Hi everyone

It’s World Embroidery Day at the end of July and I’ve put together another free pattern this year to celebrate and get you all stitching.

Leaping Fish was originally a tiny little design in a book of vintage Anchor transfers. I’ve enlarged it substantially, made use of some interesting embroidery stitches to create scales and fins and given it a fresh, modern colour palette. The pattern is available to download from my website and shows what you can expect from the patterns and books available in my Etsy shop.

Bluprint is closing, which means my Bluprint shop is closing, too. For those of you who enjoyed stitching my free embroidery patterns there, they're all now available to download from my website. There’s (clockwise from top right) Bloomin’ Marvellous, Leafy Tropics, Christmas Tree, Water Tote, Minikin Garden and Blue Bird.

Hawthorne & Heaney creates high-end, bespoke embroidery, from couture fashion embroidery to monogramming and military goldwork.

Olga Kostina used thousands of bottle caps to create huge murals reminiscent of cross-stitch.

Frankie Print Co turns handwritten notes into woven throw blankets.

The protagonist of A Single Thread by Tracy Chevalier is one of the Winchester Cathedral broderers who created needlepoint kneelers, cushions and alms bags for the church in the 1930s. Based on the real-life work of Louisa Pesel, the volunteers’ colourful needlework brightened up the huge cathedral.

Take care and keep stitching, Kelly

PS. Irem Yazici makes me want to stitch small. Anna Marinenko makes me want to knit big.