A while ago we had a visit from a very nice man, Steve. He arrived at our workshop, relieved to have found us as he was on a secret mission to get a tapestry made up for his wife, Roxanne.

The tapestry was one that Roxanne had been stitching on and off for years, a very early Jolly Red design called Homestead. We hadn’t seen a finished canvas of the design for ages, and seeing it afresh we thought that it looked really contemporary…and wondered why we had ever let it slip away from our kit collection.

We helped Steve to choose colours and fabric for the piping and backing of Roxanne’s tapestry, and arranged for him to pick it up the finished cushion when he and Roxanne would be passing on their way to Cornwall. All very secret and hush hush!

Everything went to plan, the cushion looked wonderful and Steve and Roxanne turned up as planned. What a surprise it must have been for Roxanne when Steve took a detour from the M5, as she had no idea why they had come off the motorway, or that they were going to collect her Homestead tapestry.

She was absolutely delighted with her cushion, and very kindly posed for a photograph.

We shared the picture of Roxanne and her cushion on our Facebook page and it seemed that we were not alone in our admiration of Homestead, so after looking through the archives and chatting to our printer, we ordered a fresh batch of Homestead canvases.

Here’s one of the printed canvases, so you can enjoy seeing the whole design. We originally designed Homestead for friends who were moving house so if you too have friends who are setting up home, or getting married, then a Homestead cushion would be a wonderful and quirky gift. It has a hearts border and a central house, with key ‘home ingredient’ elements – TV, tools for DIY, a pet cat, teapot, a vase of flowers, knife and fork, and a happy couple, dancing.

Here’s our own original Homestead cushion, made into a cushion with purple wool blend fabric – with very similar (perhaps even identical) piping to the colour Steve chose for Roxanne’s cushion.

Stitching through a wool stash? As with any of our complete kits, use code ‘canvas‘ at the checkout* if you want to stitch the design using your own wools. Hey presto! The full kit price will be halved and we’ll know to send the canvas but not the wools. Homestead is a perfect stash-busting design, with all those lovely patchwork areas to stitch.

A message for gardeners Lovely gardeners, we know the great outdoors is taking up most of your waking hours at this time of year but it’s important that you take a break every now and then. Your beautiful garden will provide the perfect backdrop at the end of a day’s toil, and you can reward yourself with an hour or two of relaxing and well-deserved stitching, with perhaps a little drink or cup of something nice not too far away. Oh, and you must be careful of sunburn too, don’t stay out too long.

And finally for something you really need to be reminded of…our Christmas making up deadline is a mere five months away!!

That’s it, enough said. We’re off before we get into trouble!

Take care, and happy stitching.

Kelly

*Or over the phone on 01460 281111 if you prefer.

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