Whenever you’re starting a new hobby, it can be hard to know where to look for all those helpful bit of wisdom that just make it… click!

Recently I asked my Purple Rose Stitchers:

What embroidery advice do you wish you’d known sooner?

There were some fantastic responses, and so many tips I wouldn’t have thought of!

Spring may be right around the corner but there’s definitely still time for a fun new hat project first!

I've been really enjoying woven stitches and cables recently and I just couldn’t resist writing this pattern.

You know when there’s an idea in your head that you can’t stop thinking about so in the end you just indulge your creativity and run with it, even if there’s other things much higher up the to-do list. Well this project was one of those projects for me and I had so much fun with it!

You voted for it so here it is! the Sunset Orca has been brought back from the halls of retired to designs to take up permanent residence as a free pattern right here

Thank you to all of my lovely Purple Rose Stitchers who cast their votes on which design to bring back via my newsletter last week, I couldn’t have decided without you!

I love learning new crafts, especially fibre crafts! I’ve never really got on with painting or anything involving glue… its just a bit too messy and sticky for me, my sensory issues can’t stand it but put yarn, thread, beads etc in front of my and I’m happy for hours

Recently I’ve been really enjoying C2C crochet, I mean, who knew it was so simple?!

Since I released my first ever C2C Snowflake Blanket design this month I shout it would be a great opportinity to share a blog post tutorial with you. I’ll take you through both increase and decrease rows, all you need to get started with C2C crochet

Ok, first lets digest the title of this blog post and get things straight! I’ve been using social media as an advertising tool for Purple Rose Embroidery for the last 4 years. Over that time I’ve perfected my methods of how to get the best photos I can in the easiest way possible. After all the best way to treat social media is little and often so it has to be quick and easy!

Do I know as much as a trained photographer? No. However I can offer many years of experience and a foolproof method that only requires your phone!

When deciding to set up a small business working out where to sell your products online can be really daunting!

Many people will tell you what you should or shouldn’t do without having any experience themselves. Others will delight in recounting their horror stories with one platform or another. It can all be very overwhelming and difficult to know where to start!

I want to start this post by saying that you absolutely do not have to keep the back of your embroideries neat if you don’t want to!
In fact I very rarely take the time to keep the back of my stitching neat

However this was highly requested and on those occasions when I do like to keep my work tidy, this is how I do it!

There are many ways to create embroidered patches to sew onto clothes, bags etc

In this post I’m going to show you how to turn an existing piece of embroidery into a patch.

I like this method as it means that you can stitch your embroidery normally on whatever fabric you want, in your hoop, and don’t have to decided if you want it to be patch till you are done!

A mini sampler pattern from a recent workshop!

I have written out exactly how to complete it, stitch by stitch.

As you work through this design, keep looking at the pattern grid and try to get the hang of counting it from there and then checking my instructions to see if you’re on track…

This is something that I know a lot of people struggle with.

It’s hard to know where to start sometimes, and even harder to know if what you’ve created looks right!

I’m going to take you through the steps I use to create my designs before I even start stitching:

• Looking for inspiration images

• Drawing the elements of the design

• Playing with composition

• Thinking about colours