Penny Muncaster-Jewell has a beautiful project in the latest Creative Machine Embroidery magazine.

Unique Technique: Cutwork Part 1 on page 54 will take you through step-by-step to beautiful cutwork designs you can do yourself.

As a bonus Penny herself has some tips for you in creating your own cutwork designs. Read on:

• When I am creating cutwork designs (or in fact any designs where there are multiple layers overlapping each other, such as applique) I often create each layer in a separate file and also in a different color thread!
• Since the layers are created from the same image they will align up perfectly. Then when I put them together, if I can see a yellow thread which is in layer one and should not be visible, I know which layer to fix.
• I also do my test stitch out using the different colors so that I can also quickly identify a naughty stitch and where it is from.
• Once I know every stitch is behaving and nicely hidden I stitch it out using a single color. Using the different colors to just take the machine stop in-between layers. Hope this helps you when you are working with multiple overlapped layers.

Visit Penny at www.pennymj.com.

What are your tips for working with cutwork designs?