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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 – November 8, 2019

 

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Happy Friday! Most people call it the weekend – I’m calling it the workend. Lots to do this weekend with needle and thread (and scissors and glue and pins and batting and…), because I’m finishing up some ornaments. Yay!

Over the past week, I’ve built up a dandy little list of online bits related to needlework. There’s a little bit of instruction, a little bit of inspirations, some news – a whole conglomeration of things that popped up in front of me off and on all week and I thought worth sharing with you.

They’re in absolutely no particular order.

So grab a cuppa and let’s go for a meander, shall we?

Needlework News Snips November 8, 2019

Thread Sale!

Let’s start with a thread sale, because we all love thread.

Color Complements is clearing stock with an autumn thread sale. I’m always excited when Lorraine has a sale and clears out stock, because that means new stock and new colors are coming soon!

(A little inside scoop: I hear she’s dyeing some gorgeous floche! Yay!)

You can check out the sale items at Colour Complements here. Some fantastic autumn colors (among others)!

Linen Video

Here’s a nice little video on linen and how it is made.

It’s always good to know how the goods we use come about!

Needle Reference Chart

The folks at John James have put out a new needle reference chart – types, sizes, what they’re used for. It’s a fabulous graphic in PDF format to download to your computer for reference, or to print to have on hand when you’re searching for specific types of needles for specific jobs.

The nice thing is, all the needles are shown at actual size. How this works out on your printer might be another question, but I was able to print “actual size” and get a good size guide. Look for “actual size” in your printer dialogue box.

You’ll find it here: John James Needle Guide

A Different Wreath

If you have a lover of sewing, needlework, and the like in your family or among your close friends – or hey! maybe it’s you! – you might enjoy making this new take on a decorative wreath, as a gift or for your own home (or shop? or studio?) decor.

Adorned with sewing notions and various bits and bobs, it’s really cute! I could see turning the concept into a holiday wreath, too, if you have a walk in shop or studio where people come to learn over the holidays. It would be fun to add greenery and a touch of Christmas (lights, maybe?) to a wreath adorned as this one.

The instructions for the Sewing Notions Wreath is available here at A Making Life. There’s a link in that little blurb to the PDF that you can save to your computer and print.

It would make a fabulous gift!

Remember those Crazy Quilt Templates?

Remember those Crazy Quilt templates I wrote about here? From Kathy Shaw’s book that I reviewed here?

Well, those sold out pretty quickly. But there’s a new set available now at Creative Impressions, for those looking for them. The Creative Impressions website isn’t the easiest to navigate – your best bet is to go to “Shop” then “All Products” and then use the search bar and search “Templates.” Both sets will come up – the new set is called “Embroidery Shapes Templates.”

Plymouth Tapestry Experience

Have you heard of the Plymouth Tapestry that’s being stitched as we speak? It hasn’t had a lot of press, but it’s going into full(er) swing now, as far as getting the word out about it and getting together participants to stitch on it.

They have a growing Facebook page here, if you want to take a look and follow along.

And they’ve put together a Plymouth Tapestry Experience that you can sign up for, to become one of the stitchers on the tapestry. There are only three sessions available in 2020, with 6 stitchers per session, so if you want to leave your mark on the tapestry, register quickly! You can read all about it here.

Passementerie Inspiration

If you, like me, like passementerie (that rhymes incredibly well), then you may very well enjoy this article about the most beautiful tassels in the world.

They’re French, of course.

Online Book with Designs

And, speaking of French, I recently came across a book on Internet Archive that you might like – it’s called L’Art dans la lingerie: dessins de broderie, and it has some beautiful monogram designs in it, among other things. You can download the PDF or read it online!

Go Stuff an Acorn

Have you ever wanted to make little stuffed wool acorns, with real caps on them? Of course you have! You can find a fun tutorial for simply wooly acorns here on Count it All Joy.

They would make really cute little pincushions or needle minders of a sort!

Snowflakes Galore!

If you want to see all my snowflakes that have been developing into a regular blizzard here in my studio, I’ve been posting photos on Instagram lately, because I can’t really bog you down every day with yet another version of yet another snowflake.

If you’re on Instagram and you want to keep up with my flakiness, you’ll find me here.

For my patrons on Patreon, I added another snowflake design for you (in three variations) on my Patreon page this past week, to say Thanks!. Don’t forget to pick it up!

A Stitcher’s Christmas – Coming Up!

