Alex Beattie is a needlework designer of tapestry kits – although coming from a background of illustration.

What I love most about both designing and stitching is the fact that you’re working with pure colour. There’s no mixing or preparation – it’s bright, jewel-like wools sewn straight on to the canvas. There’s also something wonderful about the simplicity of it. You take a handful of colours and a grid of (say) 150 by 150 stitches, and from that you create a whole story. In many ways it’s the limitations themselves which make the end product so elegant. Needlepoint as haiku.

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