A few weeks ago I put together some photos for the EGA (Embroiderers’ Guild of America), that they will use on their website and marketing for an episode of their “Virtual Lecture” series.
Are you familiar with the EGA’s virtual lecture series? The Embroiderers’ Guild of America hosts a monthly virtual lecture for their members, focusing on embroidery history, techniques, culture, and textile traditions. You can read more about this series here.
They’ve got me down for a session in April of next year – and I think it’s going to be a super fun session! Instead of a lecture, it’s a question and answer session, with questions that members will have the opportunity to submit.
If you’re not a member of the EGA, by the way, perhaps you should be! The whole organization has undergone quite a lot of updating over recent years, and their resources and events are stellar. Because I don’t have a chapter close by, I’m a Member at Large – which is a very affordable $55/year membership allowing me to participate in events, make use of their resources, and receive their quarterly publication Needle Arts Magazine – a lovely magazine featuring projects, tutorials, and needlework news and resources.
While communicating with the coordinator for the lecture series, I put together a small collection of “favorite project” photos so that they could pick and choose whatever they wanted for marketing and so forth.
That process of selecting photos, I’m embarrassed to say, was almost like an out-of-body experience. (Not that I’ve ever had an out of body experience. In fact, I’m not entirely sure what one is…)
I found myself very disconnected while I thought about my favorite Needle ‘n Thread projects. And then, when I went to collect photos of each project, I found myself thinking, “Gosh. That’s kind of pretty” – as if I didn’t stitch it. It felt as if I were looking at these projects for the first time, with completely new eyes.
Perhaps I don’t “revisit” my projects frequently enough to see them?
In any case, it was weird.
These are some of the projects that I gathered. I thought I’d share the photos with you – perhaps to remind you that these projects are on the website for you to learn from, or to introduce them to you if you’re new to Needle ‘n Thread.
This goldwork and silk Tudor-style rose is a wee thing, clocking in at just 1.5″ at its widest points. You can find the tutorial series for the rose here.
It’s also available in my (very large!) downloadable PDF covering the entire Marian Medallion project, which gathers all the articles, tips, techniques, designs and resources for the Marian Medallion project in one convenient document.
Test stitching this little rose was such a pleasure. I didn’t know if it would work out at the size I needed it to. I planned to stitch five of these roses around the Marian Medallion design, and I didn’t know if the techniques and materials that I hoped to use would work well in this relatively small space. They did – and it turned out just as I hoped it would. I remember being pretty pleased with the outcome. LOL!
This was back in the distant days when my studio was my garage, and I recall working through quite a few audiobooks throughout the course of that whole project.
I get so many requests for this project, which is called Jacobean Sea. You can read all about it and follow its progress here, in the project index for Jacobean Sea and Jacobean Bird.
This will soon be a kitted project available from Needle ‘n Thread. It is embroidered entirely in silk (different types of silk threads), and accented with beads.
I loved embroidering this project because of the variety in the stitches and the delight in the outcomes of the various elements, plus the glorious combinations of colors and shades. I remember really enjoying the process on this one, even though I had a few starts and stops here and there while I worked things out.
This is Jacobean Bird, a spin-off of Jacobean Sea, above. It’s embroidered in DMC on natural linen. Anna stitched the sample for this little fellow.
I was very happy with the abundance of corals in the bird version of the project. I really like this color scheme!
I probably bring up these voided monograms more than I should.
If someone asked me to explain what I like about them, that I keep revisiting then over the years, I’m not sure I could answer. Is it the variety of the stitches? The versatility of the approach?
Is it the sense of sheer abundance you can achieve when embroidering them in color, covering almost the entire ground fabric?
Is it the resulting texture of all those various stitches?
I really don’t know. I just know that I like the outcome, and I sure enjoyed the process! In fact, I enjoyed the process so much, that I stitched at least six voided monograms in this style or a variation of this style.
You can read more about the voided monograms here.
And guess what? The downloadable PDF will be available shortly with all the patterns for these letters, plus stitching tips and instructions! It’s almost finished and ready for publication, once we do a final editorial review. I can’t wait to make it available for you!
Oh yeah! Secret Garden Hummingbirds!! This was an immense project that I worked through here on Needle ‘n Thread, documenting the whole process, successes and failures, tips and techniques, color choices, stitch decisions, and so forth. It’s all laid out right here for you – with over 325 photos documenting the project development, spread over many articles.
It’s hard to believe that this project happened over 10 years ago.
What’s very strange about the hummingbird project is that it’s on the wall here in the studio, but I’ve become kind of blind to it. I only notice it when we have visitors who notice it. And when I look closely at it, I find myself thinking, “I wonder if I could stitch that again?”
More to the point, I wonder if I would want to! I loved the project, I really enjoyed the interaction over it among the community here on Needle ‘n Thread, but would I stitch it again? I don’t think so! I think it’s definitely a one-off! But it sure was fun while it lasted!
Fantasia in Silk is a project that I concocted back in 2018-ish, playing with different types of Au Ver a Soie silk. You can read about the project here.
Fantasia in Silk was featured in Au Ver a Soie’s 200th anniversary book. I sent it over to France to be featured in their display at Aiguille en Fete in Paris in 2020 – which didn’t end up happening.
Eventually, I plan to offer this as a kit or a class, I’m not sure which. It was a glorious little piece to work – it features a variety of stitching techniques, silk thread that’s just wonderful to stitch with, and little beaded accents. There’s a lot to learn from it, I think, and so much to enjoy about it.
If you want to learn how to frame a piece of embroidery, I wrote up a tutorial for framing, using this piece. You can follow the step-by step process in two articles, the first of which is here, and the second part, here.
Finally, something a little more recent, and a project that I love, love, love, love, and love – this one!
Anna finished this project earlier this year. She designed and stitched it, under my guidance for style, color choices, stitches, thread and material choices, and instruction on techniques. So it’s a collaborative project.
Plique-à-jour is the name of the project. To me, it positively sings with so much that I love about embroidery – from the design to the materials to the stitches… *sigh* It’s definitely my favorite recent embroidery project that we’ve done.
You can read more about this project here.
This is a kit coming out this year. We are only awaiting the finish on the manufacturing of some of the goldwork threads. You see, the availability of most high-end, specialty embroidery supplies are nowhere near as close as a click on Amazon. When they’re needed in quantity, they have to be manufactured. So we are awaiting the manufacturing of one of the goldwork threads, so that we can produce the quantity of kits that we need.
Many of you have expressed interest in the kit, so I just want to let you know that it is coming! I’m hoping that it will be ready to go before the end of August.
I hope you enjoyed this little walk down memory lane through some of my favorite projects here on Needle ‘n Thread!
Coming Up!
I return to Kansas this weekend, after a week away. Next week, we’ll be assembling kits for Garden Swirl, getting them on the website for you, and then we’ll launch into the stitch-along a little later in the month.
The Tea towel set will be available shortly, for all those who have inquired. (You can see a sample from the set in this article.)
We’ve been preparing floche sets, for those who have been waiting for some of the sets that have been sold out for a while. So if you’ve been eyeballing floche, don’t worry! We’re re-stocking. We’ll also have a few complete sets available, too, since some of you requested the ability to buy all the colors in one large set.
Finally, we’re looking ahead to fall and Christmas already. I know! Nuts, huh? But that’s the way things work. If we don’t start planning now, we’ll never be up to speed by the next season. Heck, we probably still won’t be up to speed – but at least we try!
Have a jolly weekend!
Your work is a pleasure to view – and beautifully completed – Congratulations!!