A new design in June/July 2026 Homespun Australia magazine.
It’s always a pleasure to create something for the wonderful ‘Homespun Australia’ magazine, and this collaboration especially so. Ellie Whittaker, the new editor, reached out to me to contribute to her themed edition, on a ‘sense of place’. I loved this idea, as so many of my designs are centred on our environment, and the flora and fauna with which we share our places.
Putting my thinking cap on, I realised that one of the things I most associate with places that mean a lot to me, are trees – and how they provide food, homes and shade – how they are mini-environments themselves. With this in mind, I decided to celebrate the magnificent River Red Gums Eucalyptus camaldulensis, and the life that is intertwined with them.
I love to research plants and animals, and I dove in to researching these incredible trees and to discover the vast range of other plants and animals that rely on them for habitat. In doing so, I learned about the Intermediate Egret Ardea intermedia, the graceful white heron stepping between the Floating Swamp Wallaby-grass (Amphibromus fluitans) looking for food.
The design also includes what is harder to see – the great Murray Cod Maccullochella peelii, lurking beneath the river, and the Green grocer cicadas (Cyclochila australasia) that live in the soil beneath the trees, relying on sap from the roots to survive their 7-year long juvenile nymph stage. I like to think that by including them, you can not only imagine how this environment looks, with swaying gum blossoms overhead, but even how it sounds! There’s nothing more like the sound of summer, than the sound of cicadas!
I stitched my model on 32-count “Antique Ivory’ by Zweigart using Cottage Garden Threads and white DMC. The pattern includes a full DMC conversion, and uses full crosses over 2, some long back-stitches and a couple of optional French Knots. I used 2 strands of floss for the cross stitch, and 1 for the back-stitch and French Knots.
I hope you enjoy stitching this piece as much as I did. You can find the pattern in the June/July 2026 edition of Homespun Australia (either as a physical magazine in your local newsagent or supermarket, or digitally). If you’d like to stitch it using the wonderful Cottage Garden Threads (that so evoke an Australia palette), you can find thread-packs in my Etsy store, or visit your local needlework store, online store or Cottage Garden Threads website. The pattern will be available to purchase from my Etsy store later in the year.
Mojo Stitches 