A to Z Challenge: L is for Lesley Teare

Today is Day 12 of the A to Z Blogging Challenge.  If you are new to the blog and haven't heard of this challenge before, the basic idea is to blog (almost) every day in April, taking one day for each letter of the alphabet. Since I have a cross stitch blog, I am blogging about cross stitch patterns in my stash and on my wish list for this month of April.

L is for Lesley Teare

It's time to talk about another one of my favorite designers, so get ready for another long post.

If you've never heard of her before, Lesley Teare is a frequent cross stitch magazine conrtributor who has also published several books of her designs and is probably most well known for her floral and wildlife designs.

I personally most like her Oriental designs.  I believe I mentioned this in my Joan Elliott post last week, but I love Geisha patterns.  I bought Lesley's book Oriental Cross Stitch specifically to get the pattern featured on the cover, which is this Geisha Triptych.  Although the book is filled with lots of other cool patterns too, so it's worth checking out if you like Oriental themed patterns like me. 

Although her flower designs are beautiful, I'm not really drawn to a lot of them.  I prefer when she combines the floral themes with other objects like in this set of four teapot designs.  I would really like to stitch these up and frame them together like this some day.

One of my other favorite patterns I have currently in my stash waiting for a stitching party would be this lovely Wizard of Oz design.  This came out in a copy of Cross Stitch Gold that is VERY hard to find in the US, but I tracked it down because as an English major, I love all things to do with classic children's literature.  Of course, since then the pattern has become available digitally and is now much easier to get a hold of, but that's life, isn't it. 

I love Lesley's use of color and shape in her designs.  And I think one of the best representations of that is this Patridge in a Pear Tree pattern.  This, along with the hat sampler I posted about last week, were the patterns that drew me back into cross stitching a year ago.  In addition to the colors and textures, I love this one because I'm a huge fan of the 12 Days of Christmas (I think I currently have 5 12 days patterns planned?).

Also on my soon to stitch list is this great Art Deco Rose Lady.  The colors of this pattern are much more muted, but I like the feeling that this pattern give off.  Large blocks of the same color too, so that's a good or a bad thing I guess!

Although all of these above designs I have in my stash thanks to Lesley's regular contributions to the British cross stitch magazines, they are all also available for purchase from her store.  

So if Lesley is a new designer for you (or even if she isn't) and you'd like to try her designs, here's a great way to get a hold of some her charts for free.  If you are on Facebook, she's currently hosting a Floral Alphabet SAL (currently 2 parts are out) that has a different flower for each letter of the alphabet.  Lesley has also contributed several charts to the Facebook charity group I've posted about before, Cross Stitch for Charity.  Although these charts are free, please consider making a donation to the groups current charity, World Wildlife Fund, in exchange for downloading those charts.  And last, but not least, make sure you follow Lesley's blog, since she regularly posts freebies on there (including a set of fairy patterns for 2015 that go along marvelously with my Flower of the Month SAL).

I hope this (very lengthy) post has helped you find some new stashing treasures!

One of the other A to Z blogs I've been reading had the excellent idea of adding links to previous posts at the end of a particular day.  So if you'd like to see my previous A to Z entries:

A is for  Alphabet
B is for Britty Kitty
C is for Carousel
D is for Debbie Mumm
E is for Eat
F is for Frogs
G is for Garden Cat
H is for Hats 
I is for Ice
J is for Joan Elliott 
K is for Kokeshi