I’ve decided on my next major project now, and this week I’ve been kitting up ready to get started on it. It’s called ‘Flowers for Elizabeth: an embroidered sweet bag’.
For anyone who’s followed my blog for a while, you might remember that I’ve talked before about an embroidered sweet bag that I made from a design in Inspirations magazine Issue 36 – it’s this one (this is an image from the magazine):
It was lovely to make, but the reason I don’t have an image of the one that I made is that it got stolen from my car (along with my luggage and just about anything else ‘removable’ from the car!) while I was at a wedding reception in 2001. It really affected me, and for a long time I thought I’d have another go at stitching it, but I could never bring myself to attempt it, due to the negative memories.
But Inspirations magazine featured a few other sweet bags over the years, and this one particularly caught my eye. It’s from Issue 51 (about 2006, I think). It uses paler colours, but the overall look is the same:
So, as you can see from the skeins alongside the magazine, this is the one I’ve decided to stitch! I’m going to stitch mine on a piece of damask tablecloth fabric that I bought in an antique shop years ago. I’ve got all the called-for threads, and I’ve even found some tiny 3mm gold sequins to attach around the embroidery itself.
This is another wonderful design by Susan O’Connor, who has been designing for Inspirations magazine for years. I love her designs, and have done several of them in the past. This one should be great fun!
If you’d like to stitch it, although the magazine is no longer available as a back issue, the pattern for the sweet bag itself is available to buy as a digital download from here: https://www.inspirationsstudios.com/product/flowers-for-elizabeth/
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Janet Granger's Blog 
Is there a way to get the pattern? Any source still available?
Yes, it’s available as a digital download (just this one pattern, not the whole magazine that it was originally a part of) from here: https://www.inspirationsstudios.com/product/flowers-for-elizabeth/
I’ve been wanting to stitch this and have the pattern.
Will this be like Strawberry Fayre with lots of pics and notes? I think I’ll need all the help you might offer!
I’m not sure yet – I tend to just make notes for the blog as I’m stitching any design, so if I feel there are tips to pass on, I’ll mention those as I’m going. The stitches used in this design are far simpler than for Strawberry Fayre – Susan O’Connor likes using a lot of Satin Stitch for a more ‘painterly’ look, whereas Carolyn Pearce goes berserk with loads of stitches and threads! If you’ve got any questions though, you can always ask here, and I’ll respond!
Thanks. I can’t wait to start. Only have daughter’s wedding (it’s simple and elegant), business trip to Maine and move to a new city – all this from July 20-30th! Then, I’ll be ready to settle in with a new project.
Good luck with all that – then you can reward yourself with some stitching!!
Oh I will enjoy following your progress with this design Janet! That’s such a shame about your previous sweet bag, I’m glad you have finally overcome the bad associations and found another pattern to enjoy working. 😀
It’s taken me years though. But this is such a lovely design, I had to give it a go.