Flutter By : 3

This range of embroidery designs is looking more and more apt amid the sunshine, spring flowers and green leaf shoots.

I've gone with real spring colours on this one – light lemony yellow and new shoot green with a splash of budding bloom cerise.


Blanket stitch worked out perfectly for the edges of the wings, providing a nice strong frame for the lighter colours inside. And some Ghiordes knots add a slight 3D effect.

Download the pattern for Flutter By 3 from the free patterns section on my website. And go to the useful links page for stitch books and online stitch libraries.

The Stitch and Thimble : 03

The third issue of the Stitch and Thimble is done, finished and complete. And it’s available to purchase on my website.


For my new followers (welcome and thank you for signing up) who might not know anything about the Stitch and Thimble, it’s a digital publication of original Kelly Fletcher embroidery designs that I’ll be bringing out four times a year. You’ll find five original projects and a set of templates in each issue: two main projects, a new vintage project, a sampler and a quick stitch project. The complete instructions and patterns for the embroidery and for making up each item are included.

For this issue, I embroidered a tortoise bib, which was more fun to stitch than anything I’ve done in a while. And it’d make a great baby shower gift.


Then I did some lacy, feathery stitches on a white pillowcase in crisp but calming colours that remind me of the ocean. I’ve always wanted to embroider a set of bed linen, so this was a good way to test the idea. I interspersed the stitching with white lace and have to admit I’m rather pleased with the end result. It looks great with all-white linen, although I’d love to do a version with myriad colours combining a variety of patterned fabrics… one day.


I’ve had the 60s-inspired floral sketch I used on the retro cosmetic bag in my sketchbook for ages, waiting for its moment to shine. This little bloom was a perfect fit for this issue’s new vintage project and it felt rather good to bring those casually drawn lines to life. I lined the bag with a piece of quilter’s cotton fabric in similar colours that has a 60s feel about it.


Easter is just around the corner, so a rabbit sampler and Easter egg templates are timely designs. This one uses filler stitches (and it’d also work well as an alternative design for the bib). There’s nothing you can’t do with an egg shape, the ideas are endless. But of all the ideas I toyed with, I like the four that made it into issue 03 best.


I’ve made a fair few quilted fabric coasters for our home and as gifts – and they go down well every time. I kept the embroidery design simple enough for it to qualify as a quick stitch project, and also in case you wanted to make more than one without spending days on the embroidery.


Hopefully this whets your appetite enough to make you want a copy of your very own. If so, head over to my website – I’m pretty sure you won’t be disappointed.

Blog nod

I don't have much to say today, so thought I'd share some of the blogs I've been browsing recently:

Contemporary Embroidery
Creative, contemporary and inspiring freestyle embroidery by Karen Ruane.


Dottie Angel
Tif's delightfully unique writing style and oodles of imagination make for great escapism.


Super Cute Tilly
Nic uses her distinctive illustrations to create gorgeous handmade products.


UK Handmade
An inspiring website that used to be a blog, showcasing all that's going on in the craft world on this side of the pond.

UK Lass in US
Dawn's down-to-earth blog features lots of tutorials. And I love her UK to US word translations.


White Threads
Sumptuous mountmellick embroidery by designer and author Yvette Stanton.



All images © the blog owners.

Curiouser and curiouser...

I asked recently if anyone could help me out with a discrepancy regarding cloud stitch in Crewel Embroidery, edited by F. Anderson:


Julie left a comment saying she knows this as cloud stitch. Celia said Jan Beaney calls this wave stitch in her book, Stitches: New Approaches. And Suz looked it up in Mary Webb's book, Embroidery Stitches (2006), where it's referred to as open wave stitch.

So I went searching again, and these are the results I've come up with:
Sharon B’s cloud filling stitch:


Sharon B's wave stitch:


Country Bumpkin’s wave filling stitch in A-Z of Embroidery Stitches 2:


My mom's friend Fiona scanned in cloud filling stitch from one of her older books for me, although I have no idea of the title or author:


Needlecrafter.com has four stitches:

Cloud filling, also known as Mexican stitch:


Wave stitch filling, also known as straight-line stitch and a variation of arrowhead stitch:


Open wave stitch, which is related to cloud stitch and closed wave stitch:


And closed wave stitch, also known as looped shading stitch:


Henryart.org says “don’t confuse wave stitch filling with wave filling stitch".

Wave stitch:


Wave stitch filling:


Wave filling stitch:


So the plot thickens. I’d really like to get to the bottom of this, because I’m keen to use my original cloud stitch in a design sometime. Actually, I’d like to use both of these stitches. But I can’t really unless I know for sure which stitch to put in the instructions.

As far as I can work out, there are two stitches here – wave stitch and cloud stitch. Wave stitch is Henry Art's wave stitch, which is used to create wave stitch filling. Then cloud stitch is the same as wave filling stitch, which includes open and closed wave stitch. And cloud filling stitch is simply a variation.

Anyone agree? Disagree? Have another stitch to throw in the works?