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Mary Corbet

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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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Needlework News Snips for July: Inspiration, Threads, & More!

 

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Oh, happy Saturday all around!

It’s taken me all the week long to work through the catch-up after being out of town for a while. Subconsciously, this may be the reason I never go anywhere!

Strangely enough, I haven’t done a lick of stitching, with the exception of one tiny stitch tutorial. I’m craving my needle and thread! And with temperatures topping the 105 mark this weekend, methinks I’ll use that as an excuse to stay in where it’s cool(ish) and put my mind and fingers to a project or two.

Well, you know how it is – any excuse would do!

But before I hunker down, I thought I’d share some bits of inspiration, information, and whatnot that have surfaced in the needlework world lately. So pour yourself something refreshing, cold or hot depending on your particular hemispheric circumstances, and let’s go for a browse, shall we?

Needlework News Snips - July, 2017

Those Threads!

At the end of last month, I mentioned metallic threads from Au Ver a Soie – yes, metallics that are actually a pleasure to work with when it comes to surface embroidery! It came to my attention shortly thereafter that French Needle carries several enticing Au Ver a Soie thread collections, many of which include a coordinating spool of their metallics. Um. Some of the color collections are delectably enticing, so just be warned. They’re hard to resist! My favorites include this green and this turquoise collection, as well as the yellow / gold collection.

Oh golly. LOT (Love of Threads) is a curse.

Stones & Beads in Tambour & More

Robert Haven has posted a new video on adding stones and beads to tambour work. If you are interested in tambour embroidery, it’s definitely worth subscribing to his YouTube channel. This particular video has some interesting concepts that can easily be adapted to regular surface embroidery with stones and beads – you don’t have to have a tambour hook, necessarily, to achieve some of the results.

Embroidered Primstav

I think this embroidered primstav on Gingerbread Snowflakes is rather an ingenious approach to a seasonal calendar. If you’re not sure what a primstav is, take a look! It’s a great idea for an embroidery project, since it encompasses all kinds of small symbols that would be fun to stitch!

And These Threads – Get them While you Can!

A while ago, I showed you some of the first edition of the fantastic Frostings boxes from Thistle Threads. Thistle Threads Frostings club is a series of subscription boxes for gorgeous specialty embroidery threads that, for the most part, aren’t commonly found in the needlework market, most coming about through long years of research and experimentation to produce historical threads that are no longer available.

The second season of Frostings is now available, and there aren’t a whole lot left, so if you want to get in on these threads – that, in fact, considering their make-up and the research and development that’s gone into them, are a real value – now’s the time to do it!

They’re gorgeous, gorgeous threads! You can see some of them in this article on Thistle Threads. The crenelated silk-wrapped plate and the crinkle gimp are amazing – not to mention, well… all of it! Oooooh, the possibilities!

LOT strikes again!

Embroidery Patterns

If you’ve been following along on Needle ‘n Thread for a while, you probably already know I’m a huge fan of Antique Pattern Library – a terrific resource for older, public domain textile pattern, information and instructional books available in PDF format for download.

Since starting on this recent Embroidery Archeology series I’m doing, where I’m taking apart some old ecclesiastical embroidery to remount on a new background, I’ve received a lot of requests about sources for church embroidery patterns and the like.

If you’re looking for some church-related needlework patterns and ideas, you might find this Album de Broderie Religieuse (PDF link) on Antique Pattern Library useful.

Incidentally, I also have an ebook of Church Patterns for embroidery available here on Needle ‘n Thread, and a section of free church patterns available here.

Ribbon & Felt!

Oooooh! Di van Niekerk is coming out with a new book, in collaboration with Toody Cassidy. It’s on felting and silk ribbon embroidery. It’s not out yet, but it’s coming! You can read about it – and revel in some photos! – here.

The List Goes On…!

I have many more bits and bobs to sort through to share with you, but I’m out of time! And so are you! And so, we will meet again on the newsy topics down the road a bit.

Coming up:

Come hell or high water, I’m releasing a new ebook in the next week and a half, or I’ll eat my hat. Look for it! It promises some fun stitching!

Once it’s out, I can concentrate on a few other projects that I want to share with you. I also have an extensive list of little tutorials and so forth that we will tackle – I just need to re-aquaint myself with some technical equipment. And my brother has introduced me to a new camera set-up that I’ll be testing for video as well, so I hope to share some of those results with you along the way. Funny how the learning curve just never ends!

Wherever you are, whatever you’re doing, I hope you get a chance to spend some quality time with your needle and thread this weekend. I plan to! And whether the results are good or bad, I’ll share them with you soon!

Enjoy your weekend and stay cool!

 
 

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(4) Comments

  1. Did you ever do a post on how you choose stitches for a pattern? You mentioned a plan to do it but I might have missed the post.

    In any case, I’m looking forward to the ebook! Have fun stitching!

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    1. Another question (sorry, lots of questions 🙂 – you mentioned in your posts about embroidered cards that you like machine embroidery threads for paper, as they are more supple and hold up well to the extra friction of paper. Have you tried metallic machine embroidery thread on fabric and how does it compare to the Au Ver a Soie threads? (Not as well, I’m sure, but I’m still curious)

      Thanks so much for this blog! I’ve been learning a lot

    2. Machine embroidery thread doesn’t behave the same way for hand embroidery. It works for some applications, but it’s not something I’d normally opt for, because with hand embroidery, you’re usually working with threads that are more textured that provide a completely different look, or that are handled differently (i.e. couched, not sewn, etc.). Metallic and similar threads used in machine work are pretty fine threads (as far as size goes), and they definitely wouldn’t cover the same way or give the same results that are characteristic of hand embroidery. Hope that helps.

  2. I love the Primstav – need to do something like that one of these days – maybe when I get my advent calendar done. I’ve been a big fan of Trish Nguyen for a long time, and have been collecting the frostings boxes. I was just thinking to myself that I’ll probably never use half of the wonderful things in the boxes, but I can’t resist – they’re like a box of eye candy!

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