Sublime Jenny

Sublime Stitching by Jenny Hart (available from amazon.co.uk) is a fantastic embroidery book. It is a ringbound collection of iron-on embroidery patterns, but not just any old embroidery patterns. Jenny's designs are retro, funky, fun and fabulous. As Jenny says 'This aint your gramma's embroidery!'

Jenny's inspiring patterns include retro rockets, chinese lanterns, dogs, cats, cocktails skulls, unicorns, rollerskates and mexican wrestlers, to name but a few.

The patterns are so easy to use, you pull out the page with your pattern, place it over the fabric and iron over it. Simple. Each pattern can be used up to 9 times, which is tremendous value for money.

Jenny also has a great website: sublimestitching.com (where these pictures come from), which she frequently updates with exciting new patterns that be purchased diretly from the site.

Sublime Stitching is also a fab resource for people who have never stitched anything in their lives, because she includes full instructions on everything you need to know to create your own masterpiece. She discusses the the tools of embroidery - fabric, needles, thread, hoop, etc. and also gives full instructions on how to do different stitches like chain stitch, blanket stitch and French knots, among others.

I've used her patterns to great effect, on pillow cases, cushion covers and I'm now working on a tea towel, strewn with frilly tea cups and tea pots. Before long my entire house is going to be crammed with embroidered cherries, margaritas and poodles, my husband will be pleased.