About

Mary Corbet

writer and founder

 

I learned to embroider when I was a kid, when everyone was really into cross stitch (remember the '80s?). Eventually, I migrated to surface embroidery, teaching myself with whatever I could get my hands on...read more

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Thanks for the Threads!

 

Amazon Books

I love receiving mail – you know, the kind that really comes in the mailbox! It’s always a thrill to come home from work to find something waiting, and yesterday, I received some embroidery threads! Well, combine the whole notion of Real Live Mail with Embroidery Threads, and you can imagine how delighted I was!

Paula Hewitt sent me along a wonderful little card of samples of embroidery threads. They included threads manufactured by Colourstreams, Cascade House, and EdMar. And they’re all gorgeous! Thank you, Paula!

Embroidery Thread Samples: Colourstreams, Cascade House, EdMar

The first thing that struck me about the Colourstreams was – strangely enough! – the colors! They are really beautiful, vibrant colors!

Embroidery Thread Samples: Colourstreams, Cascade House, EdMar

All the threads on the left side of the card are by Colourstreams. They have names like seascape, Marrakesh, water nymph, Monet, faded rose, nasturtium, verde, and meadow – and all the names fit!

Embroidery Thread Samples: Colourstreams, Cascade House, EdMar

Water nymph, for example, features tones of stunning ocean blues.

Embroidery Thread Samples: Colourstreams, Cascade House, EdMar

Some of the Cascade House threads are stranded silks. The stranded silks remind of YLI embroidery floss in size and twist. They are soft, with a nice sheen. There’s also a Lamé silk – it’s a pearl silk with a small filament of gold running through it.

The EdMar threads are a twisted rayon used often for Brazilian embroidery, but suitable for other methods as well. They have a nice sheen to them, and are characterized by the “boingy-ness” of rayon.

Colourstreams and Cascade House are produced in Australia. While Colourstreams has a few US distributors listed, Cascade House seems to be sold solely in Australia.

I haven’t stitched with any of the threads yet, but I’m excited to try them! It’s true, and you all know it, so I’m not ashamed to proclaim it – I have an infatuation with fibers. One of my upcoming Big Projects is to work up some photo comparisons of different threads, similar to my comparison of twisted silks and flat silks. However, one thing I’m going to do first is procure a better set-up for photographing threads up-close. I also want to provide stitch samples using the threads I compare.

I think it’s nice to see a thread before buying it – and to get opinions on how well it stitches up. But really, when it gets down to it, the touch is always the sell point for me!

Thanks again, Paula, for feeding my “fiber infatuation”!

I’ll keep you all posted on what I do with these! In the meantime, I hope to have some serious needle ‘n thread time this evening, so I can give you an update on my current projects – a couple underway, and the initial stages of a big needlework project with a short deadline.

 
 

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(5) Comments

  1. You’re welcome! now everyone can see my scrawl I call hand writing! I received some DMC satin floss in the mail yesterday (not yet available here) and spent the day stitching comparisons. Its fun to try new threads, isnt it

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  2. Oh, I’m excited to see you’re planning a thread comparison project, Mary! I know that will be a huge amount of work for you but I can’t help but look forward to it.

    I’m totally confused by the choices of thread out there and the various results they’ll yield.

    I’ve wanted to try DMC Pearl/Perle thread. And just this morning I’ve been looking for online auctions offering good deals.

    But right away I was confused as to whether or not the thread sold in 80m balls is the same thread you’d get in a skein. And I don’t really know how much difference there is in the sizes and how the size used may change the appearance of your work.

    I mean, I assume there has to be a significant difference between a skein of #3 and a ball of #8, but I don’t know for sure!

    I don’t know my perle from my coton a broder from my cotton floche. If I win the lottery I’m going to buy some of everything so I can see the differences! 😛

    Thank you again, Mary, for all the effort you take in helping folks who are thirsty to learn about embroidery. I appreciate it so much! – Jeannine

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  3. Jeannine said:
    Thank you again, Mary, for all the effort you take in helping folks who are thirsty to learn about embroidery. I appreciate it so much!

    May I just say, ‘I second that’…and make it a great big second! 🙂

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  4. Hi Mary,
    I am so curious to see what you are doing and look forward to your daily e-mail update. i am also a very frequent visitor to your website.
    the book review where you stated the bestsellers dated 30th may. Please be good enough to advise whether these woudl be avilable in Sri Lanka. In SL it’s ver hard for me to find nee embriodery books, Please help.

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  5. Hello, Angel. 🙂 Hope you don’t mind my butting in. Out of curiosity, after seeing your question about the availability of these books in Sri Lanka, I poked around on Amazon.com and found that they do ship to Sri Lanka.

    I also Googled “Sri Lanka book source” and I found this site:

    http://www.dkagencies.com/

    I didn’t have much luck on the dkagencies site finding the titles on Mary’s list but there are other embroidery books to be found.

    There is also yesasia.com

    I had more luck with yesasia.com. I only looked for Betty Barnden’s The Embroidery Stitch Bible and Mary Thomas’s Dictionary of Stitches and I was able to find both.

    You’ll have to see which sites offer you the best prices on the books and on shipping. Amazon is cheaper for me than the other sites. But it might be just the opposite for you, in your part of the world.

    Good luck! – Jeannine

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