Each year in the time leading up to Christmas, I run a series on Needle ‘n Thread called A Stitcher’s Christmas. It’s a series of give-aways from small needlework businesses around the globe.

This year, I’ll be running the series between Thanksgiving (November 28) and Christmas. There are some fantastic prizes for the give-aways, and there’s nothing complicated about signing up for them! Keep in eye out for more information and an exciting line-up starting at the end of this month!

If you have not signed up for my email newsletter yet, it’s a great way to stay abreast of what’s going on, especially when it comes to these give-aways. You’ll find the sign up information for my newsletter (which comes out three times a week) here.

Enjoy Your Weekend!

Hope you have a grand weekend! You’ll find me in my studio this weekend if you needle me….

 
 

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(13) Comments

  1. Your L’Art dans la lingerie: dessins de broderie links to the tassel article.

    Thanks for all the interesting information.

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  2. Dear Mary

    The new snips you have shown are really interesting, I like all of them. I like the linen video which I have seen before but never get bored watching it. As well as the John James needle chart very useful and the wreath is lovely with all the sewing accessories made into the wreath. OH and those tassels so beautiful and so exquisitely made I would love to own just one, I’m not greedy. The wool acorn is so cute lovely. I’m really looking forward to your Christmas stitchers give-aways so exciting. Thanks for sharing with us your news snips so interesting as usual and I do hope you have a great workend and get a lot done.

    Regards Anita Simmance

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  3. So much fun. Oops, the morning slipped away. And yes I love Passementerie. I’m always fiddling around with it, looking for new ways to edge ornaments. I had a lot of fun taking small threads and twisting/braiding them together to make new edging. Although I hate stitching with metallic thread, I do love doing a bit of weaving with it on my inkle loom. I found a tutorial for making it round, and I’m just picking out colors to fiddle around with. It gives me something to do with those bits that are too long to be an ort, and too short to let linger. Thanks for a great Friday morning.

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  4. I never thought I would live to see tassels as elaborate as those. Wow. I love the little acorns. Thanks for including that segment.

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  5. At Creative Impressions: a search for “templates” did not find them. I had to try again without the s (“template”) to have it work. Picky computer!

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  6. Thanks for sharing these. Watching the linen video, down in one of the comments, was that only 3% of the linen is high quality. Now I know why really good linen for needlework is soooo expensive and hard to find.

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  7. I am a needlepointer by hobby but love to read your posts (I started with embroidery as a young Camp Fire girl) and always find a takeaway – you really are a talented embroiderer and share very interesting and useful tid bits – thank you!!! The Passementerie link was AMAZING!!! Thank you for sharing it! I recommend your readers read the article – I so appreciate the history of companies surviving all these years and carrying on their ancestor’s art! Also travel to their website (link at bottom of the article); the short video was fascinating to see not only how the parts of the tassels and cording are created but the end results – just beautiful!!! Also the acorns are adorable – saved in case I find some acorn caps! Thank you Mary and have a wonderful workend!!!

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  8. There were so many fun things/links in this issue! That wreath was darling…the perfect gift to craft up for a special sewing friend! It’s definitely on my ‘to create’ list! Then you shared about Kathy Shaw, who I absolutely adore (I took my first crazy quilting class from her; she doesn’t live too far from me)! Then I read about the Plymouth Tapestry! I’d not heard about it and I’m a Mayflower descendant! Shocking! LOL! I was thinking you’d written this newsletter filled with bits just for me, and then I saw the acorns blurb and was excited that someone (else) was doing wool acorns … until I realized it was *me* doing the wool acorns! Oh my — that was quite the thrill! 🙂

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  9. Thanks for all the lovely links Mary, I have signed up for the newsletter, don’t know why it has taken me so long. I love the Sewing Notions Wreath, but I don’t think I would ever want to glue my precious bobbins and the like, even though the end result is amazing. Maybe once I give up stitching and have nothing else to do with them.

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  10. Dear Mary

    I love the snowflakes and your memories of your younger snow days such an interesting story of your youth. I can’t wait for the snowflake collection, I especially like the last 4 snowflakes above the second to last blue snowflake is my favourite so much there and the last one which look like gold stars. Thank you for sharing with us your snowflake collection and sharing your treasured memories of days gone by really interesting.

    Regards Anita Simmance

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  11. mary – i have been a quilter for 35 years, and recently became interested in embroidery, goldwork in particular. i have been OVERWHELMED at the amount of information your blog gives – so much all in one place and so well organized. yours is the only blog i subscribe to (on any subject). THANK YOU for all the info. marty turley

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