Here’s some more blackwork with a twist. We’ve added colour to our blackwork to create contemporary fruit motifs to decorate simple table linen.

Much like the floral motifs on the cushion cover, we’ve used the traditional technique of blackwork, but made use of Anchor stranded cotton’s wide range of colours to create these fruity designs for summer.

All you really need to know is how to do a back stitch, and a little cross stitch, and you’ll find these motifs stitch up so quickly.

Our free pattern also shows you how to edge the placemats in a co-ordinating fabric. We’ve used Erin McMorris’s Parkslope fabric to decorate ours, because its leafy design really sets off the fruit motifs.

If you’d like to read about blackwork’s historical origins, click to read more on wikipedia.