• Use a clean, soft white towel or other cloth to line your ironing board. Residue on your ironing board cover may not come off - but then again, it just may. Why risk it?
• Use another clean cloth to cover your work before you iron it. So you need two cloths, at least.
• Starting with the right side up, lay your piece of embroidery on the cloth covering your ironing board. Put the second cloth over it. I use a light steam setting - some people debate this, but the covering cloth protects the embroidered piece and the steam helps press.
• Do not "rub" the iron back on forth when ironing the front - rather, lay it on, then lift it, then lay it on again. This way, you avoid displacing any stitching. If you have a highly textured embroidered surface (lots of French knots, etc.), you may wish to skip ironing the front altogether.
• Then turn your piece over, front side down on the cloth covering your board, and now you can either cover it or not with the other piece of cloth. If your iron isn't trusty, I'd cover it. I've got a great iron (a Rowenta professional - made in Germany, not China as some of the cheaper Rowentas are), and I've never had to worry about a water misshap or anything like that.
• When ironing the back, you may "rub" the iron, but do it with care.
• For highly textured pieces of embroidery, use several layers of soft cloth on your ironing board. This gives your stitches something to sink into and keeps them from getting squashed flat.

• If you've embroidered napkins, tablecoths, or other household linens that are used frequently, starch them. The starch helps protect the fabric from dust and such that can discolor your work or make it look grimey.
• If you don't use the pieces frequently and keep them stored most of the time (taking them out for special occasions only), don't starch them until you iron them for use. Afterwards, clean them, let them dry, and put them away without starching them. Starch can lend to storage discoloration, and can also cause undesirable creasing that's really difficult to remove.

• Don't fold them! Either lay them flat or roll them on a cardboard tube that's either acid-free, or covered with a piece of acid-free tissue paper (or even with a piece of white linen).
• Do not store them in plastic. It doesn't breathe. You can get mildew and whatnot - or just a plain stinky smell - from storing in plastic. You're better off with a lined cardboard box (they make archival boxes that you could use), or just a drawer.
• However, if you are storing them in a drawer, beware of the wood! Wood will discolor your fabric over time. Line your storage drawer with white tissue paper or with white linen. I prefer tissue paper - it's cheaper!
• Alternately, you can roll your pieces up (as mentioned above), and then wrap an extra layer of tissue around the roll.

uses long-armed cross stitch, but changes stitch direction in parts of design. Yarns often tweeded. Originally used wool thread on canvas, but many mutations during its history. Durable embroidery traditionally used for seat cushions, etc.

• A Video Library of Hand Embroidery Stitches - This is perhaps the biggest draw at Needle 'n Thread. I began the library because I realize that people have different learning modalities, and many people are "visual" learners - they need to see a thing worked out to really get it! The library will continue to grow. After all, there are over 500 documented embroidery stitches! Right now, you'll find about 40 small videos that demonstrate stitches or techniques.


• Pattern Resources - If you're looking for embroidery patterns, you'll find three categories on Needle 'n Thread: 1. The ones hosted here: general hand-embroidery patterns that you may find useful and fun; 2. Ecclesiastical embroidery patters - since this is one of my interests in embroidery, I thought I'd keep an on-going list of nice patterns to use for Church Embroidery; 3. Free embroidery patterns available around the web.


• Embroidery Resources - a list of places where you can find embroidery supplies or designs - these are reputable shops or the webpages of reputable designers. I've ordered from most of the shops on the list, or I've read about the designers and seen their work. I don't want to recommend shops or designers that could give readers a bad experience, so I make sure my list is limited to those shops or resources that I'm sure are good.


• List of Online Embroidery Books - As I become aware of whole embroidery books hosted online, I post them here. Usually, I'll write a review of the book first, so that you can see what's in it.


• Gallery - this is where I post pictures of embroidered works. Sometimes, these are my own pieces, but not always. Every needleworker needs inspiration! So if I post an article with pictures about a work of embroidery (whether mine or someone else's), I'll add this to the Gallery list.


• Reviews of Needlework Books - These are books that I own and have found useful for learning different techniques. I won't review a book and recommend it unless I actually own it and have used it! Occasionally, I might review a book I don't like, just so you know what you're getting into before you make the investment.


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