Cornflowers – Stitch-Along Materials Kits Available!

And here we are, at long last! Time for the second Stitch Snippet Stitch-Along of 2024!

Featuring a vibrant field of cornflowers embroidered on natural colored linen, lined with a sumptuous shot silk, and constructed into a simple scissor envelope, Cornflowers is a project suitable for beginners and beyond. The project offers a very satisfactory finish into a very pretty, usable needlework accessory.

You’ll find the materials kits for Cornflowers right here, if you’d like to grab one for this stitch-along.

Last week, we chatted about many of the details of this project. I’ll just touch on a few of those details again, for those who missed them.

The project is a stitch-along – like the other Stitch Snippet stitch-alongs that we’ve had here on Needle ‘n Thread and that you can find listed here – and the instructions will unfold gradually here on the website.

You can stitch at your own pace. There will be an index of articles for the project, where you can return for information as you need it. The index will develop as the project develops, and it will serve as your hub of information for the project.

Articles will post usually once a week – maybe more frequently or maybe less frequently (as in, twice a week, or once every other week), depending on my publishing schedule on the blog or other things that come up. I don’t promise a fixed publishing schedule, because if I do, Something inevitably will come up and interrupt the schedule. This is a “summer project” (at least, summer here in the Northern Hemisphere), so I expect it to run through June and part of July.

The kit for Cornflowers includes a fine Italian linen in natural for the embroidery fabric, a gorgeous “shot” silk dupioni (woven in two colors) for the lining, interfacing, full skeins of DMC embroidery floss (no fear of running out of thread!), a pearl button, and needles.

You’ll need to provide scissors, sewing thread, and a hoop or frame for working the embroidery. Any hoop 6″ or smaller will do (the smaller the hoop, the more frequently you’ll need to move it as you work).

While stitching the samples, I made heavy use of a needle minder, since I was changing shades of threads frequently. I used thread drops so that I could pre-cut lengths of thread and switch colors and shades quickly. You can find all these tools – hoops, scissors, needle minders, and thread drops – available here in the shop.

A small addendum to the kit contents: We tried out the pearl button, liked the result, and then ordered them in bulk from France. I was not quite as pleased with the buttons that came in the bulk order. I decided to include them in the kits without cost to you, because the time frame for receiving the replacements was unknown. You can certainly replace the included button with a button of your choice, if you decide not to use it – the concept of attachment and loop will the same. Otherwise, you can use it! I used it on a couple samples and they are ok. They’re just not as high quality as I would have liked.

Throughout the course of the project, you’ll learn the easiest method of transfer for this design; you’ll learn different aspects of shading, including a simple approach to long-and-short stitch that is extremely accessible and works up quite quickly, as well as shading by combining threads in the needle; you’ll learn how to construct the finished scissor case; and you’ll learn how to make an easy, matching button loop closure.

All the lessons will be posted here on the blog. If you are subscribed to my newsletter, you’ll receive each installment in your email inbox, so you don’t miss a posting.

If you are a member of the Needle ‘n Thread Community on Patreon, you will receive all the lessons as PDFs, for easy download and printing.

Timing

We will ship the kits out today and tomorrow via Priority Mail (and throughout the week, as orders are placed) to US and Canadian addresses, and the stitch-along will begin next week. If you live in Australia and you are interested in receiving a kit, contact me. At this time, I don’t ship to any other countries, unfortunately. You can read the reasons here under “International Shipping,” if you are interested. And if you have questions, feel free to reach out to me.

For those who cannot order the kit, or who prefer to work from stash, never fear – I will be posting information on materials as we go along!

Sell Outs

Due to a shortage of space, we have prepared fewer kits than we normally do these days. Still, we’ve made quite a few! I don’t expect a quick sell-out. I expect we will have kits in stock for at least a little while!

But if we do sell out, we’ll do a second round of kits. In that case, contact me to be put on the advanced notice list.

Stop by the shop today to pick up your materials kit, and let’s get this project going!