What a lot of birth sampler cushions we see in our hideaway HQ! The lovely thing about the tapestries is that they are all so different, with their own little tweaks here and there. The name panel on each one is unique too, which is just as well as we often have designs with the same name coming in on the same day.
Here we share some of the recent birth sampler pillows with you, as inspiration if you’re about to start stitching for a new arrival in the family. Now that our winter weather is here, it’s a good time to either start a new tapestry, or to dig out a neglected one and finish it. Perhaps you have a canvas that you enthusiastically started stitching a year…or a few years ago…or longer, lying neglected in a cupboard or basket? Pick it up and you’ll soon be enjoying it again, and what’s a few years between friends and family!
Here goes, a little tour of some woolly masterpieces that we’ve recently made into cushions.
Chloe Jane’s A-Z Girls cushion has a wonderful rainbow name panel, which works really well. We’d always recommend a multi-coloured approach if you aren’t sure which colour to use, as it takes the pressure away from from having to make a decision about ‘the right colour’!
Chloe Jane’s A-Z again, showing the colours we used for the making up which were a very unusual combination of velvets, with pale green piping and mauve backing. It’s nice to see a close up of the lower edge of A-Z pictures too – ‘t’ for tea time, ‘u’ for umbrella, a ‘v’ vase of flowers, a witch and her musical cat on a xylophone for ‘w’ and ‘x’, and a ‘y’ yacht.
Given a completely different treatment, here is Adina Sydney’s A-Z Girls. Her name panel looks lovely, using just the lilac wool against the off-white of the name panel.
Keeping up with the purple theme, Adina Sydney’s A-Z, with purple wool blend fabric for piping and backing.
Alphabet Ark is popular to stitch for boys and girls, and can be stitched with as much or as little information in the name panel as you like. Here’s Eloise’s Alphabet Ark, with red lettering for her name:
And Alex’s Alphabet Ark, with the dark bottle green (it looks black but isn’t quite that dark) from the design for his name, and blue for his date of birth:
Side view of Alex’s tapestry, with charcoal woolly piping and emerald green backing.
The boys again, this time Charlie’s A-Z Boys. As with Chloe, Charlie has a rainbow name panel. We made his tapestry up with blue piping and contrast green backing in our woolly fabrics.
Leyton’s A-Z Boys, with an understated but very equally effective approach to his name panel.
Side view of Leyton’s A-Z Boys, which we made up with charcoal piping and bright blue backing in our woolly fabrics.
Seaside Sampler is always popular. Bertie’s looks lovely with the darker blue for his name and the paler blue for his date of birth.
Side view of Bertie’s Seaside Sampler, with bright red velvet for piping and blue velvet backing.
The nine owls and friendly squirrel on Alphabet Owls are so cute. Joanne’s multi-coloured name panel links together all the colours used in the design. We made up Joanne’s Owls using pumpkin woolly piping and a dark blue backing.
Finally, Olivia’s Alphabet Cats and Dogs, with her name in big, bold capital letters and a patterned background too with a sparkly feel – not easy to achieve in wool!
We made up Olivia’s cushion using a green woolly fabric with a mitred border, piping and backing. A mitred border acts as a frame around the cushion and makes it a bit bigger all round.
Alphabet Cats and Dogs is a nice tapestry to end our tour, with its festive scene of a terrier in his stripey knitted sweater with a robin perched on his tail, and a playful kitten that has got itself stuck inside a Christmas stocking!
Happy stitching!
Kelly
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