Cinnamon & Sugar by Hazel Blomkamp

Hazel Blomkamp’s charming designs are known for their vibrant, colourful, and intricate surface embroidery depicting creatures large and small. With her latest project, Cinnamon & Sugar from Inspirations issue #120, Hazel has chosen a slightly more subdued approach, using subtle colours in shades of grey, beige, and white to create a stunning stylised floral design.

If you have ever felt inspired to try your hand at needlelace techniques but found bigger designs too daunting, this project is the perfect one to start with. It is small and manageable, yet it gives embroiderers ample opportunity to experiment with new techniques.

The project produces a small cushion made of a cotton/linen blend and decorated with stranded cotton thread and beads. In addition to needlelace techniques, it uses variations of back stitch and outline stitch, as well as beaded Palestrina stitch, detached chain, French knot and trellis couching. It can be used as a pincushion, or as a fragrance sachet.

Needlelace is created by working detached stitches to fill a surface area in a design. Needlelace lies on top of the fabric and does not pierce the surface but is anchored to the surrounding outline stitches.

The leaves and petals are stitched using four different styles of needlelace as well as long and short stitch and trellis couching. Accent and dimension is created by adding beads and contrasting outlines using outline stitch and different variations of back stitch and beaded back stitch.

Needlelace originated in Italy in the 1500s and was popular among the elite of Venice where lace was regarded as a valued asset.

Although this little cushion is humble in comparison, the clever use of understated but rich colours combined with the sparkling bead accents and stylised floral design lend it an air of grandeur, fit for the courts of Venice.

Make Your Own Cinnamon & Sugar

Step 1 – Purchase Project Instructions

Cinnamon & Sugar by Hazel Blomkamp is a small cushion with an elegant motif showcasing four needlelace patterns.

Step 2 – Purchase Ready-To-Stitch Kit

The Inspirations Ready-To-Stitch kit for Cinnamon & Sugar includes everything* you need to re-create this decorative cushion: Fabric (unprinted), embroidery threads, beads and needles.

*Please Note: To cater for flexibility of purchase, instructions are not included with our kits. For step-by-step directions on how to create this project, please refer to the magazine/digital pattern.