More beautiful Russian doll’s house rooms….

One of my customers, called Natalia, from Russia, has just sent me some images of her doll’s house, with my ‘Esther’ carpet kit in it, which she has stitched beautifully. The Esther carpet measures 10 3/4 x 7 inches when finished, and is to be stitched on 18 count canvas. The kit includes everything you need to complete the carpet, including fine thread to make the fringe. You can see it in the online shop here (the first one on the page). There is also a smaller version of the Esther carpet available (in the medium-sized carpet kits section), if the rooms of your house are smaller than Natalia’s!

I have displayed her pictures on the Customers’ Gallery page on my website (each person has a page just for them – Natalia’s page is here). If you’d like to go and have a look, you can see the huge selection of amazing inspirational pictures sent to me by my talented customers!

Here’s Natalia’s pictures – isn’t her doll’s house lovely?

Natalia wasn’t sure that the carpet, as presented on the colour block chart that comes with the kit, would fit in her room. So, she adapted the border slightly, and left off the fringe.

But once she was sure she *did* have room, she ‘retro-fitted’ a fringe, and it worked!

 

Isn’t her stitching neat?

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Just launched today! Art Deco carpet kits for doll’s houses

If there’s one style of carpet kit for doll’s houses that I get asked to design more than any other these days, it’s Art Deco. A few years ago, all doll’s houses seemed to be made in the Victorian style. Georgian was sometimes an option, but more often, only Victorian style houses and furniture were produced. So, people wanted Victorian style soft furnishings to go with the houses that they’d bought.

But in the past few years, the doll’s house hobby has diversified hugely, and now almost any era is being catered for. More and more, Art Deco styles of house are being produced, so, obviously, those houses need some carpets to go in them  🙂

During the past summer, I started to design the new range of Art Deco carpets, based on authentic motifs and colour schemes. I have just launched the first four – more will follow in the spring of 2014. These are all to be stitched in needlepoint on 18 count white canvas (ample canvas is included in the kit, and the design is counted from a colour block chart). Each kit also contains Appleton’s crewel wool, detailed instructions, and a suitable needle. They can be bought here.

The new collection of doll’s house scale Art Deco carpet kits

I have around seventy carpets for doll’s houses in my range already, and I do love designing Victorian carpets – there are several dozen carpet kits on my website in the Victorian style. The carpet shown below measures 6 x 4 1/2 inches, and is a typical example of the swirling, strong design style that the Victorians loved.

A very traditional Victorian carpet design from my range, called ‘Sarah’

I have several Arts & Crafts designs in my range, too, such as this William Morris ‘Hammersmith’ carpet design which I call ‘Elizabeth’ – it measures 9 x 9 inches.

And then there’s the Art Nouveau style – I love this style, too. This one’s called ‘Josie’.

What do you think of the new designs? Do you like Art Deco as a decorating style? Or do you prefer the more traditional Victorian/Arts and Crafts kind of carpets? Or modern?

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A large (by doll’s house standards) needlepoint carpet

My customers often send me images of the doll’s house scale items that they have made from the kits and charts on my website. Heide is from Germany, and has been stitching my designs for over ten years. She recently sent me photos of her latest creation – a very large paisley carpet.

In 2010, Heide donated one of her earlier houses, the Big House, to a museum of childhood – but first she took out some of the carpets, and put them into her second house, The Café! But The Café will follow the Big House to the museum in 2014, so she says that again she will take out most of the carpets to put them into her third project, The B&B. In her words, ‘Double shame on me!!!’ for not letting her carpets go with the house. ‘I thought my age of 70 would make me a wise and unselfish woman, but there are obviously a lot of things I would miss.’  I think that is perfectly understandable!

This huge paisley carpet is based on a very early design of mine called ‘Phyllis’, which appeared in my book ‘Miniature Needlepoint Carpets’, but is no longer available as a kit. Heide’s carpet measures 13 by 4 1/2 inches (32 by 11 cm) – large by any miniaturist’s standards! It will fit one of the three lobbies in her B&B, which is in the process of being made.

This group photo shows many of the carpets that Heide has stitched over the years. She alters some of the colourways to suit her houses, and some she stitches as per the kit. It’s easy to see, from this photo, that Heide has a ‘favourite palette’ for her stitching! Clockwise from the top left, these carpets are: Elizabeth, Patricia, Heide’s adapted version of a carpet of mine called ‘Jessica’, Rebecca, Jessica (the same design as my original, but different colours), Carole pastel, Heide’s design based on Phyllis, and Ruth. Most of these are available from my online shop as full kits (to be stitched on 18 count canvas with crewel wool), and as chart packs too.

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30% off discontinued embroidery kits

Today, I’ve decided which designs will be discontinued from my current range of miniature needlepoint embroidery kits, to make space for the new designs being brought out this spring. So, if you’d like to grab yourself a bargain, then have a look at the ‘sale’ page of my website’s shop. There are several types of kit for doll’s house soft furnishings on offer (such as this miniature carpet called ‘Marie’, shown above) – all with 30% off the usual price.

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