I can’t believe it’s the last day of August! This summer has absolutely whizzed by and it’s back to school time once again, but I’m clinging on to the last few days of summer with this seaside themed embroidery – The Rockpool from Rowandean. This kit costs £18.95 on their website, but I bought mine at The Stitch Festival earlier in the year.

Included in the kit was:

• Printed fabric
• Organza
• Needle x2
• Assorted threads and yarns
• Assorted beads and sequins

Some embroidery knowledge is definitely required for this project. Although there are some beginner’s tips included, the instructions aren’t that detailed and there are a lot of different threads and yarns to work with, using varying numbers of strands for each one, which can get a bit confusing. There are photographs and diagrams to assist with how to do each stitch and several good photographs of the finished design from different angles which I found helpful to refer back to. The printed design on the fabric was mainly to assist with placement and I felt like there was plenty of free reign to embellish the piece as you wished. I decided that I was going to use all the beads and sequins provided, so my finished piece is a lot busier than the photograph in the instructions, but I really like that.

I thought the limpets were created in a really clever way using a wooden bead and the spider’s web stitch to make them three-dimensional and give the ridged effect of their shells. The use of the ombré thread added to the dimensionality of them as well. 

I also really liked the wool stitched over the organza to give the impression of seaweed lurking in the water as the tide comes in to fill the rockpool. It’s a great way of colouring part of the hoop without a lot of stitching and adds interest to the design.

Whilst I was at The Stitch Festival I also bought a book from Rowandean – Hand-stitched Landscapes and Flowers by Katrina Witten. It includes ten embroidery projects to complete, but also lots of techniques and tips for creating embellished embroidery to add depth and textures to your work. I really enjoyed this project and would be interested to try out another Rowandean kit to see what other new techniques I can pick up.