Summer Blooms by Ana Mallah

We often talk about tidying up our stash, getting our stitching space organised and discovering new and innovative ways to store and manage all our stitching goodies. In fact, one of the most popular ways of displaying our work is to make it into stitching accessories. We never tire of seeing beautifully stitched chatelaines, scissor keeps, needlebooks or pincushions, and we know many of you never tire of stitching them either.

Every now and then we discover a simple but clever idea for storage and organisation that we hadn’t thought of before.

Not that we would ever say we’ve got enough scissor keeps or needlebooks, because frankly, you can never have enough scissor keeps or needlebooks!

But it is wonderful to discover new ideas for looking after our embroidery tools.

Ana Mallah’s latest design, Summer Blooms from Inspirations issue #110, offers three fabulous stitching accessories, beautifully stitched with garden flowers. Ana’s designs are always incredibly popular due to their clean, modern appearance and their delightful simplicity. This means they are perfect projects for all levels, even absolute beginners, who can successfully produce something gorgeous thanks to Ana’s easy to follow step-by-step instructions.

In Summer Blooms, the set contains a cute, padded pincushion surrounded by a colourful garden of flowers worked in bullion knots, blanket stitch pinwheels, French knots and detached chain stitch. The parade of flowers is then repeated on a gorgeous, zippered pouch that has a handy front pocket – the perfect accessory for carrying a half-finished project along with the skeins of thread you need to keep working on it.

The third piece in this trio, which matches perfectly with the other two, is a clever fabric envelope designed specifically for… wait for it… carrying your hoops.

What a simple idea and yet one that is rarely seen!

Like most of you, we usually throw our hoops into our embroidery bag where they are liable to get caught up in things or fall to the bottom, so we have to pull everything out in order to find them, so it’s a nice idea to have a dedicated hoop satchel.

The trio is stitched on a gorgeous natural cotton/linen blend fabric that emphasises the subtle pastel colours of the floral display. The hoop envelope is lined with a contrasting fabric and finished with a twisted cord; and the zippered pouch has a ribbon tassel on the zip for ease of opening.

Practicality and beauty aside, what sets this project apart is the choice of stitches. If you wanted to master a new stitch or you were just starting out on your embroidery journey, you would be hard pressed to find a better project than this one to help you on your way.

Because Ana has utilised stitches that you’ll use throughout your stitching life, the project acts as a sampler as much as an end in itself, offering two benefits in one.

You’re guaranteed to fall in love with the pastel colours, the jaunty procession of flowers and the clever practicality of Summer Blooms. Just imagine how much more organised your embroidery kit will be with these gorgeous hand-stitched accessories as part of it. We all love wonderful ways to tidy our stash. How much better are they when they’ve got the Ana Mallah touch to make them into something so beautiful?

Make Your Own Summer Blooms

Step 1 – Purchase Project Instructions

Summer Blooms by Ana Mallah is three charming needlework accessories featuring pretty, garden flowers.

Step 2 – Purchase Ready-To-Stitch Kit

The Inspirations Ready-To-Stitch kit for Summer Blooms includes everything* you need to re-create these handy needlework accessories: Fabrics (unprinted), wool felts, interfacing, wadding, water-soluble stabiliser, zip, ribbon, snap fastener, template plastic, card, fibre-fill, sewing & embroidery threads 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.