Katie’s Cushion’, in one of the new Stitcher’s Palettes, to show you how I use them to stitch a monochrome pattern. I’ll be showing my progress and tips along the way – and I’ll collate them here when it’s all complete.
Happy stitching!
Mojo Stitches 