Kits for surface embroidery projects are sometimes pretty hard to come by. They’re even tough to find in local needlework shops, although occasionally you can find some nice crewel kits in shops that carry a wide variety of needlework supplies and that cater to a variety of techniques. But mostly, if you want surface embroidery kits, often you have to go straight to the designer.

For those of you who like to work kits that employ traditional surface embroidery techniques, I thought I’d point out Roseworks Embroidery Designs, a company out of South Africa that sells a whole plethora of surface embroidery kits.

The very first entirely-surface-embroidery kit that I ever worked was from Roseworks designs. I don’t remember where I purchased the kit – I think it was a shop in the Northeast that is since out of business. Some time later, I came upon the shop Twining Thread, which was located in the Northwest, and which carried some of the Roseworks kits. And now (yeah, I know this is hard to believe)… I’ve got a few of the kits out in The Stash, waiting until The Day.

Roseworks Designs has a nice collection of Jacobean-style embroidery designs. The designs come pre-printed on the cloth, with thread recommendations and stitching instructions. I think the thread list is pretty much DMC, but you could always opt for your own favorite, if you’d like to work with something beyond stranded cotton.

If you like Jacobean style designs, but you don’t want to work a big piece, they have a great collection of Jacobean miniatures. That little orange thing called “Prelude” is really pretty!

Finally, if you’re looking for something a bit more exotic, they have just that – a page devoted to exotic embroidery designs, from a bedecked camel and Arabian steed to a rather sumptuously attired elephant, and few others in between.

The exchange rate makes the kits very affordable, but I’m not sure what the postage is these days. If you’re interested in these types of surface embroidery kits, you might want to check their list of shops that carry Roseworks Designs to see if there’s one in your area. (The list is somewhat outdated – Twining Thread in the US doesn’t exist anymore.) If there isn’t a shop in your area, you could always order right off the website.

So… there’s a resource for embroidery kits for you, if you’ve been looking for one.

If you like working kits, where do you find them? Do you have any specific resources for hand embroidery kits that you’d like to tell others about? Feel free to leave a comment!