August 10

It's definitely summer now. From what I have heard, those of you in the south of the UK have had a real scorcher so far, up in the north it's pretty good but not quite as dry. Why am I telling you this when I'm a stitcher, not a weather forecaster? Well, every type of weather gives us a reason (excuse!!) to stitch.

If it's hot, take some time out from sunbathing to complete a thread or two. Or perhaps bask in the sunshine with your stitching in the garden.

If it's raining, why not shelter from the miserable weather with a good old afternoon's stitching, with a few sunny tracks on the stereo?

Whatever your excuse, take advantage of our fantastic summer offer. Buy 2 charts or kits (excluding minitastics) from Stitchtastic and receive a chart worth £10.95 absolutely free! Even if you're not in the UK (and probably not so obsessed with the weather!) you can receive our special offer. Just click on the offer on the front page of our website to add it to your basket then get shopping!

Land Rovers are always some of our most popular designs. Whether it's a classic design or one of our new caricatures, a Land Rover or a Range Rover, they're guaranteed to attract attention from fans of stitching or the cars themselves.

Firstly, to the oldest Land Rover design we have. It's a 1957 Series 1 Land Rover, and is a brilliant stitch. Measuring 15.1" by 11.3" (38.4cm by 28.7cm), it's available as a canvas or hard top (hard top is shown here) and uses 19 DMC colours.

Another popular design is our 1986 LWB Defender, available in blue, red or green. It uses 12 DMC colours and measures 12.9" by 7.6" (32.8cm by 19.4cm).
Next we move to a more modern Land Rover, the Discovery. This is available in red and blue and uses 22 DMC colours for a really detailed look. It measures 12.3" by 8.1" or 31.2cm by 20.5cm.

We have several Series 2 Land Rovers available for you to stitch, but the most popular (and fun!) one must be the caricature design shown here. One of our newest designs, it measures 13.1" by 8" (33.4cm by 20.3cm) and uses 19 DMC colours. It looks great when stitched and will really appeal to those who love to take their Land Rover into the mud!

A little more flashy is our Range Rover Sport design. It uses just 11 DMC colours so is possibly a little easier to stitch, and when finished will measure 12.4" by 9.4", or 31.4cm by 23.8cm.

Other designs in this range that I haven't room to show you here include the Range Rover Freelander, Land Rover Defender 90 in blue or red, a Land Rover Series 2A with canvas or hard top and a silver Range Rover Mark 4. To see these or any of the designs featured here, have a look at http://www.stitchtastic.com/catalog/cars_land_rover.aspx .

This month I have two of our fantastic stitchers who would like to share their finished product with you, both from far flung corners of the globe.

First of all, Kristene from Kansas in the USA wanted to show off the John Deere tractor she stitched for her father in law, Donald Thomas Sr. He farms in Alamota, Kansas and has been collecting John Deere memorabilia for 80 years - wow!

Well Kristene, I hope your father in law loved the design, I think you've framed it beautifully with the matching green surround.

Our second stitcher hails from Italy and was kind enough to send a picture of her stitched Porsche 356, which looks brilliant - so 1960s! She stitched it for her friends as a Christmas present and says that they have that exact car in their garage. Lucky things!

If you have a photo of one of our designs that you've stitched, please send it to us and you can appear in a future copy of our newsletter. A picture of you with the design would be even better!

You can now find us more easily on Facebook, using our own URL, www.facebook.com/Stitchtastic . Come and click 'Like' to become a Fan, and keep up with all our stitching antics! You can put your own pictures of our designs that you've stitched up on the page, or just admire the wonderful work of our brilliant stitchers.

In our August newsletter we'll look at our range of accessories, vital to a busy stitcher.
Enjoy the sunshine